In conversation with Philip Warbasse / Warbasse Design - The future of QR Codes for print, TV and outdoor advertising

Friday May 21st
12:15PM - Just landed in LA. The trip from NY was smooth. I am on my way to pick up my bag and then I am headed straight to Santa Monica. The weather is amazing!
1:20PM - Santa Monica is paradise! I am at the home of Philip Warbasse - Designer, strategist and owner of Warbasse Media. We are drinking coffee and getting ready to talk on the record.

Thanks very much for taking your time to talk with me. How are you?
Warbasse - I'm fine, thanks for coming. I am glad the weather is nicer today. The mornings have been gloomy lately.

This area is so beautiful, I can't imagine waking up every morning and working here.
Warbasse - I am very lucky to be able to do it every day. My life is my work - I try to provide a home for both.

What do you like to do when you are not working?
Warbasse - Well, playing music and writing are two things I like to do very much outside of design. I take walks on the beach almost every night. Looking forward to that often gets me through the day. I enjoy the atmosphere in downtown Santa Monica and the restaurants are great too. I have been doing a lot of photography down in Venice lately and I am in the process of getting my pilot's license to fly light sport aircraft. Those are some of the things that I enjoy doing outside of work.

I hear you have been working on some exciting things lately and that right now you are making history!
Warbasse - Yes, we are doing some ground-breaking work right now. I am very humbled to be a part of it. We are working for HBO to put a designer QR Code in a TV ad that will unveil an exclusive clip from the upcoming season of True Blood. Warbasse Design was enthusiastic about the strategy and appreciated HBO's vision very much. This is the first time that a designer QR code will be used in a TV ad. The spot will appear this Sunday night during ABC's last episode of LOST.

Tell me about your work for HBO's True Blood. How did it come about? Was it your idea or did they come to you?
Warbasse - We were approached by PhD, on behalf of HBO. They were attracted to what Plush Mobile Servers could do for them in terms of serving their campaign intelligently and providing a wide-range of user metrics behind the scenes. Warbasse Design was in charge of designing and developing the mobile environment with art direction provided by PhD. We then got involved with creating the designer QR Code when HBO recognized the need for a code that would increase brand recognition and could, from a branding perspective, be integrated more easily into a wider variety of strategies and mediums. It is with this in mind that they used the designer QR Code in all their social PR leading up to the commercial.

Which parts of the mobile campaign were you responsible for?
Warbasse - We created the designer code, built the mobile site and we were responsible for converting the video to mobile formats and getting it all to stream. It was a big job. Now, we are providing all the tracking and metrics for the campaign and will continue to consult as the season unfolds.

How do you think QR Codes will change the playing field for TV advertising?
Warbasse - I believe QR Codes will become the vehicle of choice for television advertisers seeking to get more out of their television ad buys. TV time is very expensive. By placing a QR Code in the True Blood ad, HBO was able to do three things effectively. 1.) extend the time they have with interested users from 30 seconds to roughly 2 to 5 minutes, 2.) convert the ad from a simple "pitch" for the show into an "experience" for the user - building on the brand by offering the user exclusive clips of the upcoming season, and 3.) track and measure the response to the ad and campaign. These are powerful examples that represent just a fraction of what's possible.

The Movie 9 was the first international feature to use 2D Barcodes on promotional one sheets

Iron Man 2 was the first feature film to use designer 2D Barcodes on promotional one sheets

HBO's True Blood was the first show to use a designer 2D Barcode in an Ad for Television

What's the design process like when you are working on a feature film or TV show?
Warbasse - It's usually very fast paced and can be demanding at times. Strong communication is critical because there are layers of people involved in the decision making process and educating them on the ins and outs of 2D Barcode marketing has been the key to the success of our campaigns. We will usually have a series of meetings with a client to determine their goals for the campaign. Then we bring in Plush to provide a mobile platform, create a staging area and begin to build as dictated by design docs that usually come from the client.

Who's the most famous person you have ever worked with?
Warbasse - The most famous? Probably Buzz Aldrin. He is more like an icon. I guess everyone knows who he is and what he did forty years back. If they don't they should. Buzz has been on TV a lot lately with appearances on 30 Rock and Dancing with the Stars. He is always working hard to leverage his celebrity into interest for civilian space travel.

