QR codes on the rise

I stumbled upon this article titled “Six Digital Marketing Trends for 2013”. The writer predicts new digital marketing trends for the upcoming year some of which will be really interesting to see if they pan out. I did not know what QR codes meant but the concept sounded appealing so I looked it up. For those of you whose analytic terminology surpasses mine, you already know that QR stands for Quick Response. These codes are similar to a barcode and are very useful for marketers to track consumer purchases. I’ve heard of this strategy before but never knew it was these handy QR codes behind the scenes doing all the work. And now it seems they may be receiving a promotion in 2013 to do a little more than just scanner data. These codes can be downloaded, as mentioned in the article, when wanting to know such things as the arrival time of a bus. Majority of smart phones are now coming equipped with QR scanners and you can find these little black and white square codes in many more places than before. QR codes are now appearing in advertisements in magazines and soon to be in establishments such as restaurants containing their inspection information. Although using these codes may be a little tricky for our grandparents (maybe even parents considering my mom still sends cryptic text messages full of symbols and random capital letters) it seems they may be the next big thing and businesses would be wise to start looking into QR campaigns as a new and creative way to advertise.