Is Static Print a Thing of the Past?
One of the topics I see discussed more and more often in industry forums, blogs, and Webinars is “interactive print.” This is the integration of print with electronic media in a way that makes print more responsive, more interactive, and for certain demographic groups, more relevant.
One of the topics I see discussed more and more often in industry forums, blogs, and Webinars is “interactive print.” This is the integration of print with electronic media in a way that makes print more responsive, more interactive, and for certain demographic groups, more relevant.
One of the best examples can be seen in Entertainment Weekly’s Sept. 18 edition, where readers could watch video content straight from the printed page. When readers opened the spread, it instantly activated a paper-thin interactive video player from Americhip. The player featured five channels of video content, including previews of the CBS fall line-up and Pepsi Max advertising. The user could navigate these channels by pushing buttons on the screen.
It’s an incredible (if expensive) marriage of print and electronic media. Readers still have the comfort of holding the printed page, but advertisers get the triple bang of audio, video, and interactivity. At about $20 per unit for 100,000 units, this is clearly going to remain the domain only of large brand advertisers, but it reflects the kind of evolution we see.
Let’s look five different approaches to interactive print.
Video in Print
Video in Print (VIP) is Americhip’s trademarked name for the slim, lightweight video players inserted into Entertainment Weekly. They can be bound into magazines and shipped in the mail stream like any other publication. These players are also being used for corporate and marketing applications. Imagine the power of including a video message from the president or CEO of a company inside its annual report; including a detailed video explanation of the use and benefits of a new drug in a leave-behind folder for physicians; or a sales or marketing pitch to high-value prospects included in marketing collateral given away after a product demo or sales call.
Audio in Print
You don’t have to include video to pack a powerful punch in an advertisement or other marketing vehicle. The use of sound is also a powerful marketing tool. Its use tends to play on emotion. Americhip, the creator of the VIP player, is also the primary creator of audio ads.
For Star Wars aficionados, what is the most recognizable sound from the classic series? Most would say the sound of Darth Vader’s breathing. So when Revenge of the Sith was released, the studio marketed the release using an audio spread that, upon opening, showed a light saber fight accompanied by the terrifying and unmistakable sound of Darth Vader’s raspy breath. Or when Pepsi released Pepsi Jazz, Americhip helped to create a spread that, upon opening, featured a pop-up Pepsi bottle accompanied by the fffffst! of a bottle being opened. Audio is much less expensive than video (about $1 per insert), but it’s still an expensive premium. Still, it has a proven track record, and for the right applications, it works.
E-Ink Displays
E-ink displays are worth mentioning, but there is still a lot of work to do to find their use in marketing applications. Currently, they are associated with e-book readers and commercial products like clocks. The most famous advertising use of E-ink might be Esquire’s 75th Anniversary E-Ink cover, published October 2008, which flashed “The 21st Century Begins NOW.” (See it at http://tinyurl.com/6zc9e6.) Sponsored by Ford, the ad was placed 100,000 special-edition copies sold at newsstands at a 50 percent premium over the cover price.
The marketing value of such a display was unclear, and this type of application has not been done since (to my knowledge). Better applications are POP and POS displays that can shift and change and be updated on a regular basis.
Quick Response (QR) Codes
A QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code that looks like a puzzle and can be decoded at high speed. When a reader like a cellphone or webcam is placed in front of these codes, they display images, text, URLs, and other content. (To view a video, visit http://tinyurl.com/yem843c).
Although QR codes are not, themselves, electronic, they fall under the category of “interactive print” because they combine print and electronic media by integrating the two. Readers cannot reach the Web component without the QR code, and by integrating the Web component into print, print comes alive through that Web interaction.
ARvertising
A related approach is ARvertising or “augmented reality” advertising (see http://tinyurl.com/m6hsew). This is much like QR codes, except the result is three-dimensional. Imagine the power for promoting real estate tours, exotic vacations, or 3-D modeling of new products. ABC Entertainment is using ARvertising in publications such as Wired, Popular Mechanics, and others that cater to a technology-savvy audience.
The Challenge
As these and similar applications become more widespread, the challenge will be to understand how and when they are cost effective in tapping into the right audiences. We’re only at the beginning of the learning curve, so we have a ways to go.
Heidi Tolliver-Nigro is an industry writer, an analyst specializing in digital workflow and technologies. Her e-mail address is [email protected].