The creation of the O2 Priority Moments promotion which I blogged about previously (https://alisonlamb.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/wretch-32-o2-priority-moments-campaign/) took a lot of creative and practical development in order to make it as seamless, practical and efficient as possible in order for it to be able to appeal to the highest number of people possible and drive conversions. The development allowed me the time to thrash out a number of ideas and potential ways of finally launching the promotion.
My initial conception was based around using QR codes to get fans excited and involved at The O2 before the gig, but to also raise the awareness of the O2 Music Store at the venue. The competition involved a series of QR codes on a number of posters which would have been put up around The O2. Fans would have to scan a total of 4 codes, with each one directing them on to where to find the next one, as a treasure hunt. The final QR code would have brought up a mobile number for a representative from the label would then could have met the winner to take them to meet Wretch 32.
As the premise behind the campaign was to promote the O2 Music Store, each of the QR codes brought up a message and link which highlighted that customers could go to the store and download Wretch’s tracks for £1, the link to the store would obviously also encourage up-sale on the store once customers linked through. The images below show mock-ups of what the posters would have looked like and an example of the messages that would come up on users mobile’s once they had scanned the codes.
Another way of running the competition could have been to have created a number of identical posters, with only 4 containing black and white QR codes, the others multi-coloured. Fans would then need to scan the black and white codes to be in with a chance of winning (this would have tied-in effectively with Wretch’s album at the time which was entitled ‘Black and White’).
The efficiency and use of QR codes is still very much up in the air. But at the MMF conference which I attended in September ’12 (https://alisonlamb.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/mmf-conference-24-09-12/), Munro of Sandbag made some interesting points, highlighting success that his company has had using them directly in marketing campaigns. Munro explained how they had used the codes as a part of a live dance act experience, with the codes similarly appearing on posters. In this case, the QR codes, directed fans to get a 10% off discount code for future use. Sandbag found that 50% of consumers went on to make a purchase of after receiving this discount. I think it has been a long road with the development of QR codes but they do have a future and we will be seeing them come into use a lot more in the future.
Alison Lamb 