(image: snappr)

We can all agree the Japanese have always been very much ahead of the game when it comes to technology.

Not only were they the creators of QR Codes, the most common type of 2D codes in Japan, they’ve also made excellent use of them. From business cards to children’s toys to bananas at the supermarket, QR Codes can be placed anywhere and are swiftly spreading to the West, entering the mainstream, as pointed out on my previous post.

Websites have also decided to jump on the bandwagon and are beginning to use QR Codes to link the virtual with the real and vice versa. This translates into a significant efficiency gain for the mobile user as the code is used to store RSS information accessible via mobile devices.

Advertising and marketing will never be the same once this tool is widely adopted. It’s boundless.

In fact, I wanted to give it a shot as well and below I’ve included a QR Code for a website, it’s up to you to figure out what it is! :-)

But first things first, you must start by installing a QR Code decoder on your mobile device such as the ones provided by the following sites (just a handfull, there’re loads more):

www.kaywa.com

www.neoreader.com

www.upc.fi

www.beetagg.com

QR Code generators are also many, here are some links:

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

http://www.jaxo-systems.com/barshow/

http://invx.com/

http://www.snapmaze.com/

http://www.snappr.net

Why would blogs include a QR Code on their website? Well, for one it’s useful if you’re someone who uses public computers often or if you’re over at a friend’s or borrowing someone’s PC, which you obviously don’t want to fill up with personal bookmarks.

However, if you’re online using a computer that’s not yours and you notice that the unique url of the page you wish to bookmark is displayed as a QR Code,  then you can simply scan it with your mobile (after you’ve installed the QR code reader) and add it to your web Favorites.

The final step would be to sync your mobile so that the info is passed across to your personal computer.

Try it out and tell us what you think!

One relevant factor for getting (potential) customer’s attention is knowing and anticipating their reactions. Advertisers know that there is nothing like an infallible ad. Every ad could be appealing for someone as it can also have the opposite effect on others. Women’s reactions are different from men’s reaction, as well as young people can react in a different way compared to the elderly.

Consequently, an advertiser should make a choice between developing a single ad that could be interesting for everybody, and/or creating several different ads, each one fit for every potential type of customer.

Thanks to the digital technology, the adversing industry is starting to invest in tools capable of recognizing customers, understanding which “customer category” they belong to, hence displaying the right ads for them.

This concept has been partially explored online, with the “behavioral targeting”, but now it has also become an off-line reality.

Let’s take, for instance, the French company Quividi: they are using a very interesting kind of billboard, backed by a video camera and a computer: with this technology – as stated on Times by Paolo Prandoni, Quividi’s chief scientific officer – “we know how many people have walked in front of the screen, how many turned to face the ad, and how long they looked at it”.

The Quividi system can also distinguish the gender and the age of the viewer, so it is possible to get a demographic background about a particular ad.

On my behalf, Quividi’s tools (and tools similar to such), could provide a really deep analysis about viewer’s behaviour, not just to figure out how much time a viewer has spent in front of the screen, but even to make a proper database of “actions” performed by potential customers, in order to provide the right ad for the right person.

Imagine yourself approaching a screen display; and straight away the display recognizes your gender and your age followed by the advertisement that, according to the data, would suit you entirely.

Quinvidi’s idea evidently describes the way the advertising industry will be pointing towards in the coming years. The key is to catch the consumer’s attention in a personalized way, from data entirely gathered from the consumers themselves.