QR Code Campaign Examples and What Each One Measured

Nookesh Karri

What Are Good Examples of QR Code Campaigns, and What Did They Measure?

Three QR code campaign examples, Homeplus, Burger King and Coinbase, with the numbers each reported, who reported them, and what those numbers prove.

Nookesh Karri Nov 2, 2026 · 8 min read

Good QR code campaign examples have one thing in common: the scan led to a single action, and the brand counted that action, not just the scan. Homeplus measured online sales, Burger King measured app downloads and sweepstakes entries, and Coinbase measured landing-page traffic. The numbers they reported are useful, but almost all of them came from the brands themselves.

Here is what each one measured, and what you can copy for a flyer, menu or shop window.

Three QR code campaign examples at a glance

These three QR code campaign examples are worth studying because each has a published metric you can trace to a named source. Most roundups list dozens of campaigns with no numbers at all.

Campaign	What the scan did	What it measured	Who reported it
Homeplus subway store (South Korea, 2011)	Added a grocery item to an online cart	Online sales, registered members	Home Plus and its agency
Burger King at the 2020 VMAs	Opened an AR experience and offers	QR scans, app downloads, sweepstakes entries	Burger King and its agencies, in an awards entry
Coinbase Super Bowl ad (2022)	Opened a sign-up giveaway page	Landing-page hits, app ranking	Coinbase, reported by CNN

Homeplus: a subway wall that sold groceries

The Homeplus campaign is the clearest example of a QR code tied to sales. Tesco’s South Korean chain covered a subway station with life-size pictures of grocery shelves, and every product had its own QR code. According to MIT Technology Review, commuters scanned items into an online cart and the groceries arrived by the end of the work day.

What it measured: Home Plus reported a 130 percent increase in online sales and more than 10,000 customers using the virtual store. Phys.org adds that the three month campaign produced a 76% increase in registered members, and that it won the Media Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.

Why it worked: the code was the checkout. No landing page, no form. Every scan put a product in a cart, so the sales number measured the codes directly.

Burger King at the VMAs: scans, app installs and entries

Burger King’s 2020 VMAs campaign measured the full chain from TV screen to app install. During the broadcast, viewers scanned on-screen codes with their phone cameras to open an augmented reality experience. Marketing Dive reports the offers included a free Whopper with a $1 purchase in the BK App and a chance to win a year of free Whoppers plus tickets to the 2021 VMAs.

What it measured: the Shorty Awards entry lists 38k QR code scans, 160k sweepstakes entries, 32K AR sessions and 36.2K BK App downloads on the day of the VMAs. It also claims a 96% lift in purchase consideration and an 89% lift in brand opinion.

Entries (160k) far outnumber scans (38k), so many entries came through other routes like social posts. With only the scan count, you would undercount the campaign. With only entries, you could not credit the TV codes. You need both.

Coinbase: 20 million hits in one minute

Coinbase’s Super Bowl ad is the best-known QR campaign of the last few years. For about a minute, a colored QR code bounced around a black screen with no logo. Yahoo Finance describes the landing page as a giveaway: $15 for new users who signed up and a $3 million prize for existing users.

What it measured: CNN, via KFYR, reported that the landing page had more than 20 million hits in one minute and the app crashed briefly. The app also rose from 186th place to 2nd on Apple’s app store. In CoinMarketCap’s write-up, CMO Kate Rouch said engagement was six times higher than previous benchmarks.

The same article notes the other side. Bloomberg reported that crypto companies that bought Super Bowl ads saw app downloads decline during the week of the game. Hits in one minute prove attention. They don’t prove sign-ups, and Coinbase didn’t publish a sign-up number in these sources.

What these campaigns measured, and what they didn’t

The three QR code campaign examples measured different stages of the same funnel. Scans show attention, the action after the scan shows intent, and sales or members show business value.

Homeplus went deepest, to online sales, because its codes were the purchase itself.
Scans, app downloads and entries, plus survey lifts, came from Burger King.
At the shallow end, Coinbase reported hits on a landing page.

Nobody audited any of these numbers. The Burger King figures come from an awards entry the entrants wrote, and the Homeplus figures come from the brand. Copy the measurement design and ignore the totals as targets. A 20-million-hit Super Bowl spot tells a café nothing about how many people will scan its table tent.

How to measure your own QR code campaign

You can copy the useful part of these campaigns, the measurement, without a TV budget. The goal is to see each placement separately and follow scans through to the action you care about.

Pick one action per code. Homeplus had “add to cart.” Yours might be “book a table” or “claim the offer.” A strong call to action next to the code helps.
Give every placement its own dynamic code. A flyer, a window poster and a receipt each get a separate code, so you can compare them.
Tag each link with UTM parameters. Google Analytics says to always use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, and its own example source is “billboard.” Values are case sensitive, so pick a naming scheme and keep it. Our guide to UTM parameters for QR codes has examples.
Read unique scans, not just totals. One person scanning three times isn’t three customers. Here is the difference between unique and total scans.
Count the action after the scan. Bookings, orders or sign-ups in your own system.

QRAnalytica shows scans for each dynamic code by city, country, device and hour, and can add UTM parameters to the redirect automatically for Google Analytics. Plans start at $15/month for the Starter tier. For the wider setup, see how to track QR code scans.

The limitation of scan data

Scan tracking only counts the people who scanned, not everyone who saw the code. Burger King’s entries outnumbered its scans because people reached the same offer by other routes, and a scan count would miss them. QRAnalytica has the same blind spot: it records the scan and the device, but not what happened after the redirect unless you add GA4 or your own conversion tracking.

Pair every scan count with a number from your till, booking system or sign-up list.

FAQ

What is the most famous QR code campaign?

Coinbase’s 2022 Super Bowl ad is the one most people remember. A QR code bounced around a black screen for about a minute, and the landing page had more than 20 million hits in one minute, according to CNN.

How do big brands measure QR code campaigns?

They count scans, then the action after the scan: sign-ups, app downloads, cart orders or sweepstakes entries. The strongest cases tie scans to a business number like online sales or registered members.

Are the numbers in famous QR campaign case studies reliable?

Treat them as claims. Most come from the brand or its agency, often in an awards entry, and nobody audits them. They tell you what the brand chose to track, not a benchmark you should expect.

What should a small business measure in a QR code campaign?

Measure scans per placement, unique scans, and the one action you want after the scan, such as a booking or an order. Give each placement its own code and tag the link with UTM parameters so the visits show up in Google Analytics.

Sources

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