Sportsthread uses Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac) to drive 1,000,000+ app downloads

Getting people to download the Sportsthread app

Keenan Leary, director of UX/UI at Sportsthread, faced a very specific hurdle. With user growth and scaling in mind, he wanted more people who attended college and high school-level sports events to download the Sportsthread mobile app. He hoped to do this through a two-step process. People scan a QR Code, and based on their mobile device, they get a link to the Sportsthread application.

The problem? He couldn’t find a QR Code solution that could automatically detect the OS of a mobile device and accordingly direct users to the correct app store. Since their core audience used both Android and iOS devices, Keenan didn’t want to miss out on engaging with a large number of potential Sportsthread users.

As early adopters of QR Codes, Keenan talks about their primary use-case at Sportsthread:

“We would have QR Codes as part of our marketing material at student-level sports tournaments. People could scan a QR Code to get the tournament schedule through the Sportsthread app.”

Searching for an enterprise-friendly QR Code solution

Given the scale at which Sportsthread operates, it was important for the outbound marketing team that Keenan heads to have a QR Code partner that provided an enterprise-friendly solution. This meant having a rich feature stack for enterprise needs. Also, considering the size of Keenan’s team, having an efficient and secure access management system was crucial.

With extensive customization capabilities and analytics, Uniqode’s (formerly Beaconstac) QR Code platform stood out as an appealing solution.

For Keenan, Uniqode’s (formerly Beaconstac) custom domain option has been a powerful feature:

“It was extremely important for us to link our QR Codes to a custom domain: having ‘/sportsthread’ in the link meant that more people would click through. No one wants to click on a link with random letters and numbers. It feels spammy.”

In addition, Uniqode’s (formerly Beaconstac) advanced attribution analytics and organizational setup have ensured that the QR Code platform fits easily into Keenan’s workflow. Keenan’s team has been able to glean precise analytics for each partner they work with.

“Since we handle communication for different youth sports organizations, we would have signages with a QR Code at the entrance of field-houses where events take place. It was basically a prompt for parents, fans, coaches, and other student-athletes to download the Sportsthread app to stay in the know of what was happening at the event.”

The results

With Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac) as their preferred QR Code platform for the past three years, Sportsthread has gathered over 162,358 scans and reached 138,925 customers. Keenan’s team has seen a huge improvement with regard to the conversions they get from their QR Code campaigns.

Having incorporated QR Codes into Google banner ads, social media posts, and tournament venue touchpoints, Keenan has used Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac) to zero in on attribution much better. With better analytics from the Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac) dashboard, his team has been able to A/B test different placements, copy, and other marketing material. In addition, Keenan says that integrations placed within the platform have made his work a lot easier.

As an enterprise customer where the ability to handle scale was crucial, here’s what Keenan has to say about the results he has been getting with Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac):

“I can say without a fraction of a doubt that conversion rates have gone up. With the app link QR Codes, in particular, we have definitely seen a noticeable change.”