A Tide of Innovation

Dr Paul Twomey, the President of ICANN, the internet's administration body, stated in a recent paper: 'There is a tide of innovation sweeping the world. While we are offered glimpses of how the internet might evolve in the coming years, the last 30 years has taught us that we probably haven't yet imagined the long-term impact of the global internet on society.'

The printing industry is just beginning to realise the impact that the internet is going to have on its traditional business model. Needless to say, the strong and agile will not only survive but prosper, as new solutions to existing and developing problems are executed in highly effective and efficient ways.
Soon, the mobile phone will get a bigger screen and faster internet connectivity to applications and data in the 'cloud'. This will bring many more customers (and competitors) into the mix.

'Ten years ago, 100 million people used the internet. Today it is 1.4 billion.
By the end of 2010, 5 billion people will have a mobile phone. Many of these will be internet enabled.
The consequence of this growth and convergence is an enormous democratisation and devolution of decision-making throughout the globe, especially within the developing world. India alone has a mobile handset uptake of 9 million per month.

The expansion of mobile networks, combined with the latest smartphone and other internet enabled devices, are enabling developing economies to leapfrog traditional technologies and remove barriers to entry to the global economy for their citizens and businesses.'

Printers should not forget that 'data' can now be 'manipulated' in real-time, anywhere in the world. Even if it is printed locally, the margin will mostly belong to the manipulator, so leaving the poor printer once again as the 'manipulated'. It's so important to get into Web-to-Print and multi-channel marketing NOW, before the tide engulfs you.

'The internet has proven to be a deeply transformative technology in the developed world, as so it will be for the developing world.'

So new business models will emerge, new ways of delivering marketing messages will be invented, new markets will open and others will close. Printers should not underestimate the power of the internet, nor the speed with which it can disrupt conventional business models. New strategies are required and new skills must be acquired.

It's time to take your business online.

www.w2p.co.uk

Dire Prediction for DM

New research from Borrell Associates predicts a massive drop of 39% in Direct Mail spend over the next five years. From the firm that predicted the near demise of Yellow Pages in the US, they have this to say about DM:

Now, our latest prediction: The kudzu-like creep of the Internet is about to claim its third analog victim – the largest and least-read of all print media – direct mail. Direct mail has begun spiraling into what we believe is a precipitous decline from which it will never fully recover.

Needless to say, they also talk about DM becoming a more targeted element of a wider multi-channel approach to marketing, which is good news for those printers that are getting involved with variable-content digital printing and web-to-print. Borrell go on to say that e-mail marketing will continue its inexorable rise at the expense of print and other media:

Most of the growth in e-mail marketing will be local. We’re expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional offers and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail.

Now is the time for printers to take their businesses online.

www.w2p.co.uk

Print and the Internet

It may not come as a surprise to many that the recent Internet World show in London (Europe's largest ever Internet Exhibition) received a grand total of ZERO column inches in any printing trade publication that I could find. Nor is there any post show coverage by any of our industry bodies. Now, forgive me for being blunt here but is the printing industry not concerned about the combined impact of the recession and the proliferation of digital marketing techniques? Surely it should warrant a little more attention than my solitary blog? Marketers are being forced to cut costs, like everyone else. The easiest option is to contact one of the scores of 'digital marketing specialists' that have sprung up in recent times. They promise the earth at a much reduced cost compared to 'conventional' campaigns. I asked many individual 'multi-channel marketing' vendors at the Internet World show (and there were a lot of them) how they dealt with the printed elements of a multi-channel campaign. The answer? Blank faces. These guys don't consider print to be 'multi-channel'. They call it 'offline media' or 'conventional mailing'.
We have some serious strategy issues here. We'd better start educating these buyers, particularly these Generation Y buyers, as to the real power of print when used in a true multi-channel campaign. If we don't, we will all pay the price.

www.w2p.co.uk