The VP A&P pushes PR on the QR

It’s taking a little PR to get the word out about QR.

Maryl Koeth, director of the Van Buren Advertising and Promotion Commission, recently returned from the Governor’s Conference on Tourism, and is anxious to start using the new device to market the city.

You’ve likely seen them in magazine ads or on products like Pepsi. They’re little squares of matrix-type symbols, and look like a digitized Rorschach test. Smart phone users can download a free application that reads the codes. The phone can then scan the two-dimensional image, snap a picture of it and then pull up the sponsor’s Web site. No more typing in a URL or searching for a site.

“You can put them down in the corner of a print ad,” Koeth said. “People who know what they are will scan them. The ad now becomes your entire Web site for them. It’s useful for a lot of things. You can program timed messages, you can put phone numbers in them.”

The QR code, which was invented by a Japanese company in 1994 to track auto parts, is being called the missing link between print and the Web. In 2007, the Pet Shop Boys used QR codes in their music video, “Integral,” which linked fans to a civil liberties Web site.

Koeth posted one on her personal social networking page to see how many people knew what it was. Only two commented on the image; one of Maryl’s friends stared so long she thought she saw a kitty emerge from the abstract background.

She is not deterred. She sees a time in the near future, when the codes become as common URL addresses are today.

“Sitting in a doctor’s office, looking at a magazine, you could see an ad for Van Buren, scan the QR code and go to our Web site to see what we have to offer,” Koeth explained. “It makes print much more valuable that way.”

It also satisfies our obsessive need for speed.

“We’re an instant gratification society,” Koeth said. “We want it now. We want one-stop shopping. I can see a day when packaging will be critical. Someone will be able to pull up our Web site on their smart phone, make reservations, buy a ticket for the train. Then all they’ll have to do is get in the car and drive. People have neither the time nor the inclination to do these things separately.”

Once the immediacy is addressed, you still have to dazzle to stay in the game.

“When people view a page on a Web site they’re not going to even spend a minute on it,” Koeth said. “And if the information doesn’t jump out at them, they’re moving on immediately. I don’t see that changing.”

It might seem as if these new ways of marketing would lessen the need for professional ad companies. Koeth said the old rules of business do go out the window once the message is online. Users don’t want a polished ad; they want rough video that looks as if it was shot on a cell phone. And all those fancy words ad agencies us to draw customers in? Oh no. They want someone online talking to them like their friends would.  In other words, you can’t be BAU or it could be TEOTWAWKI.

But the relationship between the tourism industry and ad agencies remains strong. Without the slick copy in magazines, the potential visitor won’t look long enough to find the code. TV and radio ads are still viable, and billboards are drawing in as much business as when Koeth started with the A&P 19 years ago.

Koeth said using things like Twitter, Facebook and QR codes only add to what can be done professionally. It helps her stretch her budget to reach the most people. Her 2010 budget for marketing Van Buren is $260,789. Only $6,000 of that is devoted to the A&P Web site. The A&P collects a 1% tax on all food and lodging.

“Everything we do online helps our other efforts,” Koeth said. “It’s just a matter of keeping up with technology, and that is changing daily. QR codes are just the latest thing to come our way.”