Without sounding glib or without revealing too much info, we had a conference call last month about a proposal. In it, we mentioned that we would suggest attaching a QR code to the piece so that users could easily find more information if they were so inclined. To us it was… well it wants a throw-away, but something we didn’t was 100% necessary for the piece to be successful, but it seemed like a good thing to do and wouldn’t cost much, so the value was high in that the cost was low.

The other end of the conference call pushed back and suggested that since iPhones didn’t have native built-in QR code readers, no one would ever use it.

At the time, we countered that we know that more people have Androids, but we missed the real answer because we didn’t have the data in front of us (mistake! Now righted).

The answer is that yes, people use QR codes. 14 million people in America have used it at least once. 40% of Facebook and Twitter users have scanned more than 5 codes in the past year. 52% of Americans know what a QR code is. 68% of all QR codes have been scanned by an iOS device (yes, despite having a smaller install-base and no native app). Most QR codes get scanned off a magazine or newspaper (hey look! a use for print ads!) and they get scanned while the user is at home.

So now we’re keeping track of our QR code data. Do you have any numbers to share? I’d love more non-US data!

Yes, I’ll cite my data:

The Twitter and Comment lights are lit! So bring it!