The advertisements for drupa 2012, print media trade fair, appearing in about 500 trade  publications in over 60 countries in the next few months, will be enhanced by augmented reality (the letters AR in the top right-hand corner).  If the reader views this image using a smartphone, tablet or PC/laptop camera equipped with special software (Junaio; also see www.drupa.com/help), a 3D animation starts up on the screen and connects directly to the drupa website through the interactive button. The advantages are obvious: using print, the reader gets directly to the drupa website to find the latest information. “This logical linking 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,” explained 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.” drupa 2012 will take place from May 3 - 16, 2012 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany.  

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

Tablets and increasingly sophisticated smartphones are placing augmented reality more and more in the spotlight and open up new and interesting uses for the entire communication industry. “The technology should not be used as an end in itself though. It must be integrated conceptually into the whole campaign and must basically take second place to the communicative aims and content,” noted Michael Sommer, Creative Director of the Düsseldorf agency Concepteers, who developed this campaign.    

The campaign's development process is probably as unique as the campaign itself. The cross-media "your link to print" campaign was approved in the summer of 2010 and ten communication design students from the private Ruhrakademie in Schwerte (Germany) helped develop the AR elements and integration into the whole campaign as part of their project work. Michael Sommer, a lecturer at the university, supervised the group. The first step was status analysis, i.e. what is state of the art, which trends can be expected. It quickly became clear that the visitor brochure, the most important advertising tool for drupa, should be enhanced by AR. The visitor brochure is published in ten languages (in addition to the main European languages also in Chinese, Japanese and Russian) and has a total circulation of 450,000 copies. Two topics from this brochure were picked up and implemented across all media: drupacity Düsseldorf and the drupa specialist ancillary program. “Unlike classic forms of advertising, a dialogue can be developed using augmented reality,” mentioned Petra Köhler. “This kind of cross-media campaign is of course still unknown territory and presents several challenges in everyday work,” remarked Michael Sommer. However, the networking of print and internet channels and the upgrading of a classic campaign with these kind of additional features offers a lot of potential for print buyers, the print industry and print service providers.    

For further information on visiting or exhibiting at drupa 2012, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Telephone: (312) 781-5180; Fax: (312) 781-5188; E-mail: info@mdna.com; Visit our web site http://www.mdna.com/; Subscribe to our blog at http://blog.mdna.com/; Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mdnachicago    For hotel and travel information, contact TTI Travel, Inc. at (866) 674-3476; Fax: (212) 674-3477; E-mail: travltrade@aol.com; www.traveltradeint.com