QR Codes on TV Commercials: An Interactive Tool to Engage Your Audience

Second to fourth-screen: The benefits of using QR Codes on TV commercials

QR Code Generator has different types of QR Codes that can link to additional information from your commercial. Like the Burger King QR Code deal, using the QR Whopper in their commercial, you too can promote giveaways that redirect views to a specific landing page with the Dynamic URL QR Code.

If you’re advertising a new app on a TV commercial, enable your target audience to download it instantly with our App QR Code. You can help increase your social media following, run a coupon marketing campaign, or connect people to your online store through our various QR Code types.

Track and test your campaigns

To quote a recent article on TV marketing trends, “The challenge with TV ads is that marketers have difficulty getting actionable metrics and insights, such as attribution data.” However, this is no longer a point of concern thanks to QR Code tracking!

This sophisticated feature of the QR Code gathers statistical values — vital to optimizing your QR Code TV campaign by spotting what did and didn’t work. In addition to amassing the frequency of scans and unique scans, you’ll get information about the location, date, time, device, and operating system used for each one. With this real-time data, you’ll always be up to date on your QR Code’s performance success.

One note to keep in mind: If you’re ready to take the leap and start using our QR Code for your TV commercial, we’d need to know all the nitty-gritty — most importantly, how much traffic you’re expecting for your commercial. We like to be prepared. For big commercials — think Superbowl, we’d need to perform a CDN (content delivery network) test beforehand to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Editable and updatable information

It’s important to make sure you choose marketing tools that give you the flexibility to mend errors efficiently at any time. With Dynamic QR Codes, you can still edit information, fix any error, or change the QR Code type — even after you’ve generated, printed, and launched your campaign. Interested in discovering more possibilities? Learn about the advantages of using a Dynamic QR Code.

Create brand awareness

QR Codes now come with an endless library of visual possibilities. Regardless of the marketing material you choose for your QR Code marketing campaign, you can match the colors and style to create a seamless brand experience.

A brief look at television advertisements

What makes a commercial iconic is how timeless and memorable it remains years later, after its release. Can you recall the Fantanas promoting Fanta’s four new summer flavors or Jean-Paul Goude’s 1990 commercial for the Chanel perfume Egoiste? These unique commercials still leave an imprint on our minds to this day.

When Steve Olenski from Forbes asked his audience what made a TV commercial memorable and effective, they highlighted three main points:

• Humor and heart: a commercial is made memorable by its ability to make us laugh or tug on our heartstrings. Perhaps the most successful brand to create memorable, heartfelt TV ads is Coca-Cola. Their ads have a way of reminding us of what is important; an open mind, sharing, and spreading happiness.
• An attention-grabbing jingle and/or tagline: what immediately springs to mind is McDonald's unforgettable singalong jingle slogan “I’m Loving It” or Maybelline’s catchy commercial tagline “Maybe It's Maybelline”.
• Adding an iconic-type character: think of Geiko’s gecko, the mascot of Geiko, or George Clooney’s recurring appearance in classic Nespresso adverts.

This point wasn’t featured in Steve Olenski’s article, but it is worth mentioning that some of the best TV commercials appeal to people's identity or lifestyle, which can leave a powerful and lasting impression on audiences.

6. When did commercials start on TV?

May 2, 1941, is a memorable date for TV, as it marks the Federal Communications Commission’s lift of the ban on TV advertising. They gave 10 stations licenses that went into effect on July 1, 1941. NBC-owned station, WNBT, made history as the only station to air an ad that day. The commercial aired was a brief spot titled “Bulova Time Check” which showed a watch face with the second hand ticking while a voice-over read the time. It goes without saying that TV adverts have come far since the airing of their first legal commercial.

Advantages of using television for advertising

Commercials have a window period of 15 to 60 seconds to capture the viewers' attention. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but a lot can be achieved within this frame. From the TV screen to the home viewers, the ad should tell us who your brand is and the products or services you provide. Now, how about engaging your audience, connecting directly to your services, or linking them straight to your shop? Queue QR Codes on TV.

How to create a QR Code on TV Commercials?

1. Go to QR Code Generator and select the type of QR Code you’d like on your TV commercial. We recommend using the URL QR Code to start with.*
2. Enter the website address.
3. Your QR Code will be generated automatically.
4. Now, customize the design of your QR Code by adding a frame and a “Scan Me” logo.*
5. Select colors to match your style or company brand identity.
6. Select ‘Download’ to receive your QR Code file in .jpg format.
7. Integrate your newly-created QR Code to your TV commercial.

*Sign up to choose more QR Codes such as Event, Video, and Coupon, where you have the option of adding more information, more visuals, and edit or replace all the information without reprinting a new QR Code. You can also choose from a variety of frames and upload your own logo.

