Augmented Reality: Printing Supercharged

Explaining the impact of augmented reality (AR) to someone is a remarkable experience—only surpassed by the enjoyment of hearing what that same person would do with these tools if given a chance to use them for an upcoming project.

Over the last six months we launched our augmented reality service within The World Bank Group's internal Printing and Multimedia Services unit. This deployment allowed us to add multimedia content to our printed pieces and dramatically expand our in-plant's reach in the quest of supporting our organization's goals. We experienced how a printed item can become the delivery vehicle for digital content and how user engagement as a result can bring value across the board.

Getting Started with AR

During this initial stage we showcased the benefits of this technology internally to clients, colleagues, designers and everyone in between. These conversations were eye-opening as they helped us realize that AR is revolutionary and will transform our industry (and many others). As soon as we started showcasing AR samples, some people got it right away. We could see it in their eyes, which lit up when the augmented reality content came to life. Once that happened, they became enthusiastically engaged in the discussion and, in many cases, we would lose them altogether as they started downloading the apps, scanning all the material in front of them and talking among themselves about how the technology could transform their current projects. We loved seeing that kind of reaction, and it's honestly what got our team moving forward.

The impact of AR as content delivery is game changing. But the ultimate added value is the fact that all interactions can be tracked, measured and analyzed. As a big fan of printing, I have to admit that there is no way of knowing who is reading the books and brochures we print and which sections of these pieces could have been of more interest to readers. AR fills in this gap by providing valuable information regarding user interactions, including how many users engaged the AR piece, location information and types of clicks.

Endless Possibilities

We have done a variety of augmented reality projects for our internal clients in the short time since we launched this service:

• We partnered with Blippar to create and deploy our AR pieces.
• We added digital content to book covers, letting readers trigger videos and engage in social media interactions from the printed piece.
• We helped our HR department do a worldwide deployment of digital booklets that would appear when scanning a simple postcard (and we also printed the physical booklets, which made this project a true cross-media experience).

One of our most successful projects was the enhancement of The World Bank office calendar. This is a calendar that we print in full color on our inkjet press and then hang on almost every office and cubicle wall of our organization. We basically had a virtual "screen" in every office waiting to be activated with AR. (Link to calendar image that you can scan using Blippar.)

For this project we partnered with a few groups internally to offer valuable content centered on The World Bank's mission message. We added a section to create awareness of our new AR service and invite clients to use it. To top it off, we offered a feature to download the calendar's key dates right to users' personal smart phones or tablets. This feature had the highest demand, as it provided a unique element that was only available within this experience.

In-plant Opportunities

We don't have to look far to visualize how this technology can be transformative for most in-plants:

• In-plants in education could print interactive study guides with all kinds of collaborative tools, giving students visual guides to solve complex problems on the spot.
• In-plants in manufacturing could offer printed manuals for technicians with how-to videos embedded in the pages.
• In retail environments, in-plants could work with their marketing departments to implement AR for branding initiatives.

Printing Industry in the Spotlight

The printing industry can be considered a big winner in all things related to AR. We could make the argument that Augmented Reality is primarily a print-centric tool. This is certainly the case, at least until the world of wearable headsets become mainstream. Until then, we can say with confidence

that most AR experiences would not exist without the presence of a printed piece to scan from. As long as printing is a key element of this technology, then printers of all kinds (especially in-plants) can —and should— insert themselves in the middle of this new content deployment wave.

Don’t Ignore the Opportunity

Not all that long ago, the world of print slowly started to acknowledge that content delivery was being offered on all channels (omnichannel), as clients chose alternatives such as e-books, videos, interactive apps and live content websites. We can’t ignore that omni­channel delivery is here to stay.

Augmented Reality makes it easier for printers to be part of this big industry shift. Better yet, AR is now bringing this evolution full circle as it brings the spotlight back to the printed piece, which acts as the starting point for a digital content experience. The quicker we acknowledge it and start thinking in these terms, the more relevant our print services can continue to be for our organizations.

Embrace the Challenge

Even with the great potential of Augmented Reality, it is important to recognize that we are in an early adoption stage of the technology. One of the key challenges you will encounter is the fact that not many people have heard of AR and even fewer have any of the relevant apps installed on their mobile devices.

Instead of being discouraged by this, try to embrace the challenge and keep working on your outreach efforts, focusing on releasing as many projects as you can. The more AR experiences out there, the more you can educate your audience about the availability of this new channel.

Take each project with research in mind, learning about each interaction and making yourself available to hear what users have to say about the deployment. Go beyond the cool factor and be on the lookout to understand if the AR piece you just delivered is truly valuable to your clients and their users or if it’s just a novelty experience. Take each experience as a building block in order to ensure that each subsequent project will be even more valuable for all parties involved.

Above all, remember that by embracing AR early you’ll be able to start offering added value to your printed pieces right from the start of any given project. Keep in mind that if you don’t take the initiative yourself, someone else inside (or outside!) your organization certainly will.