Why have QR codes made a comeback?

QR codes didn’t ever really go away! However, today almost everyone carries a smartphone in their pocket, meaning that the capability to scan QR codes has expanded immensely. In the past, scanning QR codes required you to download a specific QR code reader app from the app store. This meant that they often didn’t live up to their full name of Quick Response Codes!

However, modern smartphones, ipads and other mobile devices now come equipped with built-in QR code scanners in their camera apps. This built-in functionality has significantly increased convenience and ease of use.

The technology behind QR code scanning has also improved significantly. As you’ll see below, it’s now super easy for anyone to generate their own code without having to use a third party app. Scanners in phone cameras today are also faster, more accurate, and capable of deciphering codes even in challenging lighting conditions.

Plus, today there is more wi-fi and enhanced 5G network coverage available across the world. Combine all these factors, and using QR codes is now an all-round faster and more user-friendly experience for everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic may have also accelerated the rebirth of the QR code, with a sudden need for contactless interactions and transactions.

How do you scan a QR code with your phone?

In case you’re not familiar with the process – here’s a quick recap!

On an iphone or android phone, simply go open your camera app and point it at the QR code. The URL will then appear for you to click and follow. On most android devices or phones you can also now use Google Lens to scan the QR code. Originally only available on Google Pixel phones, it’s now standard across almost all android phones and devices.

Note: You may have seen types of QR code with images in the centre – don’t worry, these work in exactly the same way!

What can QR Codes be used for?

Businesses and marketers have known for a long time that QR codes work as a powerful marketing tool. The usefulness of QR codes for marketing campaigns lies in the fact that a different code can be generated for each piece of collateral, meaning that marketers can easily trace which campaigns are working best. Here are ten ways in which anyone can make use of the portable technology of the QR code.

Interactive Business Cards

Revamp your traditional business cards by embedding a QR code. This code can link to your portfolio, social media profiles, phone number or a personalized introductory video, providing an interactive experience for recipients.

Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Trails

Organize a fun scavenger hunt or treasure trail using QR codes as clues. Participants can scan the codes to receive hints or find the next location, creating an exciting and immersive adventure.

Interested in creating interactive, immersive virtual escape rooms? Our blog How to Make a Virtual Escape Room with ThingLink shows you how!

Special Offers

Instead of having to reprint your printed collateral each time your offer changes, simply update the webpage or landing page that your QR points to instead!

Art Exhibitions and Museums

Enhance your visitors’ experiences at your exhibition, gallery or museum by placing QR codes next to each exhibit. Scanning the codes can provide detailed information about the artist, the artwork’s inspiration, or even an audio guide, bringing the exhibits to life.

For more inspiration on how you can use ThingLink in museums, galleries and cultural institutions, take a look at our dedicated page here. Or why not visit the Museums and Libraries section of our blog?

PLUS: Exciting news for museums and galleries!

ThingLink will shortly be rolling out the new AR App – for more information on how this will look, watch the short video below!

Product Packaging

This is of course where traditional barcodes started out – the precursor to the modern QR code! With a custom QR code on your product or packaging, you can offer customers instant access to additional product information, user manuals, instructional videos, exclusive discounts, pricing, offers, how-to videos…the list is endless! For example, why not add to a clothes label in your clothing store, linking to a landing page or ThingLink showing how you can style this item, what it looks like dressed up or down etc?

For more information on how you can use ThingLink for interactive product marketing, take a look at this helpful case study from Canadian brand Carmanah!

Restaurant Menus

Incorporate QR codes into your menus to allow customers to access digital versions, view nutritional information, or even place orders directly from their smartphones. To reduce clutter you could even print the code onto your tablecloth, or stencil onto the wall next to each table!

Fundraising

For any type of fundraiser, why not print your QR codes onto stickers that you can stick to your phone, print on t-shirts or bags – so that you can share info wherever and whenever and raise awareness and funds on a very small budget!

Travel Guides and Visitor Information

Create a digital guide to your visitor attraction by placing QR codes at various popular spots. Scanning the codes can provide historical facts, local insights, or even audio tours, allowing visitors to explore destinations at their own pace and in a range of formats.

Read how you can create a virtual tour easily and quickly with ThingLink – and share with a QR code! Here’s a great example from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Networking Events

Say goodbye to traditional paper resumes and business cards and create QR codes that link to your professional portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or personal website. Attendees can easily scan the code to access your contact information and connect with you digitally. Again these can be printed onto stickers or labels and attached to anything!

Virtual Real Estate Tours

For real estate agents and property owners, QR codes can offer virtual property tours. Place codes on “For Sale” signs or property brochures to give potential buyers a 360-degree virtual tour, showcasing the property’s features and amenities. Read this blog post to see how this can be done in ThingLink.

