If I had to name to things I am in love with these days it would have to be QR codes and coupons (among many other cheesy options). Bring the two together, and I’m a happy girl.

So imagine my excitement when the advertisement below appeared in this week’s Sunday paper:

To promote the new Pop Up Bowl popcorn bag, Orville Redenbacher’s had placed a QR code along with the coupon at the top of the page to see the new product in action. The code unlocks a short video explaining how it works.

Let’s take a closer look into what worked and what could have gone better.

• Great: Reason to scan the code was easy, “Scan and see it pop”, surely something cool was about to happen, inciting the user to actually scan. Instead of using wording like “unlock”, “exclusive” etc, the user knows right away what he/she is to expect.
• Good: After scanning the code, the site prompts the user to open the video rather than automatically play. This is great to avoid the emergency volume control that sometimes results from clicking a link you aren’t sure about. There are also some basic share buttons to send the video along after watching.
• Room for improvement: Take advantage of the code a step further, what about the coupon? Here Orville had the opportunity to include a share feature for the coupon itself. Share with friends, save the coupon as a picture to use in-store, the opportunities based on availability of the coupon itself could have really stepped up the performance for those users that took the time to scan and explore.

Overall the execution of this one was pretty well done, and unlike most of the codes in advertisements today, the audience and new product launch feature was spot-on. And now I’m off to try the popcorn bag that won’t create a mess or require a bowl.