QR Codes and Charitable Events: Blankfest!

Get yer rock on ALL DAY Saturday and FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT!

http://www.facebook.com/BlankFest.Calgary

We hooked up Calgary Blank-fest because we think it's a great idea and wanted to help! It's Saturday, November 5 at the Blind Beggar Pub from 12pm to 12 am, that's right: 12 epic bands in 12 epic hours! Entry fee? One blanket that gets donated to Calgary's homeless.

We put a code on their promotional posters and have found it's been scanned 35 times in a single month including a scan from Cairo, Egypt! This Saturday, all freaking day! Do the right thing AND get some ROCK into you! See you there!

p.s. Can't make it but want to help the cause? Send a donation to the Mustard Seed and we'll do the ROCKING for you!

Integrating Your QR Code INTO Your Logo

Alright, so you got yourself a QR Code! Good for you and welcome to the future but what's next? How do you start actually using the things? On its own, most codes look pretty much exactly the same as every other code. How do you differentiate yours, make it, well, distinctly you? How about placing it directly into your logo?

You may or may not want to place the code directly to the front of your building but you do want to have a logo file that contains your code in it for a number of reasons. Here's a few of our clients that are starting to get hip to this new way of transmitting extra information about their businesses and endeavors simply by enhancing their logos QR style!

By placing the code directly in their logo, anywhere it is displayed either online or in the physical world becomes an information jump-point for people interested in either live music or eating, so, pretty much everyone! 

If people see it, increasingly they want to scan it. Once they scan it, how you engage them further is up to you, though we have ideas and we'd love to help! And, as you already know if you're reading this blog on your mobile device, the code inside the logo actually becomes a scannable object by a secondary device!

We see alot of people trying to hide their codes away or make them really small. At QRZap we think that's missing the point. This is about engagement. Don't make people work. No reason you can't put that code out there for the world to see and also look good doing it!

Why You NEED To Put That QR Code On Your Website

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: I'm running late for a meeting (as is often the case. I'm not proud of this but it does seem to be a recurring phenomenon). Most importantly, this is a meeting with YOU and YOU want my business. How are YOU going to make my life easier? What do you have to do with me slugging back coffee and rifling through suit jackets and trying to find my keys? Well, is your QR Code very prominently displayed on the top of your website? You just made my life easier.

               You just made my life easier because I have to go to your website to ensure I have your address and contact information on hand and in my mobile device. Your page comes up and I'm about to perform that high speed hunt we've all done a million times before but I stop. I see you have a QR Code and I wonder: are you actually that smart that you have anticipated my needs so completely that all I have to do is scan the code on your webpage and all the pertinent information will leap into my cell phone? Sure enough, there's a GoogleMap linking to your office location and your phone and email in case anything else pops up on the way! You just saved me time and time, as they say, is money. Which means I think you're a pretty cool dude or dudette. 

QR Codes: Anywhere you have physical OR digital space.

QR Codes and Cowboy Hats: Promote Yourself ANYWHERE...

Want to experiment with QR Codes and mobile marketing? At

Calgary Stampede we put codes on shirts and hats and hit 

the grounds! We had all sorts of folks come up and ask to 

scan us (which, admittedly, feels a little weird at first) and 

from our comprehensive Analytics system we can tell you our 

codes were scanned by people from all over Canada and the 

United States, a few folks from the U.K., a couple from Israel 

and three people from Australia!

QR Codes on clothing. Look at it as a brand new way to 

promote your business, your product, your cause or you!

Ain't we cute? All for now! www.qrzap.com 

THIS JUST IN!!! DIAMOND SHAPED QR CODES!!!

Those cutting edge fellas at QRZap are at it again! How much more innovative can you get? Sure, QRCodes are incredible tools for transmitting unlimited amounts of information to mobile users anywhere you have the physical OR digital space to do so, but do they have be so...square? NOT ANY MORE!

Yep. We're dorks. But what does it do for a logo?

Definitely hip. Now I'm gonna have a bowl of Shreddies and get back to work. 

Facebookin' With QR Codes

So, you went to www.qrzap.com and got yourself a hyperfunctional QR Code all tricked out and linked up to a truly excellent, fully customizable mobile webspace (or QR Space, if you're hip to the lingo) but how are you going to make use of it for your social networks? As we like to say, you can put your QR Code anywhere you have physical OR digital space, so why not Facebook or Twitter? Why not indeed! Our previous post was about how to attach a QR Code to Twitter, this baby's ALL ABOUT THE FACEBOOKIN'!

