Print as the Launch Pad—Kismet or Ka-Boom?
Cheryl is spot-on; it is not an either/or choice. Print, radio, and TV no longer have hegemony over marketing spends, but do not mistake the landscape has changed. Print is merely one of many arrows in the marketer’s quiver. If we want print to be a partner in the media mixology, then we need to pay attention to the wicked ways technology is changing our fortunes. Take a moment and note Cheryl’s job title. Does your firm have such a person, and if not, why not?
In the speech I will give at the Vision 3 Summit, we will take an A–Z survey. Much as the nameplates on our digital presses have changed, so too will the tools we use to make print come alive. A friend sells for GPA, Specialty Substrate Solutions, and he saw a YouTube video we had shared about a Blippar–enabled Heinz Ketchup Label. His bride works at General Mills and he shared the reaction of the senior marketing personnel— “way cool” is the meme.
A glistening new array of intelligent print recognition technologies are thrilling in their construct, and the plain fact is they require (indeed they demand) print as the essential launch pad to a fully immersive multi—media experience. Whether a digitally printed label, a silk-screen imprinted T–shirt, a Guinness pint glass, a web-offset printed newspaper, or a flexo printed bag of marshmallows, print is the needed first step.
This latest technology revolution requires two things:
1) The premedia department becomes the nerve center for the entire business. Neither Sales, Pressroom, nor Finishing are in control any longer. The hub of all creation is in the premedia team’s purview.
2) The cobbler’s kids need some shoes dude! If you want to show your customers how to implement these cool new marketing techniques, you need to show them how you have effectively and measurably used it in the marketing of your own print and marketing services business.
