WKU Christmas ad snip
Recognize this? These QR codes are popping up in more and more places lately. Through an app on a smart-phone, these codes will connect you with a website. Some airlines even use them as electronic boarding passes.
The Christian faculty group at Western Kentucky University uses QR codes to connect college students with the gospel.
For 25 years, hundreds of Christian faculty groups have published ads that proclaim their faith in Jesus in their campus newspapers. Spiritually-hungry students can seek out one of the professors listed in the ad if they want to dialogue about spiritual topics.
The WKU ad filled three-fourths of a page in the campus newspaper in early December. It stood out since it was the only color ad that day. The 84 Christian faculty names in the ad represent a 50% increase over the “welcome back to school” ad the group ran in September.
Note the QR code on the package under the tree. The WKU Christian faculty group believes that students with smart phones (and that’s almost all of them) can’t resist using them on anything “techy.”
The QR code links to “Who Is Jesus . . . Really?” (whoisjesus-really.com). This Campus Crusade website offers information about Jesus in 40 different languages, so it reaches most international students as well as English-speakers.
Dr. Larry Caillouet, the WKU prof who organized this ad, has even bigger plans for QR codes that link to websites about Jesus. “Our campus, like most others, is looking for any way to squeeze out a little extra revenue, so they sell ad space inside the shuttle buses,” Larry explains.
“We intend to put more QR codes there. Unlike a campus newspaper that lasts just a few days before it’s thrown out, the bus ads can run for weeks or months. And students don’t have a lot to occupy themselves with while riding the bus, so I think they will read the ads and follow the QR codes.”
Using normal web analytics, the WKU professors will be able to track how many students have clicked through from the QR code to the websites about Jesus, how long they stayed on the site, etc.
Not a bad use for 21st century technology—connecting college students with the first-century man who offers them hope, peace, and new life!
Hi Fred, you can copy the link at the top of the page you see the article on, then paste it into an email to your son.
Great post! QR Codes are still very under-appreciated, and I feel like they will only become more prevalent as 2013 progresses. Search Engine Optimization in Grand Rapids, Michigan.