"AR and 2D codes more than bridge the gap between print and digital – they offer a synergy with measurability and interactivity," said Z-Card managing director Liz Love. "Print and digital together can deliver tenfold on the results individually."
Love added that the use of two technologies provided print with the essential measurability that makes digital media so strong.
"There’s no excuse not to measure, and these are the ways to do it for print," she said.
According to Love, the tangible and tactile nature of print, and particularly the user’s engagement with the Z-Card through the act of folding and unfolding, is an important tool that cuts through the clutter of the thousands of marketing messages sent each day.
"Because of the way the Z-Card folds, you can have far more interactivity than with flat print," she explained, reciting a Chinese proverb that underpins the Z-Card philosophy: 'Teach me, I’ll forget; Show me, I’ll remember; Involve me and I’ll understand.'
In order to produce the PocketMedia products, Z-Card is working with AR specialist Total Immersion, which has been working in AR for the past decade and already has 17 patents.
Total Immersion sales director Myles Peyton claimed AR was tipped to go mainstream in the next five to 10 years, saying it is "a billion-dollar opportunity".
He cited examples of successful AR Z-card campaigns, including Citroen and gaming card firm Topps.
At a breakfast briefing in London last week to introduce the AR Z-Card, Peyton demonstrated how a Z-Card could be used as an input device or games controller and how such uses would increase the time people spent interacting with a brand.
"You can really capture the consumer’s last discretionary currency – engagement," he said. "It makes people smile."
Z-Card’s pocket planner for the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival last month featured a QR Code that registered a 5% follow up from delegates. The firm was able to track what country the visitors came from and what mobile phone they were using – with the most popular region being France and the most used handset the Apple iPhone.
