"Shop & Pay": A first attempt at QR codes & Daily Deals

iMob, the adverising arm of SMRT created a partnership with Paypal and Nokia to launch Shop & Pay, a Deals campaign comprising of billboards featuring QR codes in high traffic areas of subway.  The billboard had several product deals and prominent QR codes along with basic instructions.  The campaign lasted for a couple of months, and based on my daily observations (in my home MRT station) only a mediocre success.  


I think the challenge was in the name “Shop and Pay” which sounds pretty generic.  iMob has since changed the program to “Scan and Pay”, which makes more sense.  The other issue with the campaign was that the billboard did did little to explain what a QR code was and where to find a scanner.  In a new campaign with EpiLife in Somerset station, they’ve included instructions for iOS, BB and Android, a major upgrade. 


The QR code URL takes the user directly to the Paypal buy page for the product.  Of course the Paypal branding helps with legitimizing but there is no intermediate landing page experience which is a distraction since this is the flow that daily deal users come to expect.  Of the passers by that I observed, no one stood around long enough to complete the purchase on the spot (because of the time it takes to enter in credit card or paypal info) which is a key challenge to a "prepayment" experience.....hence the need call for NFC...perhaps!

So a good first attempt with immediate refinements to the program!

The BK Coupon Generator...a great excuse for me to go to Burger King!

I've observed that the use of more and more QR code initiated marketing campaigns.  Not a surprise given SG's smartphone penetration.  However some are done better than others... I feel that it's worth highlighting the use of QR codes to support the launch of the BK Chicken Sandwich line in Singapore.

http://bkcoupongenerator.com.sg

BK used a subway campaign with QR codes to drive discovery of their Coupon Generator mobile site for promotion of their Chicken sandwiches.  It was a good use of a free to claim offer whereby the customer could choose a chicken sandwich meal, pick a freebie (BK fusion ice cream, Mexican drum lets) and then create a virtual coupon on their handset.

Why I liked the campaign
- Simple and easy call to action with easy to understand benefits
- 2 part benefits – coupon for a freebie and entry in lucky draw (to collect info) for stays at Resorts World
- 20k coupons downloaded so far

By focusing on coupons, BK took pre-payment out of the equation (frankly a stumbling block for daily deals) making the experience much simpler for the consumer and at point of sale.