MediaCom and Aurasma Revolutionise Media World with Augmented Reality

CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- World-Leading Media Agency Partners with Hot Technology to Bring Advertising to Life

MediaCom, one of the world's leading media agencies and Aurasma, the world's leading augmented reality platform, today announced a partnership to transform the advertising campaigns of some of most recognized brands in the world.

Aurasma is a radical technology that uses smart phones and tablets to recognize images in the real world and bring them to life - by overlaying video, animations or games, precisely in context. The new technology is taking the media world by storm, and has already been installed on over one million devices.

MediaCom's client, Universal Pictures, is now using Aurasma to supercharge their advertising campaign for the hit movie Bridesmaids in the UK. The print advertisement campaign for the film includes major publications such as London titles Metro and Stylist, and leading women's magazines Closer, More and Grazia. Readers simply download Aurasma Lite and point their device to the print advertisement to see the static creative come to life on the page, overlaying a trailer and linking directly to the movie's Facebook page.

"An influential brand, such as Universal, needs to stay at the cutting edge of digital media and, at MediaCom, we are there to ensure this happens," said George Dixon, Head of Mobile, MediaCom. "Whilst Universal have completely embraced mobile, they still have a strong commitment to outdoor, print and TV. Therefore, opportunities to tie this emerging channel with traditional media, offering more opportunities for our target audience to engage, are keenly snapped up."

"Aurasma has successfully delivered a rich execution, tying our print display to mobile and bringing it just a click away from our social media touchpoints. We fully intend to continue to work with Aurasma on behalf of all of our clients, to explore the endless possibilities we believe this technology has to offer," continued Dixon.

Go to http://www.aurasma.com for more information.

About MediaCom

MediaCom is one of the world's largest Media Communication Specialists, with billings exceeding US $26 billion (Source: RECMA) and 116 offices in 89 countries around the globe. Our "People First, Better Results" philosophy drives our strategy and reflects our belief that putting People - employees, clients and consumers - at the core of our business leads to optimum business results.  The MediaCom family of companies includes such leaders in their fields as:  MediaCom Interaction, our global digital and interactive marketing agency, with future-forward proprietary technology that works to grow clients' businesses; MediaCom Direct, our direct response experts, creating close, measured connections with consumers; MediaCom ESP, entertainment and sponsorship specialists that connect brands to consumers when they are most open to product messages; and MediaCom Business Science, focused on helping clients achieve maximum sales return. MediaCom Worldwide is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group*, and is a part of GroupM, WPP's media agency group, which is the largest worldwide.  For more information, visit http://www.mediacom.com.

About Aurasma

Aurasma is a revolutionary, augmented reality platform that uses advanced image recognition technology to merge the physical and virtual worlds. Using a smart phone or tablet computer, Aurasma is capable of recognizing objects in the real world and overlaying this view with an interactive layer of the virtual world.

Aurasma was created using industry-leading technology from Autonomy. It is currently in use by over one hundred partners including film studios, TV chains, online retailers, media agencies, newspapers, magazines, museums and billboard advertisers.

   
    Aurasma Editorial Contacts:          MediaCom Editorial Contact:
   
    Emily Orton                          George Dixon
    Autonomy (UK)                        MediaCom
    +44 207 104 5708                     +44 207 158 5173
    emily.orton@autonomy.com             george.dixon@mediacom.com
   
    David Vindel
    The Red Consultancy (UK)
    + 44 207 025 6529
    david.vindel@redconsultancy.com
   
    Winifred Shum
    Autonomy (US)
    +1 408 771 6668
    wshum@autonomy.com
   
    Louise Kehoe
    Ogilvy PR (US)
    +1 415 677 2739
    louise.kehoe@ogilvypr.com