If you’ve noticed all of the Augmented Reality and Layar activity coming out of South Africa over the last year or so, you can probably thank one of our Layar Partner Network members, Digital Narrative.

2014 was busy year for Digital Narrative, as the creative agency helped several brands and publishers add Interactive Print to their marketing strategies. This includes a travel contest with vida e caffè, and several issues of Food & Home Entertaining from Caxton Magazines.

Both were widely successful campaigns, and in 2015, the agency doesn’t show signs of slowing. Here’s a look at what Digital Narrative already has cooking this year.

Sea-Change Exhibition
The Sea-Change Exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, is a multimedia project that tells the story of the birth of humanity and the ancient relationship we all have with the sea. Displaying large format photographs along the sea wall on the promenade, a selection of these panels are transformed into high-definition videos through Augmented Reality when scanned with the Layar App.

Online retailer and exhibit sponsor Pick n Pay also invited the exhibit to participate in their Cape Town Cycle Tour expo stand earlier this month. A selection of the panels were on display where staff with iPads showed off the interactive AR videos to the public, helping to generate over 5,000 views in 3 days.

“I have been amazed at the power of AR (and specifically the LAYAR app) to add an exciting new dimension to our exhibition,” said Ross Frylinck, co-director of the Sea-Change Foundation. “It’s a very easy app to use and the feedback from the public has been really positive. To see our photographs come to life in HD video has been very rewarding.”

Interactive Wall at IAB Summit
Digital Narrative also created another type of “wall” exhibit, this time at the recently held IAB Summit. The concept was a large 4m x 5m Pinterest board-style wall, and each item could be scanned with Layar to reveal the exciting possibilities of Augmented Reality.

“Layar’s Augmented Reality is a QR Code on steroids! No wait, even a great QR Code is still a QR Code and Layar is a whole new ball game,” said one attendee. “Watching a wall, a document or even a business card come to life in front of you is mind altering.”

MINI 5 Door
And finally, Digital Narrative was recently employed to help showcase some of the new features of the MINI 5 Door at The Design Indaba expo in Cape Town. Users could scan displays and parts of the car to hear the engine sounds on specially provided headphones, watch the latest television commercial, view a 360º panorama of the car or enter a contest to win an iPad Mini.

“The augmented reality on the MINI Design Indaba expo stand was great! It helped communicate the essence of the stand by taking the 5 senses to the next level,” said Carmen Slade, Marketing Manager MINI. “This tie into the MINI 5 Door hatch on the expo floor was a great brand fit and one enjoyed by all who interacted with it.”

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!

^{This following is from Arjen de Vries, Director of Creative Services at Layar.}

Today at Layar, we’re launching a whole new way for brands, advertisers, publishers and agencies to plan, create and execute Augmented Reality and Interactive Print solutions. We call it Layar Creative Studio, but before I get into the details, let me tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Arjen de Vries, and I’m relatively new to the Layar Team as the Director of Creative Services. I’ve previously worked in marketing, communications and advertising at various types of companies, including digital and creative agencies and leading publishers. I have years of experience developing strategies and concepts, as well as brand activation projects, often with strong digital components present.

In the current fragmented media landscape, the consumer has become an active communication recipient and initiator, and we have 24/7 access to information, social relationships and purchases. In order to properly connect with your audience in this new landscape, an approach completely different from that of 10 years ago is needed.

I joined Layar and the exciting world of Augmented Reality because I truly believe that AR has the power to add value to all kinds of businesses and industries, fundamentally changing the way consumers interact with brands in ways unlike anything seen before. Thanks to the growing adoption of smartphones, tablets and technological innovations like Google Glass, AR has quickly grown from something very technical to a basic technology of the masses. The “science fiction” future of AR is becoming more and more real each day.

With AR, it’s possible to instantly activate and engage with your audience. By making the most of the possibilities of their most personal device (camera, GPS, motion sensors, etc.), you can connect with your audience for branding, advertising, marketing and m-commerce purposes.

I joined Layar in March to head up a team dedicated to providing end-to-end service for companies looking to benefit from the possibilities AR has to offer. After a few months of preparation, we’re very proud to introduce the Layar Creative Studio today. The team is based in Amsterdam, but we will likely be expanding it to our offices in the U.S. and Canada soon.

The Layar Creative Studio team is here to help businesses create marketing and advertising solutions based in Augmented Reality to achieve clear objectives. We take the hassles and complications away with end-to-end service, advanced solutions, as well as professional consulting and training to help you get the most out of our tools.

Starting from your needs and objectives, our team of expert strategists, marketers, developers, designers and project managers will work with you to create the best possible AR experience and results. Whether it’s for magazine or newspaper content, print or outdoor advertisements, promotions, packaging or any other marketing and advertising venture – we’ve got you covered.

As founders of the world’s leading mobile AR platform, we know how to get the most out of our technology in order to create and execute outstanding solutions. With the insights we’ve gained from hundreds of thousands of AR campaigns, we’ve developed a deep, fact-based understanding of what does and does not work with AR.

Many of the world’s biggest names – Jaguar, Heineken, Vogue, Reebok, Elle, BMW, Inc., Glamour, Kraft, Walmart, Pepsi – are already making use of AR with Layar, so why not join them?

