In the story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the entire world is enthralled by a game that has been overlayed onto a product line. This idea has been copied in the real world several times over. McDonald's has had prominent success with its recurring Monopoly game, Coke had its bottle-cap rewards codes, along with a plethora of copycats from large consumer-facing companies with extra marketing dollars and an itch to "stand out".
Well designed games influence people to change their behaviors in predictable ways. The challenge now is to take advantage of the new layer of interactivity offered by omnipresent mobile communication devices, while still designing really engaging games. QR Codes (aka 2D Barcodes) offer an opportunity to convey information in a semi-exclusive form. While these codes are rather difficult to decipher through human senses, they can be very easily read by a range of devices equipped with imaging sensors and some simple software. The exclusivity of these "secret" codes serves to attract participants into a well-designed game that implements them. Another benefit of the QR Code as a game tool is the relatively low cost of the technology. There are several free QR Code generators, and the output is an image file that can be presented in digital or printed form.
One of the most simple games that can be developed using QR Codes is of the Willy Wonka - Golden Ticket type. After consumers purchase a product, they have the opportunity to gain access to a notification of whether they are victorious or not. With numerical codes and website forms, companies have influenced customers to buy more products and gave them a specific reason to visit their website. The disconnect in this situation between consumption location and time is alleviated through better integration with mobile devices. While consumers are not always in front of a computer screen, they almost always have a mobile device on hand. The use of QR Codes reduces the effort required by gamers, as they do not need to remember a URL or even manually enter their unique code.
What I am looking for now is a way to integrate large-format public touch screens into this game. Other than a leaderboard, what functionality can this screen have?