Live Shopping et gamification : boostez vos performances marketing !

Live Shopping et gamification : boostez vos performances marketing !

Live shopping has really taken off over the last two years, and the popularity of the practice continues unabated. It has become commonplace for brands to go live to showcase products and generate sales.

But this sales channel can be optimised to meet more than one objective. By introducing gamification before and after the live event, brands and chains can engage consumers, collect preferential data and generate qualified leads. Let’s take a look together at the benefits of this Swiss Army knife, which you can incorporate into your marketing strategy straight away.

The reinvention of live shopping

The figures don’t lie: live shopping is an enduring trend in our consumer habits.

But what exactly is live shopping? Live shopping is a way of buying products during the broadcast of a live video, through an influencer or a brand.

According to a McKinsey study, this practice is becoming increasingly popular, and will account for up to 20% of e-commerce by 2026.

According to a McKinsey study, this practice is becoming increasingly popular, and will account for up to 20% of e-commerce by 2026.

online sales

Gamification and live shopping: the sales promotion duo

To build customer loyalty, it’s essential to understand their needs and expectations. To do this, you can use different tools such as data analysis, focus groups or feedback.

Surveys and e-mailing are also powerful tools in the quest for customer loyalty. By gathering information, you can improve your product or service offering by proposing solutions that are better adapted to your customers’ needs.

Online sales and commitment

Take surveys, for example. By questioning customers directly, valuable information can be gathered and then used by brands and chains.

The questionnaires can be distributed via different channels, such as e-mail campaigns, on the merchant’s website or on social networks. Customers then log in to their account to take part in the survey.

Once the responses have been collected, companies can analyse them to identify trends and customer preferences. On the basis of this information, product or service offers can be tailored to better meet the needs of their customers, and thus improve customer loyalty.

Live shopping: a tool for getting to know your customers

As well as analysing in-store behaviour, live shopping also makes it possible to observe trends that are popular with consumers. Through chat or surveys, it is possible to gather information that can then be activated.

With a post live game, ask participants for their opinions and collect qualified data. An email campaign including promotional offers will boost conversion.

Lead recruitment guide

Generate live leads

Live shopping allows you to talk to potential customers, but not to identify them! Although social networks can provide valuable information about participants, that’s where the data collection stops. In order to be RGPD compliant, it is essential that users voluntarily provide their data. Gamification is the ideal way of collecting first-party data.

Live Shopping figures

How do you set up a gamification campaign for Live Shopping?

To be effective, your Live Shopping site must meet a number of criteria:

  • Benefit from a large audience and qualified subscribers with an affinity for the brand. They will be responsive to product demonstrations to ensure a good conversion rate

  • Be engaging and interactive to capture this audience from the beginning to the end of the Live Shopping session

Preparing for Live Shopping

Before the live event: collect qualified registrants who have an affinity with your brand thanks to a very simple game that allows users to register for a random drawing that will take place during the Live Shopping event.

Coupled with a social gauge, this system will ensure a high level of virality to boost Live registrations. The social gauge is a widget that gives participants extra chances in the random drawing every time one of their friends signs up.

Capturing attention during the live show

During the live event: engage to maximise attention and encourage memorisation. Offer live participants the chance to take part in an interactive game displayed directly on the live window. This type of feature allows instant-win discount offers to be won and encourages conversion.

Online advertising

Boost your online sales after the live show

After the live event: activate participants with targeted content to boost conversion. Invite live participants to take part in an exclusive game and distribute discount offers to trigger purchases. An opinion game mechanism can also help you detect purchase intentions and get to know your audience better so you can segment your CRM base.

Conclusion

Live Shopping combined with marketing games offers huge potential for brands and retailers looking to boost their engagement and conversion rates.

By offering consumers an interactive and entertaining experience, brands can create deeper emotional bonds, promote their products interactively, identify qualified prospects and boost sales. So don’t miss out on this new channel, which is increasingly becoming a sales channel in its own right.

Now it’s your turn!

10 reasons to launch marketing competitions

10 reasons to launch marketing competitions

Marketing competitions are an essential part of the panoply of advertising levers available to brands. Above all, this type of animation creates new opportunities to interact with audiences.

