It features a record amount of interactive content including clips of butterflies, comments from experts including Sir David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Monty Don and the chance to put your own garden on the front cover of the magazine. In total there are 48 pieces of interactive content, says Immediate Media, which readers can access by downloading the Blippar app on to their smartphones or tablets.
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine has made big strides with interactive content during the year with its first interactive issue launching in January alongside a fully interactive iPad version of the magazine. According to the publishers, the January issue saw high levels of engagement, belying the myth that older readers are not tech savvy. Some 15% of all readers interacted with close to 200,000 “blips” in total from the one issue.
According to Editor Lucy Hall: “We have been delighted by the high take-up of this technology. Our readers are certainly no luddites and a subject like gardening is ideal for this sort of technology with the great expertise and advice from the magazine now given an extra dimension with birds singing off the page, butterflies coming to life and our readers’ enjoyment enhanced by expert videos to accompany the text.”
In the July issue, other interactive content includes:
* Timelapse emergence of a butterfly
* 360 degree panoramic views of Monty Don’s and Carol Klein’s gardens
* Extra image gallery of TV garden Longmeadow at the height of summer
* Behind the scenes on Alan Titchmarsh’s magazine photoshoot
* Exclusive footage from the Chelsea Flower Show including Laurence Llewellyn Bowen on the new rose launched for him
* Gardening video tips from leading experts
