It’s augmented reality and QR code madness!

Augmented reality and QR codes are the new microsites? Aka, the must-have toy that brands will ask for like last month’s Twitter account. So I see Popeyes Chicken is running a QR code as their avatar while Esquire is continuing to use them in ads well after their augmented reality experiment started. Even though some brands have played around with it, it’s still very much in its nascent fire to a caveman stage. What appears to be shaping up is a more minimal use of the tech with codes seen as little more than glorified links.

Not that I would drop $798 on an overcoat from Brooks Brothers, but the experience of getting to that item via iPhone and the free ScanIt app was smooth, no doubt. Same too with Popeyes code above, (even though the monitor’s scan rate played a little havoc with how the phone read things).

Still, new as these toys are, I want a better, more enhanced experience beyond a smooth checkout.

That stuff should already be a given. I know we’re in an age of utility where an amazing Nike spot means less to a runner than the Nike Plus site does, but show me more than just a link to your product page. Part of the mystery of a code is not knowing what I might get. Make it part of a story.

Don’t get me wrong, I dig the experimentation with the avatar, but everyone will start doing that. Show me something I can’t get anywhere else, not merely repackaged content off your main site. Sure it’s only a code, but why waste the opportunity to do something cool with it.