Mobile barcodes seem to always be “on the brink” in Western markets. Despite mass success in other markets, particularly Japan, major companies have been hestitant to get involved with them in Europe and America. But in New Jersey, a local sign printer has shown his faith in mobile barcodes by getting involved with QR Codes.

What’s a mobile barcode?

Very briefly, it’s a barcode that can be scanned by your phone’s camera and contains information. In almost all cases, that info is the URL of a website, which then loads on your phone’s browser. Traditional barcodes generally can’t store enough information for a complex URL, so 2d barcodes are most often used when dealing with mobiles:

While there are many standards of 2d barcode, one of the most popular is the QR Code. And it’s QR Codes that our sign printer has taken up with.

What’s the story?

As reported by Kevin Post from pressofAtlanticCity.com, New Jersey sign printer M C Signs has begun incorporating the codes straight onto printed signs. The theory here is almost exactly the same as for a business card – in both cases, it allows an interested party to connect to your website and get further information. It turns a printed item into a clickable internet net.

Now, a lot of brands have experimented with mobile barcodes before – from magazines, to film studios, to wine makers. This new deployment is aiming a bit lower – local real estate agents are the first real customers. For Sale signs at the side of the road are being printed with QR Codes on them that will link to the estate agents website – and, preferably, a landing page that is directly about the house the sign is outside.

What we think?

Quite often, brands get the barcode thing very, very wrong. If you check the film studio example above, you’ll see how Dreamworks completely fluffed the use of the barcode. M C Signs is getting it right. It’s placing the barcodes in thematically appropriate and useful places, with a good indication of what they are and how they should be used, and encouraging local businesses and enterprises to explore the ways that QR Codes can improve business. It’s this kind of grassroots support that can really grow the use of mobile barcodes. Good show.