1. Add instructions

One big mistake QR Code users have made in the past is printing them without a short written explanation of what the consumer would gain or learn from scanning one. Make sure to incentivize your consumers to scan your TV QR Code, or else all your marketing efforts will be for naught.

2. Frame it

With our customizable frames, you can make your QR Code complement your creative design. When generating your QR Code, you’ll have a wide variety of ready-made frames with different Call to Action (CTA) messages and color options from which to select. If you want to add personalized details, you have the option of customizing it by choosing a different shape and icon — and even adding your own text. Check out our guide on how to make a QR Code frame.

3. Add a logo inside your QR Code

Once you’ve selected a frame option and customized your QR Code’s shape and color, you can choose to incorporate a brand image or company logo at the center of your TV QR Code. Our system automatically detects the best and largest size for uploaded logos to make sure QR Codes remain scannable, so you do not have to worry about making the correct adjustments.

4. Save your designs

Reuse the same, branded QR Code design without fretting about recreating an old one manually. QR Code Generator allows you to save all your designs as templates so you can reuse them for any of your marketing or service endeavors.

5. Customizable URL

By default, every Dynamic QR Code gets a random short URL that redirects to any page you want when the QR Code is scanned. The short URL can be customized to your preference, using your company’s name, for example, to help you stand out from competitors and build more trust among users.

#1 Voting for NBA All-stars with QR Codes

During the NBA (National Basketball Association) game between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, a QR Code appeared on the TV screen. If you zoom in, you can see the call to action, “dub the vote”. Once viewers could scan the QR Code on screen, they were directed to a landing page where fans could vote for their favorite Warrior players to be selected for the All-Star game. As it also turns out, this square-shaped pattern happens to be proudly owned by us, the QR Code Generator!

A TV QR Code pops up during a match between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Source: Actual footage taken from a TV.

#2 Coinbase QR Code on Superbowl Ad goes viral

One of the new TV commercials that’s gotten quite the hype is Coinbase’s Superbowl Ad. It's pretty hard to resist the urge of not scanning a floating QR Code on our TV screens — even more so when it brings back nostalgic memories of that bouncing DVD player logo we used to watch on our TV sets. But this Superbowl commercial attracted some mixed reviews online. You win some you lose some, right? What’s unique about this QR Code ad is that the QR Code is the star of the show — the protagonist, if you will. Once users scanned the moving QR Code, they were directed to Coinbase, a cryptocurrency website.

Ad Age tweets about QR Codes' appearance on Coinbase’s Superbowl commercial. Source: Twitter

#3 Fictional company, Betty Baker shares their recipes with a QR Code

Want to nudge your consumers to use your products for their next culinary endeavor? That’s what fictional brand Betty Baker was aiming for. But they didn’t just stop at advertising their various products; they actively engaged viewers by giving them fun and creative new recipes to try for themselves with our PDF QR Code. This works because it’s not only a tasty incentive to purchase their products but is also a great reward for your customer to treat their tastebuds. Betty Baker shows that sharing is caring!

Betty Baker inspires consumers to start baking up a storm with their special recipes and products.

#4 Kayas gets media coverage on their single with a QR Code

Back in 2012, The Kayas, a British band embraced QR Codes to market their new tunes. They debuted their new single “I have been waiting” on music channels on VHL and MTV which featured a QR Code to promote their new song. Users that scanned the QR Code were directed to their website to listen to the single and a bonus track. What’s great is today, in 2022, due to the prevalence of both smartphones and the widespread use of QR Codes, artists can promote their music easily with our MP3 QR Code.

A QR Code promotes The Kayas new single “I have been waiting”. Source: YouTube.

#5 Fictional brand, World Trekker Tours promotes summer vacations tours

If you want to get people giddy about their next summer vacation tours, run a TV Ad that gives them a real feel of summer vibes, happiness, and a Coupon QR Code. WorldTrekkers offered a 15% discount, which could either be downloaded to their mobile device as an in-store redeemable coupon or as a discount code for online bookings. Since it is directly stored on the viewer’s phone, the promotion can easily be shared with friends and family via social media, email, or text.

World Trekker Tours advertises their summer vacation tour with a Coupon QR Code.

#6 KTVU’s short TV commercials promote app downloads

The Foxed-owned television station, Fox 2 KTVU launched a commercial that promoted their mobile app. The 6-second ad’s call to action (CTA) “Download Now Free” was accompanied by a QR Code, enabling viewers to download the app in real-time. Here, at QR Code Generator, we already know how efficient the App QR Code is in promoting app downloads. More, it’s user friendly-friendly; directing the user to their app store of choice whether that’s Google Play or Apple store. With QR Code as the glue in the middle, traveling from one screen to another is effortless.

QR Codes in TV commercials promote mobile app downloads. Source: YouTube