Imagine this: you visit your local supermarket and are asked to support a local food pantry. You a buy a pinup for a buck. On your receipt is message that you can learn more about the cause you just supported by scanning this barcode with your smartphone.
In your car before you leave the supermarket parking lot you run your iPhone over the barcode and a one minute video airs on a food pantry like no other. It’s run out of your local hospital. The pantry started by feeding a few thousand patients every year. In 2009 it fed 75,000 men, women and children. The video closes with an image of a food line that snakes down the hallway and around the corner. It is after all the busiest day of the year, the day before Thanksgiving.
Wow.
The cool thing is that you don’t have imagine this happening. It already is. In a recent tweet Conehead Chris Mann pointed me to this article on how two U.K. groups are using barcodes, RFID tags or QR Codes, as they seem to be most commonly called, to add personal history to donated items. (Note: What a great idea for Goodwill!)
Mashable thinks QR codes may be headed for a breakout. Just yesterday, it highlighted Stickybits, an app I’ve been playing around with for a couple of months.
Stickybits brings context to real-world objects with its next generation approach to the QR code. The mobile app is primarily a barcode scanner — powered by Red Laser — but it takes the technology into the realm of fun by creating a social and shared experience around any item in the physical world that possesses a barcode.
Download the iPhone or Android application, scan your favorite cereal box, add an item — maybe a related recipe, but any video, photo, audio clip or comment will do — and you’ve just started a digital thread around that item.
Think of the potential for cause marketers to make transactional programs less, well, transactional and more meaningful. When you pick up a mug at Starbucks that supports Product (RED) you can scan the QR code to hear the story of a man who benefited directly from the life-saving HIV drugs RED provides and Starbucks funds.
But that’s not all. Supporters can scan the barcode and use their smartphone to record why they support Product (RED), which then can be viewed by the next person who holds the mug up to a smartphone.
Consumers scanning QR codes for cause content will not happen overnight. But adopting QR codes encourages cause marketers to do two important things.
- It helps build a stronger charitable and emotional connection among causes, businesses and consumers. (QR codes should also make cause marketing critics feel better that CM gifts aren’t thoughtless one-offs.)
- It prepares us for the mobile web. The portable technology that Red Laser represents and the type of mobile content it links to is the future for which we should all be preparing. Don’t you agree?
What do you think of QR codes? Do they have a place in cause marketing or in fundraising in general? How would you use them in a program?
FREE Newsletter
Great Joe….something new for me to obsess over, investigate and plan campaigns around!!
This is actually really interesting and just one more tool that makes it clear that the most important thing all of us in the cause world should be working on is telling our stories. We're given more and more ways to connect donors to the impact of their actions…but telling a compelling story and telling it quickly remains the backbone.
You speak the truth, girl! You're right though: it's all about telling a compelling story and getting it out there. It's so important. And QR codes are another tool. It will take time for them to take hold, but take hold they will!
Joe, I love this. I thought Goodwill's use of RFID technology was spot-on. We are so moved by stories and connections and visual impact. The great thing about this is that it allows the consumer to move herself up the ladder of engagement at her own pace and volition.
A nonprofit out of Seattle, SeeYourImpact.org, has an interesting approach to making impact more tangible. After I make a gift (a new school uniform or a month of vitamins or clean drinking water, for example), I get a picture of video from the recipient.
The interconnectivity that this allows is super exciting from a personal standpoint and effective from a social change and business perspective.
Great piece!
Olivia
Thanks, Olivia. It is exciting and I'm glad you liked the piece. I really like too how it gives donors and supporters a way to speak up and share how they feel for the organizations they care about.
That's a really innovative twist on an old idea. It's also a freaking cool application. Is there way to quantify the scans?
Gabe, go on Stickybits and sign up for an account. I believe right on the bottom of the screen is a place where you can track the metrics of who has checked what. I see this as critical. Especially on the for profit side, this info is just going to have to be commonplace for major brands and agencies are going to buy in to it.
Wow..super exciting to learn about. As a event management company we are always looking for new technologies to introduce our clients to.
Thanks for the post!
The interesting thing, Katie, is that you can supply the devices so people can can experience the online media. Not everyone has to have a Droid or iPhone for it to happen. This is especially true at events!
Joe, thanks for surfacing RFID/QR codes as a cool tool for cause marketing. This is very worth exploring!
Hey, that's what I'm here for! I knew you would like this, Steve.
Joe,
The best part of your ideas here is using technology to create awareness and meaning around cause marketing. I just bought a Mug that supports product red… is the transaction done? No! The moment I make that purchase is the best time for me to deepen my relationship to the cause – to make it more personal. I’m surprised at how often the cause marketing transactions stops at the point of sale.
People want more meaningful connections to the causes they support. Brands should extend point of sale into point of heart.
John
Exactly, John! Great minds do indeed think alike!
Speaking of Deb, how's she doing?
[...] The latest devices, the iPad, the iPhone 4G. The cool services like Twitter, Foursquare and now QR codes. The techie productivity tools like Evernote and [...]
Great post, Joe. QR codes are going to explode in the states and it is only a matter of time. The opportunities are really endless. I personally love QR codes – the ability to access more information on a given topic (and so quickly) is what I like the most. And, by the way, I love John's statement, "Brands should extend point of sale into point of heart." That is awesome.
I agree Marissa and it will all tie into location-based marketing. There’s a great opp for more progressive orgs to get QR readers in the hands of customers and patrons so they can experience this new technology. That’s what we need to work on now: adoption.
I love what John said too! He’s wicked smart!
Great article! Causes can be on the cutting edge in QR code use. Because of the low cost to add QR codes to any campaign, why not take advantage of their interactivity and bring a new perspective to any marketing plan. Organizations can always change or update the message on their landing pages to keep cause campaigns fresh.
*RFID are different from QR codes. RFID tags are special tags that have circuitry that either emits or responds to a radio frequency and require equipment that responds to those frequencies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_iden…
[...] Starbucks and Project Red: According to Joe Waters, Starbucks and Project Red are using QR codes on Starbuck’s mugs to engage people further in Project Red–highlighting the benefits of the program and engaging others in advocating for it. To me, this one is interesting as it highlights the linear model of viral sharing (one to one vs. one to many or many to many). [...]
[...] Starbucks and Project Red: According to Joe Waters, Starbucks and Project Red are using QR codes on Starbuck’s mugs to engage people further in Project Red–highlighting the benefits of the program and engaging others in advocating for it. To me, this one is interesting as it highlights the linear model of viral sharing (one to one vs. one to many or many to many). [...]
[...] - Are QR Codes the Next Big Thing For Cause Marketing? Written July 2010 [...]