Just in time for the 2012/2013 season, Voetbal International has released its yearly season guide, featuring player bios, team stats, schedules and more for all of the top teams in the Netherlands. Only this year, things are different - the pages have been made interactive with the Layar Creator.

Now when readers peruse the nearly 400 pages of the guide, hoping to learn more about how their favorite team might fare in upcoming football season, they can also uncover more info by scanning the pages with the Layar app. Each team’s page features quick links to news, schedules, results and transfers. Some of the ads in the guide have also been enhanced with links and videos.

This is a prime example of how the Creator can easily add interactivity to print products. Editorial magazines and newspapers are great for Interactive Print, and so are informative guides such as Voetbal International. Readers are already turning to the pages of the guide for specific information, and the opportunity to learn more and to view dynamic digital content within the pages of the guide adds value to the guide.

Here’s a fun story for a Friday afternoon. The Royal Dutch Mint has issued a limited edition commemorative coin which can be viewed with Layar to reveal augmented information.

Last year, the mint presented anniversary coins in €5 and €10 denominations which featured QR codes on the back. This year, they’ve kicked things up a notch, using the Layar Creator to add interactivity to new coins without the need for any special markers.

The coins are 5 Florin coins from Aruba, one of the 4 member countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They honor the Shoco, an endangered species of owl indigenous to Aruba which was recently named the country’s national symbol. Scanning the coin, of which only 2,500 were produced, provides collectors with additional information about the Shoco. 

“It is very special to be the first mint in the world with an Augmented Reality coin,” says Maarten Brouwer, mint master at Royal Dutch Mint. “This Augmented Reality coin is a new milestone in the rich series of special coins we make.”

Augmenting coins is certainly beyond our normal examples of magazines and newspapers using the Layar Creator to provide interactivity, but it’s a great showcase for the versatility of the Layar Creator. Any flat image can be easily enhanced to provide further value to those who scan it with Layar.