From the simplest scenario to the most immersive and entertaining, these interactive marketing experiences can provoke an emotion in participants, helping them to retain the information better. Visit gamification is a powerful process that firstly provokes amusement (through the game), but also more subtle emotions such as appreciation (with a scoring game) and pleasure (the fact of winning something). These emotions are more readily present thanks to the active nature of advertising, unlike traditional, passive advertising.

The marketing competition must be designed and organised around the brand’s key issues. Here’s 10 reasons to launch a marketing competition.

1. Gain visibility

Marketing competitions are highly effective tools for enhancing a brand’s image, raising awareness or simply communicating about a product, service or event.

The operation dissemination stage is crucial, as it is here that companies will be able to reach the widest possible target audience. The main advantage of a competition is that it can be broadcast very simply via any channel, thanks to a simple URL. It can also be integrated directly into a web page, for an even more immersive effect. By using several advertising channels at the same time, the process of promoting the operation is even more effective.

Here are the different channels through which a competition can be broadcast, with the aim of increasing its visibility:

  • Email campaigns (in a banner for example)
  • Media coverage on social networks (Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Instagram Ads etc.)
  • Via display advertising

2. Create virality

Widely-distributed competitions help to raise brand awareness via a wide, multi-channel distribution network. But it’s also interesting to bet on the target audience itself to spread the operation virally.

Certain types of marketing competitions allow for this, such as the Social Gauge.. Cette mécanique incite les participants à partager le jeu sur les réseaux sociaux. Plus il y a de nouveaux inscrits, plus les parrains ont de chance d’être tirés au sort pour gagner des récompenses.

 

marketing competitions social ratings

3. Getting a message across

Organising and promoting a competition gives brands the opportunity to spread different types of message in a creative, original and effective way.

A variety of scenarios can be put in place to suit the audience and convey the specific message that the brand wants to share with its target audience.

Here are a few examples of marketing competitions to get a message across:

  • A fun quiz can be used to communicate interactively about a service or a new product, or even to educate people about the world of the brand and its history.

  • A Blindtest immerses participants in a world, the ideal way to get audiences going and leave a lasting impression.

4. Promoting a product in an original way

Brands can broadcast messages via each stage of a competition. The home page, for example, highlights a theme, prizes to be won or a new product. The gamified mechanics or the results page encourage people to visit the website or a product page to find out more about the offers.

To increase the chances of participants visiting the site at the end of the operation, it is possible to give away promotional codes via an instant prizes system. By taking part, players can immediately see if they have won something, and can use the promotional code directly by visiting the site.

Here are a few examples of competitions to promote a product:

  • The Gift Finder asks participants to fill in a personalised questionnaire. At the end of the operation, they find out which gift or product is ideal for them.

  • The voting mechanism makes it possible to highlight products while collecting product preferences from its audiences.

marketing competitions survey

5. Mark an important event

Marketing competitions can support a communication campaign around a major brand event. To ensure that the operation performs well and achieves its marketing objectives (lead recruitment, engagement, conversion, etc.), the various stages of communication surrounding the operation must be respected.

First of all, it’s important to tease out the forthcoming operation to ensure that it attracts traffic at the time of launch.

Then it’s a question of animating your audiences during the event. There are several ways of doing this, depending on the type of event:

  • For a trade fair or festival, the company can offer tickets to be won beforehand by means of random drawing, but it can also offer prizes to be won on the spot with a Wheel of Fortune, for example.
  • Is a brand celebrating its birthday? Now’s the time to delight its customers and fans with a fun event that makes a lasting impression by offering prizes to be won over a given period.

6. Support a promotional period

Are the sales, Black Friday or exclusive private sales days for loyal customers just around the corner? This is the ideal time to launch an operation to boost sales and maximise conversions.

Marketing competitions can serve several purposes:

  • Attract customers to the website by offering them the opportunity to take part in a game on the theme of sales to win discount vouchers via their social networks.
  • Doing drive to store (in-store use of discount coupons won online)

Get even more sales by stimulating post-purchase (participants can earn additional discounts by uploading their proof of purchase).

