Print is no longer yesterday's news. From stunning cust-omer magazines to the grow-ing number of campaigns that integrate print and digi- tal communications with QR codes and augmented reality, the past 12 months have brought significant innovation. A growing number of brands are embracing new techniques and technologies to engage consumers.
While headlines may pit print and online platforms against each other, smart marketers realise the benefits of both. The trend is reflected by Google, which in March this year surprised many when it announced the launch of its own print B2B magazine, Think Quarterly.
'Brands are increasingly realising that although there are more ways to connect with customers, it's becoming harder to get their attention, so it's very much about reaching people with the right message in the right place at the right time,' says Keith Grainger, chief executive of customer communications agency Redwood.
'Print is a strong part of the mix.'
Visual appeal plays a vital role in winning attention. 'The idea that volume is important has gone,' says Toby Smeeton, managing director at publishing agency Sunday. 'It's more about engagement, so what comes through the door in terms of content and how it looks and feels is important. Without creative standout, it doesn't get a look in.'
Worth the trouble
Brands are pulling out the stops to grab consumers' attention. In November last year, Volkswagen in Australia caused a stir with a direct mail piece printed onto leather to promote its Eos model. Its creation may have broken four printers, but the impact caused was worth it.
Other high-impact direct mail pieces have included bird seed on an RSPB mailer printed by Lateral Group, a metal envelope from Royal Mail to promote the launch of its Tracked service, and 3D mailings such as the one created by EMO late last year to promote the Alfa Romeo MiTo Turismo. The campaign for the MiTO was so successful that the car sold out a month after launch.
'There are lots of innovative ways to get that necessary dominance and level of engagement with print,' says Gavin Wheeler, chief executive of direct response specialist WDMP. A mailpack it created to promote the Philips Shine programme for dentists used ink that showed up only with a UV pen, while a die-cut mailer for Sonicare last year looked like a simple postcard but pushed out to become a trophy, driving kids online to a viral game that received 9m plays as a result.
The recent move away from volume mail has also resulted in a willingness to spend more on communications, which in turn is boosting creativity.
'We're seeing an uplift in the type of paper and the finishes being used,' says Andy Ruddle, sales and marketing director of digital print firm Real Digital International. 'Now we see more efficient, more clever formats, and a greater use of specialist finishes and papers to make packs special.'
The sectors embracing digital print are also changing. Where once they tended to be brands selling high-ticket items, such as cars and holidays, now those in almost every market are getting in on the act.
Lateral Group's clients include the RSPB, Sky, Hillarys Blinds, and the government's Change4Life campaign.
The communication agency's group sales director, Nick Barbeary, notes: 'Comp-anies are prepared to pay a bit more to get standout from a printed piece. The look and feel of it is a lot more important now, while digital print is enabling high personalisation and targeting.'
He adds that demand for specialist inks and finishes, including metallic inks, glitter and holograms, has increased.
Image recognition
Innovation is not restricted to direct mail. Insurer LV= ran an outdoor recruitment campaign in the second half of last year with posters that directed people online using image recognition technology.
A sensory POS campaign for Wrigley, meanwhile, by print management firm Paperhat and Gutenberg Networks, used a new metallic substrate.
Paperhat bought up Europe's entire 12-month supply to stop competitors getting their hands on it.
'It's not just about reducing cost, but looking at what's new out there that could have a real impact on sales,' explains Paperhat chief executive Tim Peppiatt.
In May, mail-order and online clothes retailer Boden launched volume one of its A Thousand Little Things magazine (see box, page 36), designed to stand out from the traditional customer title and give something of value to Boden's top customers as a reward for their loyalty.
Royal Mail's ground-breaking B2B title Contact has included glow-in-the-dark ink on the cover, scented images, and tear-out postcards to personalise with stickers. 'With all the noise we get today, something you can tear out, touch, sniff, and hold is brilliant and appeals to the senses like nothing else,' says Mark Thomson, Royal Mail's media director.
The consensus among marketers, however, is that the real innovation lies in the integration of print media and online, where the use of data and technol-ogy can better personalise camp-aigns and increase engagement.
