The latest edition of the Ikea home furniture catalogue will be packed with Augmented Reality features and interactive 3D models.
The Swedish flatpack giant has enlisted the McCann creative agency to help bring the pages of its printed catalogue to life with the aid of accompanying iPhone and Android applications.
On digitally-enhanced pages, waving your smartphone over cabinets, will allow to see see what's behind the doors, which the company hopes will reduce the customer's need to visit brick and mortar stores.
Printed symbols on the pages of the 2013 catalogue will also launch 3D models of products to interact with, further product information and digital how-to videos within the smartphone apps.
Adding a layer
McCann says that, before enlisting its services, Ikea had been considering ditching its print catalogue, which reaches a whopping 211 million subscribers worldwide, in favour of a digital-only offering.
The Swedes decided that a better way forward was to add a digital layer.
"If you had a magazine that had 211 million copies in circulation, you just would't end it. That would be crazy," Linus Karlsson, Global Chief Creative Officer of McCann, told Wired.
"It became a really interesting exercise, and opened a whole world of opportunities. We realized we could tap into a whole new way of digital innovation."
The 2013 issue of the Ikea catalogue will be landing on doorsteps in the next couple of months.
Via: Wired
