Warbasse Design begins QR advertising in the Los Angeles market
Warbasse Design unleashes 2D Intelligent Bar Codes to promote music and sell tickets to an ever-growing mobile audience.
BonoVox PR February 3, 2008 - Los Angeles, CA – On the morning of January 3, 2008, while most were still asleep, Warbasse Design's LA based street team descended upon Westwood and the UCLA campus to spread the news of an upcoming show at the university's Royce Hall Performance Theatre. Fifteen full-color, postcard size, bills were printed with QR (quick response) Codes and strategically placed next to Royce Hall, several coffee shops, music and book stores and various kiosks on campus. "The goal of the initial promotion was to track the response as much as it was to advertise the show," said Philip Warbasse, CEO of Warbasse Media and the developer behind Warbasse Design's mobile advertising QR campaigns.
QR Codes, created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994, can store more information than a traditional, one-dimensional bar code, but what makes them so important is their ability to tie the virtual to the real. "It is their ease of use and the power to turn anything into a direct connection between advertiser and client that will inevitably make QR commonplace in the mobile advertising market," said Warbasse. Examples of data commonly stored in QR and Semacodes include:
- A link to a website,
- A message displayed on the screen of the mobile device,
- Contact information,
- A phone number that is ready to be dialed,
- SMS/MMS text message that is ready to be sent,
- Digital media.
The Ryan Adams and the Cardinals at Royce Hall QR Promotion was designed to 1.) prime the visitor by downloading a live Ryan Adams and the Cardinals song to the visitor's cell-phone for their immediate listening pleasure. And, 2.) provide them
the opportunity to purchase tickets for the show through TicketMaster(TM) directly
from their cell-phone.
When scanned with a WAP enabled cell-phone capable of reading QR and Semacode, small 2D bar codes can pack a big punch. But, that's been the problem up until now. Philip Warbasse opines, "most cell-phone users in the United States are just starting to familiarize themselves with Smartphones, PDA's and other WAP enabled device's. I recognized the potential of QR and Semacodes while working on an international mobile campaign in 2005. I knew they could be socially significant if devices capable of reading them were made readily available." Amazingly, after 14 years in existence, this technology is just starting to take off instead of having met its demise within the first few years of its existence, like so much of the technology that has preceded it.
QR codes are only half of the equation, however. When creating a successful QR campaign, the biggest challenge facing mobile or WML (wireless mobile language) developers is the platform itself. With so many cell-phones on the market, each with their own specifications, designing for a mobile audience can be challenging. Warbasse Design implements server-side technology and an open architecture in
order to reach the largest mobile audience possible.
Back on the campus of UCLA, 713 unique visitors accessed this unique campaign via QR code over the course of 27 days. 398 of the 713 visitors listened to Ryan Adam's live version of "Let it Ride". 224 of the 713 visited TicketMaster(TM) to purchase tickets. "We were blown away with the results at such an early stage," said Warbasse, "I believe QR advertising is going to revolutionize mobile advertising in the United States within the next 3 years." Interestingly, the access point most popular with visitors was posted directly across from Royce Hall and garnered 212 unique visitors or ~30% of all access requests.
Businesses that wish to integrate Warbasse Design's QR solutions with their marketing strategies can contact them directly by using the ClickCall(TM) contact panel found on their website at www.warbassedesign.com.
About Ryan Adams
Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the cocky brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success; and he is the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically as he follows his increasingly prolific muse.
About Warbasse Design
Since inception the goal has remained unchanged - to help clients become better known and better understood. Warbasse design is known for its research methods as much as its award-winning design and it has a track record of providing clients internet technology that is consistently ahead of its time. Warbasse Design began streaming audio in 1997, was creating "web 2.0" strategies by 2003 and sold a minority interest in its pc-to-phone company ClickCall(TM) in 2005, long before the acronym VOIP was commonplace. Located in 5 U.S. markets and representing one of the largest networks of designers and developers in the United States, Warbasse Design is growing at the speed of the internet. Philip Warbasse is also the founder of the QR CODE Project - an online resource providing QR advertising examples and discussion.
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