HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Fishy QR codes and deep sea transparency

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Case Studies  |  Real-Time Marketing & PR  |  Marketing  |  Best Practices

This past weekend, the Boston Globe ran a fantastic series of investigative articles on the fish business. It turns out that DNA testing organized by the Globe revealed nearly half of 183 fish samples collected at restaurants and supermarkets in the Boston area were not the species ordered.

As a fish lover and frequent restaurant patron, this is certainly stinky!

Fish misidentification is especially common at sushi restaurants the Globe found, partly because they use various names for the same fish. Testing showed that 32 area restaurants that serve sushi sold misnamed fish.

But there is hope in the form of QR codes!

Trace and trustA company called Trace and Trust, a network of fishermen, distributors, processors and restaurants, has organized a system that uses QR codes to track individual fish from the ocean to your plate.

What a fantastic use of QR codes in marketing!

Trace and Trust tells customers exactly who caught their seafood, as well as when, where, and how it got caught. The community believes this level of transparency results in the highest quality and freshest possible seafood you have ever seen.

The system delivers complete transparancy and is fun too.

Do you know who caught your seafood?

FishHere is a sample of a QR Code.

If you were sitting at a restaurant, enjoying a meal, you'd be able to scan the code and learn that Chris Brown landed your Summer Flounder on 10/20/2011 while fishing near Block Island. Captain Chris Brown’s vessel, the F/V Proud Mary, is docked in the harbor in Point Judith, Rhode Island. Wild Rhody shipped 45 pounds of this catch to Tastings Wine Bar and Bistro and 606 Congress.

There's even a photo of Chris with the fish that you're about to take a nice bite out of. How lovely.

What a fantastic example of real-time marketing at work!

Chris brown

Here are ten more examples of QR codes for real time marketing