Friday Item of the Day: Barcode Bikinis
From the Friday just-barely NSFW department comes the newest mobile marketing phenomenon — barcode bikinis.
U.K.-based Olympic hopeful volleyball pair Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney (ranked 26th in the world) have posted QR codes on the backs of their bikini bottoms for a tournament this week.
As is usually the case with QR codes, it requires snapping a mobile pic with any number of barcode reading apps such as Scanbuy or RedLaser (insert joke about snapping pics of bikini-clad girls at the beach).
The scan will take users to the mobile landing page of the pair’s sponsor, British gambling site Betfair. This is clearly a PR stunt for the company, which claims it’s the first QR code used in in-sport ads.
Whether or not that’s true (I have my doubts), the stunt will likely work. The target market of Betfair and — I’m going to go out on a limb here — this campaign, is mostly men.
In addition to being a comment on the growth of mobile barcode marketing, it’s telling of the ever expanding and bizarre places we’re finding to slap an ad.
Either way, our bullish attitude toward mobile barcode-based marketing just took all new forms.
