Connecting the dots between TV ad impressions and sales is a mix of art and science that has long defined the ad-tech industry. But the recent Coinbase Super Bowl spot displayed the potential for QR codes to effectively bridge the cause-and-effect divide.  

While it was certainly a high-profile experiment, advertisers don’t need to shell out $6.5M on a Super Bowl spot to leverage the technology effectively. For instance, Neiman Marcus has been using QR codes in TV ads to support the launch of new brands, drive awareness, and generate direct response for the better part of a year.

A recent campaign with CBD skincare brand Cannaluxe, launched last November, drove more than 150,000 visits to the retailer's website leveraging CTV ads with QR-enabled creative. The campaign was powered by MadHive, which offers an infrastructure-as-a-service platform behind the CTV efforts of major broadcasters, brands and agencies. 

“CTV enables brands to leverage the targeting capabilities of digital with the high impact TV environment,” said Adam Helfgott, CEO at MadHive. “And at a time when 70% of consumers use smartphones while watching TV, QR code-enabled creative can turn CTV into a full-funnel marketing tool for advertisers.”

Overall, the campaign generated 10 million impressions across premium publishers like Fox, ESPN, FX, AMC, and Bravo, The CW, Food Network, Bravo, and HGTV. The creative included advanced QR code technology from Flowcode, which generated a 96% video completion rate (VCR) and a 4% click through rate (CTR) — nearly 400% higher than the average CTR of Facebook.

What’s more, the campaign helped drive foot traffic to the 21 Neiman Marcus stores carrying the Cannaluxe product. MadHive’s geo-targeting capabilities allowed the brands to target households within the local range of the participating stories, refined with privacy-compliant cannabis and CBD purchase data from Fyllo.

This resulted in 3.4x sales in high-performing markets like Texas, and contributed 51% of total sales throughout the campaign. 

“As social saturation sets in, DTC brands are migrating to emerging channels to not only find new customers, but understand and prove out ROI,” said Brad Tipper, Brand Founder at Cannaluxe. “This campaign shows the capabilities of CTV, successfully allowing us to drive new customer awareness, acquisition and sales."