Print is dead!

So the cry has been going out for the past few years, shouted from the rooftops by anyone with even the slightest vested interest in digital media. Newspapers, magazines, books, leaflets, even tickets, have all been consigned to the history books by a generation of creatives and consumers who can’t fathom a life beyond their phones, tablets or laptops.

We’ve seen it before, of course, with practically any medium you’d care to mention. In the 1980s, the Compact Disc obliterated the vinyl record market and, when we started to be able to make our own, the cassette tape was given a most ignominious send off and now, less than four decades after it changed the entire music landscape, the CD is all but extinct. But, whisper it, these formats are making a slow, steady return to the consciousness of consumers everywhere, which proves the point that, as human beings, we have an inbuilt desire for choice.

When it comes to communications, linearity is a thing of the past – to really stand out these days, companies must make use of a sizable arsenal of different media and methods to ensure they’re seen and heard, and (of course) there’s a label for that: omnichannel. Customer journeys can be short and to the point, or they can meander for weeks along different routes, so marketers need to ensure their fingers are on several pulse points at the same time if brand, service or product awareness is to result.

Despite the doom-mongers’ tired old narrative, there remains an important role for print to play in contemporary and future communications campaigns, as part of a multi-faceted approach combining personalized creative with digital data and interactivity. The trick to making it work, though, is seamless integration for maximum impact.

Recently Canon joined forces with The Drum, a leading global publisher for the marketing and media industries, to produce a white paper titled ‘Creative Futures – Collaboration for Creativity: Re-imagining Omnichannel Marketing Communications with Personalized Print’. It focuses on marketing with print as the main medium of execution of a campaign on behalf of YMCA. This came about as an outcome of a competition launched by The Drum and the coming together of multiple stakeholders that represent the marketing ecosystem in this context.

What became crystal clear was that collaboration is key, the old-fashioned ‘silo’ approach to communications simply no longer works.“A lot of people talk about collaboration, but they don’t actually do it,” said Lucy Swanston, founder and managing director, Nutshell Creative and chair of The Strategic Mailing Partnership.

“As our initial conversations evolved, we knew we had to get everybody in the supply chain behind this – the print service provider, research, data, creative and the media agency to help plan this. Never before has anybody brought all of those components together to truly deliver a campaign. To tell the story collectively and understand everybody’s different challenges in that supply chain is incredible because everybody learns something along the way.”

The fact is, print has a tactical and visual appeal that cannot be matched by digital and to integrate it into a campaign is to give yourself a definitive edge, so it’s worth the effort. And the white paper came up with four top tips for omnichannel marketing excellence with print:

1.?????Know your audience – they should be at the heart of any marketing campaign and should be the focus of any communications, designs and channel considerations.

2.?????Be meaningful with the data you use – think about what information you have about your customer by channel, so that you can personalize the message to catch the eye of the recipient

3.?????Where possible, be playful and personal with messaging – that’s what will lead to brilliant solutions. Explore what each different channel can offer and think about how it can inspire the senses and provide a seamless connection

4.?????Consider how one touchpoint triggers another – understanding the interplay of different channels is key to omnichannel marketing success as, ultimately, it will amplify the core proposition and campaign idea

A ‘one size fits all’ approach to communications has long since ceased to be effective and print undoubtedly still has an essential role to play in getting specific messages across to specific audiences. Canon knows this more than anyone, and is determined to provide the technology, tools and knowhow to help everyone in the marketing and communications industries to deliver campaigns with maximum, unforgettable impact.

Print isn’t dead, in some respects it’s just getting started.

Collaboration for Creativity?is a must-read report for marketers looking for insights, inspiration, and advice on where to start and how to successfully utilize personalized print in the omnichannel mix. Download the report here