CEC

The Accessible QR Code: Innovating at the edges for mainstream impact:

For more than 4 years, CEC has been helping clients quantify the true potential of their Connected Packaging. From revealing the true business case for Connected Packs to establishing the infrastructure and helping clients scale, CEC's talent, tech and data insights are helping businesses better understand consumer behavior when they have the product in their hands.

When we helped develop and take the Accessible QR (AQR) code to market with Zappar, much of the feedback we received centered around it being an innovation for a niche audience – the blind and visually impaired. And whilst this assumption was incorrect (there being over 2bn blind, visually impaired and 'long arm brigade' people around the world - RNIB 2023), we were keen to continue to develop the use cases and technology to make sure the mainstream impact of AQR was valuable to everyone.

Today, there are three areas we are innovating with AQR.

 1. Increasing Assistance and Intelligence

Integrating AI into apps that scan AQR codes on packaging to utilize the encoded AQR pack information, which can then enable audio assistance. Providing guidance to people when cooking, helping people 'get the look' for a night out or important event or recommending the best way to get out a particular stain.

2. Improving the Consumer Experience

Integrating AQR into wearables specifically helps everyone in 'hands busy' situations. Whether you are shopping with children, or seeking guidance when cooking or putting on make-up, wearables make it easier to action the assistance and intelligence that AI brings.

3. Getting to products in-store quicker

The less time shoppers spend in-store the happier they are and the more they spend and so using AQR with web-based wayfinding solutions will help shoppers find what they want as efficiently as possible. Minimizing the time taken to navigate & search and helping increase category spend.

These three AQR innovation areas show that the opportunities to impact the mainstream, from what would have been initially described as an 'outside-edge innovation', is eminently possible and even critical when helping large organizations understand the value of focusing on the specific-needs or underserved communities.