Mobile marketing is gaining momentum in a big way thanks to the rise in popularity of the Quick Response (QR) code. The two-dimensional, super barcode allows for information to be scanned via smart phone and viewed in a slimmed down website. Hailed as the cutting edge of tourism, QR has made its way into play with the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism.
The Bureau is placing the code in high traffic areas, such as the baggage check-out at Palm Springs International Airport to check-in kiosks at hotels. The code even adorns windows of local stores.
Travelers can scan the code with their smart phone and have a wealth of information at their fingertips. The Bureau partners with businesses and offers personalized tags which lists typical information – business hours, specials, coupons, and directions.
This brand of marketing is particularly suited for the whims of tourists, who are unfamiliar with an area and unwilling to fuss with scouring the internet for answers. “It creates an immediacy that’s so exciting for business,” says Tammy Perezchica, Palm Springs’ downtown administrator. “Our guests will be able to stay in places from the Parker and the Viceroy to the Riviera, and know what’s happening within a mile. We can communicate how much there is to do downtown at the touch of a button.”
The mobile site and applications launched before Thanksgiving and has just shy of 9,000 visits.
Last December, the code was embedded on an in-flight magazine advertising Palm Springs as a tourist resort. Those scanning the code were entered into a contest to win a trip to Palm Springs. This sort of interactive advertising is guiding the consumer from simply starring at a product and rewarding them for pursuing more information.
Many businesses are starting to take advantage of the rise of mobile marketing, the results of which will be vague until later this year.
