QR Codes Used in DeLoach Campaign

Voters in Chatham County received a campaign mailer from Eddie DeLoach. DeLoach is running for chairman of the county commission and included a QR code near the bottom of the letter.

The QR code takes users to a video where DeLoach talks about his achievements and qualifications. It is a short video running for 41 seconds.

This is not the first time that voters in Chatham County have seen a QR code in campaign materials. In 20120, senatoriable Michael Gaster also used QR codes in this campaign.

DeLoach’s marketing specialist, Rick Monroe, says that QR codes are going to be used a lot more in politics.

Campaigns and Elections magazine estimates that more than half of all Americans now have a smartphone, making QR codes an accessible addition to direct mails like this.

What’s more, Monroe said that the QR codes used by DeLoach are much better than Gaster’s use of QR codes. For one, Gaster put up the QR codes on his campaign signs and you need to be really close in order to scan them successfully. Those who scanned Gaster’s QR codes were taken to his campaign website. The content was boring and it failed to “humanize” Gaster. DeLoach appears in the video and brings him closer to the people.

David Simons, a political consultant for DeLoach, also says that videos put behind QR codes are also cheaper than buying airtime.

The mailer went out to 9,000 voters in the county, even a fraction of that will mean hundreds of voters will see the video.

We agree that DeLoach’s campaign is a definite improvement over Gaster’s who lost in his bid for a seat in the Senate. However, we think that there needs to be a good attraction for people to scan the QR codes. If people are not interested, you should be able to find out what would interest them to care about your candidate and scan his QR code. Qualifications are great, but you could easily enumerate them in text.