By now, you probably know what QR Codes are. (You know, the black blob that resembles a barcode. You’ve seen them on packaging, online, and for some reason, every now and then on TV). To view a QR Code, users download an app to a smartphone, scan the blob to see that product’s offer or incentive to purchase a product. In many cases, the offer is a coupon that users can show the checkout person from their phone, rather than printing the coupon, and savings are applied on the spot. (But, you already knew all that!!) I mean, what could be better than QR Codes?

SnapTags!

SnapTags perform in many ways like QR codes, but have much more to offer! First of all, instead of a black blob, SnapTags feature the brand’s actual logo. (Have you seen one yet? It’s a logo with a circle around it.) With SnapTags, you can use your "stupid phone," ie: you don’t have to have a smart phone! Even my brother with the flip phone can take a picture of the SnapTag and access the offer! Right now only 13% of consumers who have downloaded readers can access QR codes.

Not just convenient for consumers, it sounds like a mobile marketer’s dream come true! (And for us agency folk who ensure a ROI for our clients!!) The tracking capabilities rock! Reporting includes snaps, users, repeat usage and opt-ins, and it can be customized to fit your tracking preferences. I read about an author who put a SnapTag at the beginning of each chapter. The SnapTag led to a video. Mega-brands are using SnapTags as a social marketing tool. When consumers snap a “Friends and Fans” app, they’re taken to that brand’s Facebook page. There are endless offers that could be extended. Glamour Magazine places them throughout their pages for different reasons: to access exclusive celebrity chats and behind the scenes videos on the magazine’s Facebook page, or to receive discounts, gift cards, trips to New York, coupons, free overnight shipping, and the chance to win a kitchen makeover.

The SnapTags can enable different campaigns, responses or unique reporting data. The round code that encircles the logo can be moved to thousands of different positions. Each position can target a certain geography, offer, retail or media channel. Below is a SnapTag for the Toyota 4Runner.   Check it out and let me know about your experience!!

How to Snap:

Non Smart Phone: Take a picture of the Tag and text it to 27205.

Or

Download the SnapTag App

Open App

Simply hover over the SnapTag so that the Code Ring matches up with the red circle. As you are getting close, the red circle will turn to yellow, then to green once a possible SnapTag has been located. In less than 10 seconds, you will be taken to the Conversation View for that SnapTag.