The print media is in a ‘catch twenty two’ situation. With
readers converting to digital media and the advertisements on prints overtaking
reading space, the limits of this treasured medium has been realized.
More of the print publications have converted
to online content now in the form of E paper or E-magazines. With digital media
gradually getting more advertisers attention, the pie’s share of sponsors is
also getting smaller and lesser. This is causing threats on the entire print
media to extinction, editors and publishers are struggling to keep this beloved
media alive.
Increasing demands in advertising and advertising spaces is
getting more expensive with each year.
Advertisers are getting desperate now to find even half of the value
worth in advertising space and time, with the same amount, what they used to
pay some years ago. Companies are under constant pressure. With steep
competition and soaring cost hikes, attempt to solve this losing equation is
hard. But, today’s business owners are looking for new ways to find their
customers and in their preferred medium. The answer to this pickle is
innovation, and technology is somewhere the solution seems to be lying.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a very recent concept, where it
attempts to bridge existing media like print with virtual reality. Taking the
help of computer generated images; AR can map your world with information from
the internet.
The good thing about AR is its flexibility. It can be used
in existing print spaces like newspaper, posters, magazine, Hoardings, signposts,
etc. AR can also be integrated in boardroom projectors letting you interact
with the contents of any presentation physically. Even at home, your humble webcam
and PC can get you going with this technology.
Augmented Reality attempts to bridge between the existing
information in physical world with the online virtual world. New cloud services
and other technologies also connecting with it, the possibilities are
indefinable.
In India the technology has been used by the print media
with a huge success now. Application such like Alive, which lets you use your
mobile phone as an AR device are already available. Developed in association
with
Adstuck consulting, this is the first augmented reality application in
India.
Another app was
Areal
developed by
Adstuck,
with an instant
hit and has been downloaded multiple times on its first day itself and a
staggering amount of AR content ware viewed before the day ended. The sheer
appeal of this technology and the convenience of carrying it on your mobile
devices or tablets; is something the developers are confident about. Introduced
with such a good response, major brands and companies followed into it right
away.
Today
Areal in association has produced AR contents for
innovative companies like
Cloud Nine, KUM Bangalore and Mauruti Suzuki to
name a few.
