Last week we hosted our second (the first being in Amsterdam this summer) Activate Print event in Toronto, Canada. Dozens of creative and publishing professionals - from ad agencies, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, printing companies, etc. - came together to hear all about Layar, the Creator and some very positive results from successful campaigns. 

As we shared with you last week, the reactions from attendees were outstanding! We wanted to take this opportunity to give you a look inside the event, to hear some of the panelists speak about Layar and their campaigns. 

The video above features clips from our panel discussion with: Maggie Greyson (Integrated Program Manager at PostMedia), Neal Bouwmeester (Senior Marketing Manager at Nissan), Rimi Singh (Brand Director at TBWA), Karena Phidd (Group Director of Strategy at OMD), Sean Dixon (Associate Director of Strategy at OMD) and moderator Nigel Newton (Layar Partner).

In the video, the panelists, all part of an innovative and extensive Nissan campaign, discuss using Layar nationwide in PostMedia’s Canadian newspapers to promote sales and test-drives of a new Nissan model. They all have some great things to say about Layar.

“At a bare minimum, to have them be able to look at the ad, then just engage with it - even for 30 more seconds, even for 20 more seconds - that’s golden,” said Bouwmeester. “You can’t buy that. Well, you can buy it now.”

The campaign was a big success - so big, in fact, that Nissan is submitting the campaign for an advertisement innovation award. Next month, after the campaign awards, we’ll have more we can share on this project, so keep an eye out for that. Nissan also announced that they intend to use Layar in a new upcoming campaign, but they were very “hush hush” about that as well.

Thanks again to the Dutch Embassy and the Netherlands Ambassador to Canada, Wim Geerts, for supporting and opening the event by talking about the rich history of Dutch technology innovation.

“We’re one of the world’s largest exporters of IT products and services, ranking fourth, behind the US, UK and Germany. Quite a feat, when you consider that these other three countries have significantly larger economies and populations,” said Geerts. “If you’ve ever listened to music, enjoyed wireless internet or used a wireless headset with your mobile phone, the chances are that you have been using technology that was developed by the Dutch.”

After hitting the 25 million mark for Layar app downloads in September, we’re very excited to follow that up with another amazing milestone announcement.

Since its launch just a few short months ago, over 20,000 people have signed up to create interactive print with the Layar Creator!

We’ve seen great activity on the Creator, and our users love it. (Just look at some of the amazing reactions we got from our recent event in Toronto!) In fact, of our 20,000 editors, half have created multiple Creator campaigns. And Creator users come from all over the world, encompassing 84 different countries.

So who are these 20,000 Creator users? They are magazine publishers like VIVA, Labelmag, Discovery and Voetbal International who enhance their editorial content, catalog publishers like Philips myshop, Pelgrim and vtwonen that let readers shop directly from the printed page, book publishers like Lonely Planet that create more engaging experiences for readers, professional journal editors like Neurosurgery that connect their digital resources with their publication, public service officials like the Dutch Nature Reserve that enhance the visitor’s experience, product manufacturers like CHOCSTAR that make their product packaging interactive, and much more!

Publishers and creative editors of all kinds are taking advantage of the Layar Creator to enhance their products. Here’s what our CEO Quintin Schevernels has to say about the Creator’s early adoption.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of editors signing up. This not only shows us the tremendous potential for interactive print, but also the added value of an online self-service tool,” says Schevernels. “We see a lot of people signing up and taking advantage of the possibilities augmented reality has to offer for their business. We expect this number to keep growing.”

So a big THANK YOU to those who have signed up for the Creator and have begun taking part in the interactive print revolution! Not signed up yet? Get started here!

If you scan the pages of our LAYARED Magazine today, you’ll see fresh new content on every page!

This summer when we introduced the magazine - our tentpole example of how publishers can add interactivity to the static pages of print content - we packed the pages with awesome digital extras made using the Layar Creator. Now, after several big Creator campaigns have hit the magazine stands, we’ve been able to piece together just what makes for a successful interactive print campaign.

Taking these insights, as well as those we shared recently in our Best Practices Guide, we’ve completely refreshed the interactive print found in LAYARED to showcase how powerful and impactful this medium can be. Here’s an overview of what we changed, and why, and how you can use these concepts to create more effective campaigns.

Attracting & Educating with the Cover

We actually didn’t change the cover - it’s still the same great introduction video from Raimo van der Klein - but we wanted to reiterate what makes for an outstanding interactive print cover. We framed and designed Raimo’s video in such a way that when viewed over the magazine, it appears as though the pages come to life. This really helps a reader begin to grasp the overall concept of interactive print.

