FMBX News

Real Mary Kings Close combines history with a QR code future

The Real Mary Kings Close visitor attraction may be used to talking about Edinburgh's famous streets from the 16th century, but they are leading the way in employing future marketing techniques by becoming one of the first attractions in Scotland to use QR codes on their promotional literature.

In essence a QR code is a two dimensional barcode which creates links to websites, and in the case of The Real Mary Kings Close it links to a TV advert for the attraction which builds up a visual interpretation of what the famous attraction offers to potential visitors.  For users of smart phones, QR codes make accessing mobile content, fast, fun and full of opportunities.

Commenting on the new initiative, Lisa Robshaw, marketing manager from The Real Mary King's Close said, "We're continually reviewing our marketing strategies, and by putting a QR code on our promotional leaflets we feel we are engaging with potential visitors even further.  There are over 11 million smart phone users in the UK alone, which has seen a 70% growth over the last 12 months, and by 2015 it is expected that the number of worldwide smart phone users will have quadrupled.  The way we communicate with potential visitors is changing, and is a further extension the highly successful social media strategy for engagement we currently operate.  We're proud to be one of the first visitor attractions in Scotland to put a QR code on our promotional leaflet, which is also set to be included in our airport arrivals halls adverts and on the underside of taxi tip seats.  We've been working very closely with QR Scotland, and the added beauty of implementing this new marketing strategy is that it is so easy to track its effectiveness.  We are sure that when people view our TV advert through the QR code they will want to visit us, and we look forward to monitoring how it goes".

Marc Hindley of QR Scotland, added, "Working with The Real Mary King's Close was a great opportunity to show that new technologies aren't just for young, hi-tech  companies. QR codes are a brilliant way of mixing media by harnessing the mobile devices that most of us carry around with us, wherever we are.  The attraction saw the opportunity in their print, taxi and airport advertising to connect to their mobile audience in one of the UK's biggest tourist hubs.  While QR codes are still very much an emerging technology, it has grown massively as a marketing tool since the beginning of this year.  QR codes make content accessible, by placing it in the

hands of mobile customers. At QR Scotland, we help businesses make mobile marketing effective, then we link to it with QR codes to make it user-friendly."

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