amerchip | Mobile Takeover

So there’s been a big hoo-ha over the past few years about how print is dying out and that in the not-too-distant future nobody will be paying good money to buy a newspaper or a magazine. As much as South Africa is moving at a relatively slower pace when it comes to this ‘dying out of print’, we’re also bound to get there eventually.

Now, you can imagine my surprise when I saw, on the front page of Financial Times last week, an article about how an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly’s print edition will be embedded with a video player that will run ads for CBS shows and Pepsi. Obviously, the first thing that came to mind was mobile. It doesn’t get better than a newspaper or a magazine, which some people still love to read, that has an embedded video.

The way it’s said to work is that a small video screen about the size of a mobile phone screen is glued onto the page. The screen is 2.7mm thick, contains rechargeable batteries and can store forty minutes of video. Talk about heavy duty performance. CBS is set to show a preview of their upcoming programmes, while Pepsi shows a drinks ad.

The technology for the ad, called “Video In Print” has been developed by US company Americhip who specialise in branding and design that appeals to all five senses.

Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video. The 2.7 millimetre thick screens have a diagonal width of 5 centimetres and mini-speakers. The ad is said to come in a heavy-paper package resembling the kind of novelty greeting cards that make noises when you open them. A small screen, with a speaker embedded below it, starts playing automatically as the page flips open.

CBS Corp and Time Warner Inc’s Entertainment Weekly billed the video advertisement as the first ever to appear in a print magazine. CBS says the video player insert, made by a Los Angeles company called Americhip Inc, will be able to withstand the binding processes and mail delivery.

Generate revenue

It doesn’t come as a surprise that CBS won’t reveal how much it is paying for the spread, but the idea behind these new experiments is generally to charge a premium for advertising that has more potential to catch readers’ attention. There’s no doubt that the idea of a video in a magazine will grab readers’ attention, but what about the negative aspects?

Surely something as technologically advanced as this ‘video in print’ stands great potential to get damaged when the paper is dropped off on the doorstep. Usually, magazines and newspapers are tattered and torn by the time they reach their subscribers. What more with an embedded video chip in it? But that’s just my concern.

Ink-on-paper titles have been trying new formats to boost advertising revenue. Major newspapers have taken the once-taboo step of offering ads on their front pages, while magazines have tucked ads into cover flaps and even distributed video promotions on DVDs.

What many people are probably thinking about is whether the world is ready for video ads in magazines and newspapers. Sure, we saw it in Harry Potter, but does that mean it should be happening in reality? I would probably go yes on this one. What other alternatives do the advertising industry big-wigs have? If technology’s going to ruin your chances at generating good revenue, then why not make use of that very same technology to gain in revenue? This may just be a solution to the death of print, and it’s mobile.