RedLaser partnered with Atlantic Records music artist Lupe Fiasco to promote his new album “Lasers” and drive pre-order sales by encouraging fans to scan a QR code.

Lupe Fiasco projected the QR code in New York’s Union Square and Hollywood, CA, for 2,000-plus fans. It is the top QR code scanned on RedLaser in 2011 so far, and more than 25 percent of traffic to Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers album pre-order Web site were driven by the QR code powered by RedLaser.

“Engagement is the next big thing in mobile commerce – connecting with people at times when they’re not necessarily thinking about shopping,” said Rob Veres, general manager of RedLaser and senior director of mobile at eBay, San Jose, CA.

“By bridging offline advertising and online offers in fun, compelling ways, RedLaser can play a central role in marketing campaigns for just about any industry in the world,” he said. “Atlantic Records came to us looking for a new and interesting way to engage Lupe Fiasco fans.

“We partnered to promote his QR code that allowed fans to easily pre-order the Lasers album that was released Tuesday, March 8.”

RedLaser claims to have exceeded 8 million downloads—up 360 percent since eBay’s June 2010 acquisition, with 4,000 QR codes being scanned every day via the application.

More than 150 third-party developers have integrated the RedLaser SDK, including Coupons.com, The Knot, TheFind.com, shopkick and stickybits.

Lupe Fiasco will be visiting RedLaser’s booth at SXSW for a Q&A. Fans can follow @RedLaserApp to receive details.

QR codes drive sales
Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers was Atlantic Record’s most successful urban music album pre-order campaign, and one-fourth of all pre-orders were placed via RedLaser.

Over the past month, fans could scan the QR code to pre-order the album and special merchandise.

In addition, fans can come back every Friday to scan and unlock exclusive “Fiasco Friday” content such as behind-the-scenes videos.

Fans scanned the QR code via Twitter, Facebook and on Lupe Fiasco’s Web site.

In an attempt to take fan engagement one step further, Atlantic Records and RedLaser projected the QR code in Manhattan’s Union Square and Hollywood, promoted solely through Lupe’s social media channels.

“Thousands of fans showed up with smartphones waved in the air eager to scan the QR code and pre-order the album,” Mr. Veres said. “With ‘scan with RedLaser’ under the QR code, his fans knew exactly what to do.

“Mobile bar code scanning has some real momentum and the QR code marketing has a lot of potential as a new and innovative way to engage customers,” he said.

Social media was one of the key drivers in getting fans to use the QR code to go to the Lasers pre-order Web site and to attend at the projections in Manhattan and Hollywood.

With the help of QR code marketing, the two versions of Lasers are now occupying the No. 1 and No. 3 slots on the iTunes albums chart.
                                                                                                                                  
“QR codes make it easy on the consumer – with one scan they are presented with the content they are looking for as opposed to manually typing in a URL, contact or calendar information,” Mr. Veres said. “Marketers like it because they can track the scans to engagement.”

RedLaser has over 150 partners who use its iOS and Android SDKs to engage their users – specific to their industry and audience.

Mobile bar code scanning technology can help drive consumer engagement and reduce friction—it has unlimited applications from wedding registries to enterprise inventory tracking, per Red Laser.

RedLaser shared the following tweets related to the QR code projections in New York and Hollywood:

ja_right – #LASERS lives up to the hype! Thank you @LupeFiasco (thanks for sharing the #redlaser app too: life-changing)

MichaelMillz – @LupeFiasco use #RedLaser to pre-order #Lasers…It just sounds like common sense! DO it! FNFUp

RVN671 – @LupeFiasco is a marketing genius! Preorder #lasers via #redlaser app! #thefuture

RhyminNStealing – Just preorder @LupeFiasco’s #Lasers and the fact that I did it using a program called RedLaser made it that much cooler

ki2594 – Oh shhooot! @lupefiasco put the redlaser barcode on an effing building downtown NY!

SierraLuella – @LupeFiasco Thanks for the good time in Union Square with all my #LASERS!!!!

theMiracle03 – @LupeFiasco Union Square was poppin. . .Made my day!

“Consumers can now act immediately when they see an ad or promotion in the real-world with a simple scan on their mobile device,” Mr. Veres said.

“In the case of Lupe’s preorder campaign, we were able to drive not only awareness and traffic to the Lasers Web site, but also approximately 25 percent of pre-orders of Lupe’s album,” he said.

Final Take