Click here to read the Dutch press release!

Layar has teamed up with popular Dutch home decor catalogue vtwonen to help change the way readers make purchases.

With the latest vtwonen “magalogue” (a combination magazine/catalogue), readers can scan the pages and instantly buy the items they like.

Items for sale in the pictures appear with a button to purchase the items when scanned with Layar. The links take readers directly to vtwonen’s mobile shopping site where they can instantly purchase the items and pay with PayPal. It’s also easy to just add items to a shopping cart and save them for later.

Anita Beijl, marketing manager for vtwonen, calls the Layar implementation the “ultimate print shopping experience,” and adds that Layar makes it easy to quickly expand the brand to new platforms.

Try it yourself on the vtwonen magalogue, available today, or simply test one of the pages after the jump. Check out the video below to see the magalogue in action! And for those that speak Dutch, be sure to watch our interview with Martijn van der Neut of vtwonen!

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Speakers Academy, a leading management agency that represents professional speakers across the globe, has embedded Layar into its biannual magazine and speaker catalogue.

In the new Spring 2012 issue, interviews and profiles of featured speakers are accompanied by “View with Layar” logos on the pages of the magazine. Scanning these pages displays bonus videos, giving readers a look at the speakers in action.

“It’s very hard to explain in the text what they can expect,” said Speakers Academy commercial director Rene Warmerdam of the difficulties of showcasing speakers in the print medium. “Now, when using Layar, [they] immediately get access toward the video that explains it all. It really, really helps.”

The magazine also features a full page Layar ad in the front which explains how readers can scan the pages to view additional content. The “View with Layar” logo is our way of signaling to readers that they should scan pages with Layar. You can learn all about the logo here, including links to download the logo.

We visited Speakers Academy headquarters in Rotterdam recently to talk with Rene Warmerdam. Check out the video below to see the details of how the magazine has adopted Layar to engage its print readership.

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!

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.

We’re excited to announce that Layar 6.0 including Vision is now available in the App Store, just in time for iPhone users to experience the awesome AR content in the latest issue of LINDA. magazine.

LINDA., the largest women’s glossy in the Netherlands, partnered with Layar to create the first Dutch augmented magazine, showing infotainment and commerce to be a natural fit with augmented reality.

More than 50 pages inside this month’s edition of LINDA. magazine have been augmented with digital buttons that enable readers to access additional digital content using their smartphones. These buttons link to specific websites, videos, app stores and phone numbers.

A total of 120 augments can be found throughout the magazine for readers to view and interact with.

 Some examples from the magazine include: 

• Unique backstage video footage of the cover shoot
• One-click access to sites selling the fashion featured in the articles
• The ability to book a test drive for the advertised cars

“We are thrilled LINDA. wanted to work with us and use Layar,” said Claire Boonstra, Layar co-founder. “Not just because it is a great magazine, but it proves what we said with the launch of Layar Vision; this is a utility that generates value for brands, retailers and online merchants by making physical items interactive.”

Watch the video to see LINDA.‘s pages come to life with Augmented Reality.

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