all this was thirteen years ago

This is in some detail what they did not understand 13 years ago and probably still don’t for reasons we both understand.  So I am going to give you the back story and then how it would work for this project today.  First you need to learn a little about QR codes and why they don’t work for most people. 

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At the time everyone was banging on about food province and I met a guy called Nigel that was a food producer.  We managed to get his crab soup onto the shelves of Fortnum and Mason in London,  at the time bloody difficult.  So I had the idea to attach a QR code to every tetra pack of soup he sold.

What you would get was explained to the customer.

1 A different video each day where Nigel explained the province of the soup

2 How and where it was made

3 Other things you could make with it.

Plus customers could sign up for a newsletter ( up Selling)

A survey (feedback on the project and market research for new products)

A competition ( maintain contact and add value)

Plus a few other things and the whole thing ran online and used text messaging and email for communication depending on the urgency of the information, and full tracking to measure the effectiveness of each campaign.

13 years ago and it worked a treat.  We did consider adding a shop facility so you could have ordered from home however we felt this might annoy Fortnum’s. 

I then moved on to tourism.  The idea was a simple one given we live in an area that relies on tourism.  Lets say you arrive for a short break at the grand hotel.  Throw your suitcase on the bed and the first thing you do is take a look out of the window which becomes something else when you attach a QR code to it.  Kevin is a local historian and really understood the possibilities.

Restaurants and attractions had the ability to offer downloadable coupons that gave visitors a discount plus all of the above and more.  This before you even unpack that suitcase. 

I even added a monthly video diary to let tourists what was happening in the area and featured local places and local people.

A chance to meet the real local people and upsell the attractions and area.

As I mention often this is all well and good but without an audience a waste of time.  I had a lot of clever ways of getting the word out.  One of my favourites was giving the Model Village a free account who in return put the code on every one of their 250.000 flyers they distribute all over Torbay TWICE a season!.

At the time “The Hotel” was huge on C4 so after each episode I interviewed Mark, the manager of the hotel after every episode and used social media to link with C4.  It got a huge following a lot of which converted into bookings at the hotel!

This video ALONE had over twenty three thousand views and the council is doing well if they get over 100! 

Just before we move on

Remember the conversation about using QR codes at a museum.  Normally you would have to spend cash on getting actors in to voice the whole this plus studio time a load of other stuff.  AI have been looking at AI for a ling time now and was wondering if I could use it in training videos.  I had a course written on toxicity in the work environment.  So I used the script into an AI voice generator and this is what came out the other side.  It isn’t perfect but it’s pretty close.

The reason I mention is that these folk are good it writing this stuff but not a Scooby do when it comes to turning it into speech / audio let alone video.  With AI choose your actors and just add the script,  clever.

AND finally The Torbay trail of culture

You will recall when the pandemic hit everyone was terrified of just about everything.  As things started to return to normal tourism was struggling.  To help I created scan and go.  In simple terms it a digital menu solution for restaurants.

The landscape had changed safety for customers and staff was a priority, delivery, meal kits takeout and the word contact less had already become the new normal. One of the main concerns was disposable menus. However with the loss of income to produce a menu with a one time use is not only bad for the planet its just not cost effective.. 

Now you will need to use your imagination for this part but consider all of the above.  The videos surveys – polls – interaction working in partnerships – controlling the message and distribution.

Add to all of that the ability to stay in touch with customers.  For example you came in the summer,  what about a winter break in October at a special rate.  You get the idea.

Pay attention to this part

Imagine the Torbay trail of culture is a restaurant and on the menu are the cultural events.  Theatre – museum – art shows – food festivals etc.  Imagine if every shop windows had a poster promoting the trail plus…..