QR Codes Included on Marketing Pieces

The following information is specific to marketing materials and communications from the Office of Communications and Marketing. For other communications, use third-party online tools like https://tinyurl.com/ to shorten URLs and https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/qr-code-generator to create QR codes.

A QR code must only be included in physical offline marketing (e.g., magazine ads and flyers) and must not be used in digital marketing (e.g., social media ads and emails).

If a QR code is included on a marketing piece, a vanity URL must also be included as visible text. Some users may prefer to type in a URL rather than scan a QR code. Other users may not be able to scan in a QR code at all.

The QR code should be generated using a marketing redirect rather than the full tagged URL so that the QR code can be less visually complex. Using this method also allows the destination of the QR code to be modified later, if necessary.

The QR code should be generated by the graphic designer who is designing the marketing piece, as programs like Adobe InDesign have the functionality that allows the designer to generate the QR code with the designer’s desired specifications.

Creating the Marketing Redirects

When creating the marketing redirects for the vanity URL and the QR code, distinguish between the two:

• Marketing redirect for vanity URL (visible text URL)
  • Add qr to the utm_specs URL parameter (e.g., utm_specs=text-url or utm_specs=2022_text-url)
• Marketing redirect for generating QR code
  • Add -qr to URL used by the vanity URL (e.g., https://uams.info/example-qr)
  • Add qr to the utm_specs URL parameter (e.g., utm_specs=qr or utm_specs=2022_qr)