Beverage company Crystal Light launched a magazine advertising campaign with a twist – Layar’s interactive print technology!

Readers of various magazines in the U.S. will see the “Color Me Stylish” Crystal Light ads. Some of the ads feature black-and-white illustrations which can be brought to life with color by scanning with the Layar App.

In this example, scanning the ad brings up a nicely-designed widget that lets the reader view different illustrations for different flavors and colors of Crystal Light. The products in the illustration change color and can be tapped to view more info.

Try it yourself! Click the image to the right to view a larger version that you can scan with the Layar App. It’s a fine example of what’s possible with the Layar Creator.

Back in February we told you about our exciting partnership with Canada’s Glacier Media, which is using Layar in over a dozen local newspapers on a regular basis. To help promote this partnership, Glacier has produced a 30-second television ad to show off the power of interactive print.

“Imagine being able to interact with your newspaper, purchase what you want whenever you want it, investigate your interests, look past the surface,” the ad says. “Don’t just read your newspaper, experience it.”

It’s a really well-made ad and it perfectly explains the core benefits of interactive print - being able to bring the digital interactivity we know and love from the web to print materials.

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.

Automaker Ford has tapped Layar to help promote the all new Ford Fiesta in India with interactive brochures and ads.

Ford sought the help of Layar Partner Network member GAMOOZ, and India-based group that creates Layar content of all kinds. In just a few days, GAMOOZ created the “Ford India” layer, which has been rolled out into what has become the world’s largest print AR campaign to date.

Brochures, like the one pictured to the right, were distributed at 230 Ford dealerships in 123 Indian cities, and print ads appeared in several popular Indian newspapers, including: 

• Times of India
• Tribune
• Punjab Kesari
• Dinamalar
• Eenadu
• Ajit
• Sambad
• Malayalam Manorama
• Rajasthan Patrika
• … and many more.

Readership of the campaign totaled around 4 million people, and so far thousands of people have used Layar to scan the ads and brochures and view the interactive digital content. Users can view videos about the Ford Fiesta, as well as quickly jump to the Ford mobile website, book a test drive, or quickly share the car on Facebook or Twitter.

Try it out on one of the pages after the jump and check out the video below to see it in action!

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Our friends over at Tribal DDB - a global digital advertising agency - recently employed the help of Layar Vision to enrich one of its projects. The project is a desk reference “calendar” that the company sends to prospective clients to inform them all about mobile.

It’s called “Mobile Engagement: A Guide to the Mobile World,” and now with Layar’s help, the calendar comes to life with augmented information within the pages. In the video above, we sat down with Joeri Kiekebosch, who worked on the project, to get an idea of how and why they chose Layar Vision.

“We had the feeling that a static desk reference was… static. And we’re a digital agency that does digital stuff, so we needed something that made it interactive,” Kiekebosch told us. “If you talk about mobile, you should be able to do something with your mobile. Why not scan the calendar with your mobile and see extra content on top of that?”

“There are a lot of big shots walking around here, and these people kind of like geekiness but are not geeks. AR is perfect for these people,” he adds. “Everybody has an iPhone, they were like ‘Oh this is cool, this is fun!’ They got it installed easily, they understood it. For these kinds of people it really worked.”

Take a look at our interview with Joeri to see the calendar in action!