Engage customers and add a new dimension to your packaging, POP, vehicles and promotional materials.
by Brad Beckstrom
What is “marketing real estate”? Any company that makes a product, or serves customers, has marketing real estate. By real estate, I mean the white space on things like packaging, mailings, point-of-purchase materials, vehicles, uniforms and sales materials.
McDonald’s serves 69 million people per day. Let’s say that, based on this amazing number, they serve up about 60 million cups per day. Based on the number, the space on those cups has some very valuable marketing real estate. What is that space worth to Coca-Cola? What would it be worth to Pepsi? How many people see that Coca-Cola logo a year on those cups? Based on my back of the napkin tabulations, about 22 billion people in 181 countries. That is some valuable marketing real estate.
So, a few years ago when McDonald’s decided to make their global packaging more consistent and use this space more efficiently, they put a lot of thought into it, including engaging a global advisory board in the process. They wanted packaging that was attractive, but could work in multiple countries and languages with many different types of promotions.
One of the top priorities was the ability to use this packaging to engage and communicate with customers instead of just sharing a logo or a web address. After successful test case studies around the world, McDonald’s decided to add a third dimension to their packaging globally with a far reaching mobile web strategy — incorporating QR Codes.
The QR codes drive smartphone users to a McDonald’s mobile website with product information, nutrition information special offers and promotions. The QR Code destination, mobile websites, promotions and special URLs can be updated digitally without expensive changes to packaging. This helps large companies avoid waste when packages containing special promotions, product information or nutrition information inevitably change.
Most importantly, it makes efficient use of valuable real estate on every cup, napkin, bag, placemat, product package, point-of-purchase material in every McDonald’s worldwide.
You don’t have to be McDonald’s to make use of your valuable marketing real estate. QR codes and mobile short codes can be used by any small business when creatively incorporated into your marketing real estate to engage your customers. Here is one example of one incorporated into a coaster from Stanley Park Brewery.
Reach out to ApolloBravo for a free mobile marketing strategy consultation and advice on incorporating The Mobile Web, QR Codes and Mobile Short Codes into your valuable marketing real estate.
Brad Beckstrom ApolloBravo