A Cute and Creative Application of QR Code

Quick Response (QR) is a good tool for creative marketing. A QR code is a 2D barcode. It is similar to the well-known 1D product barcode, but a QR code can contain far more (and different kinds of) information. Reading a QR code is different from reading a standard barcode. Apart from scanning the code with a barcode reader, the QR code can also be read by using a free application on a smartphone.

QR codes can be linked to a company’s website, a YouTube video, a photo or any other hyperlink.

Marketers quickly saw the possibilities of the QR code and started using them for all kinds of B2C campaigns. A QR code is easy to create as an image. It can be printed on business cards, folders, flyers, products, and yes, even cookies.

The German company Qkies offers its consumers the ability to bake cookies with edible QR-codes. The company allows its customers to put their own personalized code on top of the cookies. One package consists of dough and 10 edible QR codes. (Yes, the buyer must bake the cookies first). On the website of Qkies, the “baker” can choose to which website the QR code should point to.

Qkies is the brainchild of a German food company and DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Disney's Muppets Movie Edgy Marketing Campaign

Disney (NYSE: DIS) is releasing its latest Muppet movie, aimed at a wide audience. Apart from kids, Disney also wants to wow parents who grew up loving the Muppets the first time around.

The Muppets phenomenon has been around for 35 years. The latest movie has just been released in 3,440 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. For promotion, the services of controversial comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais and Wanda Sykes were enlisted.

Similar to their hominoid counterparts, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Animal have hit the talk show circuit. They appeared on “Saturday Night Live" and “Chelsea Lately." When talking to E! talk show host Chelsea Handler, Miss Piggy was asked if there was any "penetration" involved with her relationship with Kermit. Miss Piggy’s love life was also discussed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", She responded that "there might be handcuffs involved, if you know what I mean." Move over Angelina Jolie! Miss Piggy’s love interest Kermit the Frog appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

The movie trailers are also catering to the mature audience. These trailers spoof "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (with a trailer titled "The Pig With the Froggy Tattoo"), "Paranormal Activity" ("Abnormal Activity") and "The Hangover II" ("The Fuzzy Pack").

Disney marketing executives refrain from going on the record. But Disney executives obviously realize that going for a broader appeal of a youth-targeted movie is highly profitable, as Sony's "The Smurfs" showed. That movie grossed a neat $560 million at the global box office.

Interesting enough, the strongest demographic for "The Muppets" consists of women older than 25. (Source: research firm NRG). 95 % of women over 25 were aware of the movie and 37 % stated that they have "definite interest" in seeing it.

The CardMunch Application Let You Scan Business Cards; Creating A Digital Rolodex At Your Fingertips

At WATEC 2011, a business contact showed me CardMunch, the latest cool application to capture business cards. LinkedIn just unveiled a completely revamped version of CardMunch, which it bought from Bowei Gai at the end of 2010. CardMunch is a free iPhone application that let you scrape business cards for vital information.

You snap a picture of the business card, and CardMunch 3.0 ties that business card with the person's LinkedIn profile. This gives you insight into mutual contacts, credentials, recommendations, etc.

What makes CardMunch powerful is its Cover Flow-like Rolodex feature. No more card scanners at exhibitions necessary; MunchCard lets you swipe through virtual business cards of all of your contacts. You can also add notes to contact cards while you wait for the cards to be processed.

You can also quickly add information from your contact’s CardMunch record to your iPhone address book. LinkedIn does not do this by default for all contacts, which shows you that LinkedIn truly cares about privacy. It is possible to send quick e-mails to contacts from within the application. It is also possible to initiate a LinkedIn connection request, but once "connect" is pressed, it cannot be undone.

It’s a great and free application to swipe business cards at exhibitions. Hopefully, LinkedIn will add some more features, such as: to "favorite" a contact, to sort contacts by company name/the date the picture of the card was taken, or to record the location where the card was scanned (e.g., Curapipe at WATEC 2011)

To grab the free CardMunch Application from the App Store, click here.