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I’m planning to use QR codes as part of my world-smashing campaign that will see sales of my book, Naughty By Nature (slated for a release sometime before the world ends), sky rocket beyond the dark side of the moon and allow me to sip cocktails on a Caribbean beach watch Watford every week.

So I pay a little attention to how they’re being used at the moment. And with mobile phones quite popular these days and rumoured to be even more central to our lives in the future – apparently, one day, we’ll be able to make calls with them too – the use of ‘quick response’ codes will “connect the physical and digital worlds”. So they say.

So Blur need to be made aware of all this. Their marketing suits clearly see QR codes as a fashion, a fad, a f****** bewildering bafflement (probably). The only quick response they elicited from me included a naughty word muttered under my breath.

Here’s…

What I experienced (Oct 9^th 2012)

1. I scanned Blur 21 QR code to see where it takes me
2. There was no copy near the ad telling me why I ought to take the time and trouble to scan
3. It took me to a You Tube video
4. I watched it expecting to see a call to action / url to buy
5. Nothing. Only a hashtag.
6. So they want me to go to twitter and search a hashtag having already pulled out my mobile, scanned a code, watched a video, decided I wanted to buy the product without either a url to buy or a call to action in sight
7. I go to Twitter on my pc (mobile’s too fiddly for all this by now) and search the hashtag
8. It reveals nothing and takes me nowhere
9. I go back to the advert on the back of the mag
10. I see a url: blur.co.uk/blur21
11. I go back to the pc and type in the url
12. I have to look for a call to action.
13. I find it in the bottom right hand corner
14. I click it…but have to scroll down to see the options
15. It gives me four buying options
16. I click the cheapest
17. The link is broken
18. I click on the Amazon link (price displayed: £195)
19. I land on the Amazon page
20. Price displayed: £154.73 and free delivery

And here’s…

What I should have experienced:

1. I see the QR code, which has some copy near it telling me what to expect when I scan it (ie why it’s worth my while)
2. I scan the Blur 21 QR code knowing what to expect (a video)
3. I watch the video and see a short url to buy with a clear call to action (‘Buy it here’)
4. I go to the url and it takes me to straight to Amazon or wherever

Conclusion: the music industry is in even more of a state than I thought.

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