Many astute readers of The Drumheller Mail and inSide Drumheller may have noticed a little square box in the corner of a couple of ads. Inside the box it appears to be a random pattern of squares.
The Drumheller Mail and inSide Drumheller is adopting QR code technology. QR stands for Quick Response, and it allows readers to jump instantly to online content of the paper or the advertisers in the paper. The technology has been around for years, originally developed by a Toyota subsidiary, and has been adopted well in Japan.
Recently, advertisers, print campaigns and even gorilla marketing have adopted the two-dimensional matrix barcode. Technology in smart phones allows a person to quickly scan the code and it links them to an online destination.
For advertisers this offers myriad of possibilities. The code may link to an online contests inventory or specialized content. It offers readers more than what simply appears on the ad.
The codes are also useful for editorial content, and can be used to link stories to more information, websites or multimedia contents
More than 50 apps are available for the iPhone to download from the App Store that read QR codes. Google’s Android operating system also supports QR codes, and other operating systems such as blackberry have applications to support the technology.
The Mail and inSide Drumheller are adopting the QR codes in its publication. Watch for them in upcoming issues and happy scanning.
