There’s a lot of chatter at the moment about 2D barcodes.
I’ve spoken to various creatives, service providers and marketers about this technology over the past few months; admittedly because XMPie now supports the technology directly inside uDirect. Whilst they all seem excited about the prospect of this technology very few that I can see are actually using it creatively or at all. There’s a very useful site at http://2d-code.co.uk which covers alot of the technology, as well as many of the examples of where 2D barcodes have been used.
Now that XMPie supports the use of PDF417, AztecCode, DataMatrix, MaxiCode, MicroPDF and QRCodes directly within the uDirect InDesign CS plugin it is easy to insert personalised data into a 2D barcode and place it on a printed piece. This obviously means that any data (from a datasource) can be used to create a 2D barcode. Want to create a 2D barcode that contains someone’s RURL or personalised URL so you negate the need to have them type it in? What about embedded personalised information about a recipient within a voucher code, presented as a 2D barcode?
It’s not an insignificant?fact that XMPie’s approach to QR Code is easy. XMPie’s ADOR technology means that any data and logic contained within the data can be used repeatable and?consistently within the campaign and QR Codes.
One of the biggest factors holding back the adoption of this technology is the support for barcode readers already installed on the mobile devices – so the initial campaigns need to provide enough of an incentive to get people to spend the time and install one. However with most smart phones and camera-enabled phones capable of supporting QR-Code capture this is rapidly becoming a non-issue.
Hopefully those creatives that would like to implement some form of support with a DM piece or personalised campaign should be able to do so a lot easier now, as all the various commercial printers and service providers that already have XMPie now have this ability. “Ta Dah”. All it needs now is a forward-thinking creative team to come up with some good campaign material.
Any takers?
[message type="info"]Full disclosure: At the time of writing this article the author was employed by XMPie, a Xerox Company. [/message]
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[...] XMPie’s uDirect plugin has the ability of generating and placing a barcode within the design. I blogged about this a while ago. However this is limited to using those barcodes within the printed piece. I was [...]
is there a tutorial or walk through on how to create qrcodes in udirect?
[...] interactive information within their advertising and media campaigns. I recently posted an article talking about how XMPie was now supporting the creation of QR-Codes; and other 2D barcodes from directly inside [...]
David – Interesting – at least we are finally seeing adoption in print & mail markets. It has been a long time coming!
I guess that the maturity and perhaps more importantly the related potential of technology such as XM Pie has only really come about in recent years so it takes time for the message to spill down and open up as real business opportunity.
[...] Discussion about 2D Barcodes over at David Baldero’s blog from XMPie. [...]
David
The limitations of hardware peripherals in the point of sale environments. It really holds back some powerful business potential with solutions such as XM Pie. Print is just as limiting here.
It doesn’t take too much imagination to think of the potential of Customer Communications products such as XM Pie when applied to Point of Sale.
Now that we can generate high quality personlized communications together with data carriers such as 2D barcodes, retailers have tremendous opportunities to deliver innovative service at their disposal.
Jules, thanks for the comments. The opportunities to use this technology are immense; and I do not fully believe that hardware peripherals are a limitation. There are 2D barcode scanners available on the marketplace today, and have been available for years. Maybe the limitation here is their adoption and use within the markets – but maybe we are talking chicken and egg here? Within a greater adoption of 2D barcode applications why have a compatible scanner at the check-out? Certainly I believe that this is the case for retail – but I am seeing an adoption of 2D barcode within the DM space as providers look at 2D barcodes as a way to pull people to personalised URLs.