How do you create a QR code?

Previously, third party apps were required to generate a QR code, but the process has become much simpler in recent years. Any URL can instantly be converted into a QR code!

Create a QR code with Google Chrome

On your smartphone or mobile device, you’ll find a free QR generator built into Chrome (both the mobile app on the Android operating system and Apple iOS.) It’s also available on every desktop version of Chrome. It’s on the right hand side of the address bar and looks like a window with 4 small square panes. Click on it and a code is generated; click Download to save it to your device or drive.

Use ThingLink’s built-in QR code generator to share your interactive content

Did you know that you can generate QR codes straight from the ThingLink Editor? This means you can easily share your Virtual Tour, Learning Scenario or in fact any piece of interactive ThingLink content – instantly. Simply click “Share” and then “Share link” or “Get Direct Link”, and in addition to the URL, you have your own custom QR code ready to go!

The beauty of sharing your ThingLink content with a QR code is that your ThingLink content is updated in real-time – regardless of where it’s shared. So whenever and wherever you share your QR code, you can be sure that people will always be sent to the current version of your content!

Squaring is Sharing

Hopefully this has given you an insight into the huge potential of the humble little monochrome square, the QR code. Why not get started creating and sharing your interactive content today with a free ThingLink trial? Follow the link below!

What do we mean by digital storytelling?

Digital storytelling incorporates a wide range of creative and narrative formats that all build on the traditional forms of storytelling, by using digital platforms, technologies and tools – to convey narratives, stories or messages. Blogs and online journals, podcasts, vlogs, social media stories, even video games – these are all considered forms of 21st century digital storytelling!

Storytelling using digital media can be used for so many different purposes too. For personal expression, educational purposes, marketing and advertising, advocacy, entertainment – in fact any form of narrative communication. It usually incorporates multimedia elements – text, images, videos, audio, and interactive features combine to create engaging and immersive experiences for an audience.

The power of digital storytelling

Digital tools and platforms have lowered the barriers to entry for storytelling. With the widespread availability of smartphones, computers, and internet access, more people than ever before have the means to create and share their stories digitally. This has helped to democratize the process, allowing individuals from diverse backgrounds to participate and have their own stories heard.

StoryCenter, formerly known as the Center for Digital Storytelling, is an organization based in Berkelely, CA, that promotes the use of storytelling for personal, community, and social transformation. According to StoryCenter, telling stories using digital media can: aid personal transformation and community building, amplify marginalized voices, improve dialogue and empathy, and act as a tool for advocacy and social change.

Digital storytelling tools

Reliable and easy-to-use web-based platforms and apps now allow anyone to create professional looking digital storytelling content. Graphic design and video editing platforms such as Canva, Vimeo and WeVideo have made the digital storytelling process straightforward and intuitive for creators, providing free tutorials and templates for beginners.

ThingLink is another in this group of easy-to-learn platforms that allows creators to produce high quality, professional-look content with no experience or coding knowledge. Watch this short video below to see just how easy it is to create a ThingLink from scratch.

In these three examples below, creators have used the platform for digital storytelling in very different ways. We hope they inspire you!

Digital storytelling using branching scenarios

One of our favourite ThingLink examples that showcases the educational uses of digital storytelling is The Schoolchildren’s Blizzard, a scenario created by Stuhr Museum in Nebraska. The scenario recreates the personal stories of three school teachers, with the learners living the experience of a terrible blizzard that took place in 1888 from the point of view of the teachers.

“Storytelling is something that we’re really trying to emphasise across the museum, since our mission is to share the collective human experience of community building along the Platte River Valley. Our motto is “Your story is our history” and we use storytelling as a vehicle to connect with that empathy in people.“

Carly Harroun, Creative Director, Stuhr Museum

The personal experiences are made very real through the use of second person narrative and by the learner being asked to make the same choices at key decision points – just like the teachers did over a century ago. The scenario is used for history and language arts teaching with school classes.

The material was created with ThingLink’s Scenario Builder, the only branching solution that lets you combine various media types including videos, audio, 360° media, 3D and images into an immersive learning experience.

This approach could be used for teaching learners at all grade levels; high school students could even create their own scenario as part of a collaborative project.

More ways to share stories from the past

Academics at the University of Calgary Library created this clever ThingLink to tell the story of the only Canadian to have met Beethoven in an interactive and visual way. The design is in fact deceptively simple, and uses ThingLink’s tour tag to create the transitions between the chapters of the story which are simply variations on the same background. There is music included in some of the chapters, but you could just as easily add a voiceover instead – which can be uploaded or recorded directly in your ThingLink. You can read the Calgary University Library case study here to learn how it was done and see some more fantastic ThingLink examples from Calgary University Library.

