If you’re in Manhattan, then you’ll know that the latest craze amongst toy collectors…CUTE toy collectors are now crazy about a collectible toys known as Kidrobots. Kidrobot is available in large cities like New York, San Francisco, LA, Miami and Dallas. They’re trying to an international distribution and they’ve decided that the smartest and cheapest way to do this is to make use of QR Codes.

This is a designer collectible toy we’re talking about and to get people talking about it and then buying it, you need a little bit of fun. And out comes the idea of a toy hunt.

The QR Code is a two-dimensional code that can be read with a smartphone user’s camera phone and decoded with a preferred software. The QR Code technology has been widely used in Japan for a decade or so and only now are we seeing the usefulness of it – especially in the current climate our economy is in.

They call the Kidrobot toy hunt the ‘Dunny Hunt’ and will be based in New York. The QR Codes are hidden all around town and participants would need to hunt them down, scan them and get information on it. The company is currently using New York as a testing ground, sort of a lab test, for future promotional campaigns. Why New York? Well, it’s where people are and if it works out, the same kind of campaign would run in other cities where they have stores as well.

Kidrobot company’s got their own Twitter account and according to sources, they intend to send out clues and materials that could help participants find the QR Codes via their Twitter feed. It’s interesting how they’re making full use of the internet because so far, they’re the first few to see how incredibly convenient and affordable it can be for them to market themselves through very versatile and mobile internet tools.

Rewards will be given to the people for being the first to scan an item and also those who have scanned out the most or all of the QR Codes. The big winner will get the whole collection of their 2009 series. The QR Code campaign might be something new to many New Yorkers but this is not the first time the company’s done some really crazy creative marketing campaigns. Most interesting of all is the fact that they work.