Why Marketers Shouldn't Waste Their Time With QR Codes

Article at AdAge...

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I was in New York last week walking down a street in Chelsea when I encountered the largest rat I have ever seen. It was 30 feet tall. Fortunately, it was an advertising medium and not a live scavenger. It was one of the inflatable rats that unions have been using, and I was immediately drawn to it. As I approached the rat, a union member handed me a flier and explained the grievance he and his fellow members were there to tell people about. The rat made the moment memorable and created an instant connection between the protesters and me.

If someone had figured out a way to do that with a QR code, we would know it by now. We've seen them everywhere -- bathroom walls, billboards and rub-on tattoos -- tossed like digital spaghetti against a wall in hopes that some of it will stick, or click, to an ad. Overuse of a new technique is nothing new. New technology tends to follow a predictable path from discovery, to overuse and disillusionment, and eventually, a proper or right level of use. But in the case of QR codes, that "right level" is likely to be fairly low and short-lived. Because it's the marketers, not the customers, who are so enamored with it.

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