Category Archives: Great Ideas

QR Codes and Coupons

18th April 2011

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.

How to: measure the potential audience size of a geo-targeted Facebook post

8th April 2011

Often times as a page administrator, I find the need to send out a Facebook post to a limited number of fans through geo-location. When measuring the success of these posts, or deciding if they will be impactful,  it can be tough to figure out the potential reach of a post given the geo-location of your fan base.

For instance, if you have an audience of 1 Million fans and a post gains 600,000 impressions, you know 60% of your audience had the potential to read your post. Using Facebook ads, we can more closely determine the potential audience of your geo-targeted posts.

1. Visit: Edit Page –> Marketing –> Create an Ad

2. Create your Facebook Ad. Be sure to select the same locations as you wish to target for your geo-targeted post. Also, be sure to only target those users already connected to your Facebook page.

3. To the top right side, you will be given an approximate reach to your Facebook Ad, and by relation your Facebook post.

While the numbers may not be perfect, this can be particularly helpful in deciding which markets to target or how impactful a future post may be. Happy targeting!