Aurasma's Visual Browser Transports the Tourism Industry to a New Destination

SAN FRANCISCO and CAMBRIDGE, England, November 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Hawaii and Mexico first destinations to get on-board

Hawaii and Mexico, two of the world's most popular vacation destinations, have turned to Aurasma, the world's first visual browser, to lead the future of tourism marketing with their cross-media creative campaigns.  To capture the public's attention and further entice travel to Hawaii and Mexico, these destinations are embracing Aurasma's ability to visually transport these breathtaking vacation hotspots to an audience that is approaching shorter days and colder temperatures.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111103/SF99325)

Hawaii and Mexico use of Aurasma to deliver a richer representation of their beautiful destinations

As the first U.S. tourism destination to embrace Aurasma the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) recently completed a successful month long print campaign in Chicago's Clark and Lake Station. HVCB is now extending the Aurasma experience to the San Francisco Bay Area.  

"The new augmented reality campaign helps create deeper engagement with potential travelers to Hawaii who can interact with the rich digital content and learn about experiences unique to the Hawaiian islands," said John Monahan, president and CEO of Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. "Bringing one dimensional images to life puts commuters as close to being in Hawaii as possible in a compelling way.  We're excited to partner with Aurasma to bring this interactive user experience to Chicago and San Francisco for the first time."

San Francisco's Embarcadero Center and San Jose's Santana Row will display Hawaii print ads, in which pedestrians can use Aurasma to see the printed ads dissolve into stunning videos of Hawaii.  Those interested in getting more information simply tap on their mobile touch screen and they are automatically directed to gohawaii.com.

"Ogilvy decided to use Aurasma's cutting-edge technology because we want our clients to always be at the forefront of digital innovation," said Layla Revis, vice president of Ogilvy PR Worldwide's Digital Influence Group. "Technology like this is truly leading the way for marketers and developers worldwide because it allows objects and images in the physical world to come to life in a manner we've never seen.  As part of one of our campaigns, the Mexico Taxi Project, we're using Aurasma to offer exclusive content to media and key influencers in North America.  When the Aurasma viewer sees the front of the postcard, the image triggers a series of video testimonials from recent trips to Mexico.  To incentivize recipients to unlock the digital content and watch the video, we've also included a nice prize. One lucky viewer will win an iPad 2.'"

Notes for Editors

ABOUT AURASMA

Aurasma is the world's first visual browser - a new platform technology that merges the physical world with the virtual. Available as a free app for iPhone 4, iPad 2 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 in way 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 two million downloads. Over 500 partners in markets including retail, sport, automotive, consumer electronics, entertainment, advertising and publishing are using the free technology in their campaigns or embedding the technology in their own applications. Aurasma was developed by and is part of software company Autonomy -  an HP Company.