I’ve talked a few times about QR codes in the past little while. The most recent being a recap of QR codes I saw (and used) during my summer travels around resorts.

These monochromatic friends of ours have always been used, but it’s only been the last handful of years that QR codes baked directly into camera apps have driven up usage to the point where marketers have let go of the stereotypes and embraced their effectiveness at getting folks quickly and easily to some digital destination.

A few weeks ago, I had such a destination. So I gave them a try. Here’s how it went.

Agenda

When my co-worker and friend Pascale Savard retired from Inntopia, she took a long list of handy skills with her. Among the most missed was her ability to plan events and wrangle all the pieces required to make our annual user group happen. In her absence, that lot fell to me and I spent a portion of the last 9 months planning our user group.

My agenda was still in flux when it was time to start getting signage printed, so instead of the usual stand up banners or foam board posters with each day’s events – both things that I couldn’t change after the fact – I tried something different.

On every nametag I put a QR code. Scan that QR code and you’d be taken to the schedule and agenda.

It solved my problem by letting me print something now but change the actual content later, but the big question was simply whether or not people would use it?

I let folks know what it was during our opening intro, but that was it. And there was a summary of the agenda shown before and after every session. So how’d it go?

Usage

Based on how the number of badges printed and unique scan statistics in the QR code tool I used, about 62% of people with a badge (attendees, sponsors, and staff) scanned the QR at least once.

That’s a pretty solid number. And because of a couple last minute changes I had to make to titles, directions, and other recommendations we had included in the schedule, a pretty slick solution to connecting attendees with something that was both needed frequently and updated regularly.

Something tells me you’ve got a few combinations like that floating around your resort. Things that you need your guests to access quickly (or your guests need to access quickly) but also might change on a regular basis:

• Maps
• Conditions reports
• Event schedules
• Policies

If my experience is any indication, the next time you bump into one of these situations…well..a QR code might be worth a shot.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.