We’ve previously mentioned our partnerships with big printers and publishers like Fry Communications in the U.S. and Glacier Media in Canada, and today we’re announcing yet another.

Elanders UK, part of an international printing firm with production across nine countries on four continents, has partnered with Layar to provide interactive print to its customers, which include Jaguar Land Rover, Tesco and Bosch.

With this partnership, Elanders joins a rapidly expanding group of publishers, printers and brands making Layar their go-to choice for interactive print.

“Creativity, innovation and a passion for strong results are essential qualities for any of our partners and Layar was no exception,” said Elanders Managing Director Kevin Rogers. “From the offset, it was clear that Elanders and Layar shared the same vision for creating communications not only with ‘wow’, but with the results to match.”

With over 100 years of printing experience, Elanders serves customers in over 30 countries with both print and digital solutions. Now with Layar, they can bring all of their services together in one nice package.

“Our customers value our input in ensuring every piece of communication we produce, whether print or digital, is the most efficient and effective it can be,” said Rogers. “We believe this works best when messages resonate with the end user through engaging content across both on and off-line platforms; the trick is to create a seamless communications journey across all channels.”

Elanders plans to help clients make their communications more engaging and effective, providing real results and return on investment. As Rogers says, the choice to go with Layar was an easy one.

“With interest in interactive print and augmented reality increasing amongst our clients, partnering with a specialist who has the expertise and experience to deliver in this field was a natural next step,” he said.

We’re happy to share another great example from the States as respected publishing industry magazine Publishing Executive has enhanced its latest issue with Layar’s interactive print technology.

Publishing Executive is a magazine tailored for, appropriately, publishing executives! It provides case studies and discusses new innovations in the publishing world, among other things, so it’s natural that Publishing Executive will include interactive print going forward.

Click here to view and scan the Publishing Executive cover!

“We make it our business to keep up with and write about new technology in the magazine industry,” said Editorial Director Lynn Rosen. “I think it’s really important that we also use the technology we write about. It helps our readers learn more about the various products and how they work.”

Publishing Executive first heard of Layar when co-founder Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald spoke at Dr. Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni’s ACT 3 conference last fall. “It was a very compelling presentation,” said Rosen.

“We found the [Layar] system to be extremely user-friendly and the results had a lot of impact. It has a real “wow” factor. And the customer service is excellent!”

The cover of the latest edition of Publishing Executive, titled “Reinventing Publishing,” offers links to social media, subscription options, slideshows and videos help bring the publication to life.

When asked about the magazine’s experience with the Layar Creator, Rosen called it “clear-cut and simple.”

“You can be up and running quickly,” she adds. “We went from deciding to use it to closing an issue in about two weeks!”

Publishing Executive plans to use the Layar Creator to enhance each of its issues with more and more interactivity going forward. The magazine joins the growing group of publications and industry influencers using Layar’s interactive print technology.

“Everytime I pull out my smartphone and show people how the cover comes to life, I get a great reaction!”

Great news! Fry Communications, one of the largest and oldest publishers in the United States, announced today that it has chosen Layar as its augmented reality and interactive print platform of choice. Fry will offer Layar to its customers looking to add interactivity to print products.

We are thrilled to be working with one of the most respected names in publishing. As the world’s leading augmented reality and interactive print provider, we are excited to team up with Fry and bring interactive print to even more publications and readers in 2013 and beyond.

As augmented reality and interactive print are helping the print industry increase value for readers and advertisers, we’re increasingly seeing more publications and publishers align with Layar as their provider of choice. In the end, Layar’s stability, strong product offering and pricing is attracting the industries biggest names.

“We chose Layar because it provides the best user experience with the most robust technology, as well as a transparent pricing structure that publishers and marketeers can trust,” said David Fry, Chief Technology Officer at Fry. “Layar is absolutely focused on leveraging the lasting business value of the augmented reality technology for printers and publishers.”

Fry Communications isn’t the first big printer to team up with Layar. Last year, Senefelder Misset, one of the top Dutch printers, similarly partnered with Layar to offer augmented reality and interactivity to its publications. Printers love Layar because it increases reader engagement, positions the printer as an innovative market player and generates new revenue and e-commerce opportunities.

Fry joins a growing list of printers and publishers signing on with Layar, and there’s more to come! To learn more about the partnership, check out Fry’s press release here.

The medical journal Neurosurgery, published by international professional health publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, has integrated Layar into the pages of its journal to enhance the reading experience.

The official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (which publishes over 3,000 pages of content each year), felt it wise to keep up with its reputation as the “most complete window on the contemporary field of neurosurgery” by implementing augmented reality into its pages. After all, the field of neurosurgery already makes us of AR technology in the operating room.

We spoke with managing editor Duncan MacRae about the experience of adding interactive print to Neurosurgery.

“We had a vision of how we wanted to link our print product with supplemental digital content, and we knew that QR codes would be a stepping stone, rather than a permanent solution,” says MacRae. “Since our usage would be based on visual recognition, rather than GPS, the release of Layar Creator was really the breakthrough we were waiting for.”

“Layar Creator has been extremely easy to use, and most importantly, the metrics provided are excellent,” he adds. “Our investment of time in creating new pages is embarrassingly small, considering that we utilize web links, videos, emails, and social media actions on almost all of our augmented images.”

So far, a handful of ads for Neurosurgery content have been activated using Layar. MacRae says going forward, they will incorporate more interactive print into commercial ads and editorial content.

“We have spent the last three months showcasing the technology to our regular stable of print advertisers,” says MacRae. “Any added value that we can provide to an advertiser gives us an advantage over our competitor publications.”

“As the journal becomes a more interactive product, the opportunities to link our print content with our online educational activities helps us better fulfill the educational mission of the journal.”

On July 11th, Layar is hosting a seminar in Amsterdam for members of the media and publishing industries. This seminar will introduce the Layar Creator and interactive print, providing an opportunity for anyone interested in the Layar Creator to see an in-depth presentation and try it out themselves.

The event is free and kicks off at 1:30pm. Check out more info (in Dutch) below or click here to register right now!

Woensdagmiddag 11 juli a.s. organiseert Layar, wereldmarktleider in augmented reality en interactive print een seminar voor uitgevers, redacteuren en print professionals die meer toegevoegde waarde willen leveren aan hun lezers en adverteerders. Op het seminar leer je hoe makkelijk je print kunt combineren met digitaal, wat de toegevoegde waarde voor lezers is en hoe het meer biedt aan adverteerders.

De hoofdredacteur Jildou van der Bijl van LINDA en de Interactive Paper Maker Leonieke Verhoog van VPRO delen hun ervaringen en lessen in Interactieve Print. Ontmoet de experts van Layar en leer anderen collega’s kennen die reeds begonnen zijn of gaan beginnen. Het event is kosteloos, er is echter beperkte ruimte dus registreer snel!

Neem een laptop en de PDF van jouw laatste uitgave mee zodat deze tijdens de seminar, begeleid door onze experts, verrijkt kan worden.