HOT MARKETS FOR 2006 — NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

Other non-traditional ($2 billion to print, +0 percent) are foreign language, specific-culture publications, many of which are printed offshore but could and should be sourced here.

Banking/insurance ($2.84 trillion, +7 percent; with $14.2 billion to print, +5 percent) is ranked Number 2. Commercial banking ($11.4 billion to print, +6 percent) will be rebuilding storm-destroyed banks, and changing names as a spate of acquisitions, crossovers and foreign takeovers deposit signage, check logos and some one-third of bank interiors into personalized digital communication, signage and onto paper payment documents.

Direct mail for charge card services in this segment will exceed $1.4 billion. Property/casualty insurers ($1.8 billion to print, -14 percent) need premium growth as disaster claims devastate reserves, but will try to buy on-the-cheap. Life insurance ($2 billion to print, +17 percent) is an emerging opportunity for digital and conventional direct mail.

The Number 3 customer continues to be medical products/pharmaceuticals ($362 billion, +7 percent; with $12.3 billion to print, +8 percent). Pharmaceuticals and wellness buys ($8.3 billion to print, +17 percent) are returning from non-print media. ROP and bind-in placements, P-O-P and packaging will be financed with vastly increased large-scale government purchases for “pandemic” vaccines.

The proliferation of generics to more than a 15 percent market share, with 25 percent annual growth, is the major threat to branded drugs, and is an additional opportunity for package printers. New year settlements of class-action lawsuits against the producers of pain relievers will include prescriptive consumer print media for Merck, Pfizer and others.

Expect new packaging and promotions with “black box” warnings. Drug research pipelines are again filling, along with FDA test-related advertising and collateral. Medical products ($3.2 billion to print, +1 percent) and biotechnology ($0.8 billion to print, +33 percent) are surging.

Related at Number 12 is healthcare ($2.01 trillion, +