Nescafé 3in1 Decode promo winners bared

The Nescafé 3in1 Decode promo, the most exciting promo held locally in a long time with its use of a high-tech wireless application, concluded its run recently with three tech-savvy individuals emerging as winners.

The contest proved to be challenging but extremely exciting for the winning participants, namely Jakeson Borja, 29, and Richard Arrieta, 31, of Quezon City, and Jerry Bangcaya, 36, of Manila.

“It was definitely a challenge, but a really cool one. I didn’t exactly plan to go to those places in one day but it turned out to be really fun and exciting. Once you start it, you just couldn’t resist finishing it. Once you got the first one right, you got the sense that you might just win it if you pushed harder,” Arrieta recounted.

Jakeson Borja agreed, saying, “It felt like a race and got my adrenalin going.”

“It required you to use one of the things you just never leave home without these days and that’s the phone,” he said.

The promo, conducted by leading brands Nescafé 3in1 and Smart Communications Inc., is the first of its kind in the country.

For successfully finishing the unique, never-before done wireless challenge, each of the winners got to take home P31,313.

In the challenge, Smart subscribers were required to use their camera phone to read the bar code encrypted on strategically situated billboards all over Metro Manila.

The participants were asked to download the Upcode application for free and subsequently register. After which, they were tasked to take photos of the alien images on the billboards.

Then using the Upcode application to read the code, the participants had to scan the code to receive the clue to the next alien.

The Nescafé 3in1 Decode Promo took the participants from EDSA Guadalupe to Quiapo to Quirino and even to the Nescafé 3in1 website.

The billboards and website all had aliens with unique Quick Response (QR) barcodes encrypted in them.

The application that allows for the decoding of the 2D barcodes has become extremely popular in tech-savvy countries such as Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Nescafé 3in1 and Smart Buddy are the first to use it in a game promo (powered by Smart subsidiary WolfPac Mobile Inc.) in the country.

Compatible with more than 200 phone models of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Motorola, the application is used for various marketing and promotional activities, advertising, packaging, ID and logistics.

The barcodes are of international standard, and can be developed for a variety of functions such as mobile tickets, mobile coupons, mobile downloads, SMS, polling, loyalty rewards and more.

The Nescafé 3in1 Decode Promo ran from July 15 to Aug. 15.

For more fun and exciting activities, check out www.nescafe3in1.com.ph.