The UK postal service, the Royal Mail, has taken philately to very 21st Century heights with addition of a augmented reality around its latest range of stamps, in a tie up with AR specialist junaio. Pointing an iPhone or Android handset with the juniao app running at any of Royal Mail’s Great British Railway Special Stamps will launch video footage on the handset of Bernard Cribbens reciting the W H Auden poem “Night Mail”.
The Royal Mail has worked on the launch with information delivery company RBIT, marketing agency m2end and, of course, AR company junaio to deliver what is believed to be the world’s first AR-enabled interactive postage stamp collection.
Philip Parker, Head of Stamp Strategy, Royal Mail, says: “This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we`re very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation`s post”.
He adds: “Through Intelligent Stamp technology, our stamps will open up to a whole new world of information, interest and fun to collectors and the millions of people who will receive them on letters in the coming months alike.” The technology will also be made available on selected future special stamps.
The service, while perhaps driving sales of the stamps to AR and gadget heads, is another demonstration of the role of AR. Junaio has already enabled AR on magazine covers and packaging. Turning it into something that can be monetized, or put to a sales or marketing use, among retailers can only be a matter of months away.
