Groundbreaking Video-in-a-Magazine Ad Won't Save Print
When Entertainment Weekly readers in Los Angeles and New York receive their Sept. 18 issue, they will be participating in print media history. Or maybe that's video chip history. I'm not sure.
That issue will contain what is being reported as the first video ad to appear in a print publication, delivered by a super-thin, bendable screen via an embedded video chip. The ad hawks Pepsi Max soda and the CBS network's Monday prime-time lineup.
According to CNET, the chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video and is powered by a rechargeable battery that lasts 70 minutes. Cool, but does this new form of print advertising save print publishing?
Not likely, says Harvard Business Publishing blogger Michael Davies. In fact, the whole idea misses the point.
"Morphing the physical form from print to video misses the point of why print-based publications are so challenged. It does nothing to facilitate feedback, which is what advertisers want, or to give consumers the control over content they are coming to expect."True enough, although I don't think the video chip's creator, Americhip, has the intent to save print. Rather I think the idea is to bring video to any number of new media.
And it's not like magazines haven't experimented with alternative advertising. Think scratch-and-sniff and compact disc inserts. Probably a sound chip or two has made itself into the pages of publications as well. None have opened lucrative new streams of revenue for publishers.
Does video-in-print excite you? Where should video ads appear next? (My idea: To raise revenue, the postal service should sell stamps with embedded video adverts. Now that would be annoying!)