7. Finding new customers

Marketing competitions and lead generation go hand in hand. In fact, this objective, which has been widely pursued by brands throughout the year, is now a sensitive one, against a backdrop of the end of third-party cookies and the protection of personal data.

Marketing competitions are an effective way of recruiting qualified leads and attract new customers. By offering attractive prizes, the brand encourages prospects to get involved.

On the other hand, competitions increase brand visibility by encouraging participants to share the competition with their network, which can attract new prospects and potential customers.

8. Get to know your audience better

Marketing competitions are an effective way of collecting qualified data on participants.

By asking participants to fill in a registration form to take part in the competition, it is possible to obtain valuable information about their preferences and interests. By including optional questions, you can gather more specific data about their consumer habits. customer database is enriched. It is also possible to personalise future marketing campaigns and better understand the needs of your target audience.

Please ensure that you comply with data protection laws and clearly inform participants about the use of their data in accordance with the confidentiality policy.

9. Building customer loyalty

Marketing competitions can also be an effective tool for building customer loyalty. By offering exclusive competitions to loyal customers, the brand encourages them to stay involved and continue interacting with its products or services.

Competitions can be designed to reward loyalty by offering exclusive benefits or free products, for example. This can help to strengthen the relationship by creating a sense of belonging and mutual esteem.

Competitions can also encourage customers to share their experience with their network, which can lead to greater visibility for the brand and attract new customers.

10. Leading your teams internally

Marketing competitions are not just for brands and companies selling products or services. They are also very useful in internal communication. En effet, ils permettent de :

  • Training employees using quizzes
  • Boost group cohesion (like digital team building) through a participative game or team game
  • Encourage productivity by challenging people via an open poll, such as an idea box.

Taking the temperature of well-being at work via a survey

Conclusion

In conclusion, marketing competitions offer many advantages to brands. They can increase visibility, go viral, get a message across, promote a product or mark an important event. To find out more, discover 8 tips for a successful interactive campaign!

Would you like to find out more about marketing competitions?

What is first-party data?

What is first-party data?

If you’re looking to collect valuable and reliable data, or are curious to find out more about first party data, then you’ve come to the right place. Find out how it can be useful to businesses and its crucial role in the world of modern marketing.

What is first-party data?

This data is collected from customers whenever they interact with a brand. By buying products or signing up to a loyalty program, for example. This information can be used to improve the customer experience on the merchant site or to send personalised offers to a database. It may include information such as name, age, telephone number or e-mail address.

Considered to be the most reliable source of data, the collection of first-party data is a highly prized objective for marketing teams.

Description of the data collection process

Collecting data, although systematic in marketing, is not trivial. We’re talking about sensitive information, but it’s also a commercial issue for companies.

The first step is to identify the data the company needs. This could be information about the location of their prospects and customers, or their age.

Once the needs have been identified, the format for collecting the information needs to be chosen. This can be a form or a survey.

First party data in digital marketing

La stratégie de collecte de données est devenue banale pour les marketeurs. En effet, le secteur du digital a pris une ampleur considérable ces dernières années et quelques abus ont été reportés. 

Respecter de la vie privée est un sujet qui touche de plus en plus d’utilisateurs. Ces derniers sont de plus en plus exigeants quant à l’utilisation de leurs données, ce qui explique la restriction récente concernant les cookies tiers sur divers navigateurs. Google a annoncé la fin de ces cookies face à la méfiance croissante des internautes. Il est donc urgent pour les marketeurs de trouver de nouvelles solutions plus respectueuses de la confidentialité des données, mais aussi de l’environnement.        

C’est pourquoi les données dites first party constituent un réel atout pour les marketeurs.

A valuable source of data

First-party data is a data collection strategy that is now very popular in digital marketing. Why ? Simply because information submitted voluntarily is qualifying data.

Thanks to customisable forms, it is possible to collect the data that brands need. Whether it’s to generate leads or to get to know your customer base better, first-party data is a valuable source of data. Collected transparently, it contains valuable and reliable information.

The role of first-party data

A stronger relationship with the customer

Getting to know your customers is the key to forging closer links and building loyalty. Offering personalised content or offers is what today’s users expect.

