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Virgin Media and content agency Redwood are rolling out a new customer magazine which will make heavy use of augmented reality in its editorial pages thanks to a Blippar app. The brand wants the mag to reflect encourage readers to explore its range of entertainment, broadband and mobile services.

Absolut has launched an augmented reality app to enable consumers to explore the unnecessary lengths it goes to, to make its vodka good. “Browse through the wheat fields of Southern Sweden and the one source where every drop of Absolut comes from,” says the brand.

Following in the footsteps of Premier League Manchester City, Championship football club Southampton is also making a play with augmented reality. Fans can download a mobile app developed by Blippar, point their smartphones at advertising banners in the city and access content on the club’s website.

Premier League football club Manchester City is developing its augmented reality season ticket programme to enable fans to use their tickets to communicate with each other and swap content. Man City introduced AR to its season tickets in July this year.

Hearst Magazines UK is partnering with Zappar to bring augmented reality to the December covers of Cosmopolitan, Company and Harper’s Bazaar.

For the latter, readers can watch a clip of the covershoot which took place at the Savoy Hotel earlier this year as part of a short film for Duran Duran directed by Jonas Akerlund, together with Swarovski.

Vodafone New Zealand has launched a mobile augmented reality app which features animated music when users point their smartphones at staff working in the brand’s stores. Vodafone workers wear T-shirts with on the front that trigger the app.

Customers are more likely to buy a product after engaging with an augmented reality experience and will do so at a higher price point than with regular display advertising, according to new research from UK marketing communications consultancy Hidden.

Telefonica is partnering with augmented reality outfit Layar for the latter’s visual search technology which sifts through millions of images to augment them on the mobile phone. This technology enables the identification of items such as supermarket products, logos, posters, and paintings.