Award-winning digital storytelling

Another powerful way that ThingLink is being used for storytelling is in the context of journalism. Belgian news platform L’Echo won a national award for their long-form article on the development of the Brussels canal which featured map-based ThingLinks as embeds (clip below). This is just one example of many articles and features that L’Echo have created using ThingLink to tell stories to great effect.

You can read the full L’Echo article and explore its ThingLink interactive maps here.

Read the full case study: “Echo Creates Award-Winning Multimedia Journalism with ThingLInk”.

Tell your story!

We hope you’ve enjoyed these three examples and have been inspired to start telling your own stories with ThingLink.

L’Echo is a daily business media brand based in Brussels, Belgium. It belongs to Mediafin, a joint venture between Rossel and Roularta. The editorial staff at the news organization consists of some 60 journalists. In 2022 a multidisciplinary team at L’Echo created a long format multimedia article about large-scale urban redevelopment in Brussels, along the canal that runs through the Belgian capital: “Le Plan Canal peut-il relancer Bruxelles?“ (“Can the Canal Plan relaunch Brussels?”).

How the article was created

As with many of L’Echo’s formats, the team consisted of a specialist journalist, multimedia journalists, a developer and a coordinator. The starting point was a redevelopment plan decided upon by the local authorities. The L’Echo team wanted to both assess its impact and show the extent of the area’s transformation.

Journalist and Manager of digital media Nicolas Becquet explains: “We started by collecting the information and then devised a storyline. Given that the canal crosses Brussels from one end to the other and that the area is considerable, we had the idea of visualising the territory from the sky, from north to south.

As a drone pilot and ThinLink user for many years, I thought of using the 360° camera technology to integrate it with ThingLink. Once the images were captured, we added a graphic layer to isolate certain areas and we used the interactive buttons to give contextual information. 

The story was then translated into text, data, photos and immersive, interactive images. The editorial developer put all the elements together, with the help of the graphics team.”

Digital Multimedia Storytelling

The team have been experimenting with digital multimedia storytelling for many years and are used to working cross-functionally and using ThingLink for 360° building tours. (See the bottom of this blog for more fantastic examples!) However now the technical progress made in 360° picture capturing meant that they were ready to create this type of narration. 

The benefits of creating content in ThingLink for L’Echo

“ThingLink provides turnkey, mobile-friendly and technologically advanced visualization tools.”

Nicolas Becquet, L’Echo

1. Perfect for viewing on mobile devices

For the L’Echo team, ThingLink provided the perfect solution they needed: 360° visualisation that works well on mobile devices. This is of critical importance given that year on year the percentage of their audience who consume the material on mobile devices grows. 

2. Speed of content creation

A second benefit of using ThingLink was the speed at which they could create the content, much faster than expected in fact – taking their idea from concept to publication very quickly.

3. Increased engagement

As with all ThingLink content, the team were able to view and analyse the stats to see how much and what type of interaction the material received. They were very surprised to see that the article resulted in a much higher level of user interaction from their audience than they expected. By comparison, as a rule their audiences hadn’t interacted to such an extent with online content. 

• From a quantitative point of view, in total, the visualisations received more than 160,000 views, which is significant for this type of content. 
• The overall open rate was a very satisfactory 15%.
• On one of the three visualisations, the open rate was a very impressive 44%.

Award winning journalism

L’Echo received a lot of positive qualitative feedback from readers, who praised the quality and fluidity of the digital content and the originality and interest of the visualisations in helping them understand the subject.

They also received the Belfius annual journalism prize in the Digital Press category. The jury stated: “Excellent journalistic work, very successful multimedia aspects complementing the text and a clear focus on aesthetics”. The awards are open to every professional Belgian reporter, press photographer or journalist.

View the full material in situ at the following web page: https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/Bruxelles/plan-canal.html

The team also created a Flemish version for their Dutch speaking counterparts: https://www.tijd.be/politiek-economie/belgie/brussel/kanaalplan.html

Spotlight on: The growth of multimedia journalism

The growth in this area of journalism is evidenced by the number of leading media titles creating multimedia content, as well as the number of universities and colleges worldwide offering full-time bachelor’s degrees in the specialism. 

The benefits of using interactive digital media in your news stories and features

• ThingLink allows you to seamlessly embed different media types within your content which immediately increases dwell time. Content becomes instantly interactive and the reader has a more “hands-on” experience, with the ability to delve into the stories as much or as little as they want.
• Using a variety of media also increases accessibility, presenting content in an easily digestible format. The multi-modal format means that it can reach a wider audience who may not be able to access text-heavy content. Or they simply may not want to.  In an age when audiences digest audio content in the form of podcasts, and short form video via platforms such as TikTok, text and images 
• Audiences worldwide have become accustomed to having TV newsrooms present items in an easily digestible infographic format. Journalism giants such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and the Guardian were the first to move into the new media realm, and still remain other national and regional news organisations have followed suit.

