Smub, Inc., a company specializing in developing tools to simplify the sharing of media — digital or print — with online social networks, has rolled out a new service called hy.pr.

Introduced in October at MPA’s Magazine Innovation Summit, hy.pr was developed specifically to extend the reach of print publications and the life of their content by allowing readers to share links to the articles they read in print with their online social networks.  According to Smub, "With hy.pr, every reader is a potential social media marketer for the publication. By providing readers the tools to push content instantly to their online social networks, hy.pr drives traffic to the publisher’s website, increases brand awareness and lowers the cost of subscriber acquisition."

As reported by Folio Magazine, to use it publishers register with hy.pr, then create custom URLs for select articles and print them in the physical edition of the magazine. When the reader wants to share the article, they can then enter the URL into a web browser, which offers the reader a "share and save" page from which they can e-mail a shortened link directly to their contacts, bookmark the link or share it among social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Digg. Folio cites as an example, the French magazine Polka which includes the URL polka.hy.pr/punk which allows readers to then share pictures on social media sites.

According to Smub CEO Thierry Lamouline, "Our research shows that roughly 25% of all Tweets and Facebook status updates contain a link.  By empowering their readers to share content, publishers will create an audience of social media marketers who actively promote publishers brands, driving targeted traffic to publishers’ web sites, which in turn will dramatically lower the cost of a subscriber acquisition via the web."

Topic: internet, marketing, Print to Web, Social Media

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For a form of media that has been with us since the early origins of mankind, print is showing no signs of becoming out of fashion. In fact there are many  fascinating trends that highlight print’s capability to adapt to new media.

Digital print can connect to the world wide web with PURLS

Print can connect to mobile phones through TXT or SMS numbers and QR Codes

Now print can connect to your computer or mobile phone using a web or phone cam to create Augmented Reality

A “marker” on a printed page can be “read” by a webcam-enabled personal computer a bit like a barcode. A three-dimensional virtual object appears on the screen, suspended like a hologram over the image of the page.

Bring the square to life

1 If you have a computer with a webcam and Adobe Flash 9 or higher installed (and internet connection), click here. Your camera may work straight away. If so, skip to point 4.

2 Right-click (or Ctrl-click for Macs) on the large black square and select Settings.

3 Select the webcam tab and choose your camera from the list (if that does not work, try another from the list).

4 Show the camera the large black square in Friday’s Financial Times (or click here to print out the square). Adjust angle and distance until your screen displays a three-dimensional “augmented” image.

Car manufacturers such as BMW and Toyota have used the technique to show off their latest models. Paramount Pictures, the film distributor, used 3D graphics to publicise Transformers 2 and Star Trek.

On November 9th, Esquire Magazine is dedicating an entire issue to augmented reality http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality-coming-soon

As an aside, not everyone is excited by Esquires decision, as stated by BoSacks at PrintCEO.com http://printceo.com/2009/10/esquire-looks-to-energize-print

Now Jonas Jager from Toxin has taken augmented reality from an oh-cute! status to holy-frack-that’s-cool position. His business card will make the owner appear like a 3D hologram, displaying Twitter information in real time, plus all kinds of cool stuff.

Note the QR Code on his business card alongside the AR Marker.

Click on the picture to view the video.

Augmented Business Card from jonas on Vimeo.

Topic: agencies, Augmented Reality, business cards, direct mail, internet, marketing, Media Link, Mobile Marketing, PURL's, QR Code

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