Playboy goes interactive
Adult magazine Playboy has joined forces with Layar, an augmented reality and interactive print company, in order to bring new levels of interactivity to its publications for Dutch readers.
It is hoped that the partnership, announced earlier this month, will provide Playboy's 40,000 readers in Holland with a more stimulating and immersive experience. They will be able to view pages via their smartphones or tablets and, by running the Layar app, see selected articles and pictures come to life.
"We have a great amount of content but we are limited to the 114 pages of the magazine. With Layar, we virtually have an unlimited amount of possibilities to publish extra content," said editor in chief Patrick Goldsteen. "The cover would normally be static, but since the cover now consists of a video the readers can see their favourite models move, talk and interact with them."
Layar claims its app, which is available for both iPhone and Android, has been downloaded over 28 million times and is used by 1 million people every month. It also believes that interactive print technology is key in helping old media stay relevant in the digital age. As the company's CEO Quintin Schevernels says: "The continued commitments of such internationally iconic magazine brands are marking the arrival of interactive print as a viable solution for print publishers."
Playboy is the latest in a series of traditional publishers to experiment with interactive print in order to breathe new digital life into their print publications. Earlier this month, Glacier Media, Western Canada's largest local media company, launched interactive print editions of its local newspapers in conjunction with Layar, in order to add a new level of reader engagement to its publications.
