Still searching for the pefect mobile voucher

This week I posed a question my colleagues and industry peers, "How can I make redeeming an offer that is on a mobile easier for the retailer to operate?".

My project is to get more and more mobile campaigns to end up with a call to action that is come into store. In Japan, mobile vouchering is very much the norm and many locations are set up to read from them.

Alan Moore of SMLXL believes that QR codes are the answer. He believes that the UK is primed to take on this technology. He goes further to quote Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, co-founder of Wireless Watch Japan:

While we are starting to see the adoption of 2D bar codes in markets overseas, the original wave of QR Codes—the iconic call-to-action in Japan since 2004—is steadily giving way to ad campaigns using a standard search box embedded with a few unique keywords. Considering web usage is based on location with access by PC vs. mobile device running about even in Japan, combined with easy to remember—anytime & anywhere—characters displayed in their native language, the approach could be rapidly deployed in other non-English locations such as Russia, China, India and Arabic speaking countries. As an obvious evolution, which requires no special hardware or software, this simple strategy—most importantly—works very well across all traditional media channels.

After trying the technology from a download off yesterday's City AM newspaper, I must admit the QR codes are easy to use and look like they could be the solution.

Helen Keegan, Specialist consultant in mobile marketing, advertising & media at BeepMarketing, offered me some advice on who is pushing the technology in the UK. Helen mentioned Trinity Mobile, who offer solutions with QR codes, along with Kaywa, Shotcode and a whole load of others too. But she warned that barcode readers at point of sale would be an issue.

Helen also offered me this advice:

The very simplest thing to do is to provide the retailer with a barcode that they can laminate and keep by the till to use whenever they see the relevant image, text message, barcode whatever. That way they can easily process the transaction without changing their systems. Of course, you won't get full reporting (when I was at ZagMe, we found retailers were under-reporting by 96% for example), but it should be a good enough work around in a lot of cases.

And in that statement I had my answer. UK retailers are not ready for the technology. With the economic downturn hitting retail, can we expect them to invest in new scanners to enable pure mobile vouchering?

David Tymm of i-movo suggests that perhaps we shouldn't be expecting the retailers to change systems without at first proving there is demand for mobile vouchering. David mentions:

It is up to organisations such as Blyk to prove to the market and the retailers, that the investment is worth the effort.

I believe that David has a point. The technology is available, but until we can prove the mobile is a mass-market call to action medium, we may stick to Helen's point on having printed 2D barcodes behind the till.


I haven't called off the search just yet, but I am happier knowing that to get to the goal of a perfect mobile vouchering system, I am going to have to create demand. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Jay