CBS and Pepsi are teaming up for a new kind of promotion in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly, a two-page ad in the magazine that has a tiny embedded video screen. Yep, that’s digital videos in a physical magazine. I’ll take my flying car now, please.
The ad will feature a two-inch screen, built-in speakers and various buttons on the player itself that will display promotional clips from fall CBS shows along with an ad for Pepsi Max. That’s right, the video ad is also interactive.
The Financial Times estimates that each issue will be costing the companies “several dollars” for the screen and compares the ad to a singing card or the moving pictures on the newspaper read by “Harry Potter” characters.
Unfortunately, the magazines with the video inserts will only be distributed to subscribers in New York and Los Angeles. The ad is a brand new way for marketers to get out their message and is a nice adaptation of new technologies to an older medium.
The screen seems to be the in-between step from magazine on the newsstand to magazine in the e-reader. It’s a low-definition, small screen that costs a lot to send out and only plays small video clips, but it is still beyond fascinating. The screen also exists in something of a netherworld outside of the PC, which is now a video-heavy medium that might soon start charging for magazine subscriptions.
The move from here is developing an e-reader that users will gladly pick up that can have magazines with a feel that is a bit closer to the real, physical deal.