On the heels of Popular Science’s animated cover, InStyle’s 3-D Holiday Shopping Guide, and Entertainment Weekly’s in-book videos, Esquire is pulling out all the stops and making its entire December issue the Augmented Reality Issue. It’s the first time a magazine has used this technology (you hold up the magazine page to a webcam, triggering video segments on your screen) within a substantial amount of its editorial content. A fashion spread shows the model removing and adding clothes, and the weather turns from rainy to sunny. An actress tells a joke on your screen. Even the cover has Robert Downey Jr. sitting on a giant QR box with the cover line: “WTF?! A Living, Breathing, Moving, Talking Magazine?” The issue hits newsstands mid November. But you can sign up here to receive one on Nov. 9. Read the Wall Street Journal story here.
Industry buzz 3-D, Augemented Reality, Esquire, QR codes, technology
InStyle’s December issue will take advertising to the next level by making its Holiday Special Section three-dimensional. “Gifting in 3-D” will create a three-dimensional gift box on readers’ computer screens when they hold the pages up to their webcam. The gift boxes then open up to branded video content from each advertiser in the section—and an option to click and buy. This Time Inc. initiative follows Bonnier’s 3-D Popular Science cover in June, but InStyle is taking the technology a little further by actually bringing engaged readers to the point of purchase. Read the FOLIO story here.
Industry buzz 3-D, advertising, holidays, Time Inc.
Magazines are dreaming up creative ways to sell their top real estate—the cover. But trying to bring in cover revenue while still appeasing ASME is a sticky situation. You could be as blatant as Parent & Child, with its corner cover ads. You could be sneaky like Esquire, with windows or flaps that reveal ads. You could be tricky like Entertainment Weekly, with it’s “pull this!” pocket cover that reveals an ad for a TV show. Or you could be high-tech like Popular Science.
Check this out: Popular Science’s July issue has a 3-D cover that, when you hold it up to a computer Webcam, your computer displays “Flash-based imagery” that you can blow on (through your computer’s microphone) making the windmills’ blades rotate and revealing a GE ad. This “augmented reality” encourages readers to interact with advertisements, and it’s becoming the next big marketing gimmick. Papa John’s is making pizza boxes that, with the help of a webcam and some augmented reality technology, turn into a virtual car. Beef Jerky company Jack Link is doing it, too.
If you don’t have Popular Science, you can print a copy of the cover and do it yourself here.
Industry buzz 3-D, advertising, augmented reality, cover, magazines, marketing
Who wouldn’t love a magazine you can wear? Or hang on your wall? Or Frisbee around in a park? Well, now you can get all those things, as publishers are pushing the print boundaries more and more and turning their magazines into useful, beautiful new 3-D manifestations. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted a few impressive examples, such as T-Post, a magazine that sends its subscribers a t-shirt with a story written inside of it (like the one in this picture). Or Freestyle, a magazine that published once in a Frisbee (really). Or Visionaire, a limited-edition publication that has included such oddities as taste strips, tiny toys or miniature perfumes. As the WSJ article notes, publishing in this form “makes the reader interaction deeper,” and it offers something that “websites and digital distractions can’t match.” We definitely agree; and we want a T-shirt, too!
Industry buzz 3-D, magazines, T-shirts
