QR Codes on Posters

1. Mystery and anticipation

Around the time Game of Thrones released their season 8 poster, HBO also launched the #forthethrone quest on their website and social media channels. It was great, it obviously fits so well not just with the theme of the show, but also with the poster design choice for the concluding chapter: the iron throne. But without a QR Code, both of these marketing efforts remained disunited. If you saw the poster yet do not keep up with GoT or HBO on their various social media accounts, this quest along with other fantastic campaigns like Bleed for the Throne, remained unknown.

So make your posters more than just a nice, glossy print. Make them fun, cheeky and audacious. They already play with people’s imagination, as seen when Jordan Peele’s new 'Us' movie poster was released and several fans took to analyzing every visual detail for clues. QR Codes offer the opportunity to connect your print marketing to your digital campaigns and expands your possibilities when it comes to playing with mystery and anticipation. By printing a Video QR Code on your poster, you increase customer engagement with exclusive behind-the-scenes looks or intricate scavenger hunts. Our MP3 QR Code helps you share songs from the original soundtrack or a podcast interview with the cast and crew. Or, who would have thought, redirect more traffic to your website from your poster with our Dynamic URL QR Code, which allows you to link to any page on the web such as your homepage, a video, a contact form, social media pages, etc. The links are already there, you just need to connect them to your audience.

2. Capture a wider audience

Speaking of, if we settled for what we already have, it would make for dull content. You might assume that in this digital age, everyone is automatically following everything, but it is also true that if you are not giving them a reason to follow you, why would they? You have a great product, a fantastic film, a rad event or an innovative idea and now we give you the means to promote it to as many people as possible. Whether they are interacting with your print or digital marketing, QR Codes can connect it all. That’s exactly what the Social Media QR Code is all about: One Code to link to all your social media channels. One poster to find them, one square to bring them all and on the web, bind them. But less forces of evil and more friendly, open interaction with your audience.

3. Make the facts available

IPosters are known for their role in the entertainment industry, but they also play a vital part in academic and business presentations. QR Codes allow you to link to a wide variety of information from your poster, so make your arguments more convincing with our PDF QR Code, which allows you to link audiences to further material and cited works supporting your points. This gives you the chance to provide a digital version of your brochures, magazines, catalogs, newsletters, eBooks, etc. And, since users can save documents straight to their smartphones, they can access your info anytime while on the go. If you are at a convention and what something a bit more visually stimulating, offer a preview of your product with our Image Gallery QR Code, which enables you to create an album showcasing it from more than just one angle.

4. Manage events

Effective posters catch people’s attention, but don’t let it become just another ephemeral moment in your marketing campaign. Instead, motivate the right people to attend your event by giving them valuable information they can save directly to their mobile phones with our Event QR Code. With a mobile-friendly page, you can describe your event, display the date, address, venue information, link to Google Maps for directions and add a button to purchase tickets or register. From the page, guests can save the event directly to their calendars and contact you for more information.

5. Measure and market

If you are not measuring your campaign’s success, you cannot improve it. A Dynamic QR Code opens a world of possibilities, chief among them is the ability to monitor statistical values that are vital to optimizing your marketing campaign by seeing what did and did not work. In addition to gathering the frequency of scans and unique scans, you will get information about the location, date, time, device, and operating system used for each one. With this real-time data, you will always be up to date on your QR Code’s performance success. Find out more about all the benefits you can glean from our tracking feature here.

How to create a QR Code for a Poster?

1. Go to QR Code Generator and select the type of QR Code you’d like on your poster. We recommend using the URL QR Code to start.*
2. Enter your website address.
3. Your QR Code will be generated automatically.
4. Now, customize the design of your QR Code by adding a frame and a “Scan Me” logo.*
5. Select colors to match your style or company brand identity.
6. Select ‘Download’ to receive your QR Code file in .jpg format.
7. Integrate your newly-created QR Code to your poster design.

*Sign up to choose more QR Codes such as Event, Video, and Coupon, where you have the option of adding more information, more visuals, and edit or replace all the information without reprinting a new QR Code. You can also choose from a variety of frames and upload your own logo.

