Playing around with QR codes- our photographers try to engage with creatives on a different level

©Hunter Freeman-www.hunterfreeman.com

As I shared in a previous post, our group has evolved their mindsets to embrace the changes happening in our industry and has begun to look for new opportunities to keep their businesses evolving.  We committed to moving forward with a entrepreneurial mindset and approaching each project with a new perspective. 

 We have new glasses on and we are ready to use them.

We recognize that it is important to evolve not only our work but how we share it as well.  So, with these new glasses, we examined each of our marketing tools and tried to find unique and interesting ways to inspire creatives to engage with our work.

One tool we examined closely was the direct mail piece.  We reviewed what the current ones in our group looked like without our new glasses and then examined what they looked like with the new glasses.  If the ultimate goal is to excite the viewer and inspire them to view our websites, then we wanted to think of something that not many other photographers were doing; even if it was just for a mailer or two.

Many ideas were discussed and we decided that it would be fun to experiment some with the QR Code.  We researched the technology and realized that it was quite easy to incorporate them into the mailers.

While the codes have been successful for many companies, we wanted to be careful and not just embrace the technology for the sake of trying it out.  We didn’t want to chase a trend but find a way to make it relevant for the people who would be scanning the code.  More than anything, we knew that the user had to be rewarded with something for taking the time to participate.  We didn’t just want the code to send them to our site – they could do that on their own.  It seemed like a lot of effort for little pay out.   So, we got creative and thought of different ways to reward the viewers who took the time to engage.

Hunter Freeman’s mailer will be the first in our group to arrive on your desks.  Kevin Twomey’s and Richard Schultz’s are not far behind.  Each thought of an idea that was relevant to their photography brand and the image they chose to promote.

Hunter decided to play off of his wildly successful astronaut series and create an image that incorporated the QR code.  His quirky sense of humor made it easy for him to think of a concept that played off the original series.  When you scan the code, it takes you to a site that offers you a free print of one of the astronaut images.  Seeing the amount of emails he gets daily for prints, this seemed like a relevant reward.

For those of you who don’t want to wait for the card, click here.  Be honest though – please do not order a print if you didn’t actually scan the code.  Let’s save them for those who played the game.  (But of course, if you really must have one, let us know and we can see what we can do.)

We of course have no idea how many people will actually try out the code, but we are excited to find out.  And, please do spread the word if you like what we share with you when you scan the code.

For those of you who do not have a QR code scanner – you can easily get one in the App store if you search QR Code.

Thanks for be open minded!