184 | nº 39, pp. 183-202 |July-December of 2024Strategies and guidelines for the aesthetic design of QR codes in advertisingISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónReceived: 10/01/2024 - Accepted: 01/03/2024 - Early access: 19/03/2024 - Published: 01/07/2024Recibido: 10/01/2024 - Aceptado: 01/03/2024 - En edición: 19/03/2024 - Publicado: 01/07/2024Abstract:QR codes are sometimes used as a vital component of digital marketing strategies that seek to attract consumers' attention by converting their dull, black-and-white, checkered appearance into attractive designs. However, as changes to their visual appearance can lead to scanning failures, an understanding of the technical requirements and limitations of this technology is essential in order to develop a viable creative strategy. To this end, a semi-systematic review of the literature was carried out for the purpose of gathering information on possible strategies for enhancing QR codes without compromising their functionality, and to provide guidelines for manually customising these codes in a way that is eective. e aim of this paper is to reveal the amount of research that has focused on the relationship between the aesthetic characteristics of QR codes and their advertising eectiveness. e main ndings include a scarcity of scientic analysis regarding this issue, yet multiple opportunities for the artistic modication of QR codes due to recent advances in generative articial intelligence.Keywords: QR code; aesthetics; advertising eectiveness; mobile marketing; generative articial intelligence.Resumen: Los códigos QR se presentan en ocasiones como protagonistas de estra-tegias de marketing digital que buscan atraer la atención de los consu-midores mediante la transformación de su anodino aspecto de cuadros blancos y negros en atractivos diseños. Sin embargo, los cambios en su apariencia pueden provocar fallos en el escaneo, por lo que conocer los requisitos y limitaciones técnicas de esta tecnología es fundamental para poder plantear una estrategia creativa viable. En este trabajo se realiza una revisión semi-sistemática de la literatura con el objeto de recopilar información sobre las posibles estrategias para afrontar su embellecimiento sin poner en riesgo su funcionalidad y extraer unas di-rectrices que sirvan de guía para su personalización manual efectiva. Así mismo, se busca conocer hasta qué punto se ha estudiado la relación entre las características estéticas del QR y su ecacia publicitaria. Como principal hallazgo, se pone de maniesto la ausencia de estudios cientí-cos que analicen esta cuestión y se revelan las múltiples oportunidades que surgen a raíz de los recientes desarrollos que utilizan inteligencia articial generativa para la manipulación artística del código.Palabras clave: Código QR; estética; ecacia publicitaria; marketing móvil; inteligencia articial generativa.Fernando Suárez-Carballo. Professor of Art Direction on the Faculty of Communication at the Universidad Ponticia de Salamanca, where he currently imparts various subjects related to visual communication on the Advertising and Public Relations Degree (Art Direction and Interaction Design), and on the Journalism Degree as well (Visual Com-munication). Professor Suárez-Carballo is also a member of the research group known as Innovación y creatividad em-presarial [innovation and creativity in business], as well as the author of several articles and book chapters related to graphic design, which is his main line of research from several perspectives, including aesthetics, technology, eciency, and training. Furthermore, his scientic work has been ocially recognised. With regard to positions of management, he has served as director of the Ocina de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación [oce for the transfer of research ndings] (OTRI), which is part of the Universidad Ponticia de Salamanca. He also currently holds the position of Vice-Dean of Academic Organisation, as well as Coordinator of the Advertising and Public Relations Degree on the Faculty of Communication at this same institutionUniversity Ponticia of Salamanca, Spain[email protected]ORCID: 0000-0001-7498-65951. IntroductionQuick Response codes (QR) have become a regular feature of everyday life for consumers and users all over the world. e spread of this technology has come as a surprise even to its creator, Masahiro Hara, as his invention was originally designed to optimise inventory control in the automotive industry (DENSO, n.d.-a; Fine and Clark, 2015), yet QR codes started to be used
doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 183-202 July-December of 2024Raquel Ávila-Muñoz, Gema Bonales-Daimiel and Fernando Suárez-CarballoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 185 from 2020 onward to keep track of restaurant customers, provide access to menus, and make contactless payments. Moreover, this technology has even become commonly used for issuing health certicates (McCurry, 2020).e transition from using these codes for manufacturing to the elds of advertising and marketing took place long before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the need to avoid physical contact boosted its use (Pratas and Oliveira, 2023; Tsai and Peng, 2023), and it spread to many users who were previously unaware of the technology, or simply ignored it.Based on current statistics (eMarketer, 2020), the use of QR codes seems to be on the rise three decades after its invention. A survey of advertising professionals around the world shows that these codes can play an important role in marketing strategies (Al, 2022). Approximately 99% of the respondents feel that advertisers who want to successfully target Generation Z should use QR codes, and 98% see potential for their use in outdoor digital marketing campaigns. Moreover, 92% of the respondents agree that greater use of these codes in digital outdoor advertising provides brands and marketers with useful data to design personalised and engaging content for consumers.In addition to outdoor advertising, small QR codes are frequently found in many print advertisements as a link between the physical world and online content (Pena-Pena, et al., 2022; Yang et al., 2021). ese codes are often the key players in the communicative process, either because they dominate the layout, or because the ultimate aim of the advertisement itself is to induce the consumer to scan the code (Ávila Muñoz and Bonales Daimiel, 2023). Considering that one of the main objectives of any advertising strategy is to attract the attention of the target audience, when a QR is used as an advertising lure it should stimulate curiosity. However, the bland appearance of the black and white matrix does not seem to have any appeal. Initially designed for fast data reading comprehensible only to a machine, their appearance has no meaning for humans, which might limit the interest of potential consumers (Ma et al., 2023).Bringing visual qualities to the basic two-colour grid can be a way to spark curiosity, trigger sensory responses to advertisements, and even aect user and consumer behaviour by inuencing the intention to scan (W.