The cosmetics producer Lancôme launched a new product in the Japanese market: the first vibrating mascara for eyelashes that oscillates 7000 times per minute. That is something that definitely deserved a huge marketing setting! So in search of a suitably futuristic media platform they came across E-Paper which thus was raised into the ranks of advertising media.

Developed in conjunction with Fallon Japan and Universal McCann Japan, the initiative consists of in-train and print elements using electronic paper and lenticular lens technology. The train, which was equipped exclusively with the Lancôme ad, was running on the busy Ginza and Marunouchi lines. The ad included a hanging electronic poster that presents a moving image of the oscillating brush as well as two normal paper posters.

The fixture reportedly marks the first time for electronic paper to be used to create a suspended transit poster. Trains on both lines, which run through the city’s major business and shopping districts, carried the work through February 2009.

This campaign marked just the beginning of E-Paper advertising, as now many Japanese printing companies started to offer advertisers moving pictures accompanying their printed paper ads. Not only in trains but also on stations electronic paper posters appeared which can display different ads at a given interval or simply show a moving pictures show. The latter one is proven to attract more views and interests, especially in the beginning of this technology when passengers walking-by will simply be amazed recognizing the picture they just saw changed.

But also for the advertiser the E-Paper ad holds a bundle of advantages as he can change the picture shown easily from his office desk. The system is, that you rent the ad space, which is connected the PHS phone network through the wall connections. Thus you can easily change the ad via the internet from wherever you are.

E-Paper itself is a technology still in development but already strongly competes with LCD or Plasma displays. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a back light to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later. The Paper consists of Liquids or Powders changing its formation according to the image it should produce.

It is considered easier to conceive for the eye since the picture is a stable one and doesn't need to refresh itself constantly. The only problem which still needs to be solved is,that so far only black and white pictures can be produced. But even without colours are moving picture advertisings definitely a medium of tomorrow.