QR Codes, Twitter, & Viral-Marketing: A lesson in mobile innovation

July 6, 2009 by Michael Marlatt · 2 Comments 

The Editoras story…

Editoras Online, have you heard of them?  If not, don’t worry - you are not the alone. Editoras is the Brazilian equivalent of Amazon.com and they recently launched an ad campaign to promote their online store. Ordinarily, you would write them off as yet another average online business trying to go mobile. However, take a closer look and I think you will agree that their ad-campaign was quite clever. Let’s examine why…

What was special about Editoras Online’s ad-campaign?

As part of their “guerrilla” marketing strategy, they incorporated the use of 4,000 QR code stickers posted throughout São Paulo.  Mobile participants quickly discovered that each QR code redirected them to select Twitter messages.  Each message related to either love or hate and refreshed every seven days.  The unique part of this campaign was that Editoras was able to produce a 200-page “living book” made up entirely of QR codes and messages from Twitter feeds.  To close the loop, the messages also carried a “call-to-action” that ultimately drove participants to the Editoras website.  The buzz generated from their guerilla campaign was so successful that copies of their book sold-out in less than a week.  Now, that’s ROI.

See video for details…





Mobile Recruiting via QR Codes & Twitter?

If you are frequent reader of my blog then you have likely heard me reference the use of 2-D barcodes in the past. There are creative ways to leverage QR code (2-D) technology as demonstrated in the Editoras example above.  As an employer, imagine being able to update candidates to your open jobs without having to manually push out the updates. The beauty behind 2-D barcode technology is that the content behind the barcodes can change while the overall framework remains the same.  What exactly does this mean? From the employer’s perspective, it means the 2-D barcode could theoretically represent a ‘company brand’ with the ability to render different content at different times. Today, we already see job updates pushed to Twitter, as seen here and here. Integrating the 2-D barcode would be the final piece of this digital marketing strategy.

The challenges with 2-D barcode technology in recruiting?

Yes, I know, all of this is easier said than done. I realize that not every prospect candidate (user) has mobile internet access, or a built-in 2-D barcode reader.  Plus, even if a candidate understands this technology, there many different 2-D barcode formats so how does a company decide on which format to use?  These are valid questions and they should be asked before attempting to launch this type of mobile strategy. However, there are over 270 million mobile subscribers in the U.S. and mobile internet usage is on the rise.  The point is, with the overall increase in U.S. mobile adoption, we are only limited by our imagination on how we connect with this vastly untapped audience.

Filed under: Blog Posts, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Recruiting, Mobile Trends, On the Radar, Video
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Mobile Trends: Finnair introduces new 2-D Barcode check-in service.

February 15, 2009 by Michael Marlatt · Leave a Comment 

While we in the U.S. are still trying to get our arms wrapped around the idea of basic SMS, mobile innovation is taking place all over the world. Here’s a great example…



Finnair is one of the most advanced airlines in the world when it comes to utilization of E-services and in particular mobile phone applications.

Finnair was the first airline in the world to enable passengers to check-in in advance for flights with a text Finnair 2D Bar Code.gifmessage. Now, Finnair is the first airline to enable passengers also to check-in with a 2D-barcode boarding card -multimedia message (MMS) from Copenhagen, Denmark.

In this new feature to the mCheck-in service, Finnair sends to it’s Finnair Plus loyalty scheme customers an MMS with a 2D-barcode boarding card. This 2D-barcode replaces the traditional paper boarding card and can be used in the shops, in security check and at the gate where personnel use their scanners to read the data.

This new feature together with the traditional intelligent SMS (iSMS) mCheck-in option has been introduced to Finnair Plus loyalty customers departing from Copenhagen, Denmark. For Finnair Plus loyalty customers the Finnair’s mCheck-in service is complimentary service in which they only pay for the reply-message or for the MMS data transfer.

BookIT : Finnair introduces new features to the mCheck-in service.

Filed under: Mobile Trends, SMS
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