Tradeshows, traffic and the battle of objectives.
Marketers are continually looking for new ways to attract attention and generate engagement in their campaigns. This past year, integrating QR codes into marketing assets has been a growing trend, as is the case with all innovative tools. However, to be effective, you need to know when and how to use them. In my last post (Campaigns….2D Code, or Not 2D Code, That Is the QR Question…) I offered some guidance that could be helpful if you are considering a QR code in your next campaign. Today, I want to share a situation where employing a QR code was the right choice – and not for the reasons you might expect.
The Background
Syngenta Canada is a world-leading crop protection product manufacturer, one that saw a problem with their event campaigns. Specifically Syngenta had trouble with the user experience and back-end processes of their onsite event data collection. Their customers are busy farmers, which makes it difficult to find time to collect data for segmentation, especially in a frantic tradeshow environment.
The question was: How do you drive traffic to your booth AND eliminate clerical duties (enabling your staff to engage in meaningful conversations) AND get the farmer to provide relevant information all at the same time? The high traffic and excitement of a live event simply do not always afford the accomplishment of all these goals.
The Solution
To resolve this battle of objectives, our team at Quarry took a two-pronged approach. Rather than try to accomplish everything on the day of the event, the objectives were split so as to not overwhelm attendees when their time and attention is most scarce. This was done by striving to complete the traffic generation and data collection activities BEFORE the tradeshow date, and focusing onsite activities on streamlining tracking and encouraging conversations with sales.
Here’s how this was accomplished using a blend of email, web form and QR code strategies.
Traffic Generation – Using Syngenta’s existing marketing automation platform, an email was sent to the farmers who were likely to attend the event. This email informed farmers that Syngenta would have a presence at the event, and offered visitors a free gift just for stopping by.
Data Collection – To receive this special gift, however, farmers would need to fill out an online form linked from the email. Attendees provided the information normally collected onsite in paper form. This ensured Syngenta got the information they needed, and in return, the farmer received a QR code to be presented at the booth to collect their gift.
Enable Conversations – The QR code that farmers received had to be presented at the event, and once scanned, the visitor was tracked as attending the booth. With tracking out of the way, representatives from Syngenta were free to engage the attendee, with no break in conversation and with no follow-up expense on data entry.
The Result
By implementing this process, a much smoother event experience for both vendor and attendee was achieved. The normal struggle of trying to entice booth visitors while simultaneously collecting marketing and sales information was eliminated, resulting in conversations rather than clerical work. By front loading their traffic generation and data collection Syngenta had a steady flow of visitors come looking for them on event day – instead of having to visitors to stop. With one scan, all the normal booth interactions were completed, allowing employees to get down to the business of consulting.
It’s an experience that was enabled by the use of a QR code that in the past would have been much more time consuming and labor intensive. When considering implementing a QR code in your campaigns, just remember the golden rule: “A QR code should make your life, your prospect’s life or both, easier.”
Do you have any success stories involving the unconventional use of QR codes, or have a campaign you think could be enhanced by using one? If so, I would love to discuss your experience. Feel free to share below, or contact me at mgriebenow@quarry.com
