Papercraft has been an artistic pursuit for decades, but it’s only recently that brands and businesses have started to use it as a means of spreading brand awareness. Papercraft is essentially a process wherein a net for a design is printed on paper or card, which can then be cut out and assembled using glue and scissors or cleverly designed slots. Examples of papercraft marketing in action include this app from Mojang, the developers of Minecraft (an incredibly popular videogame); Tearaway (another video game, set in a paper-based world) and Wall-E (the 2008 critically acclaimed and commercially successful CGI film from Disney). These papercraft marketing examples allow fans and those with a passing interest in the brands to create something simple but tangible. These papercraft creations are likely to provoke discussion when the creator’s friends and family notice them sitting happily on the shelf. Using papercraft as a form of marketing is certainly a way to get your brand noticed – but how do you avoid losing on money on the printing costs? Our design studio and print management services may be able to help…
Print at home?
One way of entirely eliminating printing costs is to simply provide a free .pdf on your website and rely on your customers and clients to take the time to print the template themselves. This approach might work fantastically if you already have an enthusiastic fan base or hordes of loyal brand followers, but to follow the lead of Disney and Mojang you must rely on your customers to make this effort themselves. If your business doesn’t quite hold the equivalent influence of these huge brand names in your own industry, then you’ll probably have to print out the templates yourself. They can then be handed out at exhibitions, conferences or trade fairs – perhaps even with every purchase of one of your products.
Design considerations and print management
Papercraft is most effective at marketing towards the younger generation. Depending on the age group of your target demographic, you’ll want to adjust the complexity of the net design to ensure that they’ll be able to assemble it with only minimal adult supervision. Bold colours will add more of an impact to your design and ensure that it stands out amongst the clutter once it’s been assembled.
If you can keep the design to one A4 page, it’ll be far cheaper to print than if you’re forced to spread the design over multiple pages. However, make sure there’s space for instructions and your brand name somewhere on the page. To reduce the space taken up by these elements, you can use letters to ‘code’ each of the tabs to show which should be stuck together and in which order, rather than resorting to full written instructions. Your brand name or logo could also be integrated into the design. Speak to our design studio to ensure you create a design that’s unique and interesting, but also reflects your brand and your services.
Our Clever Print Management techniques can help make your papercraft marketing project a success while keeping your costs as low as possible. Find out how you could benefit from our award-winning print management services or Contact us to arrange a free print inspection to identify where you can save money on your print marketing and inside print.
