Best Health magazine is getting fit with QR codes.

With the help of eTalk host and March/April cover model Tanya Kim, the women’s health and lifestyle mag has taken another step into the new media world.

The QR code on the top right corner of the magazine’s cover invites readers to scan it with their smartphones for additional content. Scanning the code launches a behind-the-scenes video of Kim on-set at the photo shoot for the cover, demonstrating Pilates poses.

The magazine had been looking for a way to incorporate the codes into the magazine and found the Kim story to be a good way to introduce it, Bonnie Munday, editor-in-chief, Best Health, tells MiC.

‘It’s a way to engage our readers in a new and different way,’ she says. ‘Since we have a lot of fun with these shoots, we thought it would be nice to share with readers who might love to see this behind-the-scenes video. Instead of a URL link in the story, we thought this would be a fresh way to engage our readers.’

Using a QR code on the cover is part of the magazine’s pro-tech philosophy. The Reader’s Digest Canada-owned publication has an active online and social media presence. The Twitter page currently has more than 100,000 followers.

Munday says there aren’t set goals for how many people she’d like to see use the QR code, but she is sure the technology will be used again in future issues.

To promote this month’s issue, the magazine worked with CTV and was included in an eTalk segment. Kim also talked up the magazine on The Marilyn Denis Show this week.