Finally, someone has come up with an efficient way for me to utilize a QR code.

A QR code.

QR codes have been around for a couple of years but have yet to really catch on with the general public. Advertisers like them because they store a ton of information and can move consumers who have smartphones from a static platform – a print ad, for example – to an interactive online platform.

To make that jump, however, one must download an app with a QR-code scanner, focus the smartphone’s camera on the printed code and make sure there is enough lighting to get a reading. If all the parts work together, this should point the smartphone’s browser toward an online destination. If that destination is a website, the user then can face the challenge of navigating the website on the smartphone’s tiny screen.

That’s a lot of effort – more than most ads could motivate me to make.

Today, however, I received a marketing letter from Bank of America regarding one of my credit cards. It is running a limited-time promotion for card users, but – as often is the case with such offers – requires users to activate the offer online. An offer has to be pretty lucrative for me to drop what I’m doing to go online and sign up. And if I put it off, it probably doesn’t happen.

This latest letter offered me a choice however. I could go to the website, call a toll-free number (even less appetizing) – or scan a QR code for automatic registration. Since my iPhone was within reach, and I’d already downloaded a scanning app for testing, I decided to try using the code.

I found and launched the app, focused on the QR code and hit the flash. On my third attempt, the code registered. But where would it take me? I feared that I’d have to navigate a BoA website on my phone, but that wasn’t the case. I simply got a screen that said the offer had been activated for my card.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it was the first time a QR code actually saved me time. It’s common sense that streamlining a response process facilitates greater response. The challenge is to preserve that ease of response when implementing new technology, because the public won’t adopt it otherwise.

I’ll be interested to see if the advertising industry can come up with more ways to make QR codes appealing for consumers.

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Tags: Bank of America, iPhone, QR code, smartphone