Ask some people and they’ll tell you that print and digital are incompatible. With them it’s one or the other: the rise of digital means we’re inevitably working towards the end game of the so-called ‘paperless office’. However, print is clearly going nowhere in a world where digital media grows more important by the day. Instead, the role of print has changed slightly to reflect a sector where digital technology means almost anything is possible.
Print and digital are combining, both around the office and out in the wider world. One such combination comes in the form of interactive print – one of the biggest marketing and advertising trends of the age. But what is interactive print, and should your brand be investigating its potential?
What is interactive print?
With interactive print the clue is very much in the name. Clever print designers and savvy marketers have been creating print campaigns containing interactive elements, allowing viewers to take their formerly passive relationship with print marketing and make it an active one. More often than not, digital technology is used to provide the interactive element – as we’ve seen in fairly simplistic guise with smartphone QR scanners. However, not all forms of interactive print necessarily employ digital technology to establish interactivity. Sometimes, other technologies and even plain ingenuity have been enough to transform a static print marketing campaign into something viewers will actively interact with. This Glacial Beer ad is a good example of how print can be interactive without having to rely on digital technology.
For a further example of how effective interactive print can be, take a look at this print ad from Kontor Records. Here, an innovative concept, some clever digital technology and a great piece of print design have combined to create a marketing campaign anyone who sees it is unlikely to forget in a hurry.
Should I be using interactive print?
Interactive print is one of the hottest recent print design trends, with some of the world’s most innovative brands harnessing the approach to attract new customers and retain current ones. Unlike some marketing trends, however, it’s difficult to dismiss the idea of interactive print as a mere gimmick. The fact of the matter is that the prevalence of digital technology in all of our lives has meant that audiences now have shorter attention spans than ever before. We don’t have the patience for pop-up ads and autoplay videos in our web browsers, so we download ad block apps to make sure we don’t encounter them and mute the trailers on our on-demand TV apps. An uninspiring marketing mailout, meanwhile, could well end up in the bin before your recipients have had a chance to look at it. Interactive print is the best of both worlds, offering the bespoke interactivity of digital media and the tactile ‘thereness’ of print. Marketers are also using interactive print to push themselves creatively, which has great appeal from an audience’s perspective.
Print marketing is a great way to reach out to your audience, but to attract their attention you need a strong concept. That’s where we come in. To us, print management is about more than simply saving you money on your print expenses and reducing your carbon footprint. Our design studio is dedicated to creating innovative, beautiful pint, so talk to us today and start catching the eye of your audience.
