Marketing With QR Codes

What’s cool, new and different in marketing is always going to catch the attention of Forest Home Media whether it be using a Harlem Shake video to cross-promote an event or a QR code in an advertisement.  However, before we suggest to a client they use their important resources for either of these, we take a strong look at the target audience.

In 2011, the first Southern Living home tour in Nashville in over a decade was held by premier homebuilder Alan Looney and his company Castle Homes.  When preparing for this popular event, Looney assembled his marketing team to review whether or not QR codes on in-home signage and ads was a good idea for the project.

Although the QR code was developed in 1952, it actually did not gain prominence until 2011 according to QRCodesInMarketing website.  Macy’s and Best Buy are cited as examples in this story. It was determined for the Castle Homes’s Southern Living Showcase Home in Nashville the majority of the demographic base for our event – women 25-65 – did not have smart phones enabled with QR scanners so it would be too early in the technology curve.

In December 2012, the Forest Home marketing team conducted a research visit  to the Southern Living Idea House in Senoia, Georgia. Southern Living builds only one Idea House in the nation per year.  In the Georgia home, QR codes were seen for various products in each of the rooms.

Today, as Forest Home Media assists Castle Homes as they build the nation’s only 2013 Southern Living Idea House at Fontanel in Nashville opening in late June, the QR Code is firmly on the planning agenda for consideration.

I wanted to also share with you another unique use of the QR code by a nonprofit organization. As a member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Franklin, TN, on a recent Sunday morning Senior Pastor Ryan Bennett unveiled to the congregation the new QR code in the church’s bulletin where members can now give online.

Here’s what the screen looks like once you’ve scanned the QR code.

In case you don’t have a QR code scanner on your cell phone, you can download this for your smart phone for free via your app website. The website Visualead has quick QR generator for free here. 

Tech-savvy real estate agents are using the QR codes for additional information links on listing signs like Benchmark Realty LLC agent Christian Fraser. Where are you finding success with your QR Code?

 

Coming next, Forest Home Media uses a Harlem Shake mash up for a pro bono marketing project.