The DMA Commits a QR Code Faux Pas

“Want to be a Stand-out Marketer? Get ahead with DMA Education” is the message on the cover of the Direct Marketing Association’s DMA Education mailing. It’s too bad it didn’t give its recipients a best-practices lesson in
QR code usage.

The code used on the back cover of the catalog is to the right. If you have your mobile device handy, go ahead and scan it (Or just read on and I’ll fill you in).

The DMA is giving away a free Kindle. You can scan the code, or you can text KINDLE to 777555 for details.

I scanned the code, and it’s safe to say the DMA made many faux pas with this QR code campaign.

Here’s a screenshot: This is where the QR code takes the user:

Yes, the QR code drives the user to the home page for the 2011 DMA Conference home page. Since the catalog is about DMA Education, I was surprised to instead wind up on the conference page.

I searched the word “Kindle” on this page, and the term did not come up. So that’s a second strike against the DMA’s campaign.

Third strike: The QR code does not drive the user to a page that is optimized for mobile. I had to do all sorts of horizontal and vertical scrolling to figure out that the QR code did not bring me to the final destination.

I received the catalog in my work mailbox on October 6. Say I hadn’t checked my mailbox in four weeks (which is true, because I was at conferences the prior two weeks, and probably hadn’t checked out my inbox since early September). The DM Essentials class schedule listed on Page 7 of the catalog indicates August 15-17 as the first classes.

That leads me to believe the DMA used the code to take advantage of a summer discount offered by the U.S. Postal Service.

Who approved the QR code, and who tested it to make sure it went to the proper landing page?

I wrote an article in August about QR code faux pas‘, and a comment was left about how the USPS offered the discount, but didn’t teach marketers how to properly execute a QR code. So it’s disheartening to see that a group like the DMA, which is promoting itself as the go-to group for education about direct marketing, would roll out a QR code campaign without ensuring best practices.

(Looking for a merchant that did QR codes right? Check out what Catholic Company did this summer).