Interested to read more about the use of new technologies in news reporting? Here is our curated pick of some best use cases of ThingLink in multimedia stories – including a few more from L’Echo.

• P+J Case study: Scottish news brand’s interactive map goes viral after being shared on their social media channels
• Article from L’Echo containing a great virtual tour of a new digital hub in Liege
• Article from Tijd (sister publication to L’Echo) about Brussels’ Grand-Place
• In this blog from 2016 you can experience some immersive 360 tours Nicolas created for L’Echo.
• Interactive map created by NBC News for their Dateline: Missing in America podcast
• Interactive guide to the White House by La Republicca (Italy)
• An interactive article on FODMAP diets in the Evening Express (UK)

What is interactive content?

Interactive content, or interactive media, is a type of digital content designed to engage users more than traditional forms of media or passive content by allowing users to interact with the content in some way. Interactive experiences can include games, quizzes, polls, videos, podcasts, surveys and other types of engaging activities that make it easier for users to interact with the material.

What are the benefits of interactive content?

It’s an effective way for businesses to collect valuable customer and target audience user data that can be used to improve their offerings and increase lead generation. Interactive elements provide customers with an immersive experience that keeps the audience’s attention longer than traditional forms of media using static content like text or images alone.

What is the importance of interactive content?

Whether you’re pitching a start-up, creating content marketing or sales materials, communicating internally, or creating reports for decision-makers, interactive multimedia can supercharge all types of quality content.

How do you make interactive content?

Integrating Canva into ThingLink’s creation flow means that now it is even easier for ThingLink users to create professional-looking multimedia experiences.Examples of interactive content that you can use today

Power up your content creation with these free Canva templates designed for ThingLink use! From a pitch deck to, diagrams, organization charts, and annual reports, we’ve got you covered when it comes to engaging content. Here are some ideas for how to use each of these free and editable content tools, as well as links to all of them in Canva. Once created in your ThingLink account you can easily embed it in your own website, Microsoft Teams Channel, or simply share it on social media as a link.

1. Company organizational chart

Create a more immersive experience for your organizational chart by asking your team to add video introductions. Use it on your website, or as part of any pitch deck. Here is the Canva chart template used in this design. 

2. Use ThingLink to create content that behaves like a website or landing page

Use it as a microsite for marketing or a proposal for a partnership, or a charity campaign, when you don’t want to have to create a new domain – possibilities are endless. Here’s the template we used.

3. Campaign infographic/internal engagement document

Make sure all your team members are on board with any campaign or create an interactive infographic to highlight the main value proposition on your latest blog post. Get creative with the Canva template here. 

4. Global Sustainable Development Goals presentation

The UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals should be at the heart of any enterprise’s thinking. Stay on track and report back to your stakeholders. Here is the Canva template with icons for all 17 goals. The same approach could be used for a white paper or research document.

5. Graph or chart for reporting

Use ThingLink to make any chart or graph interactive with detailed information in a variety of media. Highlight your product features, reasons to buy, explain your monthly growth, timeline, case studies or content marketing strategy. Edit the template from here.

6. Interactive content marketing: newsletter or annual report

If you are looking to do something different, make otherwise text-heavy docs interactive with links your stakeholders will immediately engage with, or even better, add voice notes on each page. An additional bonus: now you will also be able to see how many people have viewed your materials! Template right here.

7. Virtual tour of a business park/campus or new office locations

Provide your team with a map and guide to facilities or create a tour for new employees to highlight your office location! Link to the template here. For more ideas on how to create interactive maps like these, see Six Examples of Interactive Maps. 

8. Pitch or proposal

Get investors engaged from the get-go with interactive hotspots showcasing your ideas, experience and your team. Grab the Canva template here! (Plus bonus template for the linked resume thinglink!)

9. Induction road map for new employees

If you’re creating a team around you – let new employees know what to expect! Create a 30-60-90 day plan, or highlight the goals for the organization and department. Grab the template here. This could be one part of an interactive ebook

10. A Venn diagram to help you define your brand

Pin down your brand vision and identify who else sits in your brand area by identifying any overlap between two brands, or competitors. Could they be your next partner brand? Here is the Canva template for you to adapt.

How does the ThingLink Canva integration work?

