Posted on April 23, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Why the Charlie Sheen designer QR Code is not #Winning but how I plan to give it some Tiger Blood

It looks like the one and only Charlie Sheen has a new designer QR Code to go along with his social media brand power.  The QR Code looks cool right? A nice black and white Charlie Sheen head in the middle to match the rest of the QR Code,  plus some simple blue gradient background and outline to make QR Code stand out. The QR Code was designed by Set Japan.

Set Japan have designed a QR Code for Charlie Sheen (image below). The QR Code resolves to the official Charlie Sheen website and it will be interesting to see what he makes of it. Hat-tip: Charlie Sheen Gets a Designer QR Code on the  2d-code.co.uk

I’m not sure if Mr. Sheen is using QR Code or not but here are my reasons why it’s not winning and my solutions to give it some tiger blood:

1. The Charlie Sheen website is not mobile optimized. After you scan the QR Code it goes to http://www.charliesheen.com but charliesheen.com is not optimized for mobile devices.
Solution: Make a mobile version of charliesheen.com for users who are going to scan the QR Code.

2. While the designer QR Code is nice it’s a little hard to scan.
Solution: Make it even simpler, don’t overlap the edges with blue and/or make the Charlie Sheen head a little smaller.

3.  Lack of QR Code description/call to action text.
Solution: While we all know what #winning means now, I think the QR Code needs some additional text besides the #winning hashtag. Example: “Scan the charlie sheen QR Code to win some real life tiger blood!“

4. No QR Code Reader/Scanner in The MaSheen iPhone app.
Solution: Again, I’m not sure if this is the official Charlie Sheen iPhone app or if he’s going to use the designer QR Code but if he’s going to use both why not have them work together. Add a QR Code reader to the iPhone app. Need help? Contact  Us! Also he could use his call to action text saying “Download The MaSheen iPhone app and scan the #winning QR Code to win some tiger blood. ” You get the picture.

My tiger blood QR Code iPhone solution for Charlie Sheen:

Take a look at how we created and launched my new iPhone app at http://app.socialwayne.com. It has a QR Code Reader along with a group chat where Charlie could communicate directly with his most winning fans.  The app could also allow him to send push notifications to all of the iPhone app users plus twitter and facebook updates. The app also has a fast QR Code reader/scanner built in.

In terms of the designer QR Code, while adding the Charlie Sheen head is nice… Keep it simple.

Regardless of the iPhone app or designer QR Code it’s 2011, create a clean simple fast mobile website for your fans. More people are reading content on mobile devices than ever before and soon reading content on mobile devices will past that of desktop computers.

How would you like to see Charlie Sheen use QR Codes?

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