Augmented Reality is the New Wave of Print
Last September, I gave a presentation at PRINT 18 about augmented reality, an awkward and nebulous phrase that is usually abbreviated to AR. Much to my surprise, the mid-afternoon session drew a standing-room-only crowd. No one left and I had to put up a web link so people could download the presentation. So, you may be asking, what is augmented reality? Good question, so we’ll start there.
At its most basic and relevant-to-print level, AR uses a printed image and a smartphone or tablet app link to a video, animation, or other content somewhere in the “cloud.” Various custom apps are presently the gateway, but this is changing rapidly. We are still in AR 1.0, or maybe AR 1.5, but AR 2.0 is almost here.
AR could be viewed as a 21st-century replacement for QR codes, those ugly, old-school squares of inscrutable markings typically viewed on a static web page, but AR brings a new dynamic to any printed image. And while lame games like Pokémon GO use a type of AR, when it comes to printing, games are not in the mix, although I can think of ways to make a game out of AR for some print applications.
But, what AR really does is bring print to life.
Rooms with a View
Smaller digital presses””meaning anything up to maybe 100 pages per minute””are being used to print short runs of everything from brochures to direct mail to presentations. Using AR, a brochure for a Caribbean resort, for instance, might have photos of people kayaking or enjoying dinner in a beachside restaurant. With AR in play, someone pointing their phone at an AR-enabled image would link the person in the advertisement to videos about kayaking at the resort and/or dining at the restaurant. Additional links within the video could lead to details about kayak rentals or the menu in the restaurant.
Or consider a set of slides in a presentation handout. Enabled by AR, a set of graphs on a slide can be animated to match talking points, or an included video, replicating those elements from the live presentation. Such features add value to printed documents, fostering interest and customer engagement that can drive additional sales or interaction with the company.
More broadly, other companies have print catalogs with graphics linked to AR sites containing additional details and special pricing. Not to be outdone, direct mailers are getting into AR too. In fact, the USPS claims a 37% uptick in response rate when AR is used in a mail piece. Or go to an art museum. A painting can be “recognized” by an app and take you to a site with more information, perhaps even a video about the artist and the painting.
The good news for printers and document creators is that in many cases the printed images are nothing more than PDFs. The smartphone app “reads” the image and the magic happens on the remote web page where the app plays a video, animation, slide show, or whatever.
Dynamic and Timeless
Old-fashioned QR codes can also link to a website, but an AR link is both dynamic and timeless. QR codes are generally static””linked to a specific URL such as a web page holding an image or block of text. They are not intended to point to changing information, so if the information on the site a QR code points to is changed, the QR code and its associated URL for that page should also be maintained (a largely manual process) to ensure the link remains accurate and in place. This is additional, exacting work for document creators that takes time and increases the likelihood of errors””which show up as dead links.
In contrast, AR links can be continuously updated without needing to change the original printed image. In our Caribbean resort example, the kayaking video could change from single-person kayaks to a video including children. The restaurant video could change to show new menu offerings, all without changing the image in the brochure. What this means at the printing end of the process is that the same images can be used on hundreds or thousands of brochures and direct mail pieces, printed occasionally or all at once, but still providing a gateway for prospective travelers using their smartphones. The original image works regardless of when they are considering going to the resort, even though the online content may vary. In the case of the presentation, the slide show can be updated with new information so it remains current weeks or months after it was originally presented.
The Three-Foot Effect
Or consider packaging, poised to be a leading player at the intersection of AR and print. While not an area where the customers of most copier/printer dealers spend much time, Packaging is at the forefront of AR and is compelling because so many people have smartphones with them all the time.
The “Three-Foot Effect” is a retail packaging tactic intended to attract shoppers’ eyeballs from about three feet away. Using AR, labels and even entire packages can be linked to a nearly unlimited range of information about a product. For example, a box containing an air conditioner can offer details about its cooling power, ability to dehumidify a room, and its remote control. Packaging in a grocery store can provide info on a vendor’s organic products, while cosmetics products that use beeswax and honey can show videos about the benefits of those ingredients. The potential for AR at the product level is endless, along with the associated brand extension opportunities.
