Believe it or not, this is already happening!

Video ad loading in a magazine

The first video ads in the print media were published last month in an American magazine, Entertainment Weekly.

A full-page cardboard insert was placed within the magazine containing a small screen, which advertised the diet drink Pepsi Max, and also had trailers of shows on the U.S. television network, CBS. As if that is not sufficient, the insert also contained built-in speakers for the user to listen to the ads.

This amazing feat has been achieved by inserting a small chip in the cardboard page within the magazine. The chip gets activated automatically when the concerned page is opened. It works in a manner similar to a singing greeting card.

The screen is about the size of a mobile phone’s display screen, contains rechargeable batteries and can carry up to 40 minutes of content.

While the invention is quite interesting to say the least, some users do not like it as it makes the magazine quite bulky and the cardboard insert makes it impossible to fold the magazine. It also makes it quite difficult to flick through the pages of the magazine.

Another drawback is that once the page is opened, it takes several seconds for the video to load and start, which could result in users losing interest.

Copies of the magazine have been sent out to several subscribers in New York and Los Angeles.

Americhip, the company that manufactures these screens, has estimated that each screen would cost about $20. The novelty of this medium, though, could easily justify the additional advertiser expense.

Oonce this form of advertising gains greater acceptance, it could drive the manufacturing costs down, but could also result in user apathy or even frustration at technology turning a quiet few minutes spent reading a magazine into a noisy, flashy flurry of images.

The audio ad service was launched in 2006 to enable the buying and selling of radio ads via Google AdWords. However, the search company now feel that in spite of investing a lot of resources, these services have not actually managed to create the kind of impact that was expected and it would be better to discontinue these services.

Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio will be phased out by the 31^st of May. Until then, publishers will be able to continue publishing their inventory. Google Radio Automation will be sold off to an interested party.

All is not quiet on the audio front, though. Google plans to concentrate on developing technology to deliver relevant ads for online streaming audio, where the audience numbers are increasing.

While it may be remembered that Google has also decided to shut down their Print Ads division only last month, they have stated that they will continue with their TV advertising initiatives as they can measure the audience response here and their advertisers can therefore judge ad effectiveness.

While some staff may be reassigned after the discontinuation of these services, it is expected that about 40 people will find themselves jobless as a result of this decision.

Even though Google executives maintain that they are closing the audio ads service due to failed expectations, if one looks at all their other recent cut-backs – print ads, followed closely by the closure of Jaiku, Dodgeball and Notebook – it looks suspiciously like a move to try and keep up the profit margin and tide over the financial meltdown by sticking to what they know best – search.

Tag technology helps to convert physical media such as print ads, billboards and product packaging into direct communication links. Users can photograph the tag with a mobile phone camera and use Tag reader software, which is available for free from Microsoft (see link below), to instantly access the encoded information.

gettag.mobi

In order to create Microsoft Tags, businesses can log on to the site using a Microsoft, Hotmail or Live ID and then fill in a simple form providing a bit of detail about the information that needs to be encoded within the tag.

tag.microsoft.com

Microsoft Tags use a technology called High Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs). They have been evolved from QR Code technology, which has been widely used in Japan for years now.

QR, which stands for “Quick-Response” is made of 2D matrix codes by which information can be encoded and read by mobile phones with cameras. A standard QR code can record up to 7,000 numeric characters.

Because Tags use 4-colour barcodes, each individual square can record 8 bits instead of the 2 bits on QR Codes. As a result, Tags are just ¼ the size of QR Codes and yet store the same amount of information.

Tags can be used to show a message on the phone, dial a number, scan a vCard and save the details to the phone’s list of contacts, link to maps with driving directions and, of course, link to a website.

The technology will be available for now on Apple iPhone, Blackberry 81xx, 83xx and Bold, J2ME based handsets, Symbian S60 3^rd edition and Windows Mobile 5 and 6 handsets.

For mobile marketers, Microsoft Tags provide the added advantage of easy measurement of campaign success through a selection of six reports that allow tracking the number of scans over time and comparing success of various tags and category groups.

Sample report of Microsoft Tag scans per day

Studies conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project have found that only 65% of teens use social websites nowadays, as opposed to 78% who play online games.

Not too long ago, social networks were the hot favorite among this age group, along with email, which was used by 89% of teennagers at that time.

The latest trend, however, is to use text messaging and instant messaging instead of email, which is now used by only 73% of teenagers.

Significantly, young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 seem to be following the reverse trend, with only 50% of them playing games online while 67% access social networks.

Surprisingly though, it was found that only 10% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 years spend time in virtual worlds, which is almost the same percentage as was found a few years ago, and hardly 2-3% of the older generation do so.

Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy Survey found that another victim of the changing times was the good old television. Studies reveal that those between 14 and 25 years of age are far more likely to use their PC for entertainment through games, music and social networks, than to sit and watch TV. This study was conducted across U.K., U.S.A., Germany, Japan and Brazil.

Searching and downloading music was the most accessed facility on the internet with 80% of youngsters using it while 73% access chat rooms social networks and message boards. It was also found that 59% of the youth use their mobile phones for entertainment, and the amount of time spent watching television is about one-third less than that spent by other age groups.

As far as advertising power goes, however, it was found that TV is the most influential for youth, followed by magazines, online ads and newspaper ads, while radio ads are fifth in line.

• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Social Network Websites
• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Video Games

Google will stop taking in new ads from the 28^th of February and the entire Print Ads department will be shut down from the 31^st of March.

The official reason given for this move was, “the product has not created the impact that we – or our partners – wanted … the current Print Ads product is not the right solution”. The company also says that they remain “dedicated to working with publishers to develop new ways for them to earn money, distribute and aggregate content and attract news readers online”.

The newspaper advertising service had started testing in November 2006 and by the beginning of 2007 Google declared that the service was a success. Accordingly, they expanded from buying inventory from 50 newspapers to 800 newspapers by July 2007.

Print Ads were run on the same principle as the hugely successful AdWords system, where keywords were auctioned and then sold to the highest bidder.

Hence it sets one wondering if the official reasons given for shutting the division are really true, or whether there is more to it than meets the eye here. Could it be fueled by dropping newspaper readership in the current financial slow down?