Monday, December 29, 2008

Opportunities Found and Lost

To try these codes out on your own phone, text the word "scan" to 70734, or navigate on your phone to getscanlife.com

I'm always excited to find real life uses of codes out in the market place, and anxious to provide advice--usually unsolicited--on how to use them even better.



Take Cellufun, for example. If you navigate to their site from your desktop or laptop (http://www.cellufun.com/), you'll find that this is an excellent wap-oriented site that provides all sorts of free entertaining stuff for your phone--games, screensavers, ringers, etc. Right there on the front page is an EZCode that looks something like the one on the left here.

This is an excellent example of making it very easy for someone to move from one form of media to another using mobile codes. Let's face it: talking about wireless services on the web is kind of like talking about heaven while on earth. It's not really possible. It's just a shadow of what it must really be like. It's much better to go to the discussed medium and actually experience it.

Scan the code listed above, and you get the main menu of cellufun for the wap phone. From there you can navigate and actually experience all the wonderful things cellufun has to offer.


BUT, it could be even better, and Cellufun is missing an opportunity. If you navigate on your desktop to a particular game, you can learn all about the game. I happen to like the venerabl minesweeper and I hyperlinked happily there on my laptop. I was even happier to find that there was a code right there on the minesweeper page to help me make the jump to my mobile. But alas, the disappointment to discover it was the exact same code as the one on the main page. I had navigated to minesweeper and was interested enough in playing it that I scanned the code, but found that it was the exact same code as the one found on the homepage! In other words, I found minesweeper on the wireline, was interested enough to try it out on the wireless, and Cellufun essentially forced me to navigate AGAIN from the homepage on the wireless!

Codes enable a lot of things never before enabled that must be absorbed by code publishers and users alike. Here are a few:
  • The codes themselves are essentially free. You can make as many codes as you want to make without incremental cost. Why? Because the supply of codes is limitless! Contrast this with an SMS shortcode, where a limited number of available codes drives intrinsic value to the codes themselves.
  • With free codes, the luxury of precision becomes available. Want to measure a specific campaign? Create a specific code! Want to drive people to a particular spot on your wap site? Create a specific code? You really could create hundreds, thousands, and millions of unique codes without too much trouble.

I have no direct connection to Cellufun, but I hope they'll give multiple codes a try. Why not create unique codes for each game, directing users to that unique experience? Save them some time! Show them some respect! Reward them for wanting to try out your services!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't scan QR codes or datamatrix codes with the Scanlife software.

Why?

Are EZcodes the ONLY thing I can click on?

If so, why should I waste my time!

Anonymous said...

Depends on what your goals are and who you are. If you publish a code and you want to make sure your message is heard, EZCode can ensure that your message gets out. If your goal--as someone who scans--is to contravene the interests of the code publisher, then QR and datamatrix, and the scanning software supporting them are for you. As a consumer, your answer is probably going to be sometimes one, sometimes the other. Some day scanning software will reflect this interest, but today it does not.

Anonymous said...

HI there I discovered your blogg while doing research for an upcoming campaign for band. Im looking to use QR codes to get fans excited, and link to content from the real world in an innovative way.

I'd like to qr codes in a creative way to help tell the story of the album.

I am looking forward to reading your blog for tips!