Sacrilicious Marketing

You are probably asking what is a QR Code if you are not already in the know and have one on your business card! The basic gist is it is a primted code that when scanned by your phone bridges you into a digital experience in the form of data like a business card, a websites, a video and even music.

So Here’s What a QR Code Is in Techno Speak:

A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data. Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

You have probably seen them on business cards. You can scan the code with your phone and the code transmits data typically in textual or graphical format to your phone usually in the form of a business card or link to a website.

How Big Are QR Codes?

QR codes have become so big that to celebrate Internet Week 2010, the City of New York outfitted Times Square with giant QR codes earlier today. It’s called “The City at Your Fingerprints” and 11 New York agencies participated in the interactive billboard initiative. Even forward thinking brands have gotten into the QR craze. As always Calvin Klein pushed boundaries with their racy ads by placing it behind a QR code billboard.

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Because Sacrilicious is NSFW, Happy Thanksgiving! Eat LOTS of turkey. Please don’t cook your mate or family members. That carries a murder charge and I value my readers that come back to see what I cook up. See how I did that? Just took that metaphor and ran with it like and 8th grader in English class. No, I’m not proud, it does concern me, and I recognize my journalism skillz went out the window in 2002 when I started blogging.

I am thankful for my children, Zachary and Joshua, my incredible family, my amazing, handsome, saintly and utterly insane boyfriend, Nick and his family and all of you who read me here and/or humor me on Twitter and Facebook and all the other social networks I play with.

Alright, that’s my best holiday post for a day completely built around the dumbest bird in the wilderness!

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Designing a compelling landing page for your Facebook Fan Page is critical to getting visitors to LIKE your page. One of the most effective techniques is to incentivize visitors to like the page by telling them they will gain access t exclusive content or free information when they like the page. FBML gives you a powerful tool to do this by allowing you to show fans and non fans of a page different content through the “visible to connection” function.

For example, I offer a free FBML template when people like my fan page while Avon offers exclusive Live Stream content when you like the page.

Example: Music Force to Like

The following tutorial shows you how to easily implement this feature on any FBML page!

Step 1: Download the Code Sample here

Step 2: Just change out the content of what is shown to fans and what is not shown to fans. Video Tutorial below:

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How to Bake Gaming Mechanics into Your Next Marketing Campaign

Ingrained deep into each of our psyches is the desire to be acknowledged with a pat on the back or a “good job” every once in a while. In an age where “friend” means clicking an “accept” button on a website rather than doing the heavy lifting required in building friendships of yesterday, the pat on the back has also taken on an easier to achieve virtual format. Watching content you create get a thumbs up or seeing your virtual stock rise with the addition of more “friends” and “followers” or assessing your stock pile of virtual livestock, badges and gifts is all the reward some people need to engage over and over with a product, brand or event.

Consider Twitter, Facebook, Farmville, SCVNGR. Watching your follower and friend base grow and engage with you on Twitter and Facebook is rewarding while the endless collecting of cows and crops on Farmville or badges on Foursquare gives you a sense of superiority or envy as you compare your assets to those of your neighbors. In the case of SCVNGR, the completion of particular sets of actions gives a sense of accomplishment as you reach a finite reward that you can redeem. These are simple yet effective implementations of gaming mechanics into marketing campaigns to drive both loyalty and usage among consumers.

When layered on top of a social network, gaming mechanics can be applied to almost any rewards based or loyalty marketing campaign to drive engagement with a product or service directly. The key here is to layer a rewards system into a core existing action within your product or service. For example, 30 years ago, American Airlines introduced the first Frequent Flier Program. The program was simple, they rewarded you with points for every flight you took with them, they sent a statement to you each month so you could see your points accrue, then once you earned enough points and reached a particular milestone, they allowed you to redeem those points for more flights. The key action here was flying American. The game mechanics that made American Airlines’ program successful then are the same making others successful to this day: collecting, points, access, status, rewards.

Let’s Break Down How Game Mechanics Work in Marketing and How You Can Use Them in Marketing Campaigns

1. What are the goals of your campaign?

If the goals of your campaign are to build a community, motivate users to contribute, build loyalty for your brand or product or get your customer to act as brand ambassadors to their sphere of influence, you could easily layer game mechanics on top of your marketing campaign.

2. What is the core action you want a customer to take with your product, service or website.

The most likely answers to this question are: buy, inquire, contribute content, engage with other members, refer friends, or enlist customers as brand embassadors.

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