Pepsi and four other reasons you need a mobile barcode advertising strategy

OK. OK. Mobile barcodes are hot property. Everyone is talking about them even the girls at Mindshare are getting all hot over them. Yikes even mobile barcode guru Scott Seaborn (yikes did I spell that right) has joined OgilvyOne - so mobile agencies are giddy over codes.

Google has added barcodes to its mobile ad services – Ralph Lauren is the guru king of codes already and start-ups in the mobile barcode industry and popping up all over the shop.
So – why do you need a mobile barcode strategy?

1. More and more devices (in fact nearly all new ones) come with a mobile barcode reader. If they don’t there is ample opportunity out there for users to simply download a reader.

2. Big brands such as Pepsi are embracing mobile barcodes. 400 million (YES 400 MILLION) Pepsi cans will have QR codes on them in the UK (see here: http://foodbev.com/ArticleDetail.aspx?contentId=1738). This means that education or additional cost on education in the mobile space will not be necessary. Brands are doing the hard work and piggybacking on the success with a QR campaign will be a breeze.

3. Barcodes can be sent or received in a number of ways and are a quick fun way of getting to where you want to go or be – FAST.  This means that any spend on Mobile Advertising and Paid Search could be re-routed to a mobile barcode campaign for instant access to mobile sites.

4. Curiosity killed the cat and I mistakenly took a picture of a mobile barcode recently and got access to a disgusting mobile site. But when I see a barcode I have to take a picture of it or scan it – its human nature. Imagine a world of barcodes everywhere – think of the data revenue stream if everyone wanted to know who everyone else was…. (yikes even more business models coming in to my head).

5. Barcodes, in particular 1D codes are everywhere. Scanning codes to get information on the product or to purchase instantly is going to be any retail markets wet dream. All early adopters will benefit from curiosity, early adopters and geeks milking. Offer something for free get some personal data – create a profile – send, IM, message, pimp mobile barcodes for your new champion.