Heat commits to using augmented reality in future issues

By Nick Batten, mediaweek.co.uk, Friday, 24 August 2012 10:41AM

Heat, the celebrity magazine, has committed to using the augmented reality platform Aurasma in future issues, after championing a trial of the app.

In July, Heat released its first augmented reality issue, which publisher Bauer said received an exceptional amount of interest from readers.  

Other magazine titles have also used the app, including Tatler and Hello!.

Through the Heat Extra mobile application powered by Aurasma, the publication's editorial team and its agency, Engine Creative, created 13 interactive pages, each of which hosted multiple interactive videos featuring various stars, including David Walliams and Katy Perry.

Bauer claims that the reality content used within the issue helped generate more than 180,000 interactions in four days.

Click-through rates varied from 7% to up to 42% for a feature that allowed readers to link directly to Heat's Spotify playlist.

According to Bauer, the decision to make the app a regular feature in the title was a direct result of these figures.

Nicky Holt, publisher of Heat magazine, said:  "Operating in such a competitive environment, we always strive to be a multi-platform brand, allowing our readers to access their celebrity news through as many media channels as possible.

"Aurasma's platform allows us to take one step closer to achieving this goal by merging the boundaries of our print, online, mobile and broadcast offerings."

Phil Christer, creative director of Engine Creative, said that Engine's clients were seeing "real business benefits" from implementing this new technology.

He added that Aurasma was the "easiest, quickest and most intuitive way to publish augmented content". 

In the recent ABC ratings, Heat recorded a circulation of 290,003, down 11.2% year on year.

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This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk