For the uninitiated, QR codes allow anybody with a smartphone and a free app to scan a graphic you position on your printed materials, working in a way similar to a barcode. This QR code then automatically opens the URL you designated in the code in the scanner’s phone. This is why QR codes are becoming popular very quickly: they offer companies huge benefits in marketing efforts. In fact, QR codes currently support the following functionality:

• Go to a URL
• Display text
• Call a phone number
• Send a text message
• Go to a Google Maps location
• Send an email
• Open a YouTube video
• Android supports automatic login to WiFi
• And much more…

But even if you have finally realized it’s time to start integrating QR codes into your print advertising, you may still hesitate about placing a black and white symbol into the middle of your designs. You may also be wary of just how difficult creating QR codes may be. Fortunately, it’s possible to move past these hesitations if you follow some simple best practices.

GS1, the global not-profit organisation, that designs and implements barcode standards, has announced a global adoption date of 1 January 2010 for a new bar code with Reduced Space Symbology (RSS), which can store more data in half the amount of space and offers a temporary alternative to radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology.

In Trial at Supermarket, Cellphones Will Be the Medium for Discount Offers

Seeking to marry a ubiquitous device with a time-tested marketing technique in a sour economy, Unilever plans to begin a trial run Sunday of a new technology that lets consumers redeem digital coupons by having a supermarket cashier scan their cellphones.

The test, being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, N.J., will include discount offers for some of the Anglo-Dutch packaged-goods company's most popular brands, including Breyers ice cream, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. Samplesaint, a Chicago mobile-technology firm, developed the system.

Universal product codes — UPCs — are the 12-digit numbers that appear under the barcodes on many U.S. products. They are given out by GS1 US, a nonprofit group that sets standards for international commerce.

Here’s how it works: Businesses pay to join GS1 US, and in exchange, it assigns each member its own identification number that appears as the first part of its UPC.