I wrote about the perils of QR Codes before. More frequently I see QR Codes popping up on magazine ads, direct mail pieces and store windows.

Sadly, few marketers are getting them right. Arik Hanson does a fabulous job sharing his QR experiment in Mall of America during Black Friday. No insights into what’s behind the code, codes that lead to error messages or lame content / non-optimized sites makes me want to smack my head against the wall.

The question is, will marketers shape up before they ruin QR Codes forever?

If you’re in the retail game, Q4 is a game changing quarter. It’s also when the competition to garner eyeballs is the toughest. This campaign by JCPenny is my far the most brilliant one yet! Check it out.

There’s nothing that I don’t love about this initiative from Tesco. This is an example of what I wish all marketing could be like this. By understanding the local market, Tesco was able to fundamentally change how consumers not only interacted with the brand but also how they viewed it. Without adding any stores, Tesco became #2 in the market and grew their online sales by 130%.

I haven’t written a rant in quite some time, but the current use of QR Codes infuriates me to no end. I’m sure my fellow marketers are sick of hearing my rant and frankly, I’m sick of hearing it myself since I loathe complaining without doing anything to fix the situation. But, here it goes anyway.

I love the idea of QR Codes. I love imagining the possibilities and I love thinking about where QR Codes could take us in the future. But, I also know that with the way 99.9% of marketers are using QR Codes, we are never going to get to my vision of the future.

While it takes marketers a bit of time and effort to create a QR Code, it takes the consumer even more time to interact with it. Think about it – a consumer has to:

1. See and recognize a QR Code for what it is
2. Take their phone out of their pocket/purse
3. Unlock their phone, which these days typically also involves inputting a password
4. Then, they have to flip through the screens to find the app (which they had to download beforehand)
5. Open app
6. Scan QR Code
7. Wait for it to register
8. Get content

Holy shit, that’s a lot of steps. In this day and age, even though some of those steps take mere seconds, getting to what’s behind a QR Code isn’t necessarily instant gratification. Consumers have to work to get that content. When you have to work for something, especially when it’s an advertising message, it better be a damn good one.

Unfortunately, what’s behind most QR Codes these days is not only worthless but also a frustrating waste of time. Here’s a few examples of pure horribleness that I’ve discovered:

1. Print shop sends direct mail piece with QR code on it. Nothing else, including no instructions because clearly all their potential clients are QR Code savvy When scanned, the code takes you to their NON-mobile optimized homepage. This was just a #FAIL all around.
2. QR Codes were abundant at CES. I was excited. If anyone was going to get it, it had to be advertisers at CES, right?! WRONG. Maybe I missed the good ones, but all the ones I scanned took me to… wait for it… their NON-mobile optimized homepage. WTF. Why do this? Because I can access a QR Code from somewhere other than a MOBILE device?
3. Admittedly, the last two years I have loved the social advertising campaigns for The Grammy’s. This old school brand has jumped head first into the digital space to engage audiences. Not only have they jumped but they’ve also put some serious dollars behind that jump. This year, all their print ads were tagged with a QR Code. Unfortunately, half of them didn’t scan correctly and the other half took you to a flash-like site that couldn’t be seen or utilized via any mobile phone I was using. I hope the advertising agency that failed to properly test the QR Code before putting it on EVERYTHING got fired.

Dear Marketer, If you’re spending all this time to create a QR Code and the consumer is spending all their time to get the content, why not make it worth everyone’s while? Why not milk it for all it’s worth? Let’s have some video, let’s have a phone number that I can click to call, let’s have a MOBILE OPTIMIZED website AND a special landing page for the campaign. Let’s have something worth the effort it took me to get to there.

Marketers, my biggest fear is that if we continue to do a piss poor job of using QR Codes to communicate, consumers are going to stop engaging with them. It will be a case of the Boy Who Cried Wolf… by the time marketers figure out how to use them to their advantage, consumers won’t believe it enough to scan the darn things.

I bought my first Macbook this weekend. It was a bit of a puzzling experience. I walked into the always-packed store and went straight to look at the Macbook Air’s. I was pretty sold on it, but wanted one last chance to play around. A sales associate came up, answered a few of my questions and asked what I wanted it for. I explained that I had a PC and wanted it as a second laptop mainly for travel. I said that I had been looking at netbooks, but the Air was either lighter or I liked it better than other netbooks. I also explained that I would mostly be using it for browsing online and remoting into my work computer to do email, use Microsoft Office, etc. After hearing what I was going to be using the Macbook Air for, he asked, “Have you tried the iPad? It might be a better fit.”

Me: Huh? Really? And um, isn’t that $1,000 less expensive than the machine I was just about to buy? Do you get a special commission for selling iPads or what?!

The Sales Associate went on to explain that you could put the iPad on a docking station and use a wireless keyboard with it. However, you couldn’t use a mouse. To me, that seemed like a lot of extra work and parts, but I said I’d take a look and think about it.

