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TALKING REALITY: Remember the days when 3-D meant donning a pair of flimsy paper glasses? InStyle is about to raise the bar in so-called augmented reality with its December cover, featuring Taylor Swift. Readers who hold up the cover to their Web camera will see Swift spring to life surrounded by snowflakes in a 45-second video that ends when she signs her autograph across the screen. “We’re using this in an interesting way; it will bring the issue to life,” noted managing editor Ariel Foxman.
Inside the issue, publisher Connie Anne Phillips has extended the augmented reality theme in a special “gifting in 3-D” marketing program. With ad pages harder to come by these days, the title will introduce 12 new advertisers to the December issue and see a 3.6 percent increase in pages, to 256 pages, driven by the 3-D technology. YSL Beauté, Intel, Michael Kors, Nordstrom and Armani have signed on to the program, and the ads will have a click-to-buy e-commerce feature. “At YSL Beauté, we are always very excited by new ways of reaching our customers, so when InStyle approached us with this new technology, we immediately wanted to be a lead part of this initiative,” said Gillian Gorman, vice president of marketing. In total, there are 25 participating advertisers and each brand will also have a 30-second customized video that pops out of a gift box. “This is our most buzzed about issue [of the year] on a consumer level, and with this click-to-buy feature, it’s all about ROI and taking consumers to the point of purchase,” said Phillips.
— Amy Wicks
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