Adding Video to Print Ads

In a bid to generate maximum buzz leading into the fall TV season, Omnicom’s OMD has paired two of its clients — CBS and Pepsi — with a new technology that brings iPod-quality video to a print advertising and promotional campaign touting CBS’ new lineup and Pepsi’s diet drink Pepsi Max.

The new technology, from Los Angeles-based Americhip, features a paper-thin interactive video player. It is being unveiled in an insert packaged with a co-branded ad that will appear in Entertainment Weekly’s annual fall TV preview issue dated Sept. 18.

The video offers 40 minutes of promotional content for CBS’ new schedule and a spot for Pepsi Max.

In addition to the EW insert, the campaign features promo spots and Pepsi ads on CBS, online and outdoor promotions and several events, including college campus screenings and a Hollywood premiere party. The campaign ties the CBS and Pepsi brands together with the tagline “CBS Monday to the Max” as it focuses on the network’s male-skewing Monday night comedy lineup. Pepsi Max is marketed as a diet soft drink for men.

In addition to the EW insert, the campaign features promo spots and Pepsi ads on CBS, online and outdoor promotions and several events, including college campus screenings and a Hollywood premiere party. The campaign ties the CBS and Pepsi brands together with the tagline “CBS Monday to the Max” as it focuses on the network’s male-skewing Monday night comedy lineup. Pepsi Max is marketed as a diet soft drink for men.

CBS and OMD executives said the multimillion-dollar campaign is the first to use video in a print ad. While the co-branded ad will appear in all editions of EW, the video player insert will be mailed to subscribers just in the Los Angeles and New York markets. The video insert will not appear on newsstands.

For CBS, the goal is “getting our samples into the hands of more [TV] enthusiasts,” said George Schweitzer, president of the CBS Marketing Group. “The best way to sample our new programs is to see previews and it’s never been accomplished in a print ad, until now.”

According to Frank Cooper, CMO, portfolio brands, Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages, the brand wants to be associated with the latest marketing and cultural trends. The new technology, coupled with CBS’ Monday night core audience of males 25-39, and the pop-culture focus of EW combined to make the project “feel like a great fit,” he said.

Americhip, which designs microchip products for media and marketers, first showed the new player to Jonathan Haber, U.S. director, OMD’s media innovations unit, The Ignition Factory, earlier this year. The shop then brought it to client CBS, suggesting a promo co-venture with Pepsi, also a client. “Its the first time we’ve paired two clients in a single promotion like this,” said OMD CEO Alan Cohen. “And we’re planning to do more of it.”

The cast of the Big Bang Theory introduces the video, which automatically begins playing when the insert is opened. Readers can then select from among five buttons to view promos of How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, a comedic Pepsi Max spot, the new comedy Accidentally on Purpose, or CBS’ new fall dramas.

The campaign also includes a CBS.com Pepsi Max-branded microsite, a “Monday to the Max” trivia game and a social viewing room for CBS’ prime-time series.


— Nielsen Business Media