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Can print compete in a digital world?

Print isn’t dead, nor is it dying or well on its way to becoming obsolete. Rather, it is only growing in importance. Despite the fact we now live in a digital age, the majority of us still put print first and trust in it above all else. We still need print and have a use for it, and the best thing about print still being so necessary in a digital world is that clever print managers can use technology and the digital tools available to help enhance print further. At PMG Print Management, we’re constantly discovering innovative techniques to improve our clients’ print processes, which is only part of the reason why print is still able to compete in a digital world.

 

It is valuable

Both old and new print has value, whether it is a first edition of a printed booklet or a limited edition or hardback copy of a best selling magazine, print can be collected and become a treasured item that will only increase in value. While you can make a great deal of money from collecting valuable print products, print can also offer sentimental value. There’s something much more poignant about keeping something you can touch and experience physically, rather than storing something you can only see on your computer. The majority of us will still buy our favourite books in print, even if we already have them stored digitally on our tablets and e-readers.

 

It is a conversation starter

While we all find ourselves discussing the latest television adverts, either because they’re well made or utterly ridiculous, once they’ve run their course we are unlikely to ever see them again unless we go looking for them on the internet. However, something that is printed can always be kept in sight and therefore always come up in conversation. Many digital adverts will go over the top in an attempt to be remembered, but print has the luxury of being dignified because it can sit on your coffee table and always be brought up in conversation.

 

It is advert friendly

We’re all becoming so sick of adverts popping up on every webpage we visit and flashing at the side of our screens that marketers are having to think up new ways to reach us via digital media. Print advertising has a different effect. It’s not jumping out of the page and disturbing us while we read, it is there waiting for us to cast our eyes over when we’re ready, and if it’s good enough it’ll catch us before we’ve even read our article. We rarely have to fold over the page to stop a print advert from distracting us, but we do find that our first instinct is to click off the webpage when a pop-up advert appears.

 

It is reliable

We’re all in the habit of Googling questions we want the answers to or reading news stories and gossip online, but still the majority of us trust what we read in print far more than anything we read online. Over hundreds of years we have come to rely on print to tell us the truth and despite the websites that are able to deliver us news reports in real-time and even stream live television, it is only when we read it in the papers that we really believe it. Even those who send emails on a regular basis will send their most important documents via direct mail.

If you believe that print is still relevant and you have a print project you’d like some advice on or some help with, why not contact the team at PMG today? Our print management team are full to bursting with creative ideas and can’t wait to discuss them with you.

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