±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Designed by Graphico, the campaign aims to get consumers engaging with Pepsi, as well as increasing awareness of the potential of QR codes.

QR codes are barcodes that act as a conduit between offline ads and the web, by using mobile phone cameras. With the help of a QR code reader, which is often included as a standard feature on newer handsets, or can be easily downloaded, consumers scan the code to view the content embedded within it.

This can take the user to a mobile website, reveal text or connect them to a customer services centre. As well as being used for on-pack promotions, newspapers such as City AM are taking advantage of the technology to deliver editorial content to handsets.

Graphico mobile manager Stuart Lambert says the codes are increasing in popularity, but not necessarily as part of marketing campaigns.

"They're being used in other industries for tracking purposes, so consumers are getting used to seeing them and are becoming more familiar with them," he says. "They're not a gimmick, they're a hugely powerful tool - not a destination in themselves, but a facilitator between online and offline."

Pepsi's campaign focuses on directing traffic to the brand's website, where consumers can gain access to seminars by Pepsi's tongue-in-cheek life coach, Rusty Champion, play games and download ringtones and wallpaper.

Jonathan Mew, head of mobile at the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau), says the Pepsi campaign is an exciting step for the future of mobile marketing, while others in the industry are sceptical of the technology's potential (see Second opinion).

"At the moment, QR codes almost have a cult status - they're quite good at adding kudos to a campaign," he says. "The challenge for us as an industry is to move them into the mainstream."

Mew says that because the codes are fairly new in the UK they attract intrigue, which can lend campaigns a viral effect as consumers show their friends.

"QR codes are at the point where people are beginning to catch on and understand how they work," says Mew. "By 2010 the majority of phones should be QR-ready, so within a year or so they'll be much more accessible to the general public."

Wapple chief operating officer Anne Thomas agrees with Mew's prediction. She believes the UK could reach the same level of saturation as Japan, where codes appear in print and outdoor campaigns, as well as on t-shirts advertising personal websites - and even tattoos.

"It's reliant on handset makers building QR scanners as standard features, and the brands using them will become more prolific," she says.

SECOND OPINION - NEIL ANDREWS, 3 UK

I don't see QR codes as being the future of mobile marketing. For me, they're more of a gimmick and a response to the technological limitations of legacy handsets.

I can see the value of a simple response mechanism for campaigns, but the user experience of QR codes is too clunky and complex to take off in a significant way.

Our experience of working with millions of 3G customers in the past few years is that services need to be very intuitive and easy to use before you see mass-market take-up. I just can't see QR codes reaching that point any time soon.

In the near future, there'll be handsets with Oyster card-style NFC (near field communications) 'swipe' technologies, and it's that sort of integrated, easy-to-use, intuitive mechanic that I can see working for consumers.

If responding to a print campaign is, for example, going to be a matter of swiping my phone near the poster, I can see good consumer take-up. If the response requires me to download an application, install it, then take a photo of a QR code on the poster, I suspect response rates will be less impressive!

QR codes are a good thing if they're engaging brands in the mobile marketing process, but I think they're a temporary solution to a problem that will soon be overtaken by more effective technologies.

Neil Andrews, head of portal advertising, 3 UK.