The US issue of Esquire will use e-ink for the first time on the cover of its September issue. 100,000 copies will use e-ink and a tiny battery to blink “The 21st Century Begins Now”. The blinking will last for 90 days before the battery runs out. Does this mean the imminent end of magazines still delivering ad impacts in doctor’s waiting rooms years after the issue date?

Car purchases in Japan are being subsidised by advertising. Asahi Shimbun reports that Toyota are offering 60,000 Yen (about $550) for a three month campaign for online video and a tv channel. The campaign is restricted to three models aimed at first time car buyers as a way of softening the cost of getting into the car market when you’re a poor youngster.

Just 65 cars will get the treatment and it’s restricted to a couple of Japanese provinces. So it’s clearly a test. The online video participant is Usen Corp.’s free online video service, GyaO. They get 50 ads in Kanagawa Prefecture, whilst Hokkaido Television Broadcasting Co are sponsoring just 15 cars in Hokkaido.

The exercise is clearly a test campaign. If the results are good after we’ll see the idea appearing again on a much greater scale. I’ve always thought that private cars are an amazing opportunity for advertising; it’s just a little difficult to manage in terms of sticking to campaign periods and keeping the cars nice and clean.

The New York Times has a good report on new OOH technologies that use video cameras at the billboard location to identify target groups and deliver ads that are relevant to them. The technology can pick up gender, approximate age and even race. The video data is sent to a central database for identification before the relevant ad is fired back to the viewer.

Companies developing the systems include Paris based Quividi and US based TruMedia Technologies.

Naturally there have been privacy concerns but all involved are insisting that the targeting is remaining completely anonymous and is only trying to target and measure OOH better.