Daniel Dejan might be excused for being a hard core digital proponent. After all, he is on the development team of Google Glass, about as cutting edge as you can get in the digital marketing sphere.
Yet he is a self-admitted print lover, advocating a strong relationship between digital and print in the marketing mix.
“I think that the relationship between old and new—printed communication and digital outreach—will prove to be the most successful marriage for marketers in the future,” Dejan writes in the Sappi blog. “Why? Because the permanence of print complements the instantaneous and constantly-updated nature of digital. Although each plays a role, I have to say that print is my first love. And, while I’ve always been clear about that, perhaps I’ve neglected to tell you why.”
Dejan goes on to relate the specific properties of print as a marketing media that gives it the power it has, for both the creatives who produce it and the consumers who enjoy it.
“For marketers, paper and printing techniques are as important a creative choice as typography and illustrative style. For readers, the form of the printed piece is integral to its enjoyment. With print, there is the pleasure of ownership—the satisfaction of possessing a valuable catalogue, a beautiful invitation or a favorite fashion magazine,” he notes.
Dejan also notes the lasting credibility of print in the context of the fire hose of digital noise.
“With an abundance of promotional noise squawking all around us, well-designed and meaningful documents are an important way to build credibility and trust. In this new age it’s even more important to share your messaging through tangible communication materials as even Millennials themselves believe that paper mail is more reliable than digital communication,” Dejan continues. “Over three-quarters of people ages 16-26 say documents are less trustworthy in digital format and 65% of them agreed that, for ease of use and viewing, paper is still the way to go.”
We aren’t troglodytes who imagine digital has no place in the marketing mix; far from it. Yet we refuse to buy into the “we are all going digital” mantra that many in the industry are pushing. Like Dejan, we believe print has a lasting value that will prove its worth for generations to come.