Augmented Reality in Action: 'Nexos Latinos' Readers Help Jalil Lopez Steal a Kiss

The slow, easy pace of the ballad about unrequited love, "Princesa Mia," contrasts with how quickly Nexos Latinos magazine readers adopted the augmented reality technology the magazine used for the first time in its Fall 2012 issue.
On Page 16, the article about 16-year-old bachata singer Jalil Lopez comes to life after readers download the "Nexos Latinos AR App" on their mobile devices, using the iTunes App Store or Google Play. Of the 193 readers who did so from Sept. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2012, exactly 135 used the App Store and 58 found the application on Google Play and pointed their phones at the various AR icons in the magazine.

When they chose the Lopez article, readers saw the picture of the singer's face suddenly morph into the beginning of a video within the same frame. Flipping the phone on its side, the article's text fades away as the video dominates the phone's screen. Citrus in the foreground brings the viewer's eyes up and toward the singer's moving hands, as he stirs eggs in a frying pan and places toast on a plate of scrambled eggs for his smiling abuela.

Then Lopez leaves the house and heads to work at a rich man's estate, where he longs to kiss the girl in the window, who he calls "Princesa Mia." Perhaps enamored themselves, Nexos Latinos readers made this article their second favorite, giving it 20 percent of the magazine's 1,027 augmented reality views. ("Movies on Demand" got the highest viewership, at 24 percent.)

The Lopez video, though, allows for more action than it does passive watching. A green button appears on the video's lower left-hand corner that says "compra esta cancion" and then translates that phrase in smaller type for English speakers—"buy this song."

Among the video's viewers, 41 percent clicked through on that button. That meant the Lopez video caused the largest number of clickthroughs and, perhaps, many song sales.