Thanks to the new integration, your background image can now be created and edited directly in ThingLink. If you’re signed in to your Canva account, you can also access all your own previous and current designs and uploads. So whether you need to change the entire background image, or just update a tiny piece of text – you can do it all in ThingLink! If your content needs updating at any time, edits are made instantly – all all versions of the ThingLink content will be updated in real-time, wherever they are embedded. 

What other types of interactive content can you create?

You can also use ThingLink to make interactive video content, 360 images, 360 videos and 3D objects interactive? Canva has millions of images to use Royalty Free, as well as videos and animations that you can use to easily create interactive video content.

And now with ThingLink’s Scenario Builder, it’s easy to create interactive scenario-based learning experiences and modules for onboarding, CPD or refreshing your employees’ skills. Assessments and interactive quizzes can be built-in. Use it for onboarding or CPD or to refresh employees’ skills. There’s also an easy calculator to see what your learners have scored for each module as well as other useful user metrics.

The P&J: One of the world’s oldest newspapers

The Press and Journal in Aberdeen, Scotland is affectionately known as the “P&J”. It was established in 1747 and is Scotland’s oldest daily newspaper. In fact it’s one of the oldest newspapers in the world.

P&J journalist Philippa Gerrard had been researching an autumn online series on Scots language since the summer. “Spikkin Scots”, would focus on the language and regional dialects around the country. The final article would be a long form online editorial piece about the 13 different main regional dialects from around the nation. She had consulted world experts – including the Scots Language Centre and linguistics specialists at Aberdeen University. In fact, her article would become the largest ever piece of research into Scots language by a daily newspaper.

Journalist Philippa Gerrard, Press and Journal

Adding interest and value with authentic voices

But Philippa realised that something vital was missing from her final feature – the sound of the language itself. As she points out: “Scots is a language you hear…so I asked myself: how can we present this so people can hear it?”. She put out a call for Scots speakers to record themselves speaking their local dialect or accent, and was immediately contacted by many keen volunteers. Each was asked to identify a few words, phrases or characteristics typical of their area to form the basis of a short recording. Philippa realised that with these audio clips she had the chance to make something so much more impactful than a plain copy article.

“The multimedia aspect is really important now – readers won’t accept just flat copy online. For a long time they’ve been getting their online content for free, but now we’re beginning to ask them to pay. And as a paying subscriber, they’re asking “Am I getting value for my subscription?”

Philippa Gerrand, journalist, Press & Journal

An interactive map: clickable and trackable

Ideally, she wanted to create a truly interactive and engaging article which would locate each recording on a designed and branded map, with clickable tags, each provided with a helpful transcript…all of which had to be an embed in the paper’s website and be fully trackable, so the media team could monitor how it performed. Luckily a colleague had seen ThingLink in action and knew it ticked every box. The P&J graphic design team quickly created a branded map on which each regional tag was pinned with text and audio, and the piece was ready to go.

Readers could click on each tag to listen to someone explain the evolution, local words, phrases and nuances of the area’s dialect whilst speaking in that very same regional dialect and accent they are describing – far more evocative than any written words! 

Explore the map on Press & Journal

The interactive map goes viral 

The results and reach surprised the media impact team at P&J. They were much better, and more international, than Philippa and her colleagues could have ever imagined. When the web page was shared on social media in December 2020 it started to go viral, shared hundreds of times, and attracting hundreds of positive comments and interest, initially from Scotland and the rest of the UK, and then from all over the globe. 

In only 10 weeks the interactive custom map in ThingLink had been viewed almost 130,000 times all over the world – from Argentina to Zambia. In fact, Google Analytics shows relatively few parts of the globe that it hasn’t reached: in the world map below the countries where it was read are coloured green. It became such an extraordinary international success that Philippa wrote another article in February 2021 on just how far it had travelled. As well as impressive reach, dwell time was well above the normal level, which is often the case for this type of multimedia journalism created using new technologies.

“The amount of time that people were spending on this interactive map was far more than they would spend on a typical piece on the website. The analytics showed that people who were clicking on it were really engaged with it and spending a long time on it.” 

Philippa Gerrand, journalist, Press & Journal

Engagement statistics for the interactive map

• Dwell time was over 8 minutes; well performing pieces on the P&J website typically achieve 1 – 3 mins.
• The piece performed well each of the 4 times it was shared. The most recent share on Facebook performed 26x better than the average P&J Facebook post for likes, shares and comments.
• During January it received over 10x as many page views as the website’s average top performing piece of impact content.

What’s Next?

Following the huge international success of the interactive map, the Press and Journal is now working on a much larger interactive feature, in which ThingLink will bring alive the culture and characters through the centuries of Aberdeen’s main thoroughfare, historical Union Street.  

