Mall of America’s Snap and Win campaign will let the first 300 people at the mall participate in a campaign where they snap QR codes to win a prize. The mall is using the QR codes to increase consumers’ knowledge about mobile bar codes and drive traffic to the mall.

“The goal of the QR codes is to create enough context behind the code that users want to use them to snap in the future as well as to drive in-store traffic at the mall,” said Lisa Grimm, digital brand manager at Mall of America, Bloomington, MN.

Snap together
One hundred QR codes will be placed on the Mall of America’s logo in the rotunda of the mall on Black Friday.

The first consumers to the mall will then receive a wristband and be placed into three groups.

Each group will then stand around the logo and use their mobile devices to snap a QR code, which will take users to an optimized page where they can claim their prize.

Prizes range from $25 to $1,000 and include items such as gift cards and shopping sprees.

Of the mall’s more than 500 retailers, 120 are giving away prizes for the event as well as outside sponsors.

In addition to giving away prizes, the campaign is also aimed to educate consumers about mobile bar codes.

At the event, mobile experts will show consumers videos of how the technology works and let consumers try snapping QR codes.

Mall of America is also using QR codes throughout the holiday season with employee T-shirts and signage that lets users enter a grand prize for a $1,000 shopping spree.

Mobile mall
This is not Mall of America’s first mobile foray.

The company has also dabbled in Microsoft Tags and SMS.

Mall of America’s use of QR codes is an effective communication channel because it has a simple and straight forward message.

Although QR codes are becoming more widespread, they are still new to consumers and by showing consumers how they work where they can also win prizes, the mall is giving consumers an incentive to interact with mobile.

In other mall-related news, an executive from General Growth Properties explained its strategy by saying that the bigger the incentive, the more apt consumers are to interact with mobile (see story).

“In our industry, it has yet to be seen how successful QR codes really are, so we hope this campaign will help our determine that,” Ms. Grimm said.

“We’re always interested in learning more about how people want to communicate,” she said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York