New York brewery gamifies its IPA with QR codes

SingleCut's "Big in Japan IPA" featured packaging that also functioned as a "Name That Tune" game

Spotted: A rock-themed craft brewery from New York paid tribute to the popular rock music tradition of moving east to “make it big.” The American brewery, SingleCut Beersmiths, released in Japan for the first time and gamified its latest IPA as part of its campaign.

The IPA, named the “Big in Japan IPA,” featured SingleCut packaging that also functioned as a “Name That Tune” game, based on four classic rock songs which were popular in Japan over the past 50 years. 

The labels featured QR codes, carefully constructed by visual clues from the lyrics and titles of the four songs. Each QR code individually told the story of each song, and when the code is scanned, the consumer was directed to Spotify, where they could listen to the original.

The integrated campaign was designed by the Toronto-based agency, Zulu Alpha Kilo. As the IPA is yet to become a popular choice of beer in Japan, the campaign in the east focused on promoting the industry’s growing craft beer scene, in a wider attempt to bring the two cultures together. In the west, Big in Japan was also announced to SingleCut fans through Instagram Stories, which previewed the QR code labels. 

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