Global marketing campaign relies on Augmented Reality: Print and Internet are fusing

nternational advertisements, visitor brochures and direct mailings with AR / Students have helped develop the campaign

When the drupa advertisements appear in roughly 500 specialist publications in over 60 countries in the next few months, the letters AR in the top right-hand corner will catch your eye immediately: The advertisement is enhanced by augmented reality. If the reader views the marker, in this case the image, using a smartphone, tablet or PC/laptop camera equipped with special software (Junaio; also see www.drupa.de/hilfe), then a 3D animation starts up on the screen. You are taken directly to the drupa website by just tapping the interactive button with your finger. The advantages are obvious: Using print the reader can be directly taken to the drupa website to get the latest information. “This logical linking up of print, Internet and mobile systems is the central theme of our whole marketing campaign for drupa 2012 and is a continuous thread throughout all elements”, explains Petra Köhler, Manager of Marketing Communication at Messe Düsseldorf. “In its marketing campaigns drupa has always picked up on the latest print communication trends, adapted them to the specific needs of the world's leading trade fair and implemented them accordingly.

“The cross-media networking of different media channels is the focus of the next drupa, although print is still the leading medium”, clarifies Petra Köhler. “The campaign's motto is fittingly: your link to print”. The drupa song was integrated into the first advertising campaign across media in the summer of 2011 as a small taster of the whole AR campaign and received positive feedback.