The Vrijwilligers Centrale Amsterdam (Amsterdam Volunteer Center), is an organization in Amsterdam that helps people find volunteer work anywhere in the city.

Now the organization is making it even easier for people to find volunteer positions by launching their own location-based geo layer on the Layar App. By launching the VCA layer on their mobile device, workers can see the location of job opportunities appear around them with the Layar App’s Augmented Reality features.

“Very few people are aware of the large availability of volunteer jobs and how many people actually do volunteer work,” said Simone Timmer, Communication Advisor for the VCA. “Augmented reality is new and innovative, and Layar was a great way to visualise the proximity of volunteer work in Amsterdam.”

Creating a Geo Layer to benefit the cause was the idea of Geerten van Hooff, the founder of online media agency Taf Media, who also implemented it as a volunteer, Timmer says.

The VCA’s layer features over 1700 positions in the city, and in 2015 the organization helped over 7500 people find volunteer work.

To try it yourself, if you’re in Amsterdam, open the Layar App and search for “VCA”.

Gamers around the globe have been anticipating this week’s release of the next saga in one of the world’s most popular videogame franchises - Assassin’s Creed 3. For those in the Netherlands, a new ad campaign from CBS Outdoor Advertising and Bol.com provides a special discount for anyone who scans a new billboard ad and buys the game.

As seen in the photo to the right, the ad has begun popping up in Holland’s many train stations. Eager gamers can scan the ad to see a video trailer of the game and instantly buy the game with a €5 discount on Bol.com, the largest online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium.

This summer, we announced that Bol.com had hooked its database of product packaging (books, DVDs, games and more) into Layar, enabling users to shop for products online by simply scanning them with Layar. Now, Bol.com is taking part in a new kind of Layar campaign, one on a much larger scale!

This is a great example of the versatility of the Layar Creator. Whether your print is as small as a business card, or as big as an outdoor billboard, the Creator can quickly and easily add engaging digital content on top. By offering a discount, Bol.com is enhancing the viewer experience and providing valuable engagement with their advertising - a concept we heard Nissan discuss recently at our Toronto event.

Perhaps the best aspect of the Assassin’s Creed III campaign is the large and clear call-to-action. Translated, the text reads “Scan with Layar for discount!” The capitalized red text makes sure people see it, and the Layar logo lets people know they need to download the app to scan it.

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!

The medical journal Neurosurgery, published by international professional health publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, has integrated Layar into the pages of its journal to enhance the reading experience.

The official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (which publishes over 3,000 pages of content each year), felt it wise to keep up with its reputation as the “most complete window on the contemporary field of neurosurgery” by implementing augmented reality into its pages. After all, the field of neurosurgery already makes us of AR technology in the operating room.

We spoke with managing editor Duncan MacRae about the experience of adding interactive print to Neurosurgery.

“We had a vision of how we wanted to link our print product with supplemental digital content, and we knew that QR codes would be a stepping stone, rather than a permanent solution,” says MacRae. “Since our usage would be based on visual recognition, rather than GPS, the release of Layar Creator was really the breakthrough we were waiting for.”

“Layar Creator has been extremely easy to use, and most importantly, the metrics provided are excellent,” he adds. “Our investment of time in creating new pages is embarrassingly small, considering that we utilize web links, videos, emails, and social media actions on almost all of our augmented images.”

So far, a handful of ads for Neurosurgery content have been activated using Layar. MacRae says going forward, they will incorporate more interactive print into commercial ads and editorial content.

“We have spent the last three months showcasing the technology to our regular stable of print advertisers,” says MacRae. “Any added value that we can provide to an advertiser gives us an advantage over our competitor publications.”

“As the journal becomes a more interactive product, the opportunities to link our print content with our online educational activities helps us better fulfill the educational mission of the journal.”

Click here to view the Dutch press release.

“Er is post!” is a quarterly magazine from the Dutch national postal service PostNL that is delivered to every household in The Netherlands - over 6 million homes in total. In the latest issue, the pages have been enhanced with Layar, allowing every home in Holland to interact with print media in a whole new way.

After installing the Layar app, readers can interact with pages in the magazine marked with the Layar logo. By viewing these pages through the Layar app, digital buttons will automatically appear with links to websites, Facebook likes, YouTube videos, app downloads and other actions.

Making traditional post advertising interactive is a nice bridge between the physical and online world, says PostNL Commercial Director Ger Jacobs. “With first-hand experience, we hope PostNL can better service its enterprise customers in the future by providing guidance in the use of old and new media.”

“’Er is post!’ is a great magazine with which to experience how paper can be made interactive,” says Layar CEO Raimo van der Klein. “We have worked closely together with PostNL to make it a wonderful edition. I am very curious to see how the readers will react to this innovative way of reading a magazine.”

Check out the video below to see for yourself and give it a try with the sample pages after the jump. If you live in The Netherlands, keep an eye on your mail for “Er is post!”

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