“We want to be a lot more intentional with what we’re putting online – to offer more analysis and deeper insight on how it’s going to affect our readers specifically. That’s where multi-media tools like ThingLink come in. They offer that opportunity to be more analytical – to offer readers that little bit more that they won’t get elsewhere.”

Philippa Gerrand, journalist, Press & Journal

“We really like to think about what readers will enjoy and what they will respond to…this turned out to be a real success…it seems that people really enjoyed the interactivity element of it,” says Philippa Gerrard.

The benefits of interactive maps and multimedia storytelling for media platforms and news organizations

Interactive Maps and infographics like these make data visualization simple for your audience. Consumers today are well-used to mobile apps like Google Maps which mean a huge variety of media is at their fingertips. Another benefit of creating digital media like this is that it increases the accessibility of your content, by varying the format that the news stories and digital content is delivered in. Using ThingLink means that any edits or updates you make will be updated everywhere the content is embedded, in real-time. 

• The full Press and Journal use case in a PDF format is available here.

More inspiration this way!

For more inspiration for adding new and different media to your own custom maps, take a look at these helpful blogs. They show a wide range of map styles that you could use as templates – or follow the tutorials contained in them to become a map creator in a matter of minutes! No graphic or web design experience required, and no specialist mapping software or know-how such as gis or api. Simply create your map quickly and easily with ThingLink and share – via social media, with a link, or using the embed code in any website or blog. Whether you are a multimedia journalist or new media content creator, a student of media studies or even involved in news reporting for your high school, make maps in ThingLink and start creating engaging multimedia stories!

• L’Echo Creates Award Winning Article with ThingLink Interactive Map
• 6 examples of interactive maps where creators have used ThingLink as their map tool
• Explore the innovative Wilhelmsen interactive map of port restrictions
• Great new update for all map makers: Floor plan or mini map now added to the ThingLink editor!
• How do I make my maps interactive with ThingLink? Want to add links to your podcasts, videos and contact information? Learn how here! Our blog covers the fundamentals of interactive map creation.

Connect and Collaborate

For more ideas, use cases and inspiration on content creation, join our communities on social media! 

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page / LinkedIn Community 
• X/Twitter ThingLink Page / X/Twitter Creative Learning Design Community 
• ThingLink Facebook Page 
• Instagram ThingLink
• ThingLink YouTube Channel

The challenge

In 2020, Covid-19 created multiple issues for the shipping industry around the world. One of the key issues was the range of different restrictions in place at ports across the globe, and the fact that they were changing and evolving daily. Wilhelmsen therefore wanted to ensure that a large volume of up-to-date information was easily accessible to their employees, accurately detailing specific restrictions at key global ports. 

The updates had to happen efficiently and quickly. This information had to be presented in a visually engaging format that allowed viewers to access the most relevant information whenever they needed it, 24 hours a day. In order to solve these problems, Wilhelmsen turned to ThingLink and created an Interactive Global Port Restrictions Map which was used for as long as Covid restrictions remained anywhere in any port worldwide.

Explore the live interactive map below

Making huge data accessible in a single visual experience

As you can see in the world map above, there are over 50 ThingLink hotspots, each in their appropriate geographic location.  Each hotspot includes information on a specific port and information such as, “Are there any restrictions on vessels whose previous port call was from COVID high risk countries?”.  For example, in the clip below, a click on the United States tag unlocks all of the current and up-to-date key information on U.S. ports. 

Easy data visualization with a clear map legend

Wilhelmsen created a legend that gives viewers a visual indication as to which countries have been updated in the last 24 hours (appearing as yellow icons), or locations which do not allow crew change (appearing as red icons).  While ThingLink provides several hundred preloaded icons, you can also upload custom icons to achieve a certain design or visual cue to your audience, or to match the brand colors of your organization. This further speeds up learning and processing information for Wilhelmsen employees.

Clicking on the blue plus sign icons located in Central America, Africa, Middle East or China will take viewers into a zoomed in custom map view of these regions.  This improves the end experience for viewers and prevents overcrowding of icons in regions with very consolidated countries. Viewers can navigate back to the original map by clicking the back button on the top left corner, or the related scenes view on the bottom right corner. Combining multiple pieces of interactive media into one experience is a key feature of ThingLink and allows for deeper visual communication.  Here we have five ThingLinks combined into one global map. 

Creating, sharing and updating saves time for marketers

Creating and sharing ThingLinks can be accomplished in minutes and requires no advanced computer skills. If you can make a Powerpoint, you can make a ThingLink, and you can become an interactive map creator. ThingLinks can be updated constantly and you don’t have to re-embed one each time an update is made. Simply share once with an embed code, and your map will be updated wherever it’s embedded, whenever you make an update.