So what does this mean for, say, a start-up micro-brewer making their own labels on a leased four-color printer? Maybe the image on the bottle is AR-enabled and takes a customer on a tour of the brewery, as well as talks about the grade of hops used and the care taken in the brewing process.
And AR is nothing if not highly scalable. Living Wine Labels, for instance, recently worked with the national brand 19 Crimes, the bottles of which bear labels featuring images of British criminals convicted of crimes that resulted in imprisonment in Australia. Pointing a phone containing the Living Wine Labels app at a 19 Crimes label brings the person on the label “to life” as they tell some of their story.
Or consider a more corporate application. A client of mine wanted to include AR on his annual holiday card. So we produced a video that used a graphic that linked his customers to him talking about the value of AR.
The “Gotchas”
As you probably expected, this is not totally simple. The biggest gotcha is the apps. Depending on whom you talk with, there are as many as 40 different smartphone/tablet applications that can make AR possible. This is the “Gold Rush” period, when every player hopes their AR app will be the one that becomes the standard.
Standards, however, aren’t what they used to be. The big dogs, phone makers like Apple, Google, Samsung, and others are not sitting still. AR apps are already being included in Android and Apple operating systems, and some type of all-purpose AR access will be commonplace within a year or two. Lest you doubt this, recall that only four or five years ago, QR codes required dedicated apps. Now, your smartphone’s camera can read QR codes automatically. The same will happen with AR, and upcoming versions of what are now proprietary AR apps will link to the ones embedded in phones’ operating systems.
Beyond Print
Some AR applications, like those noted above, will tie closely to print. Others will replace print, and still others will have nothing to do with ink or toner. The latest Apple iOS, for instance, can let you view furniture on an AR-linked website and, using the phone’s camera, show how it looks in your home. An app in beta at Mercedes Benz, seeks to eliminate printed owner’s manuals. Slide into a new Benz and use the app to get a tour of the car, learn how the climate control and adaptive cruise control systems work, delve into maintenance intervals, and more.
I know this seems complex, but it’s not. Most AR app providers will handle the placing and support of a video, animation, or other information on a server. The video I produced for my client was a normal video file that was uploaded over the internet and placed in the cloud by the app maker. There is a cost, of course, for hosting the video file (often calculated by total amount of space required and the time the file needs to be active), but it’s an easy cost to amortize over multiple customers, most of whom will understand the value associated with brand enhancement and customer engagement.
Where’s the Market?
Pretty much everyone, baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials alike all watch video and look up information on their smartphones. The biggest target is millennials, those 19 to 38 year-olds who are digital natives. As it turns out, this group, the largest demographic segment since the baby boomers, actually likes print but also looks for “experiences” they can relate to, something static print can’t provide. AR can provide connections that resonate with them””and can influence purchase decisions.
The bottom end of the millennial age group is college students, so consider college textbooks. No one wants to pay outlandish costs for new editions of books with only minor revisions. But if a book contains printed images that use an AR app for the newest updates, images or exercises can be available (at a cost, obviously) even in a book on its third owner. In fact, authors Harvey Levinson and John Parsons recently worked with Ricoh and its AR app Clickable Paper to combine print and AR in the latest version of their book “Introduction to Graphic Communication,” which features some 250 interactive pages.
On a much smaller scale, a friend of mine is writing a self-published cookbook that puts interactivity into the recipes, engaging his audience and helping him build a brand. With AR, he can show off updated recipes to his curated group of testers and use video as he evolves the book. AR-specific pages let him show some steps and add or change recipes through new videos and content. The book will come out with AR links readers can use to enrich their cooking experiences.
Stay Tuned
It’s still early days for AR””think of it as AR 1.5″”but there is a lot more to come, and the print-related opportunities are significant. Now is the time to start investigating how you and your customers can use it. Starting now will help you can gain experience and test drive the processes and apps that make it work. By jumping in today, you increase your chances of success for the day when AR will be as expected as good quality color.
Access Related Content
Visit the www.thecannatareport.com. To become a subscriber, visit www.thecannatareport.com/register or contact cjcannata@cannatareport.com directly. Bulk subscription rates are also available.
