(Full Disclosure – I’ll be at SXSW as part of the Chevrolet SXSW team.)

It’s been cool to see people interacting with the QR codes on the Cruze over the past few days.  We’ve seen some good interaction and gotten some good feedback.  It seems (and sounds) like people really enjoy interacting with the car in this way.  From my perspective – it feels right.  These codes, while I think there are too many for people to interact with here, generate a level of interest to an otherwise static, “blank” display, which is important because it adds another element to the car to compel people to actually stop and look.  But more than that, the engagement that they enable has been very interesting to watch.  People like doing anything on their mobile phone, and we’ve seen that here (especially with the “geek” factor at SXSW) in the booth – they like the immediacy and intimacy of the experience.  They like the comfort of their phone.  They’re not intimidated by it.  As long as they know how to use it, they’re willing to try it.  But I’ll say it again – the payoff has to be there on the other end, though.  The experience needs to be completed.  And here, I feel like we did a good job of completing the experience.  Again, I think we could have dialed down the number of codes that we gave people to interact with.  I also think we could have done a better job of letting the people know the difference in all of the codes.  Upon first look, I’m sure it appeared that they were all the same (except the “Fan-us-on-Facebook” codes), so we could have differentiated them better. 

All in all, I’m proud of the experience – I think we did a good job of using the spaces around us (car in a tradeshow) to create a personalized experience through the use of enabling technologies (mobile + QR codes).  This is what I look for whenever I observe any OOH/”ambient media”/DOOH implementation – does the experience drive deeper than what the user sees on the surface?  

I have to commend the client for getting behind this.  Without forward-thinking clients, this type of work will only trickle out into the industry and take a much longer time to gain traction than needed.  We need a constant flow that turns into a flood.

What do you guys think of the experience?’  I’d love to hear your thoughts!