Hamilton Chan is CEO of Paperlinks and Paperspring. Through its iPhone app (previously featured as the #1 New & Noteworthy free app in the iTunes store) and QR web platform, Paperlinks makes context sensitive marketing plug-and-play for small, medium and large businesses.
No longer tied to a desktop browser, we now demand access to a broad range of information anytime and anywhere via our smartphones. This has created the opportunity for new technologies to facilitate our connections between the physical world and the digital one. Where there were hyperlinks in monitors to provide us information, now there are “real world links,” jump-points like billboard QR codes that are embedded in our daily surroundings, linking us to context-sensitive web content.
In the past few years, three different technologies have emerged enabling such real-world linking through the capabilities of our smartphones: quick response (QR) codes, near field communication (NFC) tags, and visual recognition technology. Just on the horizon of mainstream use, these technologies have the potential to significantly improve the way we drive consumer interaction with physical goods, motivate foot traffic into and around retail stores, and interact with the world around us.
QR codes, NFC and visual recognition technology each pose individual advantages and shortcomings that the savvy marketer must understand in order to leverage them properly. Let’s take a look at each option.
Quick Response (QR) Codes
Technical Details: QR codes were originally developed in 1994 to track automotive parts efficiently by Japanese company and Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave. The open sourced code was designed to be scanned rapidly in any orientation. Every smartphone operating system has access to free QR decoders, and one can generate QR codes for free through numerous sites. QR codes need to be approximately one square inch in size in order to be scanned by a smartphone six inches away.
Pros: QR codes are quick, cheap and easy to deploy. These codes take a split second to generate on a computer and can be displayed on screens or in print without any special manufacturing process. Free QR reading apps are readily available and simple to use.
Cons: It remains to be seen whether consumers will adopt the behavior of taking out their smartphones to scan a QR code. There is also no standard QR reader across mobile platforms, which can confuse QR newcomers.
Potential Uses: With their precision and inexpensive deployment, QR codes could trigger the following use cases:
- Imagine a friend arrives at your house with a box of cupcakes. You love the cupcakes so much that you scan the QR code on the side of the box and order a batch to be delivered to your office. The context-sensitive real-world link enables a sweet impulse buy.
- Watching a match at a tennis tournament as a fan, you scan the QR code in your program booklet in between sets. A special promo offer for 50% off tennis racket appears. From your seat in the stands and motivated by your environment, you order a racket online.
Near Field Communication (NFC) Tags
Technical Details: Near field communication technology works by creating a connection between two chips using high-frequency transmission through the air. As long as the chips are within four inches of each other, a connection can be made and data can be transferred. With NFC chips built into smartphones, consumers can wave their phone at an NFC tag and obtain context-sensitive information. With the impending launch of the NFC-equipped Google Nexus S phone on December 16, expect NFC to take a substantial step into the mainstream.
Pros: NFC is easy for consumers; just wave your phone near a chip, and digital content is unlocked. The process is not dissimilar to unlocking a car equipped with remote keyless entry. The speed and ease of use of this technology make the likelihood of user adoption for specific use cases extremely high.
Cons: Because of the moderate expense of printing NFC chips, this technology is more likely to be used by large companies in high-recurring scenarios rather than small to medium-sized businesses. The current lack of NFC-equipped phones and real-world NFC chips means marketers will reach a relatively small audience when deploying this bleeding-edge technology today.
Potential Uses: With the frictionless processing of waving a smartphone in front of a link, NFC would be ideal for the following use cases:
- Paying for a latte? Instead of swiping your credit card, simply tap the smartphone you are likely already holding onto the NFC reading terminal and your payment is complete.
- Walking through a subway terminal, riders can tap their phones at the NFC reader on the turnstiles to pay and be granted access.
Visual Recognition Technology
Technical Details: Visual recognition technology relies on visual cues and patterns to identify specific objects and match them with Internet content. Scan an object through the camera on your phone, and your phone will recognize the object and provide additional information, without the assistance of tags or barcodes. Google Goggles is probably the most recognized implementation of this technology.
Pros: Unlike QR codes and NFC chips, Visual Recognition technology does not require the manufacturing of any type of tag. This reduces expense and makes its reach nearly limitless.
Cons: Visual recognition technology is the slowest and least reliable technology of the three in this article. Cataloging visual identifiers for real-world objects at different visual angles is a mammoth task, and decoding these identifiers can be a relatively slow process on the phone.
Potential Uses:
- Scan the Eiffel Tower with your phone and obtain Wikipedia-like information about this historic artifact.
- Scan a company’s billboard advertisement and be prompted to make an appointment or purchase with the promise of a special deal.
The Takeaway
Each of the above technologies carries its own benefits and obstacles, depending on the intended application. Marketers would be wise not to focus all their efforts on one technology, but rather to experiment with the different capabilities afforded by each of these transformative technologies. While it is uncertain which real-world linking technology will ultimately gather the greatest mainstream support, one thing seems for sure: the connection of real-world items to specific Internet content is only a short distance away.
Image courtesy of Flickr, CoCreatr.
