Spotted this at the weekend. Waitrose are using a QR code on their Xmas TV ad.
It’s a nice idea, but I had to stop the Sky box, rewind the TV, press pause, get my iPhone out, open a QR code reader, then take a photo. (It didn’t work btw).
Who on earth is going to do that normally?
The ad doesn’t bother to explain what the box-barcode-thing is either.
Interesting to add a mobile CTA but needs work.
EDIT:
David Boddington (Technical Director of Mobile Marketing agency Movement) has written a much more detailed post covering LOTS of issues it raises. It’s worth a read.
http://blog.the-bods.co.uk/2010/11/waitrose-includes-qr-code-in-tv-ad.html
Andy Kinsella 
Interesting? I actually think this is very lazy. It looks like the press ad lock-off dumped onto an endframe. Unless you plan on having a 7-10 second static endframe this is no place for a QR code. It stinks of trying to be the first to do it – without fully thinking it through. Anyone outside the industry will not care about this and will certainly not go through the efforts you did. And like you said, it didn’t even work.
Sorry to be so negative, but this infuriates me. Plus I’m very, very cold.
LikeLike
Totally agree Mark. Its all well and good being the first to do something but it needs to actually work.
LikeLike
Yeah like I said “who on earth is going to do that” and “needs work” :)Some interesting stuff on Twitter:@katylindemann “surely a shortcode to text the mobile-friendly URL to your handset would be more inclusive?”@Matt_Muir “gimmick”@Jaylardi “I think Alex Blagg summed it up well a while back http://bit.ly/byaZRj
LikeLike
Andy,
I did exactly the same thing this weekend. I have been researching a few QR code projects and was intrigued when I saw the ad. I paused and rewound to the QR code part of the ad.
I don’t know if you have a high def Tv but mine is just a CRT and even when I was a few inches away it was clear the flicker on the TV was stopping my QR code reader from capturing the QR code properly.
Agree with your comment about it needing more explanation. Also I thought they could have it displayed through the ad to give you more time as they are making a big assumption that everyone has Sky+/Virgin+/Freeview+ type features.
Cheers,
Al
LikeLike
Only just saw this post mate. It is total shite user experience. Stop being so polite. 🙂
LikeLike