Augmented Reality (AR) firm metaio has launched its ‘Ad-Inject‘ mobile advertising service for its junaio AR browser. It allows major brands and sponsors to inject location- and context-sensitive messages into relevant information channels on junaio.

metaio says that Ad-Inject provides an opportunity for channel developers to monetise their content, which is typically provided free of charge,  with intuitive, relevant, location- and context-sensitive advertising messages. Ad-Inject works in a simialr way to Googles AdSense program on the web. Channel owners opt in to displaying ads on their channel, then when a user launches the channel in order to explore channel-specific points of interests close by, a discrete miniature ad bubble is displayed, which is expanded when the user clicks on it.

The German parcel service Hermes has launched a nationwide pilot of the service, with ads on the Wikipedia channel in junaio. When a user launches the junaio channel and uses his onboard camera to check out local points of interest, the nearest Hermes parcel outlet is displayed.

“With more than 14,000 parcel shops, Hermes runs the largest national network for parcel handling in Europe”, says Lutz Rahn, IT manager at Hermes Germany. “Naturally, we aim to achieve similar customer proximity in the virtual and mobile world. After all, 75 per cent of all our parcel deliveries are being ordered online. AR, as an extension, allows us to interact with customers through mobile communication.”

There’s a video demo of Ad-Inject here.