Earlier today, during a ‘billboard surfing’ session in Nairobi’s Lavington suburb, I spotted this one by Ando, a leading food delivery business that has a myriad of digital-only Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brands as well as several physical restaurants in Nairobi.

As mentioned in previous posts from my billboard surfing sessions, I have always advocated for an intentional approach that blends traditional and digital media that can ultimately enhance overall performance — from building brand awareness to generating sales.

As it turns out, in the post-pandemic era, we use QR codes intuitively to gain access to digital ‘destinations’ quickly and easily without having to memorize or take photos of website addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or physical locations. Its faster, easier, and simply better this way.

In this instance, we can see that Ando has taken this to a whole new level by making the QR code the ‘hero’ of its billboard instead of it being simply a complementary aspect of the same. This is bold, perhaps even audacious, since the majority of billboards tend to prioritize the creative elements of the campaign.

Ando’s billboard is clearly NOT meant to be ‘sexy’ but rather is designed to drive ‘performance’ in the form of mobile app downloads. This is brilliant in that Ando can get a clear sense of attribution in terms of mobile app downloads and eventual sales achieved via this advertising media.

To take this concept even further, Ando could also measure performance based on specific billboard locations if each one has a unique QR code. This, for me, is one of the many ways in which traditional out-of-home (OOH) media can be blended with digital media to be more impactful and measurable.