3 Essential reasons your business should ditch digital for print
2016 and everything is now done online. At a click of a button we can send an army of emails at any time of day or night while we work, sleep or play. Adverts can be generated automatically and beamed directly into our homes to influence us while we’re sat at home smashing food into our faces as we peruse kitty pictures on our smart phones (it’s not just me right?).
Print advertising, it would seem, is dead.
I’m a big advocate of print advertising. Being a designer I’m probably biased, however there are a few reasons that companies should ditch the internet and go back to good old-fashioned print advertising. Here are the 3 best:
1. It’s a tactile medium.
The one thing that digital advertising has not yet conquered is the sense of touch and it's a major feature that it's missing out on. We use our touch senses everyday and it's used in a lot of our decision making without us even realising. We base the quality of an item on touch and it produces endorphins when we touch something we like (Tell me that writing on a banana skin with a biro is not the best feeling in the world). So when I receive a creative leaflet or piece of packaging that uses an unusual textured medium, I enjoy holding it and perceive it as quality. Feelings that are then associated with the company that sent it. That's positive reinforcement.
The one thing that digital advertising has not yet conquered is the sense of touch
2. The use of colours.
There are so many print processes that cannot be created on a screen when it comes to colour. Spot UV creates a shiny layer that catches the light and stands out from the background. This is a great process to print a black logo or icon onto a black background and helps packaging stand out on the shelves. Metallics are also fantastic to use. Nothing says luxury more than shiny silvers and rich golds (these are NOT the same as greys and yellows produced on a screen). You also have neons. In my personal opinion, you can never really truly recreate a neon on a digital screen, sure you can ramp up the brightness but it's not the same. Neons are fantastic for booklets either as an accent (the trim down the binding) or a stand out statement (the cover is neon orange with large white bold writing scrawled across the front).
These are all colours that your company is missing the potential on
3. Novelty
Now I’m not saying digital media can’t be novel, but it's definitely missing a certain je ne sais quoi when it's put next to creative print. It’s the exact thing that everyone is not doing at the moment. Be honest with yourself, what are you more likely to open and read from a marketing agency? A generic email asking for you to fill in your details? or a letter that's been hand written and wax sealed in a textured envelope? I know which would get my call back. Plus the sheer range of ingenuity of print design. Sometimes I will buy a product just because it has awesome packaging that folds into something else. Or I pick up and read a leaflet or brochure because it stands out with an unusual binding or has a grass cover.
Sometimes I will buy a product just because it has awesome packaging
Now I’m not saying we should give up digital entirely, there’s a definite use for it and we must also remember that print advertising can be used for bad as well as good (There's a special circle of hell reserved for people who just plaster their phone number and a ton of copy onto tiny leaflets that build up on our floor to trip over when we get home). But we seem to live in an age where we think everything can be solved by a computer screen and I’m here to remind us that the right tool should be used for the right job.
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8 年I am sure you will have printers clamoring to support your post but the real question is does either form of advertising, whether it be digital or print, actually work? There is no doubt for brand awareness the visual aspect of the brand eventually sinks into our subconscious, but to actually drive custom towards the brand? I personally do not think it works. I am far more likely to click on an add that appears on Facebook for instance, than I am if I should see an advertisement in a magazine or receive direct mail and then go to a store or visit the web site. Once I have put that piece of print down, in whatever format, my mind has moved on, I may think I will do it later but the reality is, I probably will not. The one area of print that I think still has plenty of mileage in advertising is poster and bus advertising, but unfortunately they cannot pass your sensory tests!
Working with Resellers and major clients to grow B2B pipelines through Email, Direct mail & Telemarketing Data
8 年Great article Luke thanks for posting. Like Matthew Trinder, I believe that both digital and print should be used as different people will react to one rather than the other.
Enabling Award-Winning IT Distribution and Sustainable Technology for Resellers
8 年A very good article, however, I am a big fan of using both digital and print mediums to compliment each other. Your digital campaign should include an element of Print to bring on-board the emotive and sensory support you speak of in the article. Thanks for sharing!