Blippar's visual search will 'turbo-charge' global appetite for interactive print

As we launch the new ‘visual search’ version of Blippar’s mobile app (and knuckle down to systematically making the entire world blippable – phew!), our CMO and co-founder Jessica Butcher speaks to FIPP’s Amy Duffin about what this exciting new development means for the publishing world.

‘Blippar is so far known for being a mobile augmented reality platform. We’ve built a very successful tool that enables the owners of physical world collateral (print, packaging, merchandise, in-store environments etc.) to associate digital content experiences with it that can be unlocked by a smartphone user simply looking at it through their device. We’ve done that with more than 2,500 brands and 1,000s of leading print media titles and have created some wonderful augmented reality experiences.

‘This announcement sees a massive new world of opportunity opening up. We want to adjust the ‘blipping’ behaviour, so instead of being reactive, it becomes proactive. With our visual browser capabilities we will start to dramatically flesh out the volume of interactive content that is within our platform and ‘turn on’ the physical world - so moving this to a true visual browsing behaviour. We will start to associate consumer-centric valuable, utility-based content with an increasing amount of things in the real world.

‘We see this dramatically turbo-charging the consumer awareness downloads and audience that magazine clients will have access to. The work they have to do to educate their readers on how to interact with content will diminish dramatically because people will be doing it on a day-to-day basis. Of course, we would expect them to incrementally appeal to new demographics and new audiences by virtue of the fact that they’re embracing the technology that consumers are using elsewhere.

‘Our key proposition for media partners has always been that we are creating a broad interactive ecosystem with, but also around them. Advertisers are not just using us in print, but in in-store environments and out of home marketing, promotional marketing and the product packaging itself. So, we’ve created this behaviour already that lives within magazine brands, but also appeals to advertisers outside of that medium. And they can tap into and take advantage of the fact that we’re doing campaigns with Pepsi that get 2.5 million interactions and building that awareness outside of their own audiences.

‘Ultimately, we see visual search turbo-charging that with millions of new users that know what Blipping is and are actively looking for opportunities to interact and engage with the physical world including with print titles. If we do that successfully, I feel there are opportunities to hugely invigorate the print medium.

‘Our main business objective is for ‘blipping’ to become the eponymous verb associated with this behaviour of unlocking the physical world around us using visual search technology. We’re looking to drive a whole new daily behaviour that is instinctive and intuitive. You can’t search for that handbag or breed of dog you just passed on the street if you don’t know who made it or what it’s called. You can’t search for the piece of art you’re looking at if you don’t know the artist’s name.

'This is fundamentally game-changing for how we will look at things in the world around us. There are so many potential applications of this technology, that we see it marking a fundamental shift in our behaviour.’

Read Blippar CMO and co-founder Jessica Butcher’s full interview with Amy Duffin in FIPP here.