-E. Ho et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2022; Vorobchuk and Skliarenko, 2022). One interesting example of a QR being used as the main focus of an advert is in the 2011 SEAT Ibiza campaign (Figure 1), in which the advertisement revolves around a code made up of road signs and graphics representing small stretches of road, among other features (Chen, 2011). Another example appeared on the December 2020 cover of AdNews, which featured a QR code in the form of a graphic collage that symbolised everything that happened in the pandemic year (Murphy, 2020). e advert used in the Feel it For Yourself campaign focussed on a set of codes that consisted only of words (Ads of the World, n. d.). In these three examples, the QR code was modied manually and creatively, making the codes highly attractive. 186 | nº 39, pp. 183-202 |July-December of 2024Strategies and guidelines for the aesthetic design of QR codes in advertisingISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónFigure 1: QR codes in the SEAT advertising campaignconstruido por señales de tráfico y grafismos que representan pequeños tramos de carretera, entre otros elementos (Chen, 2011). La portada del número de diciembre de 2020 de AdNews, presenta un QR compuesto por elementos gráficos que simbolizan y sintetizan lo ocurrido en el año de la pandemia (Murphy, 2020). La creatividad de la campaña Feel it For Yourself se centró en un conjunto de códigos compuestos únicamente por palabras (Ads of the World, s. f.). En estos tres ejemplos, el QR se ha modificado de forma manual y creativa, haciendo que el código resulte altamente atractivo. Figura 1: Códigos QR en la campaña publicitaria de SEAT Fuente: Chen (2011) La motivación del presente trabajo surge a raíz de los problemas encontrados al definir la estrategia creativa para un lanzamiento discográfico en donde se buscaba despertar la curiosidad de los viandantes mediante una composición que crease un vínculo entre la apariencia del QR y el título de la canción a la que daría acceso. La Figura 2 muestra un primer boceto elaborado para desarrollar la idea, que pronto tuvo que ser descartada al ser inviable por cuestiones intrínsecas a la propia tecnología. Esta situación pone de manifiesto la importancia de conocer las limitaciones técnicas que presenta cada medio para poder proponer una estrategia creativa viable. Source: Chen (2011)e motivation to carry out this research emerged from the problems encountered when trying to dene a creative strategy for a musical release. e aim was to spark the interest of passers-by through a graphic display that would create a link between the look of the QR code and the title of the song to which it would give access. Figure 2 shows the rst sketch to develop the idea, which was discarded soon after, as it was unfeasible due to issues inherent to the technology itself. is situation highlights the importance of knowing the technical limitations of each resource in order to propose a suitable creative strategy.Figure 2. e sketch of a discarded QR code considered technically unfeasibleFigura 2. Boceto de QR descartado por ser técnicamente inviable Fuente: elaboración propia La problemática descrita entronca con el objeto de estudio de la estética publicitaria, un campo de teoría y práctica que se ocupa de las cualidades artísticas y sensoriales en la publicidad, según la definición de Dagalp y Södergren (2023), quienes señalan que se trata de un área de investigación digna de mayor atención. Este argumento enlaza con el objetivo principal de este artículo, que busca recopilar la información existente sobre las posibilidades de manipulación estética del QR y sus implicaciones en el ámbito publicitario. Se trata de conocer cómo podemos configurar un QR de manera que no solo identifiquemos que se trata de un código escaneable, sino que pueda despertar la curiosidad y el interés de los usuarios, introduciendo pistas visuales que inviten a acceder a la información de destino. A partir de este objetivo general, se concretan cuatro objetivos específicos. En primer lugar, es necesario entender el funcionamiento del QR y los requisitos técnicos que limitan y condicionan las posibilidades de modificar su configuración visual. En segundo lugar, se busca conocer las distintas estrategias posibles para la personalización y el embellecimiento del QR. El tercer objetivo busca conocer hasta qué punto se ha estudiado si existe una relación entre las características estéticas del QR y su eficacia publicitaria. Por último, con un objetivo claramente centrado en la transferencia del conocimiento científico hacia la práctica profesional y la docencia, se pretende establecer unas directrices que permitan afrontar la personalización manual del QR de forma efectiva. 2.MetodologíaPara alcanzar los objetivos descritos, este trabajo acude a la revisión de la literatura, un método de investigación que permite recopilar y sintetizar investigaciones previas y que puede ser útil para desarrollar directrices para la práctica (Snyder, 2019), además de proporcionar una visión general de áreas en las que la investigación es dispar e interdisciplinaria (Wong et al., 2013). En el caso del presente trabajo, centrado en la faceta estética de un elemento tecnológico utilizado en campañas de comunicación publicitaria, la información útil para el diseñador o el director creativo se encontrará dispersa en investigaciones pertenecientes al campo de la ingeniería y diversas áreas de las ciencias sociales y las artes. Es por ello que un enfoque semi-sistemático o narrativo se plantea como