In fall 2009, QR codes were not yet ubiquitous. But the founders of mobile commerce startup 鈥擟hristina Koshzow (DC鈥�01, HNZ鈥�03), Christopher Mason (DC鈥�01), and Joey Rahimi (TPR鈥�01)鈥攚ere about to become very familiar with what the codes could and couldn鈥檛 do.
An executive from Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods asked them whether鈥攖o mark the launch of Dick鈥檚 mobile platform, which Branding Brand had built鈥攁 QR code nearly as big as a football field would do what it鈥檚 supposed to do: open a mobile platform or Web page for smartphone users who took a picture of the matrix barcode.
鈥淯hh,鈥� Mason stalled. 鈥淲e鈥檒l get back to you on that.鈥�
The trio got to work. They had been a team since the early 2000s when they worked at another Carnegie Mellon startup, . When they moved on from the college guide company and founded Branding Brand, an interactive marketing firm, they monitored their clients鈥� web traffic as part of overall campaigns. That鈥檚 when they noticed a sliver of purchases coming from mobile devices.
Remember, back then the iPhone was only months old and cost around $500 and mobile commerce accounted for less than 1% of online retail. So it was a hard sell when they decided to bet big on mobile commerce and began cold-calling Fortune 500 companies, asking to speak to their presidents about exploring this new opportunity. Most of the time the answer they got, if they got one at all, was 鈥淵ou expect people to buy stuff on their BlackBerries?鈥�
Finally, Dick鈥檚 took their call and made Branding Brand an offer. Build us a mobile platform in 30 days, and we鈥檒l see. After drinking lots of Red Bull for the next month, the Branding Brand team succeeded. Dick鈥檚 was impressed enough that the leadership wanted to unveil it in a big way: during a college football bowl game at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
鈥淭hey wanted the QR code displayed on that stadium鈥檚 25,000-square-foot Jumbotron鈥攖he world鈥檚 largest HDTV, which hangs over the field. And, oh yeah, the game was the next day,鈥� recalls Mason.
They got back to the Dick鈥檚 executive, letting him know that they thought it could be done. For that game, Mason, Rahimi, and Koshzow were sitting in the stands among 75,437 fans, watching what turned out to be one of the most exciting college games of the decade (Oklahoma versus Brigham Young University). During halftime, the Jumbotron broadcast a 72-foot-high, 120-foot-wide QR code as part of Dick鈥檚 announcement of its new mobile platform. Throughout the stands, fans got out their smartphones: Click鈥lick...Click...Click鈥lick鈥�
It worked.
Four years later, Pittsburgh-based Branding Brand has gone from four employees to 120, and the company has more than 150 clients, including several national retailers. And that 1% of online retail via mobile devices hit 30% during the 2012 holidays, according to a Branding Brand study, with their startup being the largest and fastest-growing mobile commerce platform provider in the industry.
鈥擝radley A. Porter (DC鈥�08)
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