1) Your Profile Image

Download your code (at www.qrzap.com, as I might have mentioned a few times) and save it as a jpeg on your desktop then attach it as a profile image just like you would any other type of image. Easy.

2) Insert it directly into your logo banner

Sexy as hell, ain't it? Fully scannable from your desktop. By the way, it turns out my spell-checker doesn't like scannable or hyperfunctionalized. Scan worthy? Functions with the capacity to be hyper? Onwards...

3) Put it on your wall  (or a friend's wall, or a fan page, or a corporate page, or...)

And what happens when you click on the image? 

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BADBOY!

And that, friends and neighbors, is how you use your QR Code on Facebook! Did I miss anything? Comment here or shoot me a tweet @web3v0! 

Attach Your QR Codes to Tweets

 There's all sorts of ways to use QR Codes for social networking and Twitter is no different! Making it your profile image is just a start! Why not attach it directly to a tweet, address it to whomever and see if you can make your business, your cause or you go viral! It's this easy:

Underneath the tweet interface on the left-hand side is a little camera icon. Click it!

You'll have the option of selecting an image from your desktop. Go to whichever file you've saved your QRCodes in, open and attach it just like you would for an email then send your tweet! You've just tweeted your QRCode! Here's what it looks like:

Cool, right? Thanks, Twitter!

How to Scan a QRCode

How do I scan these things?

You’ve seen the code, you understand you’re supposed to scan them but how do you do it? It’s very easy.

Scanning QR Codes isn’t just a Blackberry or iPhone thing, any “smart-phone” will do the trick. Your mobile device can scan QR Codes as long as it has each of the following:

1) access to the internet

2) the ability to download an “app” or application

3) the ability to take a picture

To acquire the “app,” direct your device to wherever it normally gets applications from:

Blackberry = “App-World” 

iPhone = “App-Store”

Android = the “App-Market”

Different brands or models have different apps that work best for that particular device, so rather than recommending one app or the other, we advise you to enter the following search-term: “QR Code Reader or Scanner.” A number of apps will then present themselves, select the app that is both highest rated and free and then download it. Once downloaded, open the application, scan the code and go mobile!

www.qrzap.com

Video

Kylie Minogue Video
Microsoft Tag Meets Golf Digest
Canada Tourism

Pictures

Heres a few examples of people using QR codes for a variety of different purposes

This code is in Times Square and informers zappers of what they can do about the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Calvin Klein billboard, USA

I scanned it and got Bono (naturally). How 'bout you

This is a promotional campaign for a huge condominium project in Chicago.

These codes were photographed in Times Square. It is a prmotional campaign for the City of New York

Qr Code made out of Heineken bottle caps

Movie marketing campaign for the movie Inception, the code on the inside of the box directs people to a 'Conspiracy' website based on the film

Bogus crop circles are yesterdays farm fun. Now its all about the tech.

An architect was commisioned for the Saudis to imagine what a fully QRified next level building would like like. Will it ever get built, who knows? But damned cool, no?

Google swag at a tech conference. One shirt = 5 different physical hyperlinks. Not too shabby

Folks got it into their heads to make a QR code out of sand, water and a bathing beauty. Evidently there was some trouble due to shadowing and whatnot but I think it goes to show the diversity of QR that they even thought about trying it. And did I mention the bathing beauty?







Super cool. QRified book. Want more information about something on the page, click the QR with your mobile and get the information.

I dont have much to say about QRified cupcakes other than "HEY! QRified CUPCAKES!"

The N Building in Japan. Huge QR on the entire face of the building. Watch the video to learn more about this utterly amazing piece of Tech + Architecture.





Yeah, that's right, that's Madison Square Gardens. QR is officially mainstream when it can be seen in the same building that Rocky fought Mr. T

Shopping mall. Odd as the little thing looks when you first glance at it, I think this pic shows that it can blend nicely into a storefront

Another image of that proposed Saudi skyscraper.

Thats outside a BestBuy, which is as mainstream as it gets

Looks like a fake tattoo but there's no reason on earth not to do QR tattoos.

Chevy uses QR at a carshow. Only a matter of time before its at dealerships..

Biz cards, the simplest QR utilization. Where's yours?

Another building. Sweet sign.