Let’s talk! If you’re looking for a distinctive way to activate and engage your audience while standing out from your competitors, contact the Layar Creative Studio today or reach out to me directly at arjen@layar.com.

Read our Layar Creative Studio press release.

Here at Layar we are no strangers to the benefits of interactive print in education. In fact, the education space is one the fastest growing areas for interactive print. Students and teachers are using Layar to make their materials and projects interactive with digital content, but that’s not all.

Many schools and institutions are using interactive print to attract prospective students. In the case of the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Leiden, a school of 9,200 students in the Netherlands, they’ve teamed up with creative agency UWMERK!WAARDIG, a member of the Layar Partner Network, to create interactive brochures for all 24 of their bachelor studies programs. We spoke with representatives from both groups to get the details on this terrific project.

Can you briefly introduce University of Applied Sciences Leiden and multimedia consultant UWMERK!WAARDIG to our readers?

Agnita Mur, Member of the Executive Board: “University of Applied Sciences Leiden (UAS Leiden, in Dutch: Hogeschool Leiden) is a medium-sized University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands with approximately 9.200 students and 900 employees. We offer bachelor’s programmes and perform applied research in a variety of domains ranging from (health)care and social work to economics, and from technology to education. We challenge students to realize their potential.”

André Batenburg, CEO & Owner of UWMERK!WAARDIG: “UWMERK!WAARDIG is a full service multimedia company (strategy and execution) that works for a variety of companies, for instance University of Applied Sciences Leiden, DHL Global Mail, TROS Broadcasting Company, ANWB Media, ADO Den Haag Footballclub and Broekman Logistics Group.”

How did you learn about augmented reality (AR), interactive print and Layar?

Mur: In the strategic overview 2012-2016 UAS Leiden chooses, amongst other strategic issues, that we innovate our marketing and communication taking into account sustainability and the strong growth of mobile devices (amongst which smartphones). In the strategic workshops with our agency UWMERK!WAARDIG we were introduced into the world and possibilities of augmented reality, especially through Layar. Education in the near future will be growing into interactive and on demand concepts, therefore we also need to change our information in that direction.

Batenburg: We strongly believe that the growing penetration of smartphones and consumer behavior creates a successful role for AR.

What are your goals and objectives for using interactive print and AR regarding University of Applied Sciences Leiden?

Mur: As I stated before, as a University of Applied Sciences, we must engage with our students and target groups. Using interactive print in our brochures will help us to give future students a better impression of what they can expect and why to choose UAS Leiden as their educational partner.

Batenburg: We feel that the Layar concept can help grow the interactive connection and engagement between the current students and future students, using film and a variety of interactive buttons.

Do you consider interactive print and AR a strategic choice or rather a trail / experiment?

Mur: We are developing towards being interactive in various ways. Therefore this is not an experiment for one year, but a strategic choice.

Batenburg: We have a growing potential of companies asking for interactive concepts and film. The opportunities of Layar helps us making interaction more easy. Our business is also changing and it gives us new opportunities.

Did you get any feedback within the organization and from students / future students?

Mur: As we speak, we just started the distribution of our study guides in interactive print. The initial reaction in our university is positive and it shows that we are working towards ‘ sustainable recruiting’ and that we innovate.

Batenburg: Within the organization there is an awareness that the Layar concept can create a different dimension in the dialogue between people and brings an easy to use marketingtool.

How do you think interactive print and Layar are a part of future plans of the school?

Mur: First we have to evaluate and have to learn from the results from this year. We hope and believe that interactive communication in all kind of applications can help UAS Leiden to perform and engage better.

Batenburg: Interactive print can increase the number of users in all printed material of the school and can create interactive orientation when people are visiting the school.

What are the strategic changes in the educational field and how can Layar be a part of it?

Mur: Education historically happened mainly inside the building of our university. This changed gradually and will remain changing step by step to new educational concepts. That means video driven classes, flipping the class room, e-learning concepts and the ’traditional’ way of education all combined.

Batenburg: Film, online engagement, interactive concepts and data-analytics will be the future. Layar can be a part of that.

Allianz, a multinational insurance and investment services company and one of the world’s largest businesses, is using Layar to bring augmented reality (AR) and interactive print to its customers.

This summer, with the help of Layar Partner Network member TAB Worldmedia, Allianz Suisse launched a new mobile application - KonnectAR - which allows its clients to access digital content, services and information related to the company’s printed brochures and magazine advertisements. The app was built using the Layar SDK, one of our custom solutions that allows brands to embed Layar’s AR technology directly into their own apps.

When a customer scans an Allianz product brochure or an Allianz advertisement in a magazine, the KonnectAR app provides animated product information, links to relevant websites or even a button to quickly call a service employee on their phone in their preferred language!

“The possibility to connect our online content with our offline commercial instruments and engagements is of crucial importance in an ever increasing connected world,” said Patrick Eugster, Head of Corporate Development and Strategic Marketing at Allianz Suisse. “KonnectAR allows the customer an easy transfer across different media instruments and therefore improves the whole brand experience these customers face.”

Read more about the new KonnectAR app from Allianz!