Updates on the QR Code and NFC Platform for Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising

This earlier post gives a brief overview of our platform for OOH advertising providers. The platform has become popular with OOH media owners and advertisers because it adds value for all - including the user.

Nearly every campaign today has an online component (LIKE us, register for event, get a coupon, purchase...) and providing an instant, relevant, actionable trigger goes a long way in meeting the objectives of the campaign.

Since launch we have added many features to support the unique workflows of the OOH industry.

A couple of notable ones:

Campaign Scheduler:
A tedious manual process used to be updating the campaigns every week. Usually OOH campaigns are sold on a weekly basis and on the designated day (typically late at night), new posters and material is put up for the up-coming campaigns. This of course required changing the settings for all the QR Codes and NFCs on our platform as well.

The Qryptal system always enabled uploading a spreadsheet with details of the up-coming campaigns. But though the actual physical posters would always need to be changed manually (until it is all digital screens) - it was doubly frustrating to do the re-programming of the NFCs and QR Codes every week.

Now we have added capability that you can upload campaign spreadsheets and schedule them. So if you are running 10 campaigns/week - you can just keep on scheduling as when the clients confirm and not do so on that particular changeover day.

Since the spreadsheets could have an error, we also have dry run processing which emails you incase of any problems are encountered in the data set.

OOH Assets Updater:
Changes to OOH assets happen frequently, particularly in a large network with thousands of assets. We have further streamlined the process of updating the assets so that the campaigns are correctly deployed and the analytics accurate.

We are encouraged by how well our platform is now working for the OOH industry and look forward towards adding more capabilities to serve this industry.

QR Code and NFC Platform for Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising

This post outlines how the Qryptal Platform is being used in Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising.

First, a brief recap of the Qryptal Platform:

• PCodes: These are serialized QR Codes and pre-programmed NFC tags. Typically customers bulk generate and print them in advance and point them to a placeholder campaign. Later when an actual campaign is deployed, the PCodes are assigned to the desired campaign.
  
  For physical deployment, the operations team has to ensure that the serial numbers on the QR Codes and the NFC tags match up.
  
  The PCodes can be also be linked to a location database. Typically our OOH customers do this because:
• They already have the co-ordinates (latitude, longitude) of their OOH assets
• Linking a PCode to it's location enables OOH relevant analytics

 

• Campaigns: To be of any use, the PCodes have to be pointed to a campaign. These are created on the Qryptal Platform and are primarily of two kinds:
• Redirect Campaigns: Here scanning the PCode would redirect the user to the assigned redirect campaign URL (can be any URL).
  The platform enables creation of sophisticated URL redirects based on many parameters: time, sequence of visit, random, language, geo-lock etc.
  Interesting campaigns can thus be easily created: scan first time and see movie trailer #1, second time see trailer #2 and so on.
• Hosted Campaigns: These campaigns are designed and run on the Qryptal platform itself. These can be for contests, check-ins, feedback, coupons, mobile forms etc.
  Profile creation with mobile number verification can also be incorporated.
  
• Analytics: A summary report and raw logs are provided. Linking the location database enables displaying of a map with #scans at each site (including by type: QR/NFC).

There is a lot more to the system in terms of things you would expect for managing campaigns with hundreds or even thousands of points of presence.

Mobile Enabling Industrial Products with QR Codes

Here is another example of using QR Codes in Industrial Products:

via diessel.com

GEA Diessel introduced the new QR codes in response to requests by customers who wanted to be able to access specific information quickly and easily.

This is a great use case: providing authoritative information instantly. For a business with many products, it takes time for customers to locate the right information. With a QR Code, the customer gets precise up-to-date information, right on the spot!

With thousands of products, building such a system can take a lot of resources - that is why we offer Qryptal Database integrated Mobile Pages to make this easy.

The solution can be enhanced further by adding the service request module: Customer scans QR Codes and not only gets the right information but can also request for service and include photos and videos of the issues they are facing.

The service team would not only know exactly which product, serial # but also have a much better understanding of the issue. Here is a demo code for this:

Bulk Database Integrated QR Codes with Mobile Page Template

There are many bulk QR Code generation services out there. These are mostly just about creating a bunch of QR Codes based on static information.

After working with many customers we realized that some customers need something special: generate bulk codes along with mobile pages to convey specific information about lots of objects.

An example use case would be a wine retailer wanting to use QR Codes. They need a QR Code with a linked mobile page to convey the information about each specific wine. The issue is that individually creating so many mobile pages is tedious and soon the project becomes unviable.

Another example is that of an appliance manufacturer. They want a QR Code for every model of appliance, which when scanned provides access to the user guide of the specific appliance model along with service information: phone numbers, location of service centre, opening hours etc. The service information is common to all appliances but the guides are different for every appliance model. Again the same issue: How to efficiently create a QR Code for every model ?

Yet another use case is in Museums. Here they wish to create a QR Code for every exhibit to link it to relevant online resources to make the experience more enriching for visitors. Most of the information is unique but once you create thousands of such mobile pages and QR Codes - changing something common (say a link to museum contact information) to all of them would be a lot of work!!!

Similar use cases exist in healthcare, public information,........ the list is endless.

Qryptal has been working to bring an elegant solution to the market to solve this problem and this post outlines the solution. It is really easy:

1. Create a spreadsheet for all the different products (or exhibits etc) with the unique information encoded in different columns. Example:

2. Create a template on the Qryptal Mobile page designer. You can put all the common information in the template and put the spreadsheet column name for the variable information:

3. Now just click on the "Sync Spreadsheet" button on the Qryptal interface and it will:

• Create a unique QR Code for every row. Just print and use. 
• Sync all the unique information, so that when someone scans the QR Code, they get the information from the template combined with the information in the spreadsheet.

4. On going maintenance is equally easy:

• Update info: Just change the content in the spreadsheet and Sync
• Add more items: Just add to spreadsheet and Sync

We think this is a really great solution which makes QR Codes viable for many such use cases. For more information: