Video ads...in print!

CBS and Pepsi bring video ads to printed page

According to the article linked to above, there’s a marketing experiment in progress that will lead to video ads featuring in print media. These wafer-thin videos will start when the reader turns to the appropriate page. This is in an attempt to reach consumers who are moving to digital media to avoid print ads.

Sounds a bit counterintuitive in my own opinion.

It will be a nice fad/craze for a few years (or months). Though the revenue from the ads may justify the expense, if it doesn't eventually bring life back to the dying print medium (as we know it), then it's a waste of money in the long run if attempts are made to sustain it.

My prediction is that people will buy the magazines in question not for their content but to see the fancy ads. When the novelty wears off, they'll go back to their iPods, Kindles, and internet browsers...these are the media where they need creative ways to reach people who have found easier ways to bypass their ads thanks to said media.

Let's rest the print media...replace the books and magazines with one-page digital book readers, or, for those who must flip pages, four-page (and no more) book readers. I know I don’t bother reading the yellow pages and free newspapers and brochures that litter my mailbox or front lawn. Talk less of actually going out of my way to buy them. I know I can find most of the information I need online.
Let’s not forget that we’ll also be saving the trees.

Making wafer thin video to put in print media is about as counterintuitive as making a film camera that also is digital. It may sell for a while...but when people realize how much freedom technology is buying them, (for that's the real job of technology in the first place) they'll move on from the restrictive ways of old. When they do move on, you'll find the costs of maintaining the old ways too prohibitive to be justified.

We need to know when something is a means to an end and not the end in itself. When better ways are found, the old ways have to go because man is more motivated by his wallet than sentiment…in the long run.

If the technology to make wafer thin videos exists, then technology exists, to make pages we can download content to, read, remove and replace with new content. Meaning I don't have to buy a new magazine. I just download the new content onto my digital paper.

If the only reason I’m buying your print is to see ads that I was trying to avoid in the first place then you know you're in trouble…in the long run.