One of our customers had previously launched their own QR codes – they placed 30 QR codes around their museum and only received 200 scans in a 4 month period. They trialed QR codes with our app (STQRY – pronounced Story) same 4 month period, 30 QR codes and received 6,000 scans. The difference? Branding, put a QR code in front of somebody and they have no idea what it is, put a logo around it “Get the STQRY” people associate it with the STQRY app and know to scan the code using it. With help from front of desk signage and other minimal marketing efforts they consistently have high numbers each month. We’re definitely thinking of integrating image recognition or even NFC (near field recognition) into the app but QR codes allow phones dating back 2 years to interact with the information.

Thanks for posting this Shelley, it’s really helpful! I’m curious about this statement, though not familiar with the ad campaign. Do you have any idea what the percentage of click throughs to impressions might have been? Or even approximately how many billboards and the like were posted?

As with your projects, there are a number of reasons why it’s difficult to draw specific conclusions but I can at least see some correlation between where codes are located and how likely they are to be scanned. I’ll try to write our findings up in a meaningful way when the exhibit closes later this month.

I can’t say I disagree with any of the Magic 8-Ball’s predictions and I’ve yet to see anyone proclaiming from the rooftops that QR Codes are a guaranteed safe bet. Healthy scepticism and sensible experimentation seems to be the way ahead for now.

@Terence Yeah, Lori just posted a comment about QRpedia on the related post and there’s a lot to think about here with these stats. Interestingly, QR codes aside, we’ve had a lot of luck with in-gallery wikipedia projects – take a look at Wikipop. Like wikipop, I wonder if saying the content is sourced from wikipedia would do a lot to increase interest across the board. However, I’d be cautious there, too…..Wikipop worked for us b/c the information was available on shared ipads, which were inclusive of every visitor. Still, worth thinking about.

It links museum exhibits with their pages on Wikipedia. We’ve written some technology so that if the user doesn’t speak English, they get the exhibit information in their own language.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis have run a pilot in the USA and it has been very well received – see their case study.

It would be interesting to see if QR uptake in your museum were higher if there were more codes? Or if they lead to a different sort of content?

Anyway, if you’re interested, you can find out more about QRpedia – or drop me an email if you’d like to discuss it further.