Luckily, there was a free iPad because I hate waiting in line I played around with it for a few minutes. And, I still didn’t understand how this could replace a netbook. Here’s why:

• I’m a neat freak. The thought of having fingerprints all over my screen was the nail in the coffin
• The thought of having to always remember to cart around a docking station and wireless keyboard didn’t seem very easy to me. While the iPad might fit in my purse, the other two items would be awkward.
• Here’s the other kicker to me – websites recognize the iPad as a MOBILE device, not a computer or netbook. What does that mean? Well, it means it serves up the mobile version of sites first. While that’s great for on-the-go, that’s not what I want for a second screen. I want the full version.
• Don’t worry, I won’t mention that flash doesn’t work nor that there’s no built-in camera
• Being a PC and Blackberry person too, I’m still not an expert at all the pinching, rotating and touchscreen typing that the iPad requires.
• Holding it was uncomfortable. It’s a bit too heavy to hold it upright for too long. At the same time, holding it on your lap puts unnecessary strain on your neck. Maybe okay for short periods of time, but not for long stretches of work.
• Unfortunately, my biggest question – would my VPN work – was left unanswered. I didn’t know the url and sadly had not yet saved it to my web bookmarks.

While the iPad might have a purpose, in my mind, it in no way, shape or form is a replacement for my newly bought Macbook Air.

In the last few months, I’ve been amazed at some of the innovative ways companies are aggregating and using information from social networks. From Bravo’s use of Foursquare to We’re All Fans, wow. It seems like the economy has slowed the innovation of “new” and allowed marketers to really harness what’s out there. And, harness it quicker than ever before.

Surprisingly, tonight’s Grammy’s was the first event that twitter both spoiled and enhanced for me. Everything online, from the MSN homepage to twitter was reporting and commenting on the Grammy’s in real time. The comments made me excited and frustrated. I wanted to see the outfits and performances my “friends” were commenting on. But alas, being on the West Coast, I was three hours behind. For me, it was an interesting and new experience. And yes, it made me wish I was living on the East Coast that much more

One of the coolest parts of the Grammy’s was their use of social media. An institution that’s been around for 52 years continues to innovate and stay relevant. From an iPhone app to We’re All Fans, kudos to the marketers behind the show… We’re All Fans was one wicked cool and beautifully done aggregater of what fans we’re saying.

This linkfest has been sitting in my drafts for weeks, but still, a few good links.

1. QR Codes. People still don’t quite see the possibilities. However, this article does a great job expanding on some of the possibilities and reasons why hotels would benefit from utilizing QR Codes.
2. Funny comic on the Joys of Tech
3. My guilty pleasure is AXE advertising. Always edgy, always cutting edge. The incomplete ad that marries traditional print with mobile marketing is simple and pure genius.
4. I can’t wait for Best Buy’s holiday ad campaign to debut. The way they’re using cookies to engage and provide “value” is brilliant.
5. At least once a week someone declares, “Facebook is dead.” But, here’s one reason Why I Don’t Think Facebook is Dead

And, what post would be complete without a little College Humor and a Font Fight?

Holy cow! Clearly Thought Leader vs. Practitioner was quite the burning topic. But, it also seems like people are getting bogged down in names and favorites. You have your Brogan defenders and I have my Sharpie biases. Seriously and honestly, I’m obsessed with how Sharpie has integrated their brand into the social web.

So… let’s take away all the names. Let’s play in theory and thoughts with this scenario:

I’m a client/advertiser. I’m looking for someone to put together a complete Mobile Marketing program for my Brand (yep, I’m even taking social media marketing out of the mix). I bid out the project. The following two bids come back:

Bid #1 from Thought Leader A: Proposal is great. Theories, ideas are spot on. Thought Leader A even has an existing platform for me to use. But then, I ask for a client list. No relevant experience and/or clients. No understanding of how I house my customer data or my Point of Sale (POS) systems. Bottom line: Bid #1 has the ideas. It talks the talk. BUT, it’s never walked the walk.

Bid #2 from Practitioner B: Proposal is great. Theories, ideas are spot on and similar to Bid #1. Bid #2 has an existing platform as well. They also have similar industry experience AND they understand my POS system. In fact, they’ve linked to it for other projects, so they know some of the ins, outs and potential quirks. Bottom line: Bid #2 has the ideas AND the experience. It talks the talk AND can prove it’s walked a similar walk in the past.

If cost was the same, I’m choosing Bid #2 aka the Practitioner. Which bid would you choose? If you chose Bid #2 as well, why and how is this different from choosing a Social Media Marketing Practitioner vs. a Thought Leader?

The study that has everyone ohhh and ahhh’ing this week? Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s: iPhone Users Recall Ads 21% better than non-iPhone users.

To this I have one word: DUH.

Let’s think:

1. iPhone users only see ONE ad at a time
2. The ad is big, colorful and annoying. Think pop-up ads when they first debuted
3. If you’re a non-iPhone user the chance of your browser being configured to javascript and html is low. What does this mean? It means all you see is ugly, text based stuff aka no big, colorful ad

On a non-sarcastic note, I am both a heavy iPhone and Blackberry user. If I want a “pretty” experience, I use my iPhone. If I have time to play around, I use my iPhone. If I want a great user experience, I use my iPhone. If I want black and white, down and dirty data? I use my Blackberry. Aside from the “duh’s” above, I think it’s the way phone users are conditioned- your Blackberry user is the finance/analyst/legal person inside you. The iPhone user? Well, they are the artist/marketing/creative thinker inside of you.