QR codes- if it seems to you like you’re starting to see them everywhere, you’re not the only one. Like mushrooms, they seem to emerge wholly formed the moment you turn your back. Today, we’ve collected the top 10 instances of QR codes we’ve seen in the wild, from some of the biggest names out there. After all, if you can’t be the best, you can at least be like the best. After you’ve had a chance to read through, if you’ve seen a QR code you think should be featured here, drop us a line at support@liiingo.com– we’d love to hear from you!
#10- Restaurants all over the world
You might not be in love with the experience, but many restaurants used the COVID-19 pandemic to start offering their menus via QR code.
The secret genius behind this is that changing some information on a website (or in your Liiingo app!) is dramatically cheaper and easier than printing new menus every time menu offerings change. Think of places with rotating menus and taps, alternating menus for different times of the day, and so on. That creates a lot of hidden overhead, not only with printing but with having staff change out menus and so on.
Where some restaurants are taking it to the next level is by incorporating inventory management into their menus. Something isn’t available because the kitchen ran out? Boom, now it’s not on the menu, and the servers aren’t left disappointing customers because there was an unexpected run on cheese fries that day.
#9- Adidas/Yeezy’s Anti-counterfeiting
Please don’t go death con 3 on us for this, but Kanye’s shoe and apparel brand has captured the spotlight for more than just their founder’s unhinged ravings. With that popularity has come a host of knockoffs, replicas, and outright fakes, all of them trying to outdo one another in their attempts to illicitly capture some market share. When a brand’s selling point is their quality, cheap knockoffs can be a huge headache.
To combat this, Adidas rolled out QR codes with unique serialized numbers, encoded via QR, to help protect product purchasers from their sketchier competition. Scanning the QR code takes the user to a legitimate site from the manufacturer that validates that the QR code is legitimate, with anti-counterfeiting technology built into the code.
#8- Ticketmaster’s Enhanced Tickets
We’re not sure why there’s a sudden theme here of controversial organizations… but Ticketmaster still deserves props for their use of QR codes. You’ve probably already seen them in action, even if you weren’t scanning these ones yourself.
Ticketmaster uses enhanced mobile tickets in the form of QR codes. These are dynamic, frequently changing codes that can’t be copied because they won’t work- by the time the code is used, it will be out of date!
As a bonus, Ticketmaster is able to encode far more data in these codes than a traditional barcode, which means more information that can be provided to the scanning system about the ticket.
#7- The Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park’s Virtual Safari
We’d be failing at the whole ‘blog’ game if we didn’t shout out someone using our technology, but let’s go ahead and get the shameless self-promotion out of the way. The Idaho Falls Zoo (IFZ) uses Liiingo QR codes in place of some traditional animal signage. You know the kind, with animal names, sizes, diets, and that sort of thing.
Not only does this allow the zoo to quickly change their animal messaging on the fly, but there are some other great benefits as well. The zoo is using the Advancing Conservation through Empathy for Wildlife (ACE) to create empathy-driven content that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Empathy best practices were developed for use by keepers, but as a small local zoo, IFZ doesn’t have the staffing to do that for visitors all the time. Instead, they’re leveraging technology to do things like framing, increasing knowledge, and even giving visitors practice imagining what it’s like to be certain animals in the wild.
As an added bonus, Liiingo’s patented multilingual content assembly means that, even without native speakers on staff, IFZ is able to offer Chinese and Spanish-speaking guests the same level of content without increasing their costs, which helps make the zoo an attractive destination for tourists heading into or out of Yellowstone National Park.
#6- Apple TV+’s Sign In Process
Many homes in the US and across the world now have a Smart TV, or at least a streaming device. As anyone who’s ever entered an email address using the arrow keys on their remote will tell you, for all the convenience of streaming, setup still isn’t a perfect process.
That’s where Apple TV+ is making some great headway. When a user signs into their streaming service, they don’t have to then go to a website on their phone, or add their credit card information. As long as their phone is already set up for their Apple account, all that’s required is to scan the uniquely generated QR code displayed on their TV screen. Apple handles everything else on their end, and before you know it you’re binge watching Ted Lasso with a bucket of popcorn on your lap.
#5- Tesco’s Stores
For our next example, we’re hopping across not one but two ponds to visit Tesco. Tesco is an incredibly innovative brand, and they have two phenomenal but distinct examples of QR code usage in their stores.
The first is their GetGo app, which is used in the UK. With this app, you just show your phone at the store before or after you start shopping. With each item you place in your cart, you just scan the associated QR code. Then, you go home. No checkout required. Each item you scan is billed to your account, and you never have to worry about accidentally getting behind the person with 400 coupons that don’t work in the checkout lane.
The second is their virtual stores. Since South Koreans generally have extremely long working days, Tesco recognized that taking the time for a shopping trip was something a lot of consumers didn’t have the opportunity to do. They rolled out virtual shopping- in these kiosks and stores, customers walk in and can see pictures of real goods. When they spot something they like, it’s just a quick scan of the phone to add it to their cart. Then the purchases are automatically delivered to the customer’s home at a pre-approved time. No carrying home groceries, and it’s as quick and easy as can be.
#4- Tie: Paypal, Venmo, Cash App, and more for Direct Payments
Virtual payments, sometimes called cashless transactions, used to be a fraught occurrence. You’d have to check, then double check, then triple check that you had the other person’s information entered correctly, because woe betide the person who accidentally sent $300 to a random stranger in Belize instead of their Facebook Marketplace contact. Guess the kids aren’t getting that trampoline now.
Knowing that exchanging personal information and banking information through an interface that was prone to user error, these payment companies decided to make the user process easier. Now, just scanning a QR code can not only open the relevant app, but with the receiver’s information filled out and ready to go. Who knew making spending money easier could be a profitable venture?
#3 L’Oreal’s Try it Before You Buy It
Another product of the pandemic, L’Oreal’s virtual makeup try-on is a game changer for trying out products before you buy them.
Each product in the product line has its own unique QR code. Scanning the QR code takes the shopper to the L’Oreal website, where they can view a live image or upload a picture of themselves and see exactly how that shade of lipstick, blush, or eyeliner will appear when applied to them.
Not only does it empower the customer to find the exact color they’re looking for, it’s also a cost-savings tool that reduces the number of unhappy customers and product returns.
#2 Direct Wi-Fi access
We’ve reserved our number two spot not for a business or organization, but for a specific application. We think you’ll agree that getting over this little pain point is a win for everyone on every side of the transaction.
Sharing your wifi password and login information used to be a tremendous pain. Not only do you have to share a password with someone you might not know, but keying in the information on a mobile device is an error-prone hassle.
That’s where the simple javascript encoding that can be done with QR codes becomes a huge blessing. All you have to do is know your wifi’s SSID, encryption type, and password, and you can generate a QR code that will automatically connect the scanning device to your wifi.
#1 Cygames QR codes in the Sky
Our highest rated QR code instance comes from Japan, the home of the QR code. When Cygames wanted to celebrate the one year anniversary of their game Princess Connect Re: Dive, they brought their A game.
Using 1,500 drones, Cygames lit up the skies over Shanghai, displaying an epic battle between their games’ characters. After that, the drones reshuffled to display a gigantic, lit-up version of a QR code that took users to their website, where they could not only discover more about the game, but directly download it to their device. Talk about marketing made easy.