Mobile barcodes at work for Danish Rail

The Danish Rail system has launched a hefty mobile barcode campaign in association with Scanbuy. 2D barcodes have been places on posters and window-stickers in stations and on trains throughout the railway, allowing commuters to access information through their phones.

The info:

Much like the SMS shortcodes that went on the walls in Shanghai metro stations, these codes will allow the scanners to see updates to travel and scheduling information. But Danish Rail has let a lot of brands to get in on the party as well. The 2D codes will take commuters to articles from Danish newspaper Politiken, access the latest sport scores from on-line sport site Sporten, concert information from Pepsi Max or connect to videos on YouTube. Even the largest telecoms company in the country has gotten involved – former state-owned monopoly TDC is offering mobile content throught the service.

What we think?

Scanbuy claims that this system is seeing hundreds of scans a day on ScanLife so far. And why not? Trains and trainstations are the perfect place to leave barcodes just lying around. Adveristers never get as much value for money from me as when I’m on a metro train. Every ad within eye-sight gets read and re-read, as I look for something to occupy myself. If there was a sticker beside me linking me to content on the mobile Web, you can bet I’d use it.

Part of this, of course, is also a novelty thing. It was doubtless going to see a lot of use in the first days because people have never seen it before. But with brand and content backing like it has, I wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers could be maintained. Particularly since Danish Rail carries somewhere near 170 million passengers a year.