1. Add instructions

One big mistake QR Code users have made in the past is printing them without a short written explanation of what the consumer would gain or learn from scanning one. Make sure to incentivize your consumers to scan your Code, or else all your marketing efforts will be for naught.

2. Frame it

With our customizable frames, you can make your QR Code blend in with your creative design. When generating your Code, you will be offered a wide variety of ready-made frames with different Call to Action (CTA) messages and color options from which to select. If you want to add personalized details, you have the option of customizing even more by choosing a different shape, a different icon, and even adding your own text. Check-out our guide to QR Code frames here.

3. Add a logo inside your QR Code

Once you have selected a frame option and customized your Code’s shape and color, you can choose to incorporate a brand image or company logo at the center of your QR Code. Though there are a few ready-made options to select from, you can also upload your own logo or your own CTA like “Read more,” “Like us” or “Find us.” Our system automatically detects the best and largest size for uploaded logos to make sure QR Codes remain scannable, so you do not have to worry about making the correct adjustments.

4. Save your designs

Reuse the same, branded QR Code design without fretting about recreating an old one manually. QR Code Generator PRO allows you to save all your designs as templates, so you can reuse them for any of your marketing or service endeavors.

5. Customizable URL

By default, every Dynamic QR Code gets a random short URL that redirects to your page when the QR Code is scanned. The short URL can be customized to your preference, using your company’s name, for example, to help you stand out from competitors and build more trust among users. Follow these steps if you would like to edit your short URL.

6. Test before printing

The minimum recommended printing size for a QR Code on any marketing material is 2 x 2 cm (about 0.8 x 0.8 in). From there, you can always make it bigger, but we do not recommend going smaller as it would render your Code unscannable or even unnoticeable. Elaborate designs and low color contrast, or a large number of encoded characters require a larger printing size. To ensure your Code is perfectly readable, you should do extensive field testing with various smartphones and apps, which gives you the assurance that every user will be able to scan your Code.

For more information on getting started with QR Codes, visit our Help Center page. And visit our How to Get Creative with QR Code Design page to learn more about the dos and don’ts of QR Code design for optimal results on your posters.

Cities and Cultures

Springfield City’s last event turn-out was, to put it lightly, not what they had expected. Though they had distributed posters to every city store months in advance, many people saw them but few remembered about it once the date came around. Wanting to avoid history repeating itself, they implemented our Event QR Code on their posters to optimize attendance rates. This time, people were able to remember because they had scanned the QR Code and saved the event directly to their mobile phone’s calendar of choice. And, a link to Google Maps helped visitors find the venue the day of.

Event Management

For people to stay up to date with upcoming events, Verge Event Management always places a Facebook QR Code on their posters. This allows them to RSVP, buy tickets in advance and, with our tracking feature, Verge Event always has a good idea of which location is most profitable for acquiring new followers by gathering the frequency of scans and unique scans, as well as information on the location, date, time, device and operating system used for each one. This helps them plan their poster marketing more accurately.

Non-Profits

Protect the Bees Foundation wanted to launch a better ephemeral marketing campaign, where people would act on the moment of the highest pathos. By placing impactful posters across town aimed to shock, in collaboration with our Dynamic URL QR Code, which linked directly to their donation page on their website. This means affected people could seamlessly donate on the spot to help their cause.

Educational Institutes

As an art academy, the students at Glasmont Academy wanted more creativity from the posters that promoted what their school had to offer. So, they created an Instagram account where, each week, they would upload visual and performing art pieces to create a virtual gallery. Then, they used the school’s poster design and simply added our Social Media QR Code in order to show prospective students what they could learn if they decided to attend the academy.

Personal Use

It was all about the extra credit, sure, but at the science fair, students decided their projects needed something more. Something to really show how engaged they were in the models they had created by adding more information without any additional bulk. Their solution? Our PDF QR Code. Each student compiled their research into a PDF that they then uploaded to the QR Code. Once they were done designing it, they downloaded and printed it onto their presentation posters. And voila, it really was that easy.