The following is an update from Layar CEO Quintin Schevernels.

My first 100 days as CEO of Layar have been very exciting!

When I started we launched our online self service tool for the print industry; the Layar Creator. This gives the opportunity to companies from all over the world to make their print products interactive within 1 minute. Now they can add the power of the internet and mobile directly to their print products. They now can give the opportunity to their users to watch or read additional content, buy products, share articles and more - all on top of their print products, giving print a new dimension. 

In less than 100 days over 15,000 Creator accounts have been created, including companies from over 100 different countries, ranging from Japan to Argentina and from Sweden to South Africa. These companies are making their newspapers, in-store promotions, magazines, business cards, packaging or annual reports interactive with the Layar Creator.

Also we launched version 7.0 of the Layar App. This version is a big improvement. We made the app as easy and simple as possible and made Interactive Print the central focus. Based on initial feedback, the 7.0 launch has been a big success. We welcomed our 25th million download on the 17th of September, reaching a major milestone. And this number is growing every day with over 35.000 new downloads from all over the world. 24/7!

Big numbers. In a market that is emerging. This is just the beginning.

Over the last 100 days, I spent a lot of time with people involved with Layar. The founders, the management team, the Layar crew and of course our launching customers (just to name a few). We also did a lot of research. Research on the market, our users and our own statistics. Based on this it became clear that interest in Interactive Print is high. Therefore, Layar is ready to accelerate with Interactive Print.

Over the coming months we will focus on building best practices. We want to help customers in the print industry translate the possibilities of Interactive Print to their business objectives. We want to create a steep learning curve. This will create valuable insights that will help create the best possible products and the market to mature.

In order to take this next step, we will make a few changes:

• We will focus our product development on Interactive Print. Over the past years we have been exploring AR. This has been a very valuable journey. A journey that gave us a lot of insights and brought us to the strong position where we are today. However we are still a small company. We see a lot of opportunities in Interactive Print and we want to focus on these. One of the consequences is that we will stop the further development of Stiktu. Also we will strengthen our development team in Amsterdam and will be recruiting for developers.
• We want to lead innovation in Interactive Print. We believe that now is the time to add interactivity to print. With over 25 million downloads of the Layar App and the early adoption of the Layar Creator, we are in a very strong position for this. However, the possibilities of Interactive Print are for a lot of companies still a big unknown. Therefore we will do additional investments in marketing, business development and customer service to create awareness for Interactive Print and help customers get started. Amongst others, we recently decided to open an office in NYC (headed by Maarten) and we are recruiting for a V.P. of Marketing. Over the next months we will also be reinforcing our partner network.
• Last but not least, a maturing market and a changing strategy mean changing roles. Two of our founders and shareholders, Raimo and Claire, will soon have new roles. Together with co-founder Maarten, they brought Layar to where it is today and deserve tremendous respect for this. Now that they have brought the management in for the next phase, both Raimo and Claire feel comfortable to change their involvement. This means that from the 1st of January next year both Claire and Raimo will no longer be involved with Layar on a day-to-day basis. Raimo will of course continue to be a member of our Supervisory Board and keep on acting as sparring partner for our product strategy. Claire will stay involved as advisor to continue to represent our company around the world and show all the opportunities that AR and Layar have to offer.

My first 100 days at Layar have been very exciting. I have the strong feeling there is much more exciting times to come. We will keep you up to date!

Play video above with audio on full.

“Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do.
Now you’re in New York.
These streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New Yoooork!”

Layar has opened an office in New York! As I write this, I’m in New York moving to our office on Varrick street. Its not just any office, its a collaboration space called WeCross, a space to foster cross-pollination between design, architecture, and technology companies. It’s designed by Studio Dror who will also have an office in the space.

Why New York? Because that’s where the major American publishers and agencies are. In the coming months I will be busy spreading the word and lighting the fire with publishers and agencies for Layar and its Interactive Print offering: the Layar Creator.

Its a great time to start:

• The Layar app is more than ready than ever after the launch of version 7.0 - the easiest and simplest version yet!
• The app has nearly 25 million downloads, and the U.S. accounts for nearly a third of those downloads!
• The Creator is ready. Over 15,000 signups of editors in the first 2 months, of which over 6,000 are U.S.-based. They all are making their print interactive and using the latest version with our new, more powerful buttons and custom colors.