The other important thing to note about the cover video is that it serves a practical purpose for those who watch it. In our video, Raimo explains what the LAYARED Magazine is and how to use your phone to scan the pages and interact with the content. In your publication, a cover video could help to introduce your magazine as a special issue with interactive print, as well as show them how to use it.

And we’re not the only ones adding videos to our cover! Be sure to check out the VIVA Magazine 40th Anniversary issue which has a similar “come to life” style cover video!

Pro tip! — The cover of your publication is the first thing your readers see, and thus is a great place to make an important first impression. Grab their attention and help them understand what to expect. If a video isn’t your thing, think top level - include links to your homepage or maybe a place where readers can subscribe.

Providing Clear Instructions

The next most important aspect of any interactive print campaign is the instructions. Readers need a clear explanation of how to use Layar with the publication, which is why we dedicated a two page spread to this very concept on pages 4 and 5 of LAYARED. You probably don’t need to use so much space (many use just one page) but we wanted to clearly emphasize this.

The instructions in LAYARED are very clear and easy to follow. Importantly, the instructions include both illustrations and text to guide users through how to view interactive print. If you scan our instructions, we provide a quick link to info about the all new Layar 7.0, as well as an embedded video that appears to pop out of the printed page.

Pro tip! — In your publication, also make sure the instructional illustrations don’t look too much like an advertisement or editorial content as readers may otherwise miss them.

Read more »

Dutch women’s magazine VIVA is celebrating 40 years of publication by adding interactivity to its pages with Layar.

In the latest issue, readers can view exclusive videos, shop directly for items advertised in the magazine and much more! We talked with VIVA Product Manager Anouk Vos to get the inside story on how they planned the issue, what their experience was like with the Layar Creator and what to expect in the future from VIVA.

How did VIVA plan for incorporating interactive print? What was the process like?

When you start a production, the editorial staff sits together. In the staff meeting, we decide the complete layout of the magazine, then we think of what gets “Layared,” and then we decide which buttons to use, which should be created, etc. With the help of our art director we browsed the pages and thought of a pink layout that would be visible on all sorts of backgrounds. Most of the options we used were pretty basic: download page, download app, listen, etc. For the animated cover, as this was more delicate, we used a couple of test versions. We wanted to make that sure it worked.

What inspired you to use Layar? How did you hear of it?

Actually, I was looking for a new way to present myself in presentations, so I took a VIVA cover and said “Just scan the image to get my contact details, download link to the presentation, etc.” The ad-interim editor in chief of VIVA, Jossine Modderman, immediately got enthusiastic, so we created a demo page for the real VIVA. Jossine in her editorial told her readers that she was proud of her curves. A couple of readers reacted that in her editorial image she looked so thin, so which curves was she talking about? As a reaction, we created an editorial where we said “If you’re curious, scan the image with Layar, and you can see the unphotoshopped, just pure Jossine editorial image.”

We received a couple of nice reactions, and at that point we decided we wanted to be more informed about Layar and its possibilities, and bring our magazine to life. Also LINDA. Magazine has some really cool examples (e.g. the poll option), so why not take part in the Layar revolution?

How was the experience of using the Creator?

The Layar Creator is quite a basic tool - it is so easy to use. But still, the most important process with the Creator is the testing. By testing you will experience hiccups and you learn more about the Creator. For example, I used a rather large image, so some phones couldn’t load it. This is of course very logical when you think about it, but when first working with the tool, you will just upload the image and start your Layar quest.

How do you plan to use Layar in the future?

The animated cover for our jubilee edition was absolutely great. And of course the voice-over columns too. Those pages surely gave an extra dimension to the print edition, so our intention is to do that more often. But another way that’s something that has our primal focus to use layar is fashion and living items. We can make them sharable (Pin the items) and buyable (readers are one click away). And of course, we can think of cool way to integrate advertisers so that for our readers, those pages become more interesting as well.

Layar gives you the option to bring more depth to the print issue. It brings print to life and allows our readers to get instant information on products.

Any other thoughts you want to add?

Our first experience is that the pages that really are about the magazine - the cover and the spoken columns - are the most successful. Now we are in the process of evaluating, so we will have a deeper look at every page: what was easy to use, was it clear that the page was scannable, etc. And also important, were the Layar buttons clear?

But we must say, our Layar experience was and still is great. When we show the animated cover to colleagues and clients, they all are absolutely thrilled to see it. With almost 7,000 pageviews, our first Layar encounter can be called a success!

Earlier this week, Layar invaded Canada with our Activate Print seminar in Toronto. Attendees took to Twitter to express their excitement about the Layar Creator. Check out the reactions below!