The modeling clay may be one of the most low-tech toys ever created, but it now offers some high-tech fun.

A new augmented reality app has been launched to bring Play-Doh works of art to life. The majority of us have played with this modeling compound at some point in our lives. That said, the number of kids who are spending time with this type of toy is starting to shrink.

Kids are more likely to look to tablets and mobile devices for fun than they are to modeling clay.

In response, Hasbro has introduced a new augmented reality app. The purpose is to remind kids of all ages about how fun it is to be creative. The new Touch app is now available for iPhones and iPads. Kids and adults alike can use it to scan their Play-Doh creations. Once, scanned, they are brought into a virtual world where they are animated. This may seem rather gimmicky, but the response from both children and grown-ups has been a very positive one. People just seem to love it.

The augmented reality app is both immersive and entertaining, encouraging people to be creative.

In this way, the sixty-year-old brand is giving itself the opportunity to become more relevant among children who are accustomed to seeing a digital version of their playtime. This mobile app can be used for free with any Play-Doh product the kids already have. That said, there is also an enhanced opportunity to play.

With the Shape to Live Studio set, kids have considerably more features available. The set retails at about $40 and comes with seven cans of Play-Doh, character and action stampers, cutters and a white scanning surface. It provides a notably larger environment as well as a larger number of characters for interaction. Overall, it can make the mobile game more fun.

The augmented reality app launches with a digital world that is essentially empty. That said, once a Play-Doh creation is scanned, it is brought into the application through the device camera. The scanning takes around 10 seconds to complete including the aligning of the image and the image processing. Inadequate lighting slows down the process, which must be completed on a white surface.

A new Zenith prediction states that 75 percent of usage will occur over mobile devices next year.

Zenith has released a new mobile web trends forecast that showed a notable growth in smartphone based internet use next year. It predicted that three quarters of all 2017 internet use will occur over mobile devices.

This could prove to be important insight for marketers that are deciding on their mobile ad budgets.

Last year, Zenith’s mobile web trends prediction was that 2016 would see 71 percent of internet use from smartphones and tablets. It also estimated that 60 percent of global internet advertising dollars would be spent for mobile ads by 2018. This latest prediction was released in the company’s Mobile Advertising Forecasts report.

The report stated that in 2018, marketers would spend $138 billion on mobile advertising. That figure “is more than will be spent on newspaper, magazine, cinema and outdoor advertising put together,” stated the report.

The Zenith mobile web trends forecast also predicted this year’s mobile ad spend to be $71 billion.

A growing number of ad dollars are shifting from TV to digital, particularly focused at smaller screens. Google, Facebook and Snapchat are now prime platforms for mobile marketers. According to DDG Inc. consultancy firm managing director of innovation and digital media exec, Scott Singer, “In four years, you’ve gone from 40 per cent to 70 per cent (of total internet use) in mobile.”

This mobile marketing trend is sending ad dollars away from traditional media such as newspapers and television and is directing it to media, entertainment and communications platforms.

Telecommunications companies are bringing digital distribution and content together as mobile data consumption – particularly video – is on the rise. The goal to this mobile web trend is to draw consumers to view digital content on mobile devices while appealing to advertisers. Companies from small businesses to giant corporations. This has been reflected in the recent announcement that AT&T was seeking to purchase Time Warner Inc and that Verizon Communications Inc is interested in Yahoo Inc. In both cases, the goal is to help leverage available user data for targeting ads on behalf of marketers.