Immersing experience
Land Rover's Onelife print magazine, published by Redwood, now includes QR codes throughout, while last summer VW ran a campaign to promote its Golf Match model that fused augmented reality and direct mail. It comprised a card that trans-formed via a webcam into a road with an augmented reality car travelling on it. The recipient could tilt the road to make the car move faster or slower, immersing them in the experience.
So where to next? All the indications are that print is a growth area. Digital watermarking, launched in May by Royal Mail, provides another tool in the marketer's arsenal. Embedded into pictures on leaflets and mailings, the watermarks enable marketers to integrate print and online material without using barcodes or QR codes. Simply holding a 3G phone over the image gives the recipient instant access to digital content.
Printer technology has also moved on significantly in the past 18 months. Personalised digital print is nothing new, but the ability to combine speed, full-colour personalisation and high image quality is, and this could lead to even more brands embracing print as a key part of the marketing mix.
'Previously, high-speed printing with low quality was possible, while doing fancy direct mail pieces digitally was relatively costly,' says Erwin Busselot, marketing director of digital printing for Kodak EAMER.
Howard Hunt recently became the first printers in the UK to test Kodak's 5000XL printer. According to assistant managing director Lucy Edwards, it affords a breakthrough for direct mail. 'It makes direct mail as targeted as possible, and as real-time as possible too,' she says. 'With other machines, you get the speed but not the colour personalisation, or vice versa.'
New finishes and techniques are also being produced that could result in even more creative print. Heidelberg recently announced a tactile gloss finish, the 'Crystalline Effect', which changes appearance depending on the angle from which it is viewed and can be used on a range of substrates.
It is just the latest of an array of innovations rolling off the presses. There is little doubt that rumours of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
PEUGEOT EMERGENCY ENTRANCE
This visually arresting direct mail pack, created for Peugeot Professional by CMW, went out in November last year, targeting Peugeot's customers in the UK's emergency services. It promoted the fact that the National Policing Improvement Agency had just awarded Peugeot its preferred supplier status for vehicles and equipment.
'All the materials used in our pack were authentic to those used by the emergency services themselves,' says CMW creative director Jamie Bell. 'Everything was real, familiar, tactile and engaging.'
The outer packaging used the same highly reflective material that is used in all emergency service high-visibility jackets and it also carried the same reflective strip.
Inside the pack was a brochure and a letter held together by a bellyband made from authentic police tape stock, with the letter designed to look exactly like a police situation report.
Even the letter stock in the pack was made of TyVek, the waterproof material that is used to make police notepads.
BODEN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE
Boden wanted to surprise its most loyal customers with 'a lovely thing meant purely as a thank you,' says the clothing retailer's marketing manager Emma McCappin. So the company created a magazine, A Thousand Little Things.
Published by Sunday and designed to stand apart from the typical customer title, it was sent out in May to 100,000 Boden customers. The publication links in with Boden's community site, with much of the content also online. 'We made a deliberate effort to divorce it from our clothing range, to give people something they could dip in and out of, rather than act on and discard,' says McCappin.
The magazine uses various print and paper technologies including die-cut, bullet holes, transparent paper, overlays and mirror stock.
'Different paper stocks and finishes convey different messages,' explains Sunday managing director Toby Smeeton. 'All combine to make it feel of value, to encourage people to engage, and to deepen their relationship with Boden.'
VOLKSWAGEN ILLUSTRATIVE STYLE
Instead of a focus on the tradition-al car shots, all communications in this three-part contact strategy, which targeted people during the car-purchasing process, used the same illustrative style, with striking typography and imagery. Proximity London created mailers for all 18 models in VW's range for customers and prospects.
The direct mail used a soft-paper stock, and plenty of black to illustrate quality, while the variable fold-out format of the first mailer in the series took people through their own thought process, opening out to answer possible questions as the recipients travelled through.
'It was important to create a piece that could be personalised but didn't feel templated,' says Andrew Waddell, board account director at Proximity London. 'It's all done in a soft-tone, Q&A format and in this a very illustrative style to match how people in the purchase funnel start off thinking very emotionally before becoming more rational.'