Remember all those times when you were sitting in a cinema enjoying a movie and realized all of sudden that you had run out of supplies? The popcorn now just consists of a dozen hard un-popped kernels and thousands of lonely salt granules, not to mention that oversized cup containing nothing but watered down, flat soft drink from the mass of ice that has now melted. Well the days of having to do the mad dash back to the candy line during a movie could now be over. The latest installment to come out of the MasterCard labs is the QkR mobile app (pronounced Quicker). The app is based on the QkR platform unveiled late last year which facilitates the triggering of payments by a number of sources including NFC (Near-Field Communication), sound frequency codes and even gestures like those used with the X-Box Kinect.

MasterCard, Commonwealth Bank and Hoyts cinemas have joined forced to facilitate the ordering and delivery of those crucial snacks without ever having to leave your seat.

QR codes, ID numbers and NFC tags embedded into La Premier seats allow users to complete purchases via the mobile application by scanning, taping or entering the tag number into the app. This pulls up a food menu allowing users to order food and drinks and have them delivered straight to their seat. The application first needs to be configured with the customers valid MasterCard credentials.

Australia is an ideal candidate to trial this technology and I am happy to see us get something early rather than later for a change (i.e. Google Wallet)

Australians enthusiastically embrace new technologies – particularly those that make life easier. That’s why this is a great market to pilot QkR with Hoyts

said Matt Barr, MasterCard Australia’s Head of Market Development and Innovation.
The QkR app is currently available for iPhone and Android phones although the use of the NFC feature will likely be limited until more hardware manufactures catch up and start rolling NFC into their mobile handsets. I was surprised to see that the app does not include integration with the iCarte case for iPhone considering Commonwealth Bank were also involved in this implementation and already had the capability from the Kaching app.

The world is also still patiently waiting to hear if the iPhone 5 will have NFC built in, fingers crossed.

By utilizing the customers own device, it limits the initial cost for retailers as minimal infrastructure costs are required making it an easy fit for other retailers, restaurants and fast food outlets with table top ordering and NFC enabled menus. We should start to see more QR codes now embedded with NFC tags for use in print and outdoor advertising and points of purchase. This easily allows the download of coupons via scanning of the QR code or by simply tapping an NFC enabled device. This is the first of many rollouts we expect to see from MasterCard as the war on mobile payments kicks into gear.

Mastercard QkR platform is continuing to roll out across multiple channels including TV and radio.

Some of the additional features to come out of MasterCard’s QkR platform are the ability to trigger a transaction based on sound frequencies put out by a radio or TV which can be picked up by a mobile device. Once the sound is recognized the device can ask you if you are interested in purchasing a particular product or service which can be done direct from the device. QR codes displayed on TV screens during shopping programs or commercials can also be scanned by the device to trigger the purchase.

A Microsoft Kinect enabled demo allowed TV viewers to purchase products they were currently viewing by making simple gestures received by the Kinect sensors.

This could be the first step towards a new future of shopping as we see TV programs and commercials marked with codes or sounds to kick off steps to purchase without leaving the sofa. Restaurants and food outlets may replace staff with kiosks or smart menus that enable codes or tags to be tapped with a customer’s mobile device. No more waiting around for the bill while retailers can minimize shrinkage as customers per pay for purchases.

Consumer confusion and slow uptake may hinder the Hoyts trial until mobile devices catch up and users understand any potential security implications, as some customers are still too cautious to even submit their credit card details online, let alone to an application that sits on their phone which can be easily lost or stolen……but hey, so can a wallet!

You can find MasterCard’s QkR on trial from this month in Hoyts La Premier at Westfield’s Chatswood and Entertainment Quarter Moore Park ( Fox Studios )

QR codes are massive in other countries around the world and have been for quite some time now, however there is a bit of a debate around QR codes and their use here in Australia so thought I would just add my two cents.

QR codes or Quick Response codes have been around for quite a while now, they provide a quick and easy way to provide additional information to the user such as URLs or contact information by simply scanning a special code. QR codes were originally developed for the automotive industry for part tracking, they work similar to barcodes but were designed to allow its content to be decoded quickly and now appear in a variety of applications such as ticketing systems, product marketing and offline advertising.

QR codes are used quite heavily in Asian countries such as Japan and parts of the United Kingdom however Australia’s uptake of QR codes has not been somewhat sluggish, possibly due to the extra step of having to download and install readers as these are not included in the operating system of most Australian mobile devices so users can be somewhat confused as to what this strange looking image actually is.

The main use we see in marketing at the moment is to provide additional information or content to a consumer via a quick read of a QR code which will usually take the consumer to a piece of web content.

South Korea’s Tesco supermarket developed a virtual QR code based store front allowing customers to read QR codes from product images on their smart phones and place items directly into their online shopping cart, an awesome example of mobile commerce linking the offline and online worlds of supermarket shopping. The virtual stores were placed where customers wait like train stations and bus shelters turning that waiting time into shopping time. Brilliant!

Check out the video below for more details.

Whether or not QR codes will be embraced or skipped over by Australians is yet to be determined however with technologies like NFC or Near Field Communication set to explode in 2012 my guess is that QR codes are likely to fade away quietly in the night. If mobile phone devices initially included QR code readers like many devices in Japan did then I think the fate of QR codes would have been significantly different. This fact will also have an impact on the success of NFC in Australia; NFC enabled devices are already wide spread in countries like Japan but if NFC is not sufficiently supported by the top mobile device manufactures in Australia then NFC could be sharing a casket with its QR code cousin. We shall pray for you NFC.