QR codes are those square boxes you often see on the internet which allow you to scan codes which give you a direct URL which i find is much better than searching for them manually so in short they make life that much simpler which is what we all like and we are here to talk about a new startup called Codacast which one of our readers Michael Connolly brought to our attention this morning and then we touched base with Mark White who is a Post Graduate from NUI and Software engineer from Galway.
Q1 – How did Codacast come about and why?
I was enjoying a meal one evening in a local restaurant and wanted to recommend it to my friends on Facebook. I took a photo of the menu and posted it on my timeline. After sending it occurred to me that there should be some way to share the experience other than taking a photograph. A few days later, in what appeared at the time to be a completely unrelated event, I was handed a loyalty card with a QR Code on it in my local petrol station which you scan at the point-of-sale each time you visit. Scanning adds points to your loyalty ‘score’ and offers the chance to enter a monthly draw. It was from a ‘fusion’ of these two concepts (Facebook sharing and QR code scanning) that the idea for Codacast came about.
Q2 – What can Codacast offer its customers and why Codacast ?
Codacast codes are also brandable, differentiating one company’s code from another and – consolidating their brand. In addition, code scanning is tracked by the Codacast Analytics Engine so that customers can monitor the performance of the codes they create in real-time via their online account – providing invaluable Return-on-Investment (ROI) data.
The Background
Although ubiquitous in Japan for the last number of years (80% of Japanese people currently scan at least one QR code per day), QR Codes have had a somewhat ‘checkered’ past in the Western world –
- having to download an app to read / scan the code
- all codes looking the same [black and white squares]
- lack of engaging applications
The Codacast USP
When a person scans a Codacast QR Code they are automatically prompted to share it on their Facebook timeline before being redirected to the URL (web address) embedded in the code. So a single scan of the code results in advertising the embedded link to as many friends as the ‘scanner’ has on Facebook.
