Jennifer Lopez is counting on Flowcode — a platform founded by former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to promote souped-up QR codes — to help make her new JLo Beauty brand really sing.
The musician and movie star recently cut a deal to use Flowcode’s system to promote her new skincare line, beginning with QR codes embedded in a giant advertisement spread across an entire New York City subway.
“Jennifer Lopez is a global influencer and globally trusted brand on the cutting edge of the direct-to-consumer revolution,” Armstrong said in unveiling the subway ad campaign. “Flowcode is partnering with [her] to directly connect JLo Beauty to her 100 million-plus fans and the hundreds of millions of consumers who love next-generation beauty products and content.”
Flowcode’s technology will connect fans who scan large QR codes included in the subway ad to a special JLo Beauty “Flowpage.” The page serves as a portal for the star’s face cleanser, moisturizer and other products.
JLo is just one of many celebrity clients to sign on with Flowcode, a 1-year-old startup that aims to bring the humble QR code into the 21st century.
“We’re taking a new approach to what is relatively older technology,” Jim Norton, chief revenue officer at New York City-based Flowcode, told PYMNTs in a recent interview. “Think of this as next-generation QR code technology.”
For example, Flowcode has moved away from QR codes’ 1990s look of drab, black-and-white patterns, providing clients with codes that include such things as a brand’s product logo and color scheme.
An ‘Offline-To-Online’ System
Norton said that by making QR codes more appealing, Flowcode aims to become a leading “offline-to-online platform,” or what he called a “conduit between a consumer’s real-life experience and a brand.”
Jim Norton
“In a real-life environment, it’s pretty clunky to connect with a brand,” he said. “You have to type a long URL into a browser or dial an 800 number or go to a brand’s social channel.”
But by scanning QR codes, consumers who are offline can easily connect online with a brand using their smart phones. “That’s one of the great things Flowcode does,” Norton said. “It cuts across income levels. It cuts across language. [Unless] you’ve got an old flip phone, you can access these codes universally.”
The executive added that brands can put their Flowcodes almost anywhere, from mail solicitations to in-store displays. The company even provides QR codes to television shows and commercials that allow viewers to access a company’s Flowpage by simply holding their phones up to TV screens.
For instance, Norton said ABC’s “Good Morning America” program displays a Flowcode during its weekly “Deals & Steals” segment, allowing viewers to easily buy the items displayed by pointing their smart phones at a QR code on the screen.
An Analytics Source
Not only does Flowcode easily connect offline users to a brand’s online presence, but it also compiles all sorts of analytics that can help companies make smart advertising and marketing decisions.
Norton said that while the system doesn’t collect personally identifiable information, it provides overall measurement of how a particular ad campaign works. For example, he said the JLo campaign will track whether more people hit the QR code contained in the ad posted inside of the subway or on the train’s exterior.
Brands can also use unique QR codes for different ad campaigns to, say, test which of two different mail solicitations work better. And just as eCommerce companies can track when someone abandons an online cart and target them for follow-up, Flowcode enables companies to see when someone scans a QR code but doesn’t actually make a purchase.
“We’re really trying to bring the data and analytics that brands are used to getting in a digital environment and extend that into their offline activities,” Norton said.
A Big Market
Other celebrities with whose brands Flowcode works include Olympic skier Bode Miller and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and his singer wife, Ciara. Major corporate brands that use system include Bentley Motors, GoDaddy, Unilever, Warner Media and more.
Bode Miller
Flowcode also works with tens of thousands of restaurants and other small businesses that are using its QR codes amid the pandemic for things like contactless menus. Guests simply scan codes displayed at a table and get an eatery’s menu on their smart phones, utilizing a Flowcode small business product that starts at $9.95 a month.
The company also offers its system to B2B clients. For example, American Highway — a company that makes tie bars and other items for infrastructure projects — puts Flowcodes on its factory equipment so that workers can get quick videos showing how to operate each machine.
Scanning For Growth Opportunities
Norton said Flowcode has received a majority of its funding to date from CEO Armstrong, along with a smaller strategic investment from a marketing-solutions company called Quad.
Flowcode doesn’t currently plan any widespread fundraising, nor does release any figures on sales or profits. However, the 50-person-plus company has plenty of plans for expansion.
“We believe that offline-to-online is the future, and that it’s an untapped market,” Norton said. “Anywhere that a consumer interacts with a brand in real life, we want Flowcode to be there.”
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