It’s increasingly popular for companies to adopt Cross Media Marketing or Integrated Marketing. This basically means using new and engaging ways to attract customers (e.g. QR Codes, interactive content in magazines, personalised landing pages etc).
But with all of these methods, how do you promote it? How do you let people know about what you have to offer? Most people these days will give the answer ‘Digital Marketing’ meaning e-mail marketing or Social Media.
But how do people know that you are on Facebook or Twitter? How did you build you data base for your email marketing campaigns?
I think it would be safe to say that somewhere in the mix printed material was used, either as a competition slip that has been used to harvest data or in adverts to help promote you Facebook Page.
The fact is, no matter how many engaging ways you use to attract customers, and there are some great methods out there today, you need to bolster that with some form of traditional advertising. Being too quirky can work fantastically for companies like Apple or Google who have such a strong brand that they are expected to push the boundaries, but sometimes the tried and testing methods are needed alongside the more futuristic ventures.
Print can support all of the Cross Media Marketing that you are looking to do and in most cases it even enhances it.
It’s safe to say that more and more products and services are turning digital. Look at the rise of the kindle and how books are now much more freely available and accessible. Even magazines and newspapers are now being to thrive in digital formats thanks to the iPad and other Tablet devices.
So this begs the question; will digital versions of print eventually take over from traditional print? The answer is not as clear cut as you may think.
For a start, let’s look at outdoor advertising. Billboards would be a prime target for the digital invasion. Image a massive HD screen broadcasting your message to drivers as they move through rush hour traffic. However, that is exactly the problem; you cannot have moving images on billboards as it is deemed to be a distraction to drivers. So that’s a no go. Ok, so you can have a static image on a digital screen. Well, yes you could but the trouble is that when people are close to your digital screen the quality is not as good as print because of the pixel size. If you wanted to make a billboard with the technology that is in the new iPad (retina display) then the costing attached to it would far outweigh the benefit (cost per lead etc). The solution? Good quality print.
You can even say that in some sites, such as high mounts or areas that are generally difficult to access that mounting and servicing a large digital screen would be very problematic.
It may not be much of a victory in the grand scheme of things, but at least it shows that in some cases it is much better to stick with the wheel, instead of reinventing it.
With the rise of Digital Marketing and, more specifically Social Media, people have been looking at the print industry with a keen interest. Where will it now fit? How will it adapt?
The fact is that the biggest event of the year and potentially in Great Britain’s recent history has just concluded and did print play a part? It certainly did.
Not only did the majority of headline sponsors spend heavily on printed marketing materials- taking advantage of the rights to use the official Olympic Logo- but they actually highlighted the need to do so.
Companies including British Airways, Deloitte, McDonalds and EDF all invested in new material to be printed to boast their affiliation with London 2012. From press ads to packaging; a whole range of print was adopted to coincide with the Olympics.
The branding around the Olympics is another point to consider too. The logo that was developed for the London 2012 Games was made to be seen; and what better way for it to be seen than on physically printed banners, leaflets and posters?
From this we can see that print works, when combined with good branding, can be a hugely powerful marketing tool. Your business may not have the budget that the Olympics did, but it doesn’t have to.
As long as your brand is strong, we can do the rest.
We are delighted to launch a new product – B5 Brochure Printing!
Our impressive new B5 brochures and booklets offer flexibility to customers looking to add more content to their A5 booklets without increasing pagination. Our B5 brochures are available up to 76 pages and, as with all our printing, comes full colour as standard. B5 brochures and booklets are perfect for programmes, product catalogues and instruction manuals and can be turned around in just 5 days. For a free quotation please contact us now and we will get back to you with an industry leading price in super quick time.
Try something new on your booklet cover.
Our B5 brochures can be complimented with a range of finishing options. We can offer matt and gloss lamination and spot UV on your brochures at fantastic rates and can even perfect bind your catalogues to give the ultimate in luxury finishing. The finished size of your B5 brochure would be 176 x 250 mm, although we can also make booklets of any sizes if your needs are such. If you would like to see a range of our bookelts and magazines please contact us for samples.
