Despite getting an indifferent response from smartphone users, leading to some very awkward results, companies and marketers are still using action codes as part of their mobile strategy. Yet a new report from mobile marketing and technology company, Nellymoser, has shown that not only are advertisers beginning to understand ways to make mobile campaigns work, but are also using them as part of a greater campaign instead of being standalone efforts.

In what sounds like the most thorough survey involving 2D codes in a while, over 164,255 pages were analysed throughout the year with 4,468 2D mobile action codes appearing in the top 100 U.S. magazines over the year. The year began with 352 codes found in Q1 before growing to 1,899 by Q4, an increase of 439%. The agency also scanned every code they found in each magazine and activated each campaign, video and web page that they linked to, so points to Nellymoser for covering every base throughout the year.

The most popular 2D code overall was, of course, the QR code which accounted for 72% of all action codes. The second most popular code used was Microsoft Tag which made up 25%, with QR codes growing in popularity as the year progressed.

Regarding the content each code linked to, the most popular action was to showcase a video (54%) which contained content such as product demonstration, how-to examples and behind the scenes videos. Other actions included data capturing and list building (30%) which consisted of opt-ins, subscriptions and sweepstakes, and links to purchase goods via e-commerce (19%).

Another major trend that emerged from this was the presentation of action codes. Considering their monochrome appearance, many advertisers made sure to include additional information and images to flesh out the action code. This has become standard practice for advertisers as more than two-thirds of all action codes (70% or 1,327) included information about what happens after the scan.

Other additions included instructions about how to get a code reader (23%), using colour in the action code (31%) and even customising the action code itself (16%). Despite this, very little importance was placed on the location of the QR code itself with more than 90% of codes appearing at the bottom of the page. This suggests that the codes themselves are usually the last thing people see when they’re browsing through a magazine.

Alongside this, NellyMoser also did a report concerning QR codes in retail, identifying that the codes are being used as part of an overall mobile strategy instead of being a standalone campaign. Both reports can be downloaded here.