At the presbytery meeting on April 16, 2013 the presbytery Worship and Witness Committee in a report on a Cohesive strategy for advertising suggested that presbytery "adopt a QR Code" and "consider adding a QR code to all printed materials, leading readers to the (presbytery) website."

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

"So what's a QR Code?" you might be asking yourself. The term QR an abbreviation for "Quick Response Code". It is something similar to a UPC barcode, and was originally developed for the automotive industry in Japan. They are images, small black squares with square "dots" in three corners and "squiggles" in the middle.

"Why would presbytery want to adopt a QR Code?" might be your next question. QR Codes are neat little things useful for folks with smartphones. People with a smartphone can simply take a photo of a QR code with the camera on their phone and a URL (website address) pops up on their camera screen. Tap on that URL and a web browser on the phone opens up to that webpage. Pretty cool, eh?

"So what do we do with it, now that we've got one?" might be a valid next question. It's basically useful in advertising material, posters and the like. The theory is that when a person sees a poster for some presbytery event with a QR Code on it and they want to know more about our presbytery, they get out their smartphone, take a photo of the QR code, and ZAPPP - they're taken (on their smartphone) to our website.

food for thought...

• what advertising material does presbytery produce that we could put a QR Code on? There are many concerts and events sponsored by individual churches, but not many at the presbytery level.

• QR Codes are meant to go along with other advertising - the "target audience" is attracted by your advertisement in, for instance, a newspaper ad, and wants to know more. The QR Code gives them an easy way to get to your website. They aren't meant as a replacement for other advertising, more an enhancement.
  
• how about a poster about the Presbytery of Ottawa that our individual churches could place on their bulletin boards, so their own people could find out more about their presbytery.
  To the right is a small card that your church could use for that purpose. Click on the card to see a larger image.

• maybe we need to think about ways of using a presbytery QR Code effectively, such as newspaper or bus advertising.

• QR Codes could be produced and used for any group or event within the presbytery.

• There are probably a few questions you ought to ask that will help you decide whether or not to use a QR Code in your advertising:
  • who is my target audience?
  • are they likely to have smartphones?
  Current information suggests that smartphone ownership is near-universal for Canadian teens and adults, with over 90% penetration in most adult age groups and teenagers, reaching 98% for young adults (18-29) in recent studies, while teens (9-17) also show very high rates, around 77-95%, So a QR code may provide a quick and easy method of getting a message to your people.

• Your congregation could use a QR Code on its printed material, such as bulletins, posters, etc.

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