What's the future for QR Codes outside of the Entertainment Industry? Do you see them becoming more mainstream?
Warbasse - I see them becoming more mainstream everyday. It is part of what fuels Warbasse Design to continue to invest both time and resources into this technology. QR Codes are a novel and effective way to engage your audience. Any industry is interested in doing that but, in most cases, goals are closely associated with immediate ROI. An entertainment company's goals relate back to ROI, but intangibles such as brand awareness and positioning are strongly considered too. The entertainment industry understands, better than most, the value in a well positioned campaign. Like 9 the movie, True Blood will be marketed heavily at Comic Con this year. Mobile strategies using QR Codes as access points to mobile content are quickly becoming the choice for marketing to the 18 to 24 demographic.

How do you respond to the charge that QR Codes are nothing more than "a modern-day version of a secret decoder ring"?
Warbasse - Secret decoder rings are responsible for the sale of millions of boxes of cereal.

Why do you think adaptation has been slow?
Warbasse - I think fragmentation within devices, carriers and culture contributes the most. The economy is always a factor and resistance to change is another common obstacle, but I have always believed that it will happen.

When do you expect to see QR Codes being used everywhere?
Warbasse - By this coming Christmas, QR Codes will become familiar to most consumers. By 2012, they will be everywhere.

How are early adopters using QR Codes?
Warbasse - Most of the time people will use QR Codes to encode a url or web address. This is what we do a majority of the time also. The difference is that we provide a mobile web environment that guarantees an exceptional user experience once the code is scanned. Understanding that 99.9 percent of users coming in through a QR Code are on handsets, it makes sense to pay attention to the server-side experience. For our clients, that is where Plush comes in.

I am still trying to wrap my head around Plush Mobile Servers.* Why is Plush important for your clients?
Warbasse - Plush is the key selling feature for most of our mobile clients. It is an intelligent server that we created to mitigate the problems we have seen with QR Code marketing efforts in the past. It's not enough to create a QR Code that, for example, points to a web-optimized YouTube page and those who do wind up letting down more users than they serve. Plush is setup to determine a user's handset specifications and serve them mobile content intelligently. Plush also gives us the ability to track mobile campaigns and provide our clients detailed user metrics.

So, once the QR Code is scanned, Plush takes over?
Warbasse - In most cases, that is correct. In reality, the challenge is not creating the barcode, it's creating the experience behind it.

How is a designer QR Code different from a standard or traditional QR Code?
Warbasse - A designer code blends brand attributes into the code that typically transform its shape and color. By adding a "designer" QR Code to the, True Blood campaign, HBO is able to enforce and build on brand recognition as the "identifiable" code spreads across the internet and traditional media outlets. I personally don't believe all QR Codes should look the same. Major brands invest a considerable amount of money into their identities and they want to be able to translate it across all channels.

Are there any limitations with designer codes?
Warbasse - Realistically no, but on paper, they won't pass the spec established for 2D Barcodes (ISO/IEC 15415). We test on Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, Samsung, Windows Mobile (HTC) and iphone. We use 12 different readers in the testing cycle, though not all on each phone. We are working with HBO on a national campaign. We had to make sure the code would work. It does and we feel very confident things will go well Sunday night.

What is in store for Warbasse Design now that the HBO campaign is coming to a close?
Warbasse - We are in talks with two new companies to create two new integrated TV ads by the end of this summer and we are working on a couple of feature films for release next Fall. I'll be speaking in 3 weeks at FashionCamp LA here in Santa Monica and at the InfoTrends "InterAct" Conference back in Chicago in August.

Finally, I must ask you about the silver trash can in your studio filled to the rim with awards?
Warbasse - Well, I got the idea about 8 years ago when I was visiting Organic or Razorfish, I can't remember which. I like the idea of keeping all of our awards in a trash can. It serves to remind us that our mission should never be self-serving and that our client's image is more important than our own.

Social Book Marks for Philip Warbasse & Warbasse Design.

Related Links
Professional Profile - Philip Warbasse
Warbasse Design
Plush Mobile Servers

Contact Beth Silverstein beth@bonovoxpr.com for more information, articles and interview requests.