Participating in campaigns and voluntarily filling in information on a form provides a transparent data collection solution.

A more effective way of prospecting

Collecting first-party data enables companies to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences. However, this strategy can also identify the prospects most likely to become customers of the brand. Based on online behaviour and purchase history, companies can create target audiences for subsequent conversion. Offering personalised offers and getting prospects to spend time with the brand can make all the difference.

Better control of customer relations

First-party data collection has the advantage of being both reliable and transparent. Thanks to this strategy, companies can capture their customers’ intentions as well as any relevant information. This makes it possible to propose personalised content or offers and respond to potential customer needs. It’s an ideal way of improving the relationship between the company and its customers.

The different uses of first-party data

First party data is a powerful tool for companies and brands to better understand and target their customers. First party data can be collected from a wide range of sources, including websites, mobile applications and social networks. It is a source of data that companies can collect, analyse and exploit. This makes it easier for them to improve their products or services, their advertising campaigns and their marketing strategy. The Swiss army knife of data can be adapted to any situation!

First party data, very useful for your marketing team

First party data has become an indispensable tool for marketing teams. Data collection helps marketers to better understand customer journeys, discover the most effective communication channels and identify weak points in the customer experience. This enables marketing teams to implement more effective and profitable campaigns, while improving the overall customer experience.

This strategy is also effective for identifying market trends and preparing future collections or campaigns.

Analysing customer behaviour

En collectant les informations données volontairement par les utilisateurs, il est possible de créer des profils clients détaillés pour analyser des comportements d’achats. Les données first party incluent des informations sur les achats passés, les paniers composés sur le site marchand ou encore les commentaires laissés sur le site. 

Gràace à l’utilisation de ces données, c’est une conversation qui a lieu entre l’entreprise et sa clientèle. Les clients vous parlent et s’ils sont écoutés, vous pourrez alors les fidéliser et vous assurer que vos actions marketing soient efficaces.

Easier to improve conversion rates

Improving conversion rates is a real challenge for businesses. By using first-party data, you can distribute targeted offers to trigger purchases. Thanks to the valuable information collected upstream, you can respond to customers’ real needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, gearing your strategy towards the collection of first-party data allows you to develop an ethical and more transparent approach. It is essential to listen to users’ concerns, while taking into account the changes on the horizon in terms of digital marketing.

This will enable companies to strengthen customer relations by learning about their preferences and purchasing intentions. What’s more, personalising offers and improving the customer experience will only improve the conversion rate!

Need advice on your first-party data collection strategy?

Using marketing games effectively to promote a product

Using marketing games effectively to promote a product

Product promotion is a key strategy for your brand’s sales and marketing challenges. It accompanies the product throughout its development from the moment it is created and involves all your communication channels. Marketing games are an excellent advertising medium for promoting a product. Find out how to use marketing games effectively at every stage of your product’s sales cycle.

The teasing game to announce the launch of your product

Objective: To create a buzz

The art of teasing allows you to create a buzz during the pre-launch period, even before the official release of your new product. Whether it’s a new arrival in the catalogue or an improvement to an existing product. At this stage, the marketing competition can be used in a variety of ways to create expectation and need.

  • Encourage consumers to discover its name, shape or packaging.
  • Use a hashtag to spread the word about the campaign on social media
  • Offer customers the chance to preview the product
  • Solicit feedback from your community and make final improvements to your product before launch
  • Gather data on interested players so that you can personally retarget them on the product once it has been released.
  • Inform players interactively and offer pre-orders
  • Benefit from potential press coverage thanks to the buzz generated by the originality of your teasing game

Launch your marketing game at least 3 weeks before the launch to promote a product and engage users with it.

The game to accompany your product’s sales roadshow

A promotional tour on the agenda?

The life of a product is often punctuated by demonstrations, events and trade fairs to get as close as possible to the target consumers and distributors. These are all opportunities for your brand to make its voice heard by accompanying these events with a marketing competition.

How can you reap the benefits of marketing games?

