The U.S. Postal Service is planning another summertime promotion for direct mailers that uses two-dimensional barcodes. USPS VP of domestic products Gary Reblin told Direct Marketing News about the service's plans at the end of last month. The board of governors still has to approve the promotion.

One of Many Promotions

The 2-D campaign was one of a handful of promotions the postal service tried last summer, some not as successful as the barcode initiative.  Paul Vogel, president-chief marketing/sales officer of the Postal Service told B2B Online that a summer sale offering postage rebates for increased commercial mailings did not produce the hoped-for returns because of the complexity involved in qualifying for those rates. The barcode promotion, however, performed better, he said.

"The QR code promotion worked fantastically, with almost 33.9% of standard-mail pieces in July and August having some form of code," he said.

Mobile Barcode Scanning Tripled in 2011

In general, mobile barcode scanning is growing quickly in popularity. 2011 saw a 300% growth in barcode scanning compared to 2010, and a 1000% increase over 2009, according to a report by Scanbuy.

In fact, Q4 2011 alone saw more scans than 2009 and 2010 combined. Mid-November through December proved a significant period of new user activation, serving as the driving force behind the more than 3 million new ScanLife users activated during the quarter, a 360% growth from Q4 2010.