Nick Bilton questions – “When will paper really die?” We all should be asking this. Why? Because the options are here. However, nothing dies, everything gets replaced. In the same manner, the mode of advertisements too will change. It has to because the platforms will change.
Esquire magazine’s digital e-Ink cover (though you can hack it here) heralded a new era in the field of print advertising. Pepped up with lights, videos, and moving images, the technology certainly is an eye-catcher. It would take over packaging and billboard industry too as the electronic-ink technology is emerging as a cost-effective alternative for LED videos displays.
The best part of this, what I visualize is that, once it can be embedded into garments, all of us would end up becoming walking billboards. Quite possible! Not? Who would not like to wear geeky clothes where fashion meets technology? But the downside is that it needs a constant power source. Solar cells seems a viable options, but I would read my Esquire and better dump it after that, however, as far as store displays are concerned, it’s a good idea.
If we consider the incorporation of the technology in print media, including magazines and newspapers, another question that baffles is that with print getting a pretty bad beating by new media, does it still remains an ideal investment?
Recently, Ryosuke Kuwata, E Ink Corp’s vice president in charge of the Asia Pacific region, announced:
In the field of electronic paper-based electronic newspapers, a verification test will start by the end of 2008, and an actual business will start in the second half of 2009.
Now, those who question the quick penetration of the e-era must keep in mind how iPod replaced everything. Here, you’re dealing with consumers who “want” everything in their mobile phones and would certainly end up “having” it too in the end, because there are Steves doing their Jobs to fulfill their dreams. And with their eyes not only glued to their handsets, but also used to e-consumption, the plain paper won’t do now for sure.
Take a glimpse of the future of advertising in this video here.
Esquire magazine’s digital cover hands on:
Via: AdAge
