The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and Nissan Canada have been nominated as a finalist for the renowned International News Media Association (INMA) Awards for its “Go Beyond” Interactive Print campaign in the Best Marketing Solution for an Advertising Client category.

The paper collaborated with Nissan Canada – which worked previously with creative agencies TBWA and OMD on an award winning 2012 Interactive Print campaign – to create an interactive newspaper experience that brings digital content to the pages of the paper. They launched the “Go Beyond” campaign in September of 2013, allowing readers to interact with the newspaper by scanning the pages with the Layar App. 

Nissan Canada contributed 30 interactive advertisements and sponsored the “Go Beyond” campaign. Readers could see photographs morph into videos, videos of their favorite columnists and even a behind-the-scenes look at the construction of a new aquarium. Additionally, a contest provided users with the chance to win a $3,000 travel voucher. 

The results of the campaign were a huge success, producing lots of encouraging reactions from readers. The well crafted and positioned calls-to-action in the Toronto Star created a 2,200% boost in Layar App downloads in Canada above the daily average. Of those that scanned a page, an unprecedented 95% clicked-through and interacted with the content, and 20% went on to scan content again in the 3 days following the campaign.

“It was important that the audience had the opportunity to participate in an augmented newspaper that leveraged the technology to provide a deeper connection to the content,” said Tami Coughlan, Associate Director of the Toronto Star’s Integrated Solutions Team in an article on INMA.org.

“We wanted to create anticipation for what was coming next and create motivation to look for the clues throughout the paper that uncovered deeper stories, videos, interactive games, and animations,” she added.

The campaign has also been submitted to Canada’s National Newspaper Awards which will be announced on May 30th. The INMA Awards winners will be announced on May 13th at INMA World Congress in San Francisco.

We’re crossing our fingers for the Toronto Star’s campaign. Lots of hard work went into this project, and it would be great to see a second Interactive Print campaign in Canada be rewarded for its efforts.

Last week we hosted our second (the first being in Amsterdam this summer) Activate Print event in Toronto, Canada. Dozens of creative and publishing professionals - from ad agencies, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, printing companies, etc. - came together to hear all about Layar, the Creator and some very positive results from successful campaigns. 

As we shared with you last week, the reactions from attendees were outstanding! We wanted to take this opportunity to give you a look inside the event, to hear some of the panelists speak about Layar and their campaigns. 

The video above features clips from our panel discussion with: Maggie Greyson (Integrated Program Manager at PostMedia), Neal Bouwmeester (Senior Marketing Manager at Nissan), Rimi Singh (Brand Director at TBWA), Karena Phidd (Group Director of Strategy at OMD), Sean Dixon (Associate Director of Strategy at OMD) and moderator Nigel Newton (Layar Partner).

In the video, the panelists, all part of an innovative and extensive Nissan campaign, discuss using Layar nationwide in PostMedia’s Canadian newspapers to promote sales and test-drives of a new Nissan model. They all have some great things to say about Layar.

“At a bare minimum, to have them be able to look at the ad, then just engage with it - even for 30 more seconds, even for 20 more seconds - that’s golden,” said Bouwmeester. “You can’t buy that. Well, you can buy it now.”

The campaign was a big success - so big, in fact, that Nissan is submitting the campaign for an advertisement innovation award. Next month, after the campaign awards, we’ll have more we can share on this project, so keep an eye out for that. Nissan also announced that they intend to use Layar in a new upcoming campaign, but they were very “hush hush” about that as well.

Thanks again to the Dutch Embassy and the Netherlands Ambassador to Canada, Wim Geerts, for supporting and opening the event by talking about the rich history of Dutch technology innovation.

“We’re one of the world’s largest exporters of IT products and services, ranking fourth, behind the US, UK and Germany. Quite a feat, when you consider that these other three countries have significantly larger economies and populations,” said Geerts. “If you’ve ever listened to music, enjoyed wireless internet or used a wireless headset with your mobile phone, the chances are that you have been using technology that was developed by the Dutch.”

Earlier this week, Layar invaded Canada with our Activate Print seminar in Toronto. Attendees took to Twitter to express their excitement about the Layar Creator. Check out the reactions below!

On October 17th, Layar is hosting a seminar in Toronto, Canada for members of the media and publishing industries. This seminar will introduce the Layar Creator and interactive print, providing an opportunity for anyone interested in the Layar Creator to see an in-depth presentation and try it out themselves.

The event, presented in partnership with the Netherlands Embassy in Canada, is free and kicks off at 1:30pm at the Art Gallery of Ontario Weston Family Learning Centre. Check out more info below or click here to register right now!

Activate Print Toronto is a seminar for publishers, editors and media professionals who want to deliver more value to print readers and advertisers. At the seminar you will learn from Layar co-founder, Claire Boonstra, how easily you can combine digital with print, the added value it creates for readers and how it delivers more to advertisers. OMD, TBWA, Toronto Star and Postmedia Network will share their Layar Creator experiences and interactive lessons learned in print. Meet the experts and learn Layar Creator best practices alongside fellow professionals who have already begun to use Layar or are learning about it for the first time. The event is free, but there is limited space so register soon!

Have a laptop and a PDF of one of your latest printed pages so that during the seminar, guided by our experts, your print publication can be enriched.

Activate Print Toronto will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Weston Family Learning Centre, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto Ontario Canada M5T 1G4. Click here for directions.

Check out reactions from our previous seminar in Amsterdam, or watch the entire event here!