What’s that you say? Video is now going into print ads? But, how can this be?? Well, it’s the way the world it going apparently. The October issue of UK Marie Claire will feature a 45-second video ad on pages 34 and 35. The Dolce & Gabbana fragrance ad, which includes two models and the backdrop of a coast, will be the first video ad inserted within a print magazine in the UK.
But, it’s been done before. Back in 2009, CBS and Pepsi debuted video ads in print in roughly 50,000 copies of Entertainment Weekly in Los Angeles and New York.
This new D&G ad, however, was paid for by Procter & Gamble, the company producing the fragrance. The ad includes music (which has been reportedly quite loud music) embedded on the page in an insert.
Americhip, a US firm that has already produced similar ads in other countries, developed the technology. The company created the screen, which is about the size of an iPhone (2.4 inches by 4.3 inches) that can store up to 45 minutes of video, powered by a rechargeable battery. Pretty cool, especially for Americhip!
What does this all mean? First of all, it would be cool to get your hands on one of these magazines just to take a look! Second of all, it means that technology is advancing so much that even print is affected by video. While we don’t know how much P&G paid for this video ad, it is clear that as technology improves, it will become cheaper and more of a norm for companies to do this.
This ad is a bit shorter than business web videos which can last up to two minutes (hopefully not longer). While using an ad in Entertainment Weekly or Marie Claire is best for B2C products, it seems as though the technology is available to include web videos in publications geared more towards B2B.
Maybe you don’t need to get your 45-second ad ready quite yet, but just remember technology like this is out there and hopefully you get to it before your competitor does.
