Print Publication Enhanced with Augmented Reality

DESIGNERS. A previous post mentioned that one of the sessions at the PRINT13 conference Sept. 8-12 in Chicago will describe new ways to make print publications more interactive. Here’s a great example of a publisher who is already making it happen.

The 2013 PYM Annual Guide produced by the organization Plan Your Meetings (PYM) includes augmented reality (AR). Plan Your Meetings is a free educational and social resource for people who plan corporate meetings and events.

Editorial and advertising pages in the 2013 PYM Annual Guide are encoded with interactive experiences such as downloadable PDFs and videos, social media call-to-actions, and additional educational content. Readers can view the interactive content by scanning coded pages with the free PYM+ app can be downloaded to Apple or Android smartphones or tablets.

Here’s how it works: When readers of the PYM guide see an ad for a hotel that interests them, then can use the PYM+ app to download meeting room schematics, take a virtual tour of the facility, and book rooms. They don’t have to visit a website, or even turn the page.

Advertisers are intrigued by the ability to track how many people interact with their ads each month.

“They say print is dead, but that was before it could talk back and tell you who was reading it,” says PYM’s Vice President of Creative Kristi Casey Sanders. “Now advertisers can see how people engage with their print ads. By encoding SKUs in augmented content, they can identify how much traffic they’re receiving from print channels while interacting with our readers.”

Sanders will teach meeting and event organizers how to use augmented reality at the PlannerTech event Aug. 13 and the PYM LIVE event Aug. 22 in New York.

“Plan Your Meetings has a long history of developing innovative ways to connect people,” Sanders says. “Using augmented reality not only allows us to bring added value and ROI to our advertisers, it gives us the opportunity to provide additional educational content and educate planners using an emerging technology that has many exciting event applications.”

Both the print and digital editions of the annual guide include the augmented-reality content. In a blog post on the PYM website, Sanders notes that “Once an image is linked to augmented content, that content is activated whenever the image is scanned, no matter in which media it appears. So, the same image on a brochure, name tag, magazine, YouTube video, webpage, email, park bench, or billboard would trigger the same experience.”

LINKS

Plan Your Meetings

Issu: Digital Edition of Plan Your Meetings Annual Guide with Augmented Reality

Blog Post by Kristi Casey Sanders:  What is Augmented Reality? What does it mean for you?