Remember in  A Christmas Story when Ralphie worked so hard to get his Secret Society decoder ring from the Little Orphan Annie radio show? After weeks of anxious waiting, and missing out on the daily “secret message” (which to a kid appeared very important) Ralphie is finally able to participate.

The radio show comes on. He is ready and poised with his decoder. The announcer starts reading numbers. Ralphie anxiously records each number and painstakingly decodes each one.

B-E    S-U-R-E     T-O    D-R-I-N-K    Y-O-U-R     O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E

“Ovaltine?! A crummy commercial?! Son of a bitch!”

He feels jipped, connived, taken advantage of.  He has put so much energy into getting the device only to be sold to?!

Here’s the deal.  This is how a lot of QR marketing these days is treating its scanners. People see a cool thing in a magazine, go find the app as instructed, download it, and scan the code…. only to arrive at A HOME PAGE?! In less time, they could have just entered the website address into their phone.  They have wasted not only their time, but they have been taken advantage of.

So, don’t be an Ovaltine commercial.  Make sure to give your QR scanner some VALUE. Make sure the page they land on is ready to be seen on a mobile device. Make sure it offers something they couldn’t get by just going to the web address. And give them a way to participate, to respond, to interact.

Also, see the WordPress Plugin directory listing, and post any questions or issues here.

The support forum is located here.

Generate your own QR Code!

Type: Business Card URL Message

Choose colors:

First Name:

Last Name:

Company Name:

Title:

Telephone:

Work Address:

City:

State, ZIP Code:

Email Address

Website

Memo

Name:

URL

Name:

Message

Download it!

Download: JPG | PNG

Features

• A widget can be put in a sidebar, or by placing the shortcode: in a page or post the generator can be displayed in content.
• WordPress Simple QR Code Creator Widget can create Business Card QR Codes. Many smartphones recognize these codes as contact info and can immediately import them into the phone’s address book, making it extremely easy to share you or your business’s communication channels through print without error. At Steele Agency, we put QR Codes on the back of our business cards. This is a great way for print websites to push QR codes (and printing!)
• This widget can also create URL QR Codes. These can be shared through print and can allow you to send tech savvy users to special landing pages with special offers or promotions.
• Text Message QR Codes can be created which can allows you to encode special messages, data or directions on printed material.
• The Extended Version also tracks submissions on the WordPress backend, which allows you to see how the plug-in is being used and follow up with users.

Technical Aspects

• The widget uses jQuery to reload the sidebar with a QR Code without requiring a full page reload.
• The image is in-part created using Google Chart API which reduces the bandwidth required by your server.
• Submissions are recorded through the use of an AJAX call.
• Requires php5-gd, available on most shared hosting platforms.

Currently Recommended Readers

• i-nigma
• quickmark

Images

Download

The free version allows you to install the widget as demonstrated on this page. Your users can create their own cool QR Codes.

FREE VERSION LICENSE:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it, except removing the watermark script and authoring comments within the code.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Extended Version Including Tracking

The extended version, WordPress Simple QR Code Creator Widget-Extended,  removes the watermark and allows you to track submissions.  Extended version is available for $15 by clicking below.

EXTENDED VERSION LICENSE:
Steele Agency retains full rights to the program. You do not have the right to redistribute, copy, or resell the program in any form.

Support

Click here for the support forum.

5. Swag Branding

Everyone loves free stuff, and corporate branding of free merchandise is nothing new.  Leave-behinds or take-ways or whatever you want to call them have always held a vague prospect of getting your company in front of new people.  By placing QR codes on free promo merchandise, the person receiving it has more ability to interact with your company and more of a reason to share your merchandise with others so they can also interact the product (and you have a chance to see just how many and how often and for how long that product’s marketing life lasts.

Since many companies have not taken advantage of the QR revolution, using this technology now is both advantageous and informative.  More people will eagerly scan the QR codes so they can participate in this fun and inventive technology if you include simple directions.

4. QR’d Product Catalogs

Many companies rely on large product catalogs to show all that they offer.  Recently, many of these have begun seeing a real advantage in incorporating QR codes into every product they sell.

A QR-sprinkled product catalog does a few things: one, you can offer up-to-the-minute information about product availability if you sell customized products; two, you can notify production if you see that a certain number of items has been scanned frequently preparing for orders;  and three, product catalogs can be printed less often.

The other obvious benefit of this feature is that it creates a whole new avenue for customers to interact with a company. Viewers can share product information and samples with anyone all over the world all with a simple click of their phone, recommending products or  making the decision to purchase more convenient, timely and social.

3. Artwork

Since the image of the QR Code can be adaptable it can also be made to include logos or specific images and even video. This function helps create an extremely creative marketing art piece.

For example, the Pet Shop Boys released the single, Integral, in 2007 in protest to the British government proposing a national identity card concept. The single featured a QR Code as the single’s artwork that linked to a website that informed the user of ways to counter this proposal. They also included a moving QR Code into their music video that anyone could snap with their phone and be directed to the same website while watching their TV.  Regardless of their political agenda, it was very successful in raising awareness of their cause, and can be for anyone else too.

2. QR Billboards

Recently marketers in Britain have started dabbling with the successful marketing strategies Japan has had with simply displaying QR Codes on billboards. The photo featured here was for a DVD release for the movie, “28 Weeks Later”. While this advertisement could have done so much more with its code link, its presence did make the DVD release much more popular than expected in that area because it got people talking.

The great thing about its presence is that it creates buzz regardless of the consumer’s knowledge of the technology. For those who do know what it is and how to access it, the QR image lets them interact with your product and website. For those that don’t know, a web address or simply the company name will lead to many search attempts to find out what is going on with the advertisement.

1. QR Buildings

Now this is certainly not for every business (!), but what one company has done in Japan is truly one of a kind. In 2009, The N Building was unveiled in the Tachikawa district of Tokyo. The

Photo: Omori Yuki

whole side of the building facing the street is one large QR Code. Once the image is caught on your phone, the outside facade disappears and leads to a variety of extremely unique and intriguing functions: information on shops inside,  reservations for stores and restaurants inside, and special coupons only available to those who have captured their building’s image. The most impressive function? Speech bubbles of employees working inside who are twittering, as well as the ability to see where they are blogging from within the building (and track them if they are moving and, say, tweeting on a mobile device!). It is a very creative and interesting new idea that has quickly made this a very popular destination within the community. To see a quick video about this building, click here.

Click here to read an informative article about what a QR Code is and other ideas of how to use them.