Cautionary tale – Heinz ketchup QR code blunder

Author: CIMCOM

It shouldn’t have happened. But it did. Heinz ran an on-pack competition ‘Spread the word with Heinz’. The promotion campaign featured a QR code on bottles of ketchup in Germany. Customer Daniel Korell followed the link hoping to learn about the promotion but was amazed to find he’d ended up on a porn site. So how did a good QR code turn bad? And what should have been done differently?

Daniel’s opening remarks

Daniel Korell reported his find on the Heinz facebook page with an image of the bottle and the page it linked to, commenting: “Your ketchup is probably not for minors.” He did some further testing and explained that the same unwanted porn page popped up regardless of device and whether the QR code itself or the alternative URL were used.

The Heinz Team’s initial response

“The campaign ‘Spread the word with Heinz’ no longer exists…Unfortunately we cannot therefore control which page is displayed instead.”

Daniel’s reaction

As an upstanding customer Daniel wasn’t satisfied by this response:

“Hello Heinz team, the bottle may be a remnant, but it is certainly still present in many households. For me it is incomprehensible that you cannot secure the domain for at least 1-2 years. A .com domain really does not cost the earth.”

Heinz Team:

“Hi Daniel, we really regret the incident and take on your suggestions for the implementation of future campaigns!” The team went on to offer Daniel the chance to create his own ketchup label, providing a free bottle of ketchup as an apology.

What went wrong? A lapse in a post-campaign management

The QR code had linked to the domain www.sagsmithheinz.de for the competition from 2012 to 2014. When the promotion had ended the domain which the static QR code linked to was allowed to expire by Heinz. And this same URL was then used by an adult entertainment company.

How to avoid the issue? Own the domain or use dynamic QR codes

It just goes to show that whilst QR codes can provide a good way link to related content, the underlying domain names can have a life of their own long after the campaign expires.

But with effective campaign management, including post-campaign, it shouldn’t be an issue. There are a few choices:

• Buy a specific campaign domain e.g. www.win15.com. Then, retain it post-campaign. By maintaining ownership of the web address the brand can control content on the site post-campaign or redirect web traffic to other brand content.
• Add a campaign page on a domain that is already owned by the brand such as the brand website or the brand’s promotion site e.g. www.brandname.com/win15. Post-campaign, the page content can be changed or as the domain is owned, the URL can be redirected.
• Use dynamic QR codes rather than static QR codes. Once a static code is published, as in this ketchup example, it can never be modified because the website domain is embedded into the code. But a dynamic QR code works with a short URL that can be automatically redirected whenever required to any domain without changing the original QR code. In this example, Heinz could have redirected the campaign QR code to more appropriate brand content once the competition had closed. Dynamic QR codes can provide you with greater control and future-proofing.

You can see Daniel’s facebook comments here

This is the BBC report into the matter - Heinz QR porn code too saucy for ketchup customer