This post was created in partnership with IRCODE
QR codes are so yesterday – enter the era of scannable images. During a Brandweek 2025 session co-hosted with IRCODE, ADWEEK editor-in-chief Ryan Joe sat down in conversation with Matty Beckerman, IRCODE’s founder and CEO. Together, they explored how the company’s technology lets consumers scan any image to engage directly with branded content.
Shazam for images
Beckerman began by explaining how the IR Lens White Label System—an image recognition code—works for brand marketing. “You can literally point your camera at a piece of content that you have and scan it and engage with it, whether it’s video out of home, TV, CTV,” he said. No QR code required.
The technology fingerprints each image and stores its metadata, building on drone image-recognition research from a decade ago. “Think of us like Shazam for image recognition,” Beckerman said.
He explained that IRCODE builds and integrates an image-scanning lens directly into a client’s app at a cost that makes sense for most brands. And it happens fast: “We built a whole system that’s almost turnkey for a company to create a lens in less than 48 hours.”
A full funnel view of visual engagement
Beckerman shared that the more exciting feature for brands might be the back-end measurement tools that reveal organic user intent in the real world… “We have a measurement tool that gives you a heat map of the world. If you’ve got a big campaign out there, you can now tell who’s engaging, where they’re engaging, how they’re engaging, what they’re scanning and what they’re interested in,” he says.
So while Nielsen can tell you if a television is on in someone’s home, IRCODE can tell brands who’s watching that television. “It’s a big deal. You finally have a full funnel view of the engagement you’re getting organically,” says Beckerman.
IRCODE in action
Beckerman then shared some examples of how brands are using IRCODE, including to promote the documentary film “Satisfied.” To promote the film about the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, IRCODE deployed scannable billboards across Times Square. “We enabled it so you could just scan it and win tickets.” Actress Renee Goldsberry was part of the live event, but the in-home version of the film will also be scannable.
The other example he shared was of a scavenger hunt contest for Disney fans. The host of a travel show created a scavenger hunt where people could win a Disney vacation. “We had tens of thousands of people doing this and engaging with it. It was really cool as a test case for a television network to be able to use our technology built into their app, and a real world, practical application at a place like Disney,” said Beckerman.