This greatly speeds up the creation process and eliminates the need for marketers to have to involve developers to make updates, saving everyone time and resources. In this interactive map, each tag indicates when it was last updated, ensuring that users are accessing the most up-to-date information.   

Community involvement, live updates and chat support

What sets this interactive map style apart from most others is that they further engage their viewers with three unique tags at the top of the map.

First, we see a slideshow appear when clicking “Not all heroes wear capes” which provides tribute and thanks to ALL ship agents around the world. 

Second, the viewer is taken to a page that allows them to subscribe to #PortNews for daily updates on Coronavirus.

Ask for help via the interactive map

Finally, Wilhelmsen embeds a Zendesk live chat that connects anyone with a support specialist real time to answer questions. You can embed any media on the web into a ThingLink tag, including videos, slideshows, 3D models, Google Maps or Google sheets, polls, quizzes and more.

Interactive maps solve global logistics challenges

In conclusion, Wilhelmsen effectively leveraged ThingLink to create their own custom map that solved several new communication problems relating to Covid-19 and the impact it had in the maritime industry. Variations of this use case can be used by any organization or government agency to solve problems they are facing in global communication, commerce or transportation.

How to make your own maps instantly interactive with ThingLink

• Our blog “How do you create interactive maps” demonstrates just how easy it is to create an interactive map with ThingLink
• Six examples of interactive maps
• How to create interactive infographics

NEW: Easily and instantly add a 360 photo of any global location using Pano to 360 by ThingLink

Until now, creators required a 360 camera to capture photospheres of any given location. With the 2023 launch of Pano to 360 by ThingLink, anyone can instantly convert a panoramic photo taken on any mobile device into a fully 360 image. No ThingLink account required, and it’s completely free.

Join the conversation

For more inspiration and live user examples, join our groups and communities on Social Media:

• LinkedIn: ThingLink LinkedIn Page | LinkedIn Community 
• X/Twitter: X / Twitter ThingLink Page | X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community 
• Facebook: ThingLink Education Facebook Group | ThingLink Facebook Page 
• For helpful tutorials and webinars, go to our ThingLink YouTube channel

Explore the map in situ on their website here or view the individual highlights via our embeds below.

How to use the interactive map

Click on the London tag for example to explore an interactive image featuring London shows (below). Click back on the top left corner to revisit the original map and continue exploring the remaining regions. Viewers can seamlessly navigate between interactive images of Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid and more directly from the single map view of Europe. You can use ThingLink to create image carousels, presentations and deep dive maps, infographics or learning exercises. The possibilities are endless! 

Adding rich and engaging media to your tags

Notice how there are subtle movements when each of the number icon tags above open?  FashionUnited uses GIF files within these tags to add an extra level of dynamic content via animations, that further captures viewer attention.  You can use GIFs within ThingLink tags to highlight a specific product feature, demonstrate something in a learning setting, or simply to improve the design and dynamic nature of your interactive content.  

How do I make my map interactive?

Thanks to platforms like Google Maps, we all now use rich media interactive maps on a daily basis. But did you know how easy it is to create your own map like this with no coding or design experience? You can easily make your own custom maps or infographics that are interactive like this version – go to our blog below to see just how easy it is with ThingLink!

• How to create interactive maps

Share via direct link or embed code to add to your website or landing page. Because ThingLink is a cloud-based platform, updates you make to your map will be made in real-time wherever it is embedded and shared.

Further reading: Use cases for interactive maps

A variety of different interactive map styles on display in our blog:

• Six examples of interactive maps

A gold standard use case:

• Interactive world map of shipping ports from Wilhelmsen

Join our active groups and communities on social media for more inspiration:

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page | LinkedIn Community
• X / Twitter ThingLink Page | X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page | X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community
• ThingLink Education Facebook Group

Or watch helpful tutorials at our ThingLink YouTube Channel.

Using interactive infographics to summarise blogs and other long-form content

Blog posts can quickly become very text-heavy, which causes readers to engage less with your content.  As the web shifts to more visual media like images and videos, we recommend incorporating as many as possible into your blog posts to capture the attention of today’s readers. Using interactive hotspots within visual media allows authors to continue telling their story without having to increase article length with many lines of text.  The examples below show how Schneider Electric has continuously leveraged interactive infographics within blog posts to generate stunning communication experiences.   

Showing smart home devices’ dependency on an internet connection 

Pro Tip:  Using GIFs within your tags is a simple and impactful way to highlight a certain product feature or message.  Notice Schneider Electric uses GIFs to illustrate the different smart home devices found in the infographic above.  

