Tyrone Spence, managing director, BCQ
While digital does complement print, if you go to a marketing director and say you want to print 10,000 and post 10,000 communications compared to an
e-campaign for a fraction of the price, what is he going to do? But, the two can work together. Often the client will want to follow up an email campaign with a well-targeted ink on paper campaign. We have an agency in our group that specialises in web and SMS communication and it is the most successful and most profitable element. Development is in double digits, which is far greater than the print element. It is vital for us because it is generating the future and the cash.
Tony Massey, group sales and marketing director, HH Print Management
Print and pixels are inexorably intertwined. As much as there has been an explosion in digital media, imagine the world today without print. It’s still the world’s only truly universal and trusted communication device; anything of true importance is still committed to paper. Much of the business world is still grappling with the plethora of existing and emerging digital channels and print must do the same. Being in the vanguard of redefining print’s relationship with pixels is where the new battleground is in the sector. It’s giving enlightened organisations, like HH, the chance to develop unique and compelling propositions.
Harry Skidmore, managing director, Easibind
I certainly do think that print can be complementary to pixels created through a variety of screen-based mediums. Print technology is certainly keeping pace with the development of software technologies, such as Human Eyes and TrueView, and material technologies that provide more than just ink on paper. Extra sensory print provides tactile, visual, communications in places where screens do not function as well. Brand reinforcement, brand protection and brand promotion are key areas for point-of-sale and display and packaging, which provides key recognition in the right place at the right time.
Tim Hill, managing director, Speedscreen
You would have to have a luddite mentality not to see that a reduction in all paper print mediums will continue, whether that be outdoor advertising finding new mediums and materials, or retail point-of-sale going to LED screens. Obviously magazine and newspaper production will decline ever more. In 10 years, will there be enough demand for printed periodicals to sustain them at all? You can imagine it will all be digital by then. Advertising on the London underground is increasingly going that route already. I can imagine supermarket and department stores taking a similar route. Having said all that, I think the market for niche printing in general will get bigger.
