Russian Energy Drink Brand Engages Consumers With QR Code Puzzle Game

It all began with a scavenger hunt, I believe, when news about how fun QR Code can be spread like wild fire. In some European countries, QR Codes is more than just serious business and online promotion. Some have taken it in their stride to get creative with it while others invent fun tagging games based on QR Codes.

QR Codes is a barcode technology which originated from and is popularly used in Japan for approximately a decade by now. It looks like a funny-looking square and curious people can scan the barcode with a smart phone, albeit a Blackberry, iPhone or other android phones in the market. The bad news is most smart phones don’t come with a QR Code reader, as it is required to scan the code. The good news is that the news is catching on so most large mobile phone manufacturers are releasing new phone models that comes with their own QR Code readers, saving mobile phone users the trouble of searching for, downloading, and then installing the QR Code readers.

A Russian energy drink brand decided to run a QR Code interactive game with its consumers in Moscow. At the point of report, it seems that this location-based game currently actively being played in Moscow alone, not the entire Russian continent. Every week, a new QR Code will be released and consumers stand a chance to win some prices when they access the QR Code, download a puzzle and solve it.

When consumers solve the puzzle, they find out the next location. We are only assuming that the ‘next location’ would be where the next QR Code will be. The game is said to run for seven weeks and weekly prizes will be given out.

Although the potential of the QR Code campaign is underused when limiting the audience to only people in Moscow, it is a smart move in the right direction. The brand aims to not only reach their target market but they fully intend to engage the consumers in a fun way to help cement the brand into the minds of their fans.

We see more and more of these ‘games’ being played everywhere else in the world and are hoping that it will hit Americans in a big way in the future too.