Dainippon Printing tries clickthrough for magazine ads

Japanese company Dainippon Printing is trying out a model for magazine advertising that's transplanted straight from the web. They're placing product ads in magazines that include QR codes containing a URL (the example on the right is for engadget.com); scanning one with your cameraphone will send you to the product site. The advantages? Not much for the poor user, apart from not having to thumb in a URL, but for advertisers it means being able to keep track of clickthrough and completion rates for a specific ad, plus the fact that they only pay out if an ad click results in a sale. Old Media, this is New Media. Shake hands.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

Sounds a lot like the old CueCat barcode reader from the mid-90's that were given away by Wired, Radio Shack and others... you were supposed to hook it up to your computer and then be able to "conveniently" scan a barcode located on the page of a magazine advert to take you to their site. Lame idea though since most people don't feel like dragging their magazine over to the computer. Maybe it'll work better with cellphones though... I doubt it.

Although there was a big ruckus caused by privacy advocates over the click-tracking.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

Isn't this the same thing that made everybody hate the Cue cat so much? Including the personal tracking of consumers and selling off the info.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

Wrong! QR codes are far more advanced than traditional barcode methods. They have been gaining popularity rapidly in Japan.

First of all, capacity - a QR code can hold approximately 7,089 alpha characters, or 4,296 alphanumeric characters. Just for some comparison, a six page paper I did for English 101 last semester was 6,887 characters.
Compared to the mere 138/93 alpha/alphanumeric storage capacity of UPS "scatter plots," you can see that encoding data into 2D images has come quite far.

Secondly, with all of this data stored inside of a 2D code (like the one pictured above), you may think something like a piece of dust would cause the entire code to be useless. But no; QR codes have up to 30% error recovery. This has to do with parity (the odd and even properties of numbers), just to give you an idea.

I think this engadget article may have given QR codes a bad rap. They have been used in applications other than commerical for quite some time now; you can print business cards with QR codes on them, you can buy map books with QR codes in them, and you can even get free PHP scripts that generate them. NTT DoCoMo is also taking QR codes one step further (as was seen at this year's CEATEC) and is developing technology to encode QR code information in normal images through stenography.
Secondly, as the engadget reporter noted, this implementation of this technology into magazine ads is an advantage. Not only technically, but logistically - it's easier to track what hits come from what ads, as mentioned. Besides, the entire process is completely optional; if you don't want to be forwarded to a product site, just don't record the ad's QR code.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

In the early-adopter gadget-gobbling Japanese marketplace it will probably enjoy a brief novelty, with QR codes moving rapidly beyond magazines to appear on cola cans, snacks, and other sub-thirty-something demographic staples before, in a year, QR oversaturates and the market moves on from a pointless technology implementation.

Advertisers have every right to strive for more accurate indicators of ad viewing and pulling, but this is a reach. Just because advertisers want consumers to do something doesn't give consumers sufficient motivation to do it. Other than a five-second, single-use novelty value, where is the consumer call to action in QR codes?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

Just give this crappy idea up already!

It doesn't matter if there's more data stored inside the code, etc... This has failed in the past because of the user experience.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 19th 2005 2:23AM]

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patent literature/

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 25th 2005 12:17PM]

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[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2005 7:25AM]

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[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2005 10:37AM]

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