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

W2P at Internet World

The keynote theatres were packed; standing room only and Health and Safety officers refusing entry to hundreds who could not get in as they were not in the queue at least 15 minutes before the presentation. 400-500 attendees at each session were not disappointed as speaker after speaker showed how digital marketing techniques, when correctly applied, can give results that are nothing short of 'spectacular', 'game-changing' and 'unprecedented'. Check out this http://tinyurl.com/cmtykj YouTube video of Scott Seaborn, head of Mobile at Ogilvy in the UK. I found this particularly interesting as it features Kodak (consumer) and the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament.
The general theme at the show, wherever you looked, whomever you listened to, was that digital marketing allows you to communicate on a one to one basis like never before. This gives me tremendous hope for the future of digital printing (alas, I fear that conventional litho will suffer even more as a result) as marketers get their heads around how to use this data more effectively. The tools are definitely now there to deliver digital messages to the right people, at the right time, at the right place, with the right offer. Print now needs to communicate its potential role in the mix to the right people, at the right time, at the right place, with the right offer. Simple isn't it?
There was one representative from the printing industry exhibiting at the show. Ivor Jacobs (Ivor Solution ltd) whom I worked with in 1997 with the launch of Card Corporation was showing Web-to-Print for business stationery www.businessweb2print.co.uk and photo products. Ivor has always been ahead of the game and still is. Congratulations Ivor, your pioneering spirit is a lesson to us all! Another company, Lorien Unique, presented its Institute of Direct Marketing case study in one of the seminar theatres. This discusses the benefits of multi-channel marketing.

www.w2p.co.uk

Internet World Exhibition

It's had no coverage in the printing trade press, very few people from the printing industry even know it's on and nobody that deals with printing technology is talking about it in the blogosphere. What is it? Internet World, the largest exhibition of internet stuff in Europe. Ever! It's on now at Earls Court in London.
To give you an idea of scale, there are more than 200 seminars across 6 theatres, split into specific areas: eCommerce Theatre, Email, Mobile Marketing & Analytics Theatre, Enterprise2.0 & Content Management Theatre, Connectivity and Hosting Theatre, Mobile, Online Advertising, Affilite & SEO Theatre and the Web2.0, Social Networking, Usability & Design Theatre.
There are over 320 suppliers exhibiting and there are more than 20 keynote presentations from the top marketers of companies such as:
Virgin, John Lewis, Porsche, Monster, B&Q, Barclays, HMV, Mars, Disney, Ogilvy, Hilton, LoveFilm and more.
There are also special networking sessions, an Agency day, roundtable discussions and, of course, lots of twittering and facebooking going on.

Marketers are going there to learn about digital marketing. I have seen no evidence of the word 'print' anywhere. There are no representatives of any of the printing industry bodies, either UK or European, on any booth or presenting any seminars. There is no evidence of any of the 'Cross Media' companies such as MindFire, EasyPurls, XMPie, Online Print Solutions or Pageflex to put across the relevance of print in the digital mix. There are no representatives from the world of Web-to-Print (except perhaps me and a handful of other visitors). There are no printers (sorry, that should be 'Marketing Services Providers').

If, as an industry, we are going to rise to the challenge of changing our business models, it should start with learning where the threats and opportunities lie. We should start banging the drum about the effectiveness of targeted print at events like this, instead of complaining about attendance levels at Print shows.

I'll be here for two days so I'll blog some more about what I see and hear.

www.w2p.co.uk

BAPC survey highlights Web-to-Print

Hot on the heels of a US survey from Dr Joe Webb showing over 7,000 small printers think Web-to-Print is a critical factor for their businesses, the British Association of Print and Communications (BAPC) has released its own survey. In April 2009, it received responses from 473 member companies with what they felt were the critical issues facing their business in order of priority:

21.5% Web-to-Print
21.5% Marketing
18.0% Sales
16.0% Business Climate
08.0% Human Resources
07.5% Equipment
07.5% Environment

The majority of these businesses employ fewer than 15 people and almost certainly use digital printing technologies. It does feel as if W2P is finally being recognised as either a threat, an opportunity, or both.
What's needed is a strategy and an achievable implementation plan.

www.w2p.co.uk

Web-to-Print at NorthPrint in Harrogate

Despite talk of NorthPrint being cancelled due to the recession, it would appear that visitor numbers are looking quite promising and some are now struggling to find hotel rooms in the town. Harrogate (my home town) is wonderful in the Spring sunshine and there are some truly great restaurants. If you needed any more motivation to visit a small but well produced trade show, many Web-to-Print vendors will be showing their wares.
RedTie, EFI and Mtivity all have stands whilst Press-Sense will be shown on the Presstek stand, XMPie will be shown on the Trapeze Mailing Services stand, PrintGroove on the Konica Minolta stand and Ricoh will be showing DSF.
For more information click www.northprintexpo.com