This allows you to do 2 things: generate traffic to your stand during off-peak periods and collect visitor data during busy periods. It is sometimes difficult at these events to be available for all the visitors. Offer an attractive flash game, and take advantage of the traffic peak to invite interested parties to leave their contact details in just a few clicks via your game. It’s an effective way of exploiting contacts at the end of the roadshow and analysing the event afterwards!

The game to promote your product on the shelf or on the merchant site

The power of multi-channel to promote a product

Launch a multi-channel competition to promote your product to consumers at any time, wherever they are. Mobile phones are at the heart of the operation, and the aim is to create a link between the various devices to maximise participation rates.
Put your points of sale to work, for example. To stand out on the shelves, brands are getting closer to their network of distributors and putting in place special operations at the point of contact with consumers. It is becoming increasingly common to find competitions on point-of-sale displays, in product packaging or on till receipts. Add game banners to your e-commerce site and relay them on your social networks to give them a viral dimension.

A game to highlight the highlights of your product

Marketing calendar or chestnut: it’s essential to use it

Fashion, Sport, Culture and Festivities… Our seasons are full of traditional highlights and emblematic rituals. At least 3 a month, there are plenty of opportunities to promote a product in a fun and festive atmosphere!

Some products are naturally associated with special events, such as duo packs for Valentine’s Day, while others feature flagship packaging. These are generally strategic products, requiring a substantial budget and a great deal of forethought.

In addition to this, you can promote any product by dressing it up seasonally using marketing games. This lever allows you to quickly and easily adapt your branding to all these occasions and deploy it across all your communication channels. An effective cross-channel marketing strategy!

mobile highlights calendar

The game to assess your brand awareness and boost your product sales

Have you thought about participatory marketing?

Game marketing is above all interactive. Based on the goodwill of the players, it relies on genuine brand-consumer exchanges. It is therefore an ideal medium for soliciting users’ opinions, or even getting them to contribute in a participative marketing approach. Marketing competitions can be used in a number of ways to gauge the awareness of your products: sound out your users’ opinions, ask them about their preferences using Votes, or draw on their creativity using User Generated Content.

Zodiac photo competition

Data at the heart of your strategy

The data from your gaming campaign will then enable you to identify which products should be promoted to which consumers as a priority. Send them personalised incentives such as discount vouchers or money-back offers to strengthen your relationship marketing. All the more reason to boost conversion rates!

The marketing game supports your product promotion strategy at every stage, with a focus on customer proximity:

  • Increase & reinforce awareness of your product to make it better known
  • Increased visibility on point-of-sale shelves and e-commerce sites
  • Have the user try out your product
  • Increase the frequency of product purchases and build consumer loyalty

Are you in the process of launching a product? Test the marketing game with us!

How gamification boosts sales performance

How gamification boosts sales performance

Sales represent a crucial period for brands in France. They offer a major opportunity to sell off stocks and attract new customers. However, in a context where 85% of French people feel that sales no longer have a real impact on their buying behavior, it is becoming essential to stand out beyond price reductions.

Gamification is emerging as an innovative strategy for capturing consumers’ attention and boosting sales. In this article, we’ll explore how integrating gamification mechanisms into your marketing campaigns can boost your performance during the sales season.

Sales: a major marketing challenge for brands

Sales, once the highlight of the French commercial calendar, are facing major challenges. Consumer behavior is evolving, making it a complex task for brands.

  • Changing purchasing habits: Inflation has changed consumer habits in France. Households, anxious to preserve their purchasing power, are turning to economical alternatives (such as fast-fashion platforms or second-hand goods). This quest for lower prices is leading consumers to give priority to essential products, neglecting non-essential purchases.

  • Increased competition for brands. Faced with these transformations, brands must redouble their efforts to stand out from the crowd. The proliferation of promotions and special offers throughout the year (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, French Days, etc.) has trivialized sales periods, reducing their impact. What’s more, the rise of e-commerce offers consumers a multitude of options, heightening competition.

Against this backdrop, it has become imperative for retailers to rethink their strategies. Proposing innovative experiences, strengthening relationships and offering personalized service are all levers for winning back a more volatile and demanding customer base.

