If you’re reading this, you’ve already discovered one of three big things we’ve launched today at Layar - our new website! Today, we are also very proud to introduce both an entirely redesigned Layar App and a brand new Layar logo.

This marks the beginning of a new era for Layar as we continue to help bridge the gap between print and digital. Based on our insights as thought leaders in AR, we felt now was the time to make some big changes and take the next step forward. Here’s what’s new!

The redesigned Layar App, the world’s most popular mobile AR app with over 33 million downloads, now features a sleek design and new features that make the user experience for AR easier and more friendly. With the new Recent Content feature, users can revisit a handy list of previously viewed AR content whenever they want - something no other AR app offers.

The new Layar logo, which does away with the previous logo’s cloud design, is cleaner, more recognizable and claims the company’s position as the undisputed leader in augmented reality. The logo is an improvement both as a stand-alone brand and as a call-to-action in print for readers.

A completely redesigned and rethought website completes the launch, creating a one-stop portal for information on augmented reality, interactive print and Layar. You’re looking at it right now! The website shows, tells, shares and lets everyone experience what AR can do for businesses and consumers. Start exploring now!

“The market for AR and interactive print has really begun to develop itself, and it is clear that Layar is fueling the ecosystem at the vanguard of this development,” says Layar CEO Quintin Schevernels.

Following the launch of the self-service Layar Creator in June of last year, we’ve seen promising month-over-month growth. Over 55,000 publishers currently use the do-it-yourself Layar Creator to add interactive digital content to the printed page. More than 200,000 interactive pages have already been published.

The Layar App continues to see more than 1 million downloads each month, and campaign engagement has reached as high as 45% among readers. Of those that use Layar to scan a print page, and astonishing 87% interact with the content on that page.

“In the next 12 to 18 months, we expect to see further acceleration in the amount of magazines, newspapers, brands and industries embracing AR and making it a part of their content and marketing strategies,” add Schevernels. “With our technology, products, knowledge and expertise, we believe that we will play a crucial role in this growth.”

AR is no longer a thing of the future, it is here now and it is real!

Download the new Layar App for iOS and Android in the App Store and Google Play Store today!

As part of our continuing effort to test, improve and update our interactive print resources and tools, we have made a significant upgrade to our calls-to-action.

Download the refreshed Layar Call-to-Action Pack, including the Layar Logo and the all new Call-to-Action Guidelines.

Our research and experience have shown that proper calls-to-action are imperative to the success of an interactive print campaign. Alerting your users through descriptive and explanatory calls-to-action is, more often than not, more important than the overall quality of the digital content. After all, if users don’t know about your content, it doesn’t matter how great it is!

Thanks to over 40,000 Creator editors publishing campaigns, popular interactive print titles reaching millions of homes monthly, over 30 million Layar App users and sophisticated analytics, we have a unique vantage point from which to observe how users are consuming interactive print.

Based on our observations, we have identified the most effective calls-to-action. Therefore, we have reviewed, user-tested and redesigned our calls-to- action to better provide you with the most efficient ways to make your campaigns more apparent to your users.

The Call-to-Action Guidelines are part of our goal to unify calls-to-action across campaigns to educate new interactive print users while providing a seamless experience.

A few weeks ago we asked for feedback in our Creator Survey. We received lots of great feedback, but what we heard the most was a need for more help with creating engaging campaigns and attracting users to them.

We heard loud and clear, so here are a few resources that will help with just that.

Presentation: Creating Effective Campaigns
We’ve created a very helpful presentation (embedded above) that provides a lot of great tips for creating an effective campaign with the Layar Creator. You can view it on Slideshare or download it as either a PDF or a Keynote file. In it you will find:

• Steps and guidelines for creating effective campaigns
• Tips and best practices
• Examples of effective campaigns
• Links to support resources, like video tutorials and step-by-step guides

New Instructions Downloads
We’ve noticed that the most successful Creator campaigns include clear instructions and calls-to-action for readers. To make this easy for you to implement, we’ve created some handy images and icons that you can use with your campaigns. The downloads available include:

• The Layar logo - Use this with some action text (like in the images above) to attract readers to your content.
• Instructions - Use this imagery (like the one shown below) to show readers how to download and use Layar with your publication. Available in Dutch and English.
• Instruction Copy - The text from the instructions imagery if you wish to use it on your own.
• Logo & Instructions Pack - Download all of the above, and more, in one easy pack!

Video Tutorials
And finally, we’ve continued to create more helpful video tutorials for quick and easy glimpses into using the Creator. So check out the videos below to learn how to use AR video in your campaigns, and a step-by-step guide to exploring and understanding campaign statistics!

How else can we help you? If you have requests, send them to devsupport@layar.com!

If you’ve followed some of our recent posts about Layar Vision projects (for instance, the LINDA. and Make Magazine promotions) then you may have come across the logo you see on the right. That’s the “View with Layar” logo. So what is it?

In essence, we encourage that developers and campaign managers place the icon on the images they are augmenting with Layar Vision content. This way, whenever you see the icon, you know there’s an extra experience to be viewed with Layar.

Augmented reality campaigns rely heavily on strong calls-to-action from products. We’ve created the “View with Layar” logo to help get users to pull out their phone and experience a new world of digital content. The logo draws the attention of the user and clearly directs them to interact with augmented reality.

We’ve recently updated the Layar Wiki (a tool mainly for developers) with additional information regarding the icon, and wanted to share some of those details with you here on the blog.

For developers using the icon, we ask that they make sure it is placed so that it is clearly visible to users and is not obstructed by anything else around it. Also, we ask that you do not alter the icon itself in any way, including changing the color or aspect ratio. For more guidelines, see the Wiki article mentioned above.

But all you need to know is that wherever you see the “View with Layar” icon, you can pull out your phone, fire up Layar and quickly view an interactive digital experience.