The Digital Imaging Association has traditionally held an informative – and well attended – breakfast meeting at Graphics Canada. And this year was no exception.
A full house enjoyed an excellent breakfast and started their day with a rousing, entertaining, humourous, and uplifting presentation. The message of the morning’s address was clear—there is life ahead with—and for—print.
The DIA was fortunate to have Daniel Dejan, National Print & Creative Specialist for Sappi Fine Paper, as our guest presenter. Mr. Dejan is an internationally renowned keynote speaker. In his position with Sappi, he provides value-added marketing, sales, and technical consultation as well as conducting internal (in-house) and external (end-user customer) training and educational programs for the printing and creative communities.
Bob Weller from Transcontinental Printing introduced Daniel Dejan. Bob has had the privilege of hearing Daniel present in the past, and shared with the audience how inspiring that was and how he came away with a solid reaffirmation that he had chosen a strong industry to devote his career to. He also shared that Daniel substantiated the message that there continues to be a very long life-line for ink on paper.
The following are questions that many in our industry ask:
Is print on the way out?
Will on-line shopping eliminate catalogues?
Will hardcover books be replaced by “ebooks”?
Will marketers find a way to break through Spam blockers and destroy the direct mail business?
Or…will print grow and prosper printing Amazon.com catalogues?
Sappi Fine Papers has done some significant research on the above questions, and Dejan provided explicit examples of how the power of the printed message now works in tandem with other information deliverables. In fact, DIA attendees were able to see how print does and will continue to drive traffic to other media. Print persists as a strong component of branding and marketing initiatives.
Print has endured. When radio came, everything was ok, print communications blossomed. Then came television, and still everything was ok, print communications continued to blossom. And then came digitization. Turns out that the digitization of our industry was both a boom and a bust. Said Dejan “When we learned how to digitize information the paradigm shifted.”
What that shift has evolved to, among other things, is permission-based marketing. And, asked Dejan, how do you get permission? Through print—to drive people to your web site where you can invite them to provide contact information. Now you’ve got their permission to e-mail or mail your very targeted information.
Print is not the lowest-cost deliverable, but it does have the best ROI, best return on customer, best memory retention value, and the highest trust quotient when compared to other media.
To quote some of the text in a publication all attendees were invited to take away with them (beautifully printed, of course on Sappi papers):
“Of course, print gets its heart and soul from the combination of pictures and words on paper. It leaves more to the imagination than moving pictures do.”
“What would a magazine be without the advertising? It’s part of the whole experience. True, not all print ads may grab you the same. But many are so clever, touch a nerve so well, we tear them out and tape them to our walls and refrigerators. We dog-ear them to show our friends.” Can you think of a media other than print that enables this?
Think about your own purchasing decisions. Sappi’s statistics show that these choices are often made as a direct result of advertising in or on the following medium:
- Internet – 6%
- Cable TV – 16%
- Network TV – 34%
- Magazines – 44%
Impressive numbers, but print loves company and that truth is becoming increasingly evident. Statistics also prove that a media mix with an integrated message delivers considerably more results than advertising in only one medium.
Another print vehicle that has enjoyed significant growth is direct mail. In fact, Dejan advised that it is the fastest-growing print segment, save packaging. And aren’t both of these growth sectors entirely print based?
Fueled by good food, good company, and good news, most attendees to the DIA presentation ventured on to the trade show floor where they saw more evidence that print is alive and well—and continuing to thrive.
