This year, leaflets that draw thousands of visitors to one of Edinburgh’s most ancient city centre attractions will have a modern twist.
Mary King’s Close in the heart of Edinburgh has turned to new technology to enhance one of their staple marketing methods, the good old fashioned leaflet.
Thanks to Canary Dwarf, the 140,000 leaflets will feature a QR code to link their 140,000 leaflets directly to the internet, where potential visitors can get online information about the supposedly haunted underground site and book directly from their mobile phones.
A QR code is a small two-dimensional barcode that contains data so that when photographed by a smartphone, instantly loads a video, web page or other relevant data.
Canary Dwarf has a microsite for the brand, QR Scotland, to promote the barcodes for use as a business marketing tool.
Marc Hindley, who runs Canary Dwarf and writes extensively about QR codes on the microsite’s blog, said: “This in an amazing coup for us to have a major city centre attraction showing an interest in QR codes.
“They are a great way to turn a static, printed object into a multimedia selling tool, where the user provides the hardware.
“Mary King’s Close have recognised that there is value in providing this option to their customers, some of which are a lot more familiar with the barcodes in their own country, such as the Japanese and Americans.
“We provide quality control to ensure the codes work on all capable phones in all conditions, and we have advised them on measurement processes.
“We also built a web infrastructure that will help them introduce and manage more codes in different media if the project is a success.
“We anticipate that the presence of these will be a catalyst for other tourism businesses to get involved.
“Although QR odes have been around since 1994, it’s still an emerging technology in the Western world and this will provide us with valuable case study statistics. Their massive penetration will mean that the data will be reliable and will give us solid feedback.
Mary King’s Close is a network of underground rooms and alleys that once were the streets of old Edinburgh. The attraction draws thousands of visitors every year, and their leaflets are found all over the city.
