Scanning a Candy Code unlocks one of six games and characters, including timing and skill-based challenges and puzzles.
Exciting additions on their way
Karin Leonhartsberger, product manager, PEZ, told ConfectioneryNews the newly launched PEZ Play app is built upon its existing digital and mobile strategy to engage with the next generation of PEZ fans.
“The world is becoming increasingly mobile and the recent PEZ Play announcement is a follow-on from the thinking that we set-out at ISM earlier this year. We’re already planning some exciting additions,” she said.
Speaking to this website at ISM trade fair in Cologne, Germany, Leonhartsberger said the company hopes all its candy dispensers will one day carry codes to download a free mobile gaming app.
It partnered with its licensor Rovio for its first gaming app Angry Birds, launched in April, to coincide with the Angry Birds movie release and it is planning a PEZ-centric version of mobile game Bricks Breaking later this year.
“We met Zappar through Rovio as we worked with them on the mini-games that are linked to our Angry Birds dispensers,” added Leonhartsberger.
Angry Birds campaign
“We like the quality of output of Zappar and the way they operate as a business. We were impressed with their Angry Birds augmented reality campaign which saw over one billion ‘BirdCodes’ brought to life on packaging products.
“They also work with Hasbro on brands such as Transformers, My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop using codes as the base of an ‘app-tivated’ product strategy.”
When the PEZ Play app is downloaded, gamers are invited to restore ‘PEZ World’ to its former glory by finding Candy Codes that appear on PEZ refill pack inlays.
Consumers can also use their smartphone camera to place PEZ characters in the real world using Zappar's 'Face Finder' a feature with fruit-themed headgear where users can turn themselves into a strawberry or a lemon.
Max Dawes, partnerships and marketing director, Zappar, said it was great to work with PEZ again.
“They are an excellent example of a business embracing augmented reality and thinking about mobiles.”
Zappar AR codes are found on mobile devices through its free-to-download app on iOS and Android (or third-party apps with Zappar embedded within them).