From Gunar

QR Codes are still big in Japan. The data is old (2005) but interesting:

• 90% under 20 were using them.
  
• 84% were using them from magazines - women using them for mail order
• 74% for access URLs
• 27% (high I thought) for ecommerce purchase from magazines
  

What is big in Japan can sometimes translate to being big in the rest of the world - I remember competitive reality TV shows being huge years before Survivor hit the US. But other things will never translate. But I digress...

Google is also getting into the picture with QVC with a test campaign with Blue Nile - with promising initial results - "The code-enhanced ads ended up driving 6.5 times more revenue than the ads without."

and you can't even escape McDonalds - supersize that QR code?

The British are not immune either, Harrods in England is getting into the mobile barcode space. - "This is an attempt to connect with a more tech-savvy audience, and frankly we're quite pleased if the whole campaign remains a bit 'cult'."

Well, those in the 'cult' most likely are early adopters, tech savvy, and have disposable income. Not surprising to see the advertising markets get interested.

QR codes are fundamentally ways in which metadata can act as a link, or portal to additional information. A link that can bridge print to mobile, and help bring a more engaging experience directly to the user on demand from a print source.

From a business owner's perspective (the advertiser of the product), it allows better tracking of the ROI of print materials - how are they being used and consumed, and most excitingly when and where (and possibly by whom). It opens up a whole new exciting world of analytics that can be used to tune a print ad campaign that was previously hard to do - demographics meets geographics for ad placement with real time feedback. No wonder Google is interest.

For now it's fun creating your own and thinking about how this can knit together the print and online experience. Who knew metadata could give you that warm fuzzy feeling?

Technorati Tags: xmp, metadata, QR, mobile, print