Thursday, July 12, 2012

QR Community Noticeboard

The above is a section of the Community/Ads noticeboard in my local Supervalu.

One ad caught my eye: the one which appears to consist of just a maze of pixels. This is QR coding, an advanced form of Bar Coding and I couldn't figure out why anyone would put up an ad consisting of just a piece of QR coding. If you were trying to sell something or offer a service, you'd imagine that you would pitch it at as wide an audience as possible, and not confine it to the few curious geeks who might bother to follow up the QR coding.

So I wondered was it a secret messaging system and did Supervalu know what was going on.

I followed it up and found that it was a pointer to a page on Facebook, which, when you logged in to Facebook itself, turned out to belong to the Green School of Motoring and offered you the following deal. To enter a raffle to win €250 worth of driving lessons, simply "Like" their Facebook page and "Share" the post.

And was Supervalu aware of the content of this mysterious ad? It looks like they were as they are among the following identifiable Raheny interests who have followed the instructions to date (12/7/2012): Railway Station; Axa Insurance; Supervalu; GAA; Slender Health; Shamrock Athletic Club.

Funny old world.


3 comments:

  1. I just had an awful thought.

    Maybe the whole world is now communicating in this pixellated language.

    Or at least a majority of the under 60s.

    Soon be time to pack up.


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  2. Unfortunately, my hunch was right.

    I'm told that all smartphones can now interpret QR codes.

    In general, leaving myself aside, it is young people who are anxious to have driving lessons and those of them who would have, or have access to, a car would probably have smartphones anyway.

    So the marketing strategy is not as limiting as I thought.

    Ah well, back to listening to the wireless. For the pictures, you understand.


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  3. Hmm... Interesting I wonder what a random scattering of pixels would lead people to?

    ReplyDelete

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