CBS Lines Up Video Ad for Print Magazine

NEW YORK: To promote its fall lineup, CBS is using new technology to run video advertising in an upcoming print edition of Entertainment Weekly, via tiny screens that will be embedded in the issue.

The VIP (Video-in-Print) technology will be used in a spread in the Fall TV preview issue of Entertainment Weekly. The initiative is the centerpiece of an exclusive partnership between CBS and PepsiCo’s new diet cola for men, Pepsi Max. The spread will promote CBS’s Monday night comedy lineup and new dramas. A "paper-thin" interactive video player, developed by Americhip, with five channels of CBS and Pepsi Max content, will be inserted in select copies of the September 18 issue (on newsstands September 11). It will include clips from How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, and previews of the new comedy Accidentally on Purpose and the dramas NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife and Three Rivers. There will also be a promotional spot for Pepsi Max.

"We’re bubbling with excitement over CBS’s partnership with Pepsi Max and our first-time ever use of video in a print ad," said George Schweitzer, the president of CBS Marketing Group. "Pepsi Max is a great brand and a perfect fit for our Monday night comedies and new dramas. Since we’re always thirsty for the newest marketing innovation, we’re thrilled to be unveiling the inaugural use of an interactive Video in Print technology in Entertainment Weekly‘s popular Fall TV preview issue. The best way to sample our terrific new programs is to see previews—and it’s never been accomplished in a print ad… until now. EW is the ideal venue for this ground-breaking Video-in-Print ad, which is entertaining in its own right and is particularly well suited for their media-engaged readership."

The CBS/Pepsi Max "Monday to the Max" campaign also encompasses client-integrated on-air, online and outdoor promotions and several events.