VIDEO ON ITS WAY TO ADVERTISING IN PRINT MAGAZINES

Text: Tuovi Similä
Photos: G+J Media Solutions

 

Imagine this. You open a magazine and a video embedded in an advertisement on the page starts up − with sound and moving images. The European première for this innovative advertising was provided by the German mail order retailer, OTTO, in its campaign in Gruner + Jahr's magazine, Gala.

The new advertising format of the video-in-print ad − or VIP Ad for short − allows for the first time ever moving images to be played on an LCD display in a printed magazine. "Compared to the ad formats possible in print so far, the VIP Ad can be seen as a quantum leap," says Yunfeng Cui, Director Media Solutions at G+J Media Sales. 

 

Europe's first VIP Ad was published in OTTO's four-page insert, which was included in a part of the subscriber edition distributed on 14 January. It is hardly likely to remain the only VIP Ad, though. "G+J Media Sales brought this groundbreaking advertising format from the United States especially for OTTO. We have already received many requests from other advertisers, and will have further campaigns with this ad format in the future," Yunfeng says.

   

Technology still fairly expensive 

When opening the four-page OTTO insert, readers can see a 2.7-mm-thick LCD display covered with a scratch-resistant polycarbonate layer. With the help of three buttons on the page readers can navigate through various audiovisual content. The display runs on a battery which lasts for approximately 70 minutes. It can be recharged with the help of a USB cable and the stored data can be copied to a computer. With regards to the paper used, the VIP Ad does not set any special requirements.

Yunfeng does not want to reveal the costs of the VIP Ad, but he does say that, depending on the number of units, the production costs per unit are “in the lower double-digit euro range.”

“The demand for out-of-the-ordinary ad formats in print is rising, and the VIP Ad, especially, seems to have aroused broad interest. Due to the costs and lack of experience regarding advertising effectiveness, we do not, however, expect the VIP Ad to spread very quickly. But comparable formats with video content will continue to win recognition,” Yunfeng says.


United States first user

The VIP Ad was developed by the US company Americhip.

The world's first video advertisement to appear in a print magazine caused a sensation in the US publishing and advertising world in September 2009 when it was published in Entertainment Weekly. The TV company CBS and Pepsi Max had run a joint campaign to advertise CBS's new autumn programme offering. Magazine readers were given the chance to view "teasers" of future programmes. The video advertisement was published only in magazines sent to selected subscribers in the two main market areas.

Media supporting each other

Besides paper, there is also room for a new kind of information transmission with another UPM product – an RFID sensor.

RFID (radio frequency identification) is well suited to the transmission of information from the pages of a printed magazine with NFC (near field communication) technology that facilitates remote radio frequency identification over extremely short distances. “An RFID tag containing the desired information can be embedded in a magazine. When, for example, a cell phone is placed near the sensor, information that could be even an instructional video will open in the phone’s display,” explains technology consultant Rauno Kainulainen from Evolvit.

This however requires a telephone with an NFC reader, but there are relatively few of these at the moment. According to Kainulainen, the moment for NFC technology’s breakthrough will take place when shops and banks join forces to develop the system, at which point the technology will become common in cell phones.

Also on the horizon is a high-speed colour display using electronic ink that will replace LCD displays. Kainulainen predicts that it will be mass-produced within 10 years. “At that time its production costs will only be a fractional amount compared to LCD technology. It is also extremely thin, only half a millimetre, making it ideally suited for paper.” This will also provide new possibilities for RFID technology. “Regular customer cards can contain an RFID sensor, and when it is placed, for example, over a marked location on an advertising poster, offers targeted only at regular customers will be displayed,” Kainulainen explains.