Wyke Sixth formers next to the KC telephone box in King Edward Street, Hull (l-r) Mike Prince, Christine Angel, Nikki Buttrick and Ameer Majidias

Communications provider KC is using its phone boxes in Hull and East Yorkshire to offer local businesses a new way to promote themselves, through eye-catching posters on the outside of the region’s payphone kiosks. 

Wyke Sixth Form College is one of the first local organisations to try phone box advertising – and it’s added an innovative twist that gives its adverts extra value. 

Its posters include a ‘quick response’ barcode, which people with a smartphone such as an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android, can scan and store. The barcode contains the address of Wyke’s website, which can then be accessed easily when the person who’s scanned the ad wants to find out more. 

Commenting on the posters, Mike Rogerson, Vice-Principal at the west Hull sixth form college, said: “Our ‘customers’ are young people who are making decisions about their post-16 education, and they don’t necessarily see or take a great deal of notice of traditional forms of advertising. 

“But they are generally very technologically literate, and many use information they find on the web to help them make these important choices. 

“We already advertise on KC’s Karoo website from time to time, which makes it easy for potential students to click straight through to our website and find more information about Wyke’s excellent results and facilities or download our prospectus. 

“We hope the posters will work in a similar way – they’re highly visible so we hope they’ll catch the attention of prospective students, who can then scan the quick response barcode and visit our website later. 

“We have received hundreds of applications for next September and are looking forward to our fifth consecutive increase in student numbers.” 

KC’s Steve Allbones said: “We’re always looking for new ways to help our customers promote themselves, and we’re pleased that organisations like Wyke see phone box advertising as an effective and affordable way to do this. 

“It’s particularly exciting that Wyke’s using quick response barcodes on their posters, and I hope this combination of modern technology with more traditional advertising works well for them.” 

More information about phone box advertising is available by calling 01482 602602.