I am the social media and content manager at Visualead. My responsibilities include building an online community and keeping the interesting content flowing to help brand the company and introduce the world to a technology that will enhance customer engagement.

Sounds like a great job right?
Well, it is, but there was one small detail that made me hesitate when I first joined the Visualead team.
They are dealing with QR Codes. Now, I know what you’re thinking, it’s probably the same thing I was thinking when they told me what space they were entering, but be patient because it’s not what it looks like.

The first question I was asked during my initial interview at Visualead was, “Do you know what a QR Code is?“
Of course I knew what a QR Code was but before I gave an answer I was racking my brain why three bright guys who held top jobs with top salaries would quit their jobs to start a company dealing with QR Codes?
The next thought that crossed my mind was how the heck am I going to produce interesting content and engaging social media posts, tweets and pins surrounding a computer code?

What could I possibly engage people with about a QR Code? Maybe a Facebook post asking people to count the squares? I could Pin these babies on Pinterest all day long. Then I imagined the company’s Twitter feed,” Check this out people, a cool computer code for you to scan.” Google+? Maybe a hangout with computer scanners?
All these thoughts certainly made it difficult to get excited over a possible new job.
After a ten second pause, I turned to the three founders who were asking me to manage the social media and content for Visualead, and answered with a very suspicious and confused “Yes I know what QR Codes are.”

What I was really saying was, “Are you kidding? You want me to turn a QR Code into something exciting, engaging and you want me to be creative as well?”

My cynicism lasted for about five seconds and ended abruptly when Nevo, Visualead’s CEO, told me what Visualead has planned for the future and about the technology they have developed. All my negative feelings and doubts I had about QR Codes were exactly what Visualead was planning to fix.

Keep The Technology, Get Rid Of The Code

There is no argument that the world of engagement has gone mobile. The days of waiting to sit in front of a PC are gone and have been replaced by mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices that allow for customer interaction on the go.

Mobile technology has completely redefined the laws of business and consumer engagement.
The mobile revolution has changed our lives and has challenged what has been accepted as the equation of corporate success.
The statement “more customers = more stores + more employees + more expenses” is no longer true.
Read more about the effects of mobile technology on corporate success here.

A trigger that can instantly lead users from any offline content to an online interactive mobile experience would be the missing piece that would complete the mobile engagement puzzle. Let’s forget about the black and white meaningless QR Code for a second and focus on the ability to quickly and easily offer mobile engagement to potential customers when they scan any image.

Visual QR Codes are the love child between AR, image recognition and QR Codes.
Unlike AR that would ask users to download a separate mobile app for every AR campaign, Visualeads’ goal is to keep the scanning technology that works on one platform while preserving the original image and design.

You shall Now Be Known As Visual QR Codes

After an hour of being pitched with Visualead’s ideas and company vision, it was the pictures that really closed the deal. Three generations of Visual QR Codes that are backed with a patent pending technology is what convinced me that Visualead is not about QR Codes but rather about enhancing engagement and mobile interaction. The Visualead team originally asked me if I knew what QR Codes were not in order to introduce me to what they do but rather show me just how big of a problem they were solving.

Here are some of the Visual QR Codes I was shown in that first interview, can you see what I saw?

Visual QR code Gen 1. Scannable by any QR Code reader

Visual QR Code Gen 2.
Scannable by any QR Code reader.

Visual QR Code Gen 3.
Coming soon..(5 months)
Will be scannable by any QR Code readers

Here are some more Visual QR Codes that were created using the Visualead Generator.

Five months later and over 126,375 Visual QR Codes created and scanned over 881,427 times, it is clear that Visualead is all about engagement and less about the code.

For more Visual QR Code images visit our gallery or join the Visualead Pinterest page.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening. In addition, to design your own visual QR Code and give any design the power of a QR, click here.