‘Augmented Reality’, eh? It’s a peculiar phrase. It sounds a bit like the title of a Pet Shop Boys album or the term given to the kind of phenomena one might experience following a night on the herbal jazz cigarettes. In fact, Augmented Reality (AR) is ‘a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery’ (phew!) if you take that trusted bible of information, Wikipedia, as your source. In fairness to Wiki, it’s not a bad description if you can get your head around the jargon but the rest of us might want to think of it like this: when the virtual world is superimposed on the real world, we are in the realms of AR.
As seen on TV
In television broadcasting and especially live TV sports coverage, AR is a commonly used tool. Especially prevalent in the United States, some broadcasters use it as a vehicle to get across the commercial messages of the day from branding baseball pitches with sponsors’ logos to trailing upcoming events.
The BBC’s Six Nations rugby coverage is perhaps the best sporting example of how AR is used editorially, as it were, in British TV broadcasting. At the kick off of a match (Wales v England for sake of example), one half of the pitch appears to have been painted with giant Welsh feathers and the other with an equally sizable English rose. For the initial seconds, the action takes place with these images on the screen seemingly painted onto the grass by an artistically blessed groundsman. Of course, it is the BBC’s graphics department that have been at work and a few seconds in the images disappear as they have by now served their purpose as a device to spell out to viewers which direction the teams are playing in.
AR then, already exists in broadcast but in this age of constant innovation and new technologies, consumer magazines are dipping their toes into the AR waters, if not getting fully immersed. The US newsstand was the first to see its magazines flirt with the quirky technology of enhanced AR editions. In the summer of 2009, Popular Science led with an innovative cover that wowed its tech-savvy audience with its 3D depiction of wind turbines that tied into its cover feature but, perhaps, the first most overtly mainstream use of the technology was the December 2009 American edition of Esquire. Boldly headlined the ‘Augmented reality issue’, the Esquire experience enabled readers to make cover-star Robert Downey Jr perform a variety of pre-recorded routines depending on the angles they titled their magazine at the screen.
Florence performs for Grazia
March 2010 saw the first of a brace of major UK publishers blazing the AR trail with Grazia’s colourful ‘amazing 3D issue’, a feature that allowed readers to make Florence Welch sing and dance at their will by waving the cover at a webcam as well as a variety of excellent features within the pages, and my own BBC Focus’s ‘The Science of Fear’ issue. All of these AR experiences were achieved by encouraging the reader to download a piece of software onto their computer and then follow the carefully worded instructions replicated on-screen and on the page. I say ‘carefully worded’ as all four of these illustrious titles were sure not to assume any prior AR knowledge on the part of its readers. Conscious perhaps that what the reader needs to do to unlock the AR features is not self-explanatory, they all went to lengths to clearly explain to consumers how to use their applications and in the cases of Esquire, Grazia and BBC Focus, the magazine editors themselves filmed tutorials of explanation that were posted on their websites.
Eek! A spider!
As usual with every new technological initiative, it is important for publishers to resist the urge to use AR for the sake of it and not crowbar the new technology into their products just because the capacity to do so is there. As ever, emphasis has to be on appropriateness. When we were looking to add something extra to our July 2010 issue of BBC Focus magazine all about ‘The Science of Fear’, AR gave us that edge. We enhanced the cover with a 3D spider that scuttled all over the page as the piece reported that spiders were one of the main things that scare people. It was a bit of frivolous fun, sure (and we make no apology for that), but inside the issue we used AR to genuinely bring the features to life and add to the whole reader experience of the issue.
For example, one particular feature about what happens when two stars collide in the sky was enhanced using AR with a 5-minute, 3D annotated animation of what such phenomena looks like. It brilliantly illustrated the core scientific subject matter of the feature in a way that still images could not have done. Yes it was entertaining but crucially, it was a method of telling the story that was absolutely appropriate and on-brand for BBC Focus and its readers.
Commercial potential?
That particular BBC Focus use of AR was editorially led but the technology definitely presents some interesting opportunities for advertisers. The Mini Cabrio used AR to sell itself to the German consumer magazine reader in 2008, with ads complete with spinning cars, virtual tours and the like. More recently, Calvin Klein ran lavish and compelling AR enhanced ads in GQ. Both of these examples were part of a bigger awareness multi-platform brand campaign, sure, but both were shrewd enough to recognise the benefits attached to using the AR vehicle even if only for the gimmick. Naturally, pioneering a new advertising technology did no PR harm for Mini or Calvin Klein or their respective agencies.
However, it would be wrong to underestimate the efforts of these well run and executed campaigns. As well as the obligatory creative excellence required at the campaign concept stage, an AR advertising solution demands a highly bespoke technical ability and understanding to bring the idea to life. Such realisation will be costly to the advertiser and certainly require some enhanced budgets but that additional spend will prove lucrative to whichever agency offers the technical production service and not the media into which the ad appears with buyers unlikely to tolerate an increased rate card from publishers for the privilege of adding an AR element to their otherwise regular display page. Nevertheless, the magazine as a medium should offer itself up as an open-minded vehicle for however its customer wants to use it.
A note of caution
It needs to be said that the advertising conversation exposes a not insignificant chink in AR’s armour. The whole business of interacting with a piece of AR media can be cumbersome and clunky. It’s a very big ask to expect the consumer magazine reader to scan a display ad on the page, be sufficiently moved by the creative as to want to explore the AR possibilities, log-on to their PC, follow the technical instructions, download the required software, hold up the page to their webcam and watch whatever suitably whizzy animation the agency has created. Novelty factor aside, in this world of immediacy, it is questionable whether we can reasonably expect readers to go to such lengths and labours for a commercial message. The advent of enhanced magazine websites, digital magazines, iPad editions and such like will probably prove to be a more realistic, long-term home for the rich media ad within a consumer magazine environment; a slicker, technically simpler and cheaper method of enhanced advertising than on-page AR but somehow less impressive and entertaining. AR within a magazine does something that we don’t expect a magazine to do and that’s perhaps its greatest achievement. Anything less than technically sensational on the iPad will naturally (though a tad unfairly) be considered a disappointment.
The danger with any new technology, of course, is that the world occasionally forgets its good sense and just dives right in, as those who sank millions into dot com spin-offs of their magazine titles will forever lament. For us as magazine publishers, we must know by now that new technologies in whatever form they may arrive, will never offer us a challenge that we cannot adopt our basic well-held principles to. Most magazine publishers (I feel obligated to say most, though I cannot think of any reason why I shouldn’t write all) strive to produce products that surpass the expectations of readers and provide a solid, attractive and creative space for advertisers. If emergences such as AR have the capacity to enhance the readers’ experience of the magazine and to offer a better service with exciting options that meet the needs of our advertisers then publishers should look with interest. If it doesn’t, then we shouldn’t. The same thing, ultimately, goes for everything else, and that won’t change even in that unlikely, distant future where flicking through physical leaves of paper made from actual trees will be the stuff of classroom history lessons.