Gamification: a powerful lever for boosting sales during the sales season

In a context where competition is fierce and consumers are overwhelmed by promotions, gamification is proving to be an effective solution for capturing buyers’ attention and boosting sales. Here are the strategic objectives that this approach can help you achieve.

1. Increase brand awareness and visibility

An interactive game (such as a scratchcard, a Wheel of Fortune or a Quiz) captures the attention of audiences and boosts brand awareness.

Gamification offers several advantages:

  • A viral effect: games are easily shared on social networks, increasing their organic reach.
  • Increased recall: a fun, engaging experience leaves a more lasting impression on participants.

Example: The Crazy Days campaign enabled Showroomprivé to attract responsive customers to the game, while giving the brand high visibility during the sales period. The One-Armed Bandit mechanic attracted more than 36K users, with a participation rate of 76%.

Showroomprivé - Crazy Days sales
Showroomprivé - Crazy Days sales
Showroomprivé - Crazy Days - mobile

2. Generate online and in-store traffic

One of the challenges of sales is to attract consumers to its sales channels. Gamification is a way of encouraging players to visit a store or e-commerce site, by rewarding them for their participation.

  • A bridge between digital and physical: by offering coupons or prizes to be collected in-store, retailers encourage customers to come and visit.
  • More qualified traffic: interested and committed consumers are the ones who take part in the game, increasing the chances of conversion.

Example: Altarea Cogedim launched the Summer Test campaign to energize its shopping centers during the summer sales. The aim of this personality test was to generate point-of-sale traffic and stimulate purchases, while engaging the community and boosting their visibility.

Altarea Cogedim - personality test sales
Altarea Cogedim -sales

3. Increase sales and convert new customers

By engaging consumers in a playful way, gamification helps convert prospects into customers.

Why does it work?

  • A feeling of exclusivity: by offering time-limited rewards, retailers encourage consumers to act quickly.
  • An incentive to buy: by winning a discount or advantage via a game, customers are more inclined to finalize a purchase.

Example: As part of the Crazy Days campaign, the game was used as a sales generator, with the aim of stimulating conversion through the distribution of vouchers. The brand recorded excellent engagement KPI’s, with 27K prizes distributed, representing as many sales opportunities on its e-commerce site.

5 tips for successfully gamifying your sales campaign

To take full advantage of gamification during sales, it’s essential to anticipate and optimize your strategy. Here are five key tips to maximize the impact of your sales campaign and boost your sales:

1. Prepare sales in advance by collecting data via marketing games

Even before the sales start, launching a marketing competition is an excellent way to get to know your audience better and refine your strategy.

Gamified mechanics allow you to :

2. Choose the right mechanics for your strategic objectives and your audience

The choice of game type must be aligned with the brand’s marketing objectives and the expectations of its target audience.

  • Instant win games (scratch cards or wheel of fortune): ideal for generating traffic and purchases
  • Quiz or Treasure Hunt: Perfect for engaging prospects (online and in-store, using QR codes) and building customer loyalty.
  • Challenges and contests: Excellent for encouraging sharing and boosting the virality of your campaign.

3. Optimize your distribution strategy

Even the most attractive game will be ineffective without well thought-out distribution. Maximizing visibility is crucial. Brands should rely on a multi-channel strategy, ensuring that their marketing game is shared both online (emailing, social networks, newsletter, mobile app) and in-store. They can partner with content creators or other brands (cobranding) to expand their audience.

4. Create a sense of urgency

Sales are a limited period, and we need to play on the sense of urgency to encourage consumers to act. Retailers can capitalize on limited-time offers to create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Another strategy is to integrate a countdown timer on the site to reinforce the time pressure and encourage immediate purchases.

5. Offer original prizes

Discounts are effective, but not always enough to motivate participation. So it’s a good idea to vary the rewards. For example, brands can offer :

  • Exclusive experiences: VIP access, meetings with influencers, personalized advice…
  • Product previews: combining sales periods with the launch of limited collections.
  • Gamified offers: progressive cashback, points to redeem for gifts, etc.

