It’s All-Around Us And Plays A Vital Role In Our Daily Lives
Print is highly effective. It provides the means to communicate ‘messages’ easily, quickly and at a low cost. Print has impact. It is creative, it engages, it is versatile and it is persuasive. Print has longevity and authority. It is tactile and offers a ‘real world’ experience. It has a unique ability to grab and hold people’s attention.
In fact, no other media channel can offer this combination of qualities. Print is an important vehicle for advertising, education, entertainment and information.
It serves all parts of the UK economy – including central and local government, financial services, retailing, distribution, travel and tourism and manufacturing industries. Print is an advanced manufacturing sector. It utilises cutting-edge information and production technologies. Print can be interactive and integrated.
The use of augmented reality, printed electronics and near-field communications offers the opportunity to increase the engagement between consumers and brands and enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
The UK is the fifth largest producer of printed products in the world, and second largest in Europe. Printed matter contributed £358 million to the UK’s balance of trade in 2022. There are more printing companies in the UK than there are McDonalds in Western Europe
Print Can Take Many Forms and Have Many Uses
Print is visual media in its own right, a carrier and display of information, advertising, entertaining and educating. Look around and you’ll see many examples of print right in front of you. Print is not only books, newspapers, magazines and advertising – it is packaging, fashion, art, signage, creativity, security and information
Advertising in print media – be it newspapers, magazines, direct mail or door-drops – can help to amplify the impact of other channels, including TV and digital, and increase the overall effectiveness of campaigns. Mail has the highest attention rate of any media and, despite the cheaper costs to buy online advertisements, the cost per minute of attention is almost identical.
A 2020 UK study by Ebiquity shows that a gap between marketer’s perception of media attributes and their effectiveness still exists. Print heavy media (newspapers, magazines, out of home and direct mail) rank three to six in terms of the evidence of their performance (after TV and radio) much higher than their perceived performance from marketing professionals.
Print Boosts Campaign ROI
- Newspapers can increase campaign ROI by 280% for retail, 70% for the automotive sector and 570% for finance.
- Advertising in newspapers and magazines generates £2.43 for every £1 invested over three years.
- 90% of campaigns that included door drops reported a rise in acquisition compared to 59% for those without.
Print Is Effective
- Door drops increase footfall by 9% (of which 20% are new customers) and sales by 13%
- Campaigns including print are 67% more effective at delivering new customers
- 81% of people have bought an item or visited a place after reading about it in a magazine
- Multi-platform newsbrands boost the business effectiveness of other media
Sustainability Research – printers striving to improve and promote sustainability credentials, 2024 will unquestionably be a year of intensifying focus on sustainability, with companies under extra pressure to acknowledge, measure, and limit the adverse impacts their own operations have, and that of their products/services life-cycle, on the environment.
