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QR Codes, Quick Response codes allow users of mobile devices to be 
directed to websites, coupons, phone numbers or whatever information you wish to share with them.
The three rules of QR Codes are not rocket science and are pretty much self evident. However this has not stopped some advertising agencies breaking the rules and handing their clients a poorly performing or dysfunctional campaign. This post is an extension of three previous posts in which using a mobile device friendly landing page, QR Code size and content were discussed. If you see any additional examples, good or bad, please share them in a comment below.
1st Rule: Mobilize the landing page
Breaking the rule: Antony McGregor Dey, CEO Qmcodes, spotted this poster for Jacobs Creek wine and the opportunity to win tickets to the Australian open. The QR Code resolved to the non-mobilized company website with a linked banner proclaiming “Mobile phone users click here for the Australian open promotion”. That link too went to a non-mobilized page! (The link and offending page has now been removed).
Keeping the rule: In recent newspaper advertisements Fendi have also chosen to use a QR Code that decodes to their main site url http://www.fendi.com. However if you are accessing the site with a mobile device they are using user agent detection to redirect to their mobile website http://mobile.fendi.com/. The Fendi mobile site is quite comprehensive and gives a choice of languages, Italian or English.
2nd Rule: Keep the url short
Breaking the rule: The QR Code in this advertisement for Ralph Lauren in New York magazine decodes as http://m.ralphlauren.com/default.aspx?ab=nym, an unnecessarily long url. The QR Code could have been smaller and encoded with a higher level of error correction (ECL) if a url shortener had been used, such as http://3.ly/9Xe.
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Keeping the rule: When Dicks Sporting Goods launched their new m-commerce site with a giant QR Code at a ball game, they did not use a subdomain of their existing site. They chose instead to use a new domain and a much shorter url http://dsports.mobi/ which encoded as a smaller QR Code.
3rd Rule: Make the content valuable
Breaking the rule: Siemans latest newspaper advertisements have a QR Code that resolves to a url well and truly breaking the 2nd Rule http://m.siemens.com/en/answers/climate_change_energy_supply.htm. It gets worse, the reward for reaching the “Climate change and energy supply” section of Siemens global mobile website is a series of short paragraphs on combined-cycle power plants, HVDC transmission lines and performance contracting. These are about as exciting as watching paint dry. Where is the engagement? Where is the climate change and energy supply game/quiz with prizes, for example? If someone has gone to the trouble of decoding your QR Code the last thing they want to see is bland content, instead give then something valuable.
Keeping the rule: The good things about this Suntory QR Code are firstly it’s on a beer can 
, secondly the QR Code resolves to a mobile site where visitors can offset 100g of CO2 once per day and feel good about it and thirdly there is a daily lottery with the chance of winning cash prizes. In other words, valuable content that engages the visitor and makes the decoding of the QR Code worthwhile.
