This week’s layer of the week is a scavenger hunt created by Condé Nast Digital for one of their clients Samsung. A great showcase that shows the capabilities of our platform and how it can be used to create a branded experience. We talked to Matthew Miller from Condé Nast Digital.

Condé Nast Digital created this layer for Samsung. Could you tell us something about the whole creation of this game from concept to execution? The idea was really a collaboration with Samsung’s agency, Starcom, Samsung, Condé  Nast Digital Creative Services and the WIRED.com sales and marketing team. Starcom came to us early on expressing a desire to do something with a scavenger hunt to help promote Samsung devices running Android. The initial shell of an idea incorporating Layar into a scavenger hunt was developed by WIRED.com marketing following this request. After some refining with Creative Services who explored the platform in greater detail and provided a better peek into the capabilities of Layar, the idea was refined into, what we thought at the time, would be a national hunt in various cities around the US.  Discussion with Samsung progressed and as the program gained momentum with both the client and agency, the scavenger hunt grew from an American-only opportunity to the fully realized global program it is today running in 5 cities around the world (with a sixth coming soon). At least a dozen people from WIRED.com sales and marketing and Condé  Nast Digital Creative Services contributed to the program. That does not include additional input from Starcom or Samsung.

This is the first time your company used our platform to create a branded augmented reality experience. Did our platform meet your expectations? The Layar platform met and in many cases surpassed our expectations.  We especially relied on the API documentation and developer map tool as well as troubleshooting with other members of the Google Group. We are excited to see the Layar platform improve and expand. It’s clear that Layar has a core of passionate developers and as the platform and API continues to grow, the community will only get stronger.  We’re excited to see the next level of Layar applications and hopefully be a part of the next wave of technology.

What could be the added value of Augmented Reality to your clients? For lack of a better term, we’re probably only seeing the very tip of the AR iceberg. There are so many potential solutions the medium provides that will allow clients to tell their brand stories in new and creative ways. Whereas we were once just limited to stationary screens and magazine pages, we now have the ability to be wherever a user happens to find him/herself and augment daily activities and experiences with organic, fun, creative and relevant data and messaging.  As the products that are able to harness this medium become more and more ubiquitous (and powerful), I think we’ll see smart brands folding incredibly targeted, visually dynamic messages into places and situations that consumers will actually welcome.  That’s the biggest benefit ­ users see this sort of thing as cool and fun, something they want to embrace, not just another sales pitch.

What are the future plans of Condé  Nast Digital when it comes to layer development? We are constantly encouraging our clients to engage with the latest technologies and tools, especially innovative platforms such as Layar. We are excited to continue working with Layar.

Michal Shapira, Executive Director of Creative Services:

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Layar on this engaging, innovative game for Samsung. As we continue to craft new and exciting opportunities for our advertisers that push the envelope, we will always be interested in tapping into new technologies. We look forward to integrating Layar into future campaigns in unique and creative ways.”

The Galaxy Hunter can be played in 5 cities and you can win $2.000 in prizes.

• New York
• Paris
• London
• Amsterdam
• Berlin

To play the Galaxy Hunter you just have to open the Layar Reality Browser in one of these cities, go to featured apps and tap on the Galaxy Hunter layer, and you’re on your way to winning  $2.000 in prizes. More cities to follow.

Together with the launch of version 3.1 we introduced our publishing environment to support paid layers. The two separate environments often leads to some confusion and therefore we will merge the developer and publishing environment into one environment. In this environment you can find all features. This means less hassle for you because you can develop and manage your layer(s) in one environment.

In order to make a smooth transition we recommend you to create a publishers account - if you still don’t have one. How to create a publishers account can be found here. On this page you can also find an overview of the basics of our publishers environment. If you already have a publisher account you won’t have to take any actions!

The migration of these two environments is scheduled for September. On the 16th of September we will organize a webinar to talk you through this new environment and explain you all the basics. After the webinar there will be room for questions. So don’t miss this one!

Webinar - New publishing/developers environment

Date: Thursday, September 16, 2010
Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM CEST

No we didn’t augment the hamburgers, or the sausages. Or even the beer. We did have a great time with the BBQ to kick start all who were back after the summer vacation. Kids, pets and significant others were there too. Check them out in this photo set.