Is Print Dead?

Today I had the privilege of attending a talk put on by Think Patented and RIS The Paper House. The speaker: Daniel Dejan, National Print & Creative Specialist for Sappi Fine Paper.  The subject: Determining how print fits into the ever changing landscape of communication in today’s world.

Daniel is a widely respected designer, creative director, educator and speaker in the design community. He has written articles for Communications Arts, Step, and Signature, and I can attest first-hand that his engaging presentation was packed with useful information and expertise.

He started the talk by addressing the fact that the means of communication in even the last 3–5 years has been, and still is, constantly changing. The use of the internet and social media have obviously changed the way we communicate and have replaced much of the traditional media, namely print. Duh, right? Honestly, at this point in the presentation, I thought Daniel–being a “paper guy”–was simply going to make an empty case to keep printing going in an effort to sell paper. But he didn’t. He presented a strong case for using print successfully in combination with technology, backed by research and sometimes surprising statistics. He called out the print industry, saying that one of the reasons that so much market share has gone elsewhere is due to the fact that for hundreds of years the printed word has been the main vehicle of communication in the world and our arrogance has kept us from adapting. If we had only made strides to evolve to keep up, acknowledge the changes and accept them, print would play a much larger role in communications today.

So why use print today? Some reasons (Daniel
supported all of these reasons with research):

• Print evokes the highest emotional response
  This has always been my go-to argument. There’s nothing like getting a new magazine or book and opening it the first time, revealing it’s content. It’s holding the piece in your hand, feeling it’s weight and seeing the contrast of the printed word on paper. So much is communicated through that tactile experience. You feel texture, varnish, embossing. No digital media can come close to replicating this experience.
• Print, combined with technology, is THE most effective way to reach an audience
  Market research has shown that direct mail, combined with a social networking effort is now the best way to communicate to your target audience. Just a couple years ago, Daniel said, the most effective way was direct mail combined with a website.
• Print is the most engaging medium
  Most people, when they engage with a print piece, give it more dedicated attention when compared to other media. For example, when you read your mail, you’re focused on the content. When you read a book, you’re focused on the content. It’s more common for someone, like myself, to be on the computer reading content with the TV in the background or carrying on a conversation.
• Print is the most trusted medium
• Print has the highest ROI
  
• Print has the best retention rate

(Sidebar: I’m hoping to get a copy of Daniel’s presentation soon so that I can post the statistics supporting these facts)

So how can print adapt in today’s market?

Here’s just a few examples Daniel gave on how print can be used in new ways:

• Newspapers
  Everyone thinks newspapers are dead. While it is obvious that subscriptions to the printed newspaper are way down and newspapers have shifted much of their efforts to online, there seems to be a revolution afoot. This revolution is already taking place in Europe where newspapers are highly read, accepted and trusted. This “new” paper is pretty different than the traditional one we know. It is printed not on newsprint, but on a #4 coated sheet. It is journal size instead of tabloid. It contains relevant data, not yesterday’s news. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the US…
• QR (Quick Response) Codes
  You’ve probably seen these around. After downloading an app to your phone, you can snap a photo of these codes, and they will push information to you such as a website url. Apparently Europe and Asia are light years ahead of us in this realm as software comes preloaded on phones there. Restaurants are posting these outside so potential patrons can immediately get the menu, specials for the day and most recent reviews. Daniel told of another brilliant use of these codes: Harrod’s, the department store in London, put these codes next to each of the items in their display windows that would take customers directly to a web page for that specific item where they could view colors, sizes available and buy the product right there. Brilliant, right? Daniel also said that there has been much success in using these codes on direct mail pieces since there’s only so much room for information in direct mail.
• Augmented Reality
  Ok, I had heard of this and seen some examples, but it’s still blowing my mind. See the black box that Robert Downey Jr. is sitting on in the Esquire cover pictured to the right? Basically, when you hold this box up to your computer or laptop’s camera, it plays a video. Rotate it 90 degrees, it plays another video. Esquire had a total of 4 boxes in the magazine (16 videos) including one box with videos for each of a fashion designer’s spring, summer, winter and fall collections. Beautiful.
• Customized Magazine Content
  Maybe the most mind-blowing example that Daniel gave was a site that doesn’t exist anymore due to overwhelming response. It was a survey site that had you rank your top five magazine choices out of 8 well-known titles including Sports Illustrated, Real Simple, TIME, and a few others. The magazines represented a wide range of target demographics. After ranking them, you’re given a survey of 25 very unconventional questions such as, “Do you sing out loud while driving?”. After all of your answers are compiled, the system takes that data and basically custom-creates a 36-page, digitally printed magazine that pulls articles that would interest you from all 8 magazines. I need this. Bad.

Conclusion
I went into this talk thinking it would be a rallying cry for the print industry. In a way it was, but I came out of it inspired to think more about how print can be used effectively for the clients I work with when it is combined with the internet, social or other media. I also came out of it knowing that print is not dead, it could just use a little resuscitation and maybe a little willingness to change on our part.