Knovolo Mobile Marketing Reviews
Mobile Marketing on King County Metro
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I stumbled across this picture that I had taken last year and decided to take an in-depth look at it. It’s an advertisement on the back of a King County Metro bus with a QR code (“Quick Reference” code).
King County Metro advertisement with mobile QR code
The scanned code points to PAWSwalk.net which is also spelled out next to the QR code on the ad. If you’ve seen our previous blog about a Starbucks mobile marketing campaign, we addressed the confusion created with having a lack of information supporting your code. Nothing on this ad really indicates what you will get by scanning the QR code, but since a URL is nearby, you can assume that you’ll be taken to that URL.
Screenshot of PAWSwalk on an iPhone
There are a few things I wish to address about this ad. How am I supposed to scan this code? I suppose I can walk around to the back of the bus or scan it from my car (if I’m not driving and I’m close enough) but both of those situations are not ideal. If a mobile user is able to scan the code or enter the URL manually, s/he will find that the webpage is not very mobile-friendly. As we have discussed previously, QR codes must point to mobile webpages for optimal user experience.
As you can see, there will be a lot of zooming in order to find what I’m looking for, and lot’s of irrelevant information for me. This isn’t a very link to send mobile phones to, especially since only new smartphone will be able to render it. A non-smartphone or Blackberry user would simply not be able to navigate this webpage because it wouldn’t render in a legible fashion (if at all).
Starbucks Frappuccino “Mix It Up” Campaign with QR Code
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A couple of months ago, I took this picture of Starbucks’ “Mix It Up” Frappuccino campaign … not just because of the cool artwork, but because there’s a QR code on it (hard as it may be to see).
Display Board with QR Code for Starbucks Mix It Up Frappaccino
Though it may be tricky to scan off this photo, the QR code points to http://starbucks.com/Frappuccino/aloha. While this eventually rendered pretty nicely on my Android, it took a very long time to load.
I don’t have too many complaints about the mobile web page, but I’d like to address the placement of the QR code. It is rather small and hard to see, which isn’t necessarily bad, but there is no information next to it about what you’ll get if you scan it. Website? Coupon? Game? Frappuccino app?
Furthermore, the QR code is the only way that this advertisement allows users to interact with mobile. If people are standing there with their brand new smartphones and don’t know what a QR code is (many people don’t), they have no way to interact with it on their mobile device. Since they don’t know what a QR code is, they don’t even know that there’s a door to the mobile web right there in front of them. They probably just wonder why the bar code for the shipping package is in such an awkward place.
The mobile aspect of this campaign would be much more solid if there were a line or two of information indicating what the QR code will do for you and why you should bother scanning it.
Cell Phone Parking Lot at SeaTac Airport Offers QR Code with Recent Arrivals
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Ever since Seattle airport’s cell phone parking lot opened in December 2004, it has been heavily used by Seattleites. I’ve been there myself, listening to the radio and wondering whether my friend’s flight had arrived. One late night in 2008 I actually waited there over an hour because I wasn’t aware of a long delay!
No longer. Well, I may still have to wait, but at least I can get some information. SeaTac has created a simple website that shows the status for flights that are scheduled to come in. At the moment you load the page, it grabs all flights within about 20 minutes and shows you where they came from, which airline, the flight number, the time, gate, baggage claim carousel and the arrival status.
SeaTac Flight Arrivals on Your Smartphone
This is a great idea! It was accurate for the flight that I was waiting for, and certainly helped keep me entertained.
The mobile use case is solid and everything works, but the presentation is lackluster.
Having the large QR code is pretty nice, for those of us who know what they are and don’t mind their lack of beauty. Mobile phone users who don’t know what to do with a QR code can still get access to the content by typing in the URL list below the QR code. Presenting users with more than one onramp to the mobile web is a must, and this is pretty well done. They could also incorporate an texting short code, such as Text FLIGHTS to 11111.
Once you get to the mobile web, however, it’s slightly disappointing. The information that you want is all there, which is great, but it’s pretty stark as far as design and readability.
Screenshot of Flight Arrivals at SeaTac Airport
When I load it on an iPhone, you can’t even read the text without zooming in. Once you zoom in, the table is too large to see the entire width. Also, there’s no branding, no links to other relevant information (not even the nice Sea-Tac Mobile Webpage which uses Sencha and works on Webkit browsers), and nothing to engage me once I’m there. I could go on, but you get the gist. This would be easy to fix with a mobile web developer (Yours Truly thinks this would be an awesome project) and some mobile device optimization.
In the meantime, however, the information is there and it’s works, even if a bit clunky. This is a great mobile use case, and I’m sure impatient drivers will enjoy it for years to come.
Tags: cell phone, good qr code, mobile phone, mobile website, QR code, QR Codes, seatac airport
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