London-based design and communications agency Magnetic London, a member of the Layar Partner Network, has seen a recent flurry of activity with Augmented Reality. The agency has helped numerous companies from various parts of the world discover how Layar can help bring print and digital together, so here’s an overview of some of their most recent projects.

Khan Academy Turkce
Working together with STFA Holding, one of the largest Turkish conglomerates, and its corporate social responsibility project Khan Academy Turkce, Magnetic London created the first book cover with AR in Turkey. Together they added interactive AR content to the recently published Turkish translation of Salman Khan’s education reform manifesto, “The One World Schoolhouse.”

Scanning the cover with the Layar App reveals videos about the academy in Turkish, as well as links to the Khan Academy Turkce website and social media pages. Magnetic London designed custom calls-to-action which were printed on the inside jacket flaps of the book.

“Readers who downloaded the app and scanned the cover were impressed with how easy it was to use the app,” said Kaan Aydogmus, Creative Director of Magnetic London. “They said such an innovative technology fits very well with this book of Salman Khan. Readers were excited about the AR technology and curious about how it could be used in other areas.”

New Economics Foundation
Magnetic London also recently worked with the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the UK’s leading think tank for promoting social, economic and environmental justice. Together they produced interactive Community Currencies in Action flyers to excite policy makers and academics about local currencies with Augmented Reality.

“The interactive element serves as a great talking point to start up conversations with people we want to collaborate with,” the NEF said. “We are glad we used AR. It takes some explaining to get people to download the app, but this can serve as a useful way to get people to really look at the flyer.”

British Tech Summit
The agency also recently attended the one-day British Tech Summit in Istanbul, which convenes high profile British and Turkish technology and telecom businesses. Magnetic London had it’s own stand at the event to showcase its business, and even Blippar founder and CEO Ambarish Mitra showed up to say hello!

“People were queueing in front of our augmented exhibition stands to experience this technology with our Discover London in 360 campaign,” said Aydogmus. “We had three panoramic photo spheres of Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and St.Paul’s Cathedral. People who scanned our stands were taken into these spheres where they had to move and turn around themselves with their phones in the air to look up and down to discover those places. We had the most attention at the event.”

BakuTel
Magnetic London even made a trip to Baku, Azerbaijan to participate in the BakuTel exhibition, one of the largest design, technology and telecommunications expos in the region. The agency was excited to show off Layar’s Augmented Reality technology to many of the event’s high-profile attendees, and even made the evening news.

“We had a chance to present all of our design services including Augmented Reality to the President of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, to the British Ambassador Mr. Irfan Siddiq, and the UK’s Trade Envoy Mr. Charles Hendry,” said Aydogmus. “The president experienced Augmented Reality himself, and he was amazed with it.”

AR in Travel and Hospitality
And finally, similar to our own series of webinars and overview documents, Magnetic London has been creating animated slideshow videos detailing the benefits of Augmented Reality for specific industries. The latest animation is about the Travel and Hospitality Business, we’ve embedded it below!

Leading paper and packaging industry association TAPPI has joined a growing list of publishers, printers and industry associations signing on with Layar for augmented reality and interactive print solutions. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company, an industry staple for nearly a century, announced the partnership at the 2013 Paper Con Conference earlier this week.

“TAPPI is excited about our partnership with Layar and the opportunity it provides our members and the industry to enhance print products with digital content,” notes Larry N. Montague, TAPPI president and CEO. “Layar allows anyone to easily and quickly add digital content to print and tap into the explosion in online information consumption. It allows users to communicate in new and interactive ways and makes print products more effective and engaging.”

TAPPI promoted this new partnership at Paper Con with posters, banners and a full page ad (see below) in the event’s program. This partnership is another in a trend of industry leaders backing Layar as the interactive print provider of choice. It reaffirms the print industry’s belief in the future of interactive print, and in Layar as the leading provider for all augmented reality needs.

TAPPI’s commitment to Layar is also a sign of growing adoption of Layar in the United States. American publishers Fry Communications and publications like Publishing Executive and Publishers Weekly have already begun using Layar’s interactive print. TAPPI adds to this momentum in the U.S. where use the Layar App tops 7 million downloads.

Are you ready to join the industry leaders and begin taking advantage of what interactive print can add to your business? Get started today!

We’ve previously mentioned our partnerships with big printers and publishers like Fry Communications in the U.S. and Glacier Media in Canada, and today we’re announcing yet another.

Elanders UK, part of an international printing firm with production across nine countries on four continents, has partnered with Layar to provide interactive print to its customers, which include Jaguar Land Rover, Tesco and Bosch.

With this partnership, Elanders joins a rapidly expanding group of publishers, printers and brands making Layar their go-to choice for interactive print.

“Creativity, innovation and a passion for strong results are essential qualities for any of our partners and Layar was no exception,” said Elanders Managing Director Kevin Rogers. “From the offset, it was clear that Elanders and Layar shared the same vision for creating communications not only with ‘wow’, but with the results to match.”

With over 100 years of printing experience, Elanders serves customers in over 30 countries with both print and digital solutions. Now with Layar, they can bring all of their services together in one nice package.

“Our customers value our input in ensuring every piece of communication we produce, whether print or digital, is the most efficient and effective it can be,” said Rogers. “We believe this works best when messages resonate with the end user through engaging content across both on and off-line platforms; the trick is to create a seamless communications journey across all channels.”

Elanders plans to help clients make their communications more engaging and effective, providing real results and return on investment. As Rogers says, the choice to go with Layar was an easy one.

“With interest in interactive print and augmented reality increasing amongst our clients, partnering with a specialist who has the expertise and experience to deliver in this field was a natural next step,” he said.

Last week we announced Layar’s partnership with LINDA. magazine, the largest women’s glossy in the Netherlands. 

In addition to LINDA., we’ve also had an exciting Layar partnership brewing in the US with popular do-it-yourself technology magazine MAKE. 

MAKE magazine enriched this month’s Toys and Games issue with Layar technology, adding videos, social sharing, links to additional online content and more.

The Toys and Games issue is on newsstands now in the US, so pick up a copy and launch the “MAKE Magazine #28” layer, or take a sneak peak at the digital content in this demo video.