SMS or QR Codes: What’s Best for Your Show?

There was a recent article in Mobile Marketer that discussed CBS’s decision to use SMS over QR codes as part of its print advertising campaign to promote its fall lineup of shows. There are several takeaways from the CBS campaign that can be cross applied to event marketing.

I saw one of the print ads with the SMS call-to-action (CTA) and decided to try it out with my iPhone. The CTA was at the bottom of the ad and was very clear. I dialed the short code and immediately received a text message with a link to a video clip. I clicked on the link and a video promoting one of their new shows started playing. The whole thing took a matter of seconds. It was very simple. This is an excellent example of using an SMS overlay to activate traditional media.

QR codes can provide a richer set of capabilities than SMS so you might ask why CBS chose SMS. The answer is scale, which was clearly reflected in the comments from CBS executives quoted in the article, including these:
• “Everyone has phones that support SMS.” —Philippe Browning, vice president of advertising and operations at CBS Mobile, Los Angeles.
• “We wanted to do something that everyone could interact with.” —Anne O’Grady, executive vice president of marketing at CBS, New York.

SMS capable mobile phones are ubiquitous, texting dominates mobile content usage and it is easy to use—points I have addressed in several previous posts.

While QR codes offer benefits that SMS does not, they don’t offer the ones just mentioned. As I indicated in my Aug. 11, 2011 blog post on QR codes, a user must be willing to download a barcode reader to be able to read a QR code and try something new if this is their first time. Mobile users are certainly willing to cross this hurdle for the right payoff—I know I am—but many are not and this will reduce traction relative to SMS which requires no download.

Both QR codes and SMS offer attractive benefits and should be on the list of options you consider for your show’s mobile strategy. Which solution is best for your specific needs will depend on a variety of issues. Scale should certainly be one of them.

Posted on September 29, 2011