I recently had someone tell me that their agency was innovative because they had brought 2D codes to the table for their new ad campaign. The brand and agency shall both remain nameless. I will say in full disclosure that we've pitched this to a brand recently, but the application was highly utilitarian and served a strategic business-purpose, rather than getting someone to just have a new way to visit your campaign microsite rather than just click on the safari icon and enter the URL. And even then I felt like we were jumping the shark.
This post from Adverblog talks about how Pepsi and Polo are using codes in their new campaigns. I can't help but still think that this is just a technology in search of a solution. That agencies and brands are so thirsty for new innovation that they latch onto a technology way before even the early majority has the software on their smart phones. In fact, we knew this even before we pitched this to the brand I mentioned earlier. There are no stats on the adoption of the QR reader that I could find.
I'm sorry, but if you think that your agency is innovative because they told you to put a QR code in your ad that launches your microsite, you are sadly mistaken. Innovation would be an application that would incent people to download the reader and THEN give them a compelling reason to take a picture of your ad or packaging at the shelf.
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