The Guardian Uses Aurasma To Make A Date In Readers' Calendars

-- Guardian News & Media to use Aurasma to deliver additional content around promotional events

--   Application also allows readers to automatically add reminder of events to their phone's calendar

LONDON, June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --The world's leading augmented reality platform today announced its partnership with Guardian News & Media (GNM).

The Guardian will be using the free Aurasma platform to bring promotional content in its newspaper to augmented life. Rich multimedia content can now be embedded within its pages and unlocked using a smartphone or tablet device.

Excerpts from Glyndebourne, the opera company, can be viewed directly from the pages of the Guardian's print edition, taking the festival into British homes and promoting its live streaming of the events. Readers simply download the free Aurasma app and point their mobile device at the Glyndebourne promotional images to see them transform into interactive videos. They can then click-through to the Guardian's website for festival guides, reviews and picnic recipe ideas.

In an industry first, viewers of the content will also be able to click to automatically set a reminder on the calendar of their smart device to notify them when the next Glyndebourne opera streams on The Guardian website.

Matt Mills, Head of Partnerships for Aurasma, comments:

"It's an honour to be working with The Guardian, one of the UK's most respected newspapers. We are delighted they have chosen our technology to unite their print and digital assets and bring the Glyndebourne festival to an even wider audience. I'm sure opera lovers everywhere will be singing the Guardian's praises."

Anthony George, Content Partnerships Manager for the Guardian, said:

"Partnering with Aurasma allows us to create a link between the Guardian's website and print edition through their augmented reality platform. This technology allows our audience to unlock additional content from each of the operas we are streaming this summer and set reminders so they never miss performances, something never before possible with traditional print advertising."

The Guardian is the latest newspaper to partner with Aurasma, joining The Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Sunday Times in the UK, Japan's largest newspaper Mainichi Kimbun, De Telegraaf in the Netherlands and the Philadelphia Inquirer in the United States.

ABOUT AURASMA

Aurasma is the world's leading augmented reality platform. Available as a free app for iPhones, iPads and high-powered Android devices or as a free kernel for developers, Aurasma uses advanced image and pattern recognition to blend the real-world with rich interactive content such as videos and animations called "Auras".

Auras can be created for printed images, product packaging, clothing, physical places and users can even use the app to create and share their own. Since its launch in June 2011, Aurasma has had more than three million downloads and over 4,000 partners in markets including retail, fashion, sport, automotive, education, advertising and publishing are using the free technology in their campaigns, on their products or embedding the technology in their own applications. Aurasma was developed by and is part of software company Autonomy – an HP Company.

Links to Editors
Aurasma (App Store):
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/aurasma-lite/id432526396?mt=8
Aurasma (Android Marketplace):
http://bit.ly/tHibPU

Aurasma:
http://www.aurasma.com
http://www.facebook.com/aurasma/
http://www.twitter.com/aurasma/
http://www.youtube.com/user/AurasmaLite

ABOUT GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA

Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes guardian.co.uk, one of the world's leading news websites, as well as guardiannews.com and the Guardian and Observer newspapers. GNM is the core business of Guardian Media Group (GMG), whose sole shareholder is The Scott Trust. The core purpose of The Scott Trust is to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.

Profits generated by GMG are reinvested to sustain journalism that is free from commercial or political interference. No individual can benefit financially from being a shareholder in The Scott Trust, making it a unique form of media ownership. The original Scott Trust was formed in 1936, and reconstituted in 1948. In 2008 the trust was wound up and replaced with a limited company bearing the same name and with the same protections for the Guardian enshrined in its constitution.

The Guardian was named Newspaper of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2011 and Medium of the Year 2011 by Campaign magazine.