Adweek highlights the trend of how QR codes were featured in magazines more than ever in 2011. What will the trend be in 2012?

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/which-mags-were-biggest-users-qr-codes-2011-137730

QR codes are revolutionary if they offer something new about a brand that puts mobile users “in the know”. I wonder if they will become like Facebook which is a price of entry but has foggy return on investment (ROI).

Per Adweek in its December analysis of QR codes, “From January to August, MRI measured more than 72,000 ads. Five percent of them contained QR or snap codes, up from 1.3 percent in the second half of 2010. And the mere presence of the codes seems to get readers more involved with the ads containing them—of those who saw an ad with a mobile bar code, 5 percent took a picture of it with their cell phones”.

From my experience with their use in place based video, QR codes do drive consumers to a brand’s website (Adweek claimed 14%).  I wonder if access to a brand’s website is exciting enough to make worthwhile all the time needed to download the software to access the code.  Soon, smart phones will come with the automatic application coupled with the ability to walk our dogs.

However, the most important insight of all from the MRI study was: “The tags don’t bring additional consumer attention to ads, though. An average of 52 percent of readers read or saw an ad with a mobile bar code—just below the 54 percent who saw any ad”.

Can’t wait to see the results for place based video hopefully coming soon…