Are you interested in making your U.S. publication interactive and bridging the gap between the desire on your paper and the digital fulfillment you can provide? Use our contact form and select “sales U.S.”

The first big projects are already in production. You’ll hear about them soon so keep an eye on this blog and subscribe to our newsletter so as to not miss anything.

Last week we shared with you a video of our very own Claire Boonstra speaking and demoing the brand new Layar Creator at TEDxBinnenhof here in the Netherlands. Well, she’s not the only member of the Layar team with TED experience under her belt.

Back in April, fellow co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald spoke at TEDxMaastricht, also here in the Netherlands. The event focused around “The Future of Health,” and Maarten shared a very personal story about his fight to overcome cancer and the lessons it taught him about sharing, the Internet and how augmented reality could play a role in the future of health.

Have a look at the full video of Maarten’s talk below.

This year I once again had the privilege to attend WPP’s Stream, an unconference event hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, and Yossi Vardi. It was a month earlier than last year, which resulted in tropical weather. This contributed nicely to the event.

I like Stream because it is a very relaxed atmosphere where everyone is in shorts and flip flops, the egos are left at the door, and everyone is very open, willing to engage and share. For me it’s great to get an idea of what’s going on in the world of digital advertising. Almost all of WPP’s digital directors and managers are there, which is a lot, as WPP is one of the world’s biggest agencies. Next to that they bring their clients and partners. I get to talk to all parties in this ecosystem and learn from them.

A day at Stream has two parts. The first part, the daytime, is when workshops and discussions take place. I hosted a discussion on AR (see below for the learned insights and used demos). The second part is the evening program. Here everyone gathers in the Big Top (the main tent) for various entertaining activities. On Friday night it was time for the Ignite talks.

Ignite talk: Augmented Reality is the Great Equalizer

The format for the Ignite Talks was originally thought up by Tim O’Reilly. It’s a format where all can climb the stage and share an idea or vision, anything basically, as long as they adhere to the format: 15 slides that automatically forward every 15 seconds.

It was great to use this format to challenge myself to fit our vision about why Augmented Reality will be an important part of our life in the coming years, and what the effect will be, into only 5 minutes and 15 slides! Plus, the added pressure of being in the midst of other presenters like Esther Dyson, Andrew Keen and David Rowan. There is only one remedy for these situations, and that is to practice… and practice and practice (which i did). The presentation went well; people liked it. Anyway, the slides are below. Go here to see the transcript in a separate post.

Insights

The main insight that I gained from Stream is that Augmented Reality is about to break though with Vision. As soon as people see how it works, just holding a phone over an object or magazine page, they realize the potential. Readers, users, consumers, publishers, advertisers—everyone. As soon as they see it they get it, and start coming up with use cases themselves.

For Augmented Reality to break though, it’s important that large media titles as well as brands start adopting it in their work. That’s the way for the public to get acquainted with it. They will help and show that it’s worth doing by offering a valuable experience. I especially think magazines and newspapers will play a big roll initially. They know content and also have a great existing channel and audience.

Another learning, and advantage for publishers and brands to use Augmented Reality, is its short lead time and no need to change original assets. Packaging doesn’t need to be altered to add an experience on top of it. The Augmented Reality experience can be added later and much more quickly than it takes to produce the packaging itself or the article. For example, the poster campaign mentioned below was developed in less than a week.

Layar Vision Demos

I brought several demonstrations with me in the form of posters as shown below. If you have a beta build (Android only) of the Layar Browser then look for “Stream11” and hold it over the poster to experience it.

For those who don’t have the beta: with the girl you can try out several pick-up lines to get her attention. You see this when you hold your phone up to the poster. You can scroll though the pick up lines and try them out with different results.

The Lolcat poster had a lot of success. Everyone likes them 8-). In this demo you again just hold up your phone over the poster and see several options: share the cute cat love with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, watch a cute cat video, donate to a cat cause and… (yes the best one is the last) give the cat laser eyes!

Many thanks to WPP, the Stream team and all who were there. It was a great weekend!

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald
twitter.com/dutchcowboy

Below are the slides and the transcript of the Ignite talk Maarten Lens-FitzGerald gave at this year’s WPP Stream event (read what else he did, in his own words, here).

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