Conclusion

To maximize the impact of your gamified campaign during the sales season, it’s crucial to choose the right mechanics. Adictiz enables you to create high-impact campaigns by selecting the marketing game that will have the greatest impact on your audience. With our media agency, boost the reach of your interactive campaign and maximize your performance during this key period!

In 30 minutes, we show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive marketing campaign

Disappearance of barcodes, uses of QR codes in marketing

Disappearance of barcodes, uses of QR codes in marketing

First introduced in the USA in 1074, barcodes are now found on all consumer products. From food packaging to the labels on the clothes we buy. For many years, this sequence of 24 bars and 13 digits has enabled us to obtain an item’s reference number and price.

But its days are numbered, and barcodes are soon to disappear, to be replaced by a more powerful and comprehensive solution: the QR code, a real marketing tool. In this article, we look at this programmed disappearance and the reasons behind the replacement of barcodes.

Barocdes, a practical solution for product identification

The barcode revolutionized consumer goods 50 years ago. Known in the US as GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), barcodes make items easily identifiable. We were able to find them at a glance (or thanks to a scanner) on clothing labels or packaging.

The purpose of barcodes was to enable supermarkets to structure themselves. They facilitate the storage and marketing of a larger catalog of products. First introduced in the U.S., barcodes made their way across the ocean to our shelves. Not least via GS1 France, the French branch of the organization responsible for the identification system.

Despite these years of service, the barcode is destined to disappear. It is due to be replaced over the years, to disappear in 2027. But to what identification solution?

The QR code: a more modern and complete version of the bar code

If barcodes are bowing out, it’s because they’re being replaced by a more efficient identification solution. Goodbye 24 bars and 13 digits, hello QR code. This modern-day cousin stands for Quick Response Code. In concrete terms, it’s a type of two-dimensional barcode made up of black modules set in a square with a white background.

The QR code can be used to encode more than 4,000 alphanumeric characters, a considerable advance compared to the few numbers contained in their counterparts. Thanks to this technology, it is possible to encode in a QR code :

  • an URL: such as a website address, documentation download link, etc.
  • an e-mail address;
  • a business card ;
  • free text.

Why replace barcodes with QR codes?

The main advantage of QR codes is that this technology makes it possible to encode more information about a product and the brand that markets it. In addition to an item’s reference number and price, QR codes make it possible to find out where it comes from, how it was made, and so on.

Take a food product like meat, for example. Thanks to the QR code, all players in the chain, from the breeder to the end customer, can find out where the animal was raised, to which batch it belongs, the use-by date, and so on. A small feat that was not possible with the barcode. For consumers, this means easier access to information that can be vital (in the event of allergies, for example), but also to ensure that their values are respected (by favoring Made in France or organic products, for example).

For institutions and retailers, the QR code is an effective lever for preventing dangerous products from finding their way onto shelves. Brands will be able to offer their customer transpareny, as well as access to varied and relevant resources.

Marketing uses for QR codes

Overall, the QR code provides access to information about the product and the brand that markets it. It’s therefore an opportunity for companies to distribute content tailored to consumers, depending on the context of purchase or use. The QR code will be used by shoppers during their shopping trips. It can help them choose products and brands that correspond to their needs (carbon footprint, level of plastic used, origin, etc.)

But for brand’s, it’s also an opportunity to engage their prospects in a more targeted and effective way.

The Scan&Play

The Scan&Play is the use of QR codes as part of a playable marketing campaign. Printed on a product or label, the QR code, once scanned, redirects shoppers to interactive experiences, such as competitions, instant wins and so on.

These marketing games enable participants to win discount vouchers, in exchange for brand-relevant data (product preferences, contact information) shared via a form.

In the awareness phase, Scan&play can also make information sharing fun, and therefore likely to lead to conversion, via mechanics such as polls or quizzes

Sunday - Scan&Play

Conclusion

Barcodes are on their way out, long live the QR Code. This more modern and comprehensive replacement is an opportunity for brands to interact more effectively with their customers, offering them not only more information on their products, but also opportunities to win rewards by taking part in marketing games. Adopt Scan&Play and discover our catalog of interactive mechanics!

In just 30 minutes, we’ll show you how to launch your own high-performance interactive marketing campaign.