QR codes have become a standard feature in digital out-of-home advertisements. Brands often incorporate these codes into screen displays to quickly direct consumers who scan the codes with their smartphones to visit a brand’s website or a landing page with information about an initiative or sale.
Now, out-of-home (OOH) media company Outfront Media is transforming that traditionally one-way relationship with a new ad format that allows consumers' scans of the QR codes to have an impact on the digital displays themselves.
Outfront Media has developed an interactive digital ad format called Quick Response Ads, or QRAD, that expands the ability for people to interact with ads displayed on digital billboards, screens in transit stations or on trains. When consumers scan the QR code featured in a QRAD display, they’re taken to a web page that offers them the opportunity to make real-time changes to the ad and trigger the screen to show a modified version of the display.
“We know in a post-COVID world that everyone knows how QR codes work now, and that everybody’s willing to use them,” Chad Shackelford, VP and head of digital creative at Outfront Media, told Ad Age. “Moreso than just sending somebody to their website ... [advertisers] really need to deliver on an experience that sustains [consumers’] engagement but also provides value—not just pummeling them with another message or giving them a chance to buy something.”