Is Print Dead… Again?

As a creative director, I sit at the intersection of sales, marketing and communications. The positioning work I contribute is often influential in early stages of go-to-market, media and sales strategies. In the past three decades, I’ve increasingly spent time and budgets on digital media, a change I welcome and have advocated for. My commitment to digital runs deep, cultivated through decades of evolution alongside the technology.

If you have worked with me, you have likely heard me say that a company or product website is the fullest and most flexible expression of almost any brand. However, as every creative professional understands, the website is just the tip (of the iceberg). The evolving, broad variety of choices in owned, paid and earned digital media, are endless. Add the increasing number of clever CRM and SMS applications and what does that leave room for? Do we allocate a portion of our budget for print?

Before we proceed, let’s broaden our usual definition of “print” beyond advertising. Many marketing efforts don’t place a single ad. They have B2B and B2C strategies that can be based on events, collateral, or other avenues of promotion. So for the sake of this article, print is anything printed, including advertising.

The targeted, swift deployment and feedback of digital media makes it an easy sell for creatives and clients alike. Print can often be more difficult and expensive to produce. Factor in the ever decreasing number of experienced art directors, copywriters and production people who truly understand it and print can be pushed to the back of any campaign strategy. So why bother? Is it time to abandon our print media? 

Any director of marketing worth their salt would give you the answer. Absolutely not! Print still maintains its place as an effective and necessary component of any campaign. While digital efforts can seem cost effective, it is also easier to disregard or completely ignore by the prospect. A properly planned integrated marketing effort might merge all media, including print with well designed digital strategies. 

Whether it’s advertising, brochureware or promotional products, a printed piece is physical, it exists in the real world and maintains a presence until discarded. Good placement, creative direction and clever delivery can extend the life of real world messaging and provide good value to sales efforts. QR codes, offer codes, and incentives that drive prospects to digital efforts make print the starting line or even the cornerstone of many campaigns. Adding choices in specialty magazines and materials that drive digital interaction can effectively double your reach to niche markets. Say I attend a trade show after becoming infatuated with a company's digital presence. I am likely to see their ad in the program, see their signs at the door and come home with a brochure and any promotional items they are giving away. All paths utilize print integration to further my digital and ongoing campaign efforts.

The credibility that is gained from a prominent or appropriate ad placement or a brochure that is so nice in the prospects hand they are afraid to throw it away cannot be overstated.

In the end it all depends on your audience’s behavior. Where are they looking and how can you use your media tools to influence them? My customer, Freudenberg, has a product for anti-condensation for metal buildings. One of their largest markets is manufacturers and builders of agricultural metal buildings. It turns out that in parts of the country the Amish community manufactures and builds a very substantial amount of metal buildings. After speaking with some of these businesses, I learned that they use technology in varying degrees and may not be a good candidate for email, social media or other digital efforts. Events, sales calls and print were elevated.

From the humble business card to the strategic placement of an advertisement in a respected periodical, print is still a solid (literally) way of getting your brand and product in front of your target audience. Regardless of your marketing focus, it’s crucial to evaluate whether integrating print into your campaign could augment its impact and reach. The value of digital media does not replace print. It only allows us, as creatives, to more fully articulate our campaign strategies to exactly meet clients needs. 

– Perry Thomas Del Ghingaro