USA! USA! USA!

Sorry, we’re having a hard time letting go of the Olympics. To ease our Olympic withdrawal, we turned to our other obsession, marketing, and found you some of the most interesting and useful marketing news making its way around the web.

One involves the Olympics. We’re sorry we’re not sorry.

QR Codes Are All Grown Up

QR codes are emerging from their awkward adolescence. We’ve already shown how you can customize a QR code to be a better ambassador for your brand. (And make it way less ugly.) Now, QR codes are flexing their muscle. ScanLife, a popular QR code app, released a report showing huge growth in QR code scans. The number of scans made per minute with the app increased from 24 in Q2 2011 to 120 in Q2 2012. In June of 2012 alone, 5.3 million people scanned QR codes using ScanLife.

They’ve even made their way onto social networks. Scan.me has created a clever site where you can turn your Instagram profile into a QR code. Scan a code, and you’ll start following that person on Instagram. Neat!

Besides making it easy for people to follow you on Instagram, QR codes work best when there’s a strong reason for people to scan. ScanLife’s report found that the campaigns that garnered the most scans were contests, followed by loyalty programs, social media and app downloads. So before you place a QR code in the bottom of your ad, make sure there’s something waiting for people behind the scan.

Tag Me If You Can

While QR codes are making it easier for consumers to access content, Expedia recently launched a creative contest that plays hide and seek. A local celebrity travels to 15 secret locations, and participants guess where he is based on short video clues. Think he’s in Tokyo? Geo-tag him on the contest webpage. If you’re within 10 kilometers of the actual location, you’ll win a cash prize.

On the contest site, you can also explore the locations the local celebrity has visited—with Expedia prices for each getaway. What a fun way to drive traffic and get people to interact with your brand.

Bank on Back-to-School

If you sell goods that appeal to back-to-school shoppers, you might want to keep your promotions rolling for a little longer. A survey from Brand Key tells us that 75% of parents and kids will wait until the last week of August to go shopping—after some retailers are wrapping up their back-to-school marketing efforts.

AdRoll pulled together some other school shopping trends—check out this infographic if you want to peek into the mind of a back-to-school shopper.

Mini MINI Gets Big Attention at the Olympics

It’s easy for a brand to get lost among the mass of Olympic sponsors. In an online survey conducted by Toluna, 37% of respondents said that Nike was an Olympic sponsor (it’s not), while only 24% said that rival Adidas was a sponsor (it is).

Kudos then to MINI for finding a way for their brand to stick out in the crowd. The mini MINI, a pint-sized version of the MINI Cooper, has been driving around the Games, picking up javelins, hammers and discuses. The little car is useful, attention-grabbing and cute to boot. A much better way to get noticed than another commercial or a tiny logo on a jersey.