Pro Tip: Use ThingLink custom icons to match the look and feel of your organization, or green and white in Schneider Electric’s example above. Custom icons can be effective visual instructions for your viewers and what they can expect underneath the hotspot (a play button to indicate a video). Finally, custom icons can be used to portray a relevant illustration like signal tower used above.  Click here to read more about uploading custom icons.

Further reading and great examples

• How to create interactive infographics
• Interactive infographics: What are they and why should you use them?
• 3 great examples of interactive infographics

Why do interactive infographics work so well?

Interactive infographics have revolutionized the world of content marketing by offering a dynamic and engaging way to present information. Unlike their static counterparts, interactive infographics leverage animations, templates, and interactive elements to create a truly immersive experience for the audience. This approach transforms data visualization from a passive viewing experience into an interactive journey, making it ideal for capturing the attention of today’s social media-savvy audience. By integrating features like scrolling, animated infographics, and pop-ups, marketers can craft eye-catching visual stories that not only educate but also entertain.

A versatile format

One of the key advantages of interactive infographics in content marketing is their versatility. With a wide range of graphic design and infographic templates available, marketers can tailor their visuals to match their marketing strategy and target audience. Whether it’s an interactive map illustrating regional data, dynamic graphs, or even calculators that allow users to input their own data and see real-time results, interactive infographics offer endless possibilities for conveying complex information in a digestible format. This level of customization not only enhances engagement but also encourages social sharing, extending the reach of your content.

Effective at conversion

Furthermore, interactive infographics are highly effective at converting web visitors into subscribers. By strategically placing interactive elements on a landing page, you can entice visitors to interact with the content. This engagement not only holds their attention but also provides valuable insights into their interests and preferences. When done right, the best interactive infographics not only tell a visual story but also guide the audience toward desired actions, making them a vital tool in any content strategy. So, if you’re looking to make a lasting impact with your content marketing efforts, consider incorporating interactive infographics to harness the power of visual communication and captivate your target audience.

Join the conversation to see more inspiring examples

Join our active groups and communities on social media for more inspiration:

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page | LinkedIn Community
• X / Twitter ThingLink Page | X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page | X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community
• ThingLink Education Facebook Group

Pro Tip: Use ThingLink’s transit tag to combine any interactive media type into one experience.  One easy way to do this is to make a collage featuring various topics.  Use a ThingLink hotspot to take a deeper dive into a certain topic. WaterAid users the transit tag to give readers an easy to navigate infographic and learn more about key partnership stories from the last twelve months.

WaterAid works in 34 countries across the world. Click the markers on the world map to explore some stories about their work.  

Pro tip: Notice that each tag in this map includes a left and right arrow on the pictures as seen in the screen shot below?  You can add multiple images into a single tag in your own map which will automatically create a nice carousel that allows viewers to scroll through the images.  This is especially valuable if you need to market various aspects of a product or initiative.  Furthermore, you can upload videos (MP4s) and GIFs to add an extra element of engagement and motion. You can also embed a video from YouTube or Vimeo in a tag to add your branded content.

Further reading

Interactive map from Medecins Sans Frontieres

How to create interactive maps

Six examples of interactive maps

Join our active groups and communities on social media for more inspiration:

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page | LinkedIn Community
• X / Twitter ThingLink Page | X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page | X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community
• ThingLink Education Facebook Group

The good news is, interactive sharing from ThingLink to Twitter is back. This time, it also works for videos and virtual tours, even for 360 videos, which is very exciting.  Think about an editorial or engagement campaign that invites viewers to visit physical spaces directly on the Twitter stream, now this is possible. Below is an example of a 360-degree virtual video walk through that is captured with an Insta360 One X camera. 

Another fantastically useful application is interactive videos that provide additional information for the viewer right on the spot, literally.  See example of a video interview that gives information of the speaker, key terminology, as well as certain details in the physical space.

Explore live tweet below or see it here. 

How do you set up a space for co-teaching? Sampo Forsström from Joensuu Teacher Training School shares some ideas in this interactive video interview: https://t.co/OLyEdfzyPW @ThingLink_EDU #edtech @ThingLink #teacherchallenge #classroom #design #teaching

— Ulla Maaria Koivula (@ullamaaria) October 10, 2019

ThingLink images and videos on Twitter can include text labels, closeup photos, text descriptions, video clips, or content from 3rd party sites. In addition, any text description in a hotspot opens in Immersive Reader with automatic translation to over 60 languages.

Here is how sharing to Twitter works:

1. Copy paste any ThingLink URL to the tweet box

2. Click “Tweet”

3. Read how-to guide and full technical specifications here

Questions about sharing ThingLinks to Twitter or anything else? 

{{cta(‘c99ef121-786b-44da-9c07-32d2d5628cbe’)}}