Aurasma Turns One - Celebrates with 6,000 Partners and 4 Million Downloads

SAN FRANCISCO, June 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurasma, the world's leading augmented reality platform, today announced that just one year after its official launch, the company has worked with more than 6,000 partners to deliver augmented reality (AR) campaigns and promotions across multiple industries including publishing, music & film, fashion, automotive, sports, education, retail and tourism. The company also announced that its free Aurasma Lite app or partner branded apps have been downloaded more than 4 million times in more than 100 countries. The company estimates it will reach the 10,000 partner mark by the end of the year.

Aurasma also released an augmented infographic (http://www.aurasma.com/resources/images/first_birthday_infographic.jpg ) to mark one year from its official launch. When viewed with the free Aurasma app, the infographic comes to life with animated digital content and video and can be triggered from print or from the screen.

Aurasma partners gain valuable insight into campaign effectiveness by collecting quantifiable results that measure the number of "aura" views and click-through rates (CTRs) directly correlated to a print advertisement or marketing promotion. As such, companies and organizations across multiple industries share excitement for the new opportunities provided by Aurasma and augmented reality:

• "The music industry is constantly looking for the best technologies to connect with fans and to sell more records. Augmented reality is a great way of converging the old with new and to shorten the path to purchase," said Steven Abraham, executive vice president of MediaCom LA. "Print is brought to life with AR. We have worked with Aurasma on a bunch of Universal Music Group label campaign launches for label artists as well as using it in other categories, such as travel with Crystal Cruises. Besides the obvious thrill factor of the user experience, Aurasma's ability to measure an offline interaction into an online touchpoint helps clients see the bottom-line value of leveraging augmented reality to drive engagement and conversion."
• "Marvel AR provides endless possibilities to give fans what they've been asking for: a richer experience with their favorite comics and creators. Working with Aurasma has allowed us to deliver an unparalleled experience to our fans worldwide," said Kristin Vincent, director of product strategy, Marvel Entertainment. "Their technology allows us to innovate in ways that ensure we offer a compelling product that continues to not only grow in popularity, but also change the way people read comics as part of the Marvel ReEvolution."
• "As one of the first newspapers in the U.S. to embrace augmented reality to engage with readers, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is at the cutting edge of traditional print and advanced technology," said Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Aurasma gave us the capability to get far more out of the printed newspaper pages by delivering interactive content to our readers through a customized app. So far, the response has been terrific."
• "Technologies like Aurasma are allowing us to significantly enrich our readers' experience, giving them the opportunity to see the technologies and ideas of the future in action," said Jake Ward, Popular Science editor in chief. "Our first Aurasma-powered PopSci Interactive app was a hit with our readers, and they can expect to see even more dynamic-enhanced features in the issues to come."
• "By leveraging Aurasma's augmented reality platform in a cross-disciplinary environment, students in my spring 2012 independent study discovered that they could tell stories in a radically new way, whether their own particular area of expertise was coding, designing, reporting, advertising or shooting video," said Charles 'Stretch' Ledford, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Illinois College of Media. "The end result, our Virtual Dugout mobile app, is a powerful and fun conduit for anyone in the world to connect with the Illini baseball team. For the students, it was 16 weeks of hard work and towering expectations. For the Illini baseball fans who watch Aurasma transform the team's baseball cards into videos of the players, it's simply magic."

Launched in June 2011, Aurasma is the only company to ever win the DEMOgod Award and also be voted as the People's Choice Award winner in the same year at DEMO 2011. In addition to being honored as CNET's Best of CES finalist last January, the company also won the "Best AR App" and the coveted "Best Overall AR" award at the 2012 AR Summit this month.

• "In the last year, augmented reality has moved beyond being a curiosity and has hit the mainstream," said Jennifer Rapp, general manager at Aurasma. "Not only are businesses leveraging Aurasma to connect with customers and build sticky brands, but everyday people are embracing Aurasma's in-app features to create their own virtual worlds, from launching personalized videos triggered by their holiday cards to creating engaging curricula at elementary schools. Aurasma is changing the way we consume information and soon every industry will have a virtual world tied to it."

Aurasma Lite for iPhones, iPads and Android devices is available from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. The free Aurasma app runs on iPhone 3GS (and above), iPad2 (and above), and high-powered Android devices.

Helpful Links:

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

About Aurasma:

Aurasma is the world's leading augmented reality platform that merges the physical world with the virtual. 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 recognize and understand real-world images and objects in much the same way as the human brain does. It then seamlessly blends 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 four million downloads in over 100 countries. Over 6,000 partners in markets including retail, fashion, sport, automotive, consumer electronics, entertainment, 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.

SOURCE Aurasma