Hello 10 Answers UK Book by PaperlinX

Print? Ten Answers Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the role of print? Brand owners and consultants give their answers.

Content 2 Barbara Kuhr, Epson 6 Jos van Ast, Levi Strauss

The media landscape is dynamic.

10 Costin Mihaila, Mediacom

New media and ideas are popping up

14 Nicola Simioni, Grafiche Siz S.p.A

every day. Hello has picked the brains of some

18 Damiano Polcaro, Brandnation

of Europe’s leaders in marketing communications

22 Rob Thomas, Adare International

and print. We asked where print is, and where

26 Job Stuijt, Rijkswaterstaat

it’s going. And how this affects the way they work.

30 Anthony Thirlby, ESP Colour

This book compiles their views.

34 Stef Petit, Open Universiteit 38 Lucia Nadal, B & B Italia

Now you can ask experts how to develop more effective printed communications. You’ll find fellow brand owners, creatives, media agencies, printers

Thanks Hello would like to thank everyone we interviewed for their valuable time and opinions.

and print production specialists at hellopaper.com

Head of Strategic Marketing, Epson Europe

Barbara Kuhr

The Internet has become the most important medium, but it has its limitations.

Barbara Kuhr is Head of Strategic Marketing at Epson Europe, producers of printers and imaging products. What is the most important change in media since you started your career? That has to be the switch from broadcast to narrowcast media.

Which media do you think is most important for your company today? It depends on your objective. The Internet has become the most important medium, but it has its limitations. If you want to quickly create brand awareness, or position your brand in the market, it’s not the first media you think of. Broadcast media are more reliable for this. But the Internet is effective for achieving many other objectives like building up a client database, and if not as the main media then as a complimentary media.

Google and Amazon promoted themselves just online. Are they an exception or can other brands do it too? It’s the exception because it fits their businesses. Google did use traditional above-the-line to launch Chrome and the campaign wasn’t successful. Maybe it was just an experiment, but I think a print and outdoor campaign to launch a browser didn’t allow the audience to put the product in context. It would have been better if they just launched it online.

Can email, the web and other digital media replace print? Print will always be needed. How much? Again, it depends on what your objectives are. There is a shift to digital communications, but it can’t fully replace print. Some products, for example luxury products, deserve printed communications that breathe the quality of the end product. If I buy a luxury car, I expect a brochure as part of the process of ‘seduction’. Reading a PDF of the same brochure on a screen can’t give you that emotional impact.

“ With social media you need to have very clear communications objectives” Which brands or companies do you think are setting the standard for integrated marketing today? Apple is outstanding at consistently using every touch-point to get its brand message across. From the product design, through packaging and advertising, print and use of the web, they stand out for me. In the UK Waitrose impress me, they tell a consistent story from products in the supermarket through to communications. They were one of the first to successfully translate their brand into an online shopping experience.

Do you ‘tweet’?

Recent research shows business-to-business brands are still much more likely to use print such as direct mail and sales collateral than digital media. Why do you think this is? Many business-to-business brands already have a one-to-one relationship with customers. They had that way before Twitter, Facebook or Linked-In started. Consumer brands have a distribution chain between them and their end customers, so a medium that allows them to have one-to-one contact with large numbers of customers is obviously interesting for them. It’s a direct link to their consumers.

Google trains advertisers how to get the best out of Google. Do you know anyone who does that in print? No. And I think there’s a real opportunity here. From the brand owner’s perspective, there isn’t much transparency between printers, paper manufacturers, creative agencies and print production companies. So it’s difficult to get clear advice.

What would you like to see as the next evolution in print media?

We’ve become used to instant communications. Luxury products deserve printed communications. Can digital be luxury?

Print on demand! We coordinate the production of printed material across Europe, working with a creative agency, print production agency, and a localisation company. Printed material is too expensive - and it’s not environmentally ideal - to send large volumes of print work across Europe, so I’d like to be printing-ondemand locally.

No, I don’t ‘tweet’ personally, and nor does my brand. With social media you need to have very clear communications objectives, linked to your business objectives, and dedicated resources to implement and manage campaigns. Twitter and other social media require constant and intelligent management. If you’re not going to do it properly, don’t do it at all.

Retail Director, Levi Strauss

Jos van Ast

Digital is still seen as temporary. Jos van Ast is the Retail Director for Benelux and Nordic regions at Levi Strauss. Over the course of your career what’s been the biggest change in media? The landscape of media. You now have so many means of communication. You can be on the web everywhere with your phone, or with your small computer.

Could you remove printed media from your retail space? Yes, I do see the possibility for instance we could have digital displays above items to show price, but for the moment this is still too expensive. Within 15 years I could see paperless stores. Because of a few reasons: you can act faster, you can avoid translation issues, and I can imagine in future advertising in store can be linked with the weather outside.

In future what is the role of print for your brand? I can imagine a future where the only printing on an item is a barcode to allow for flexible pricing.

Who for you is doing an outstanding job with integrated marketing? H&M. Driving in the city you see their campaigns on buses and when you then enter their store, advertised products are near the entrance on displays that are shot very beautifully. They do everything in a very integrated way.

Do you ‘tweet’? No. 6

What is the role of social media for brands?

At what point would you say something needs to be printed?

On Hyves (the local Dutch version of Facebook) people list the brands they are fans of in their profiles. So it does help show brands who their market is. The employees of some of our stores have created a Facebook page because they recognise it is a good way to communicate with their customers, especially the younger ones. And that is why a lot of companies and brands are busy creating their own Facebook pages.

Digital is still seen as temporary. Print has a longer life cycle and maybe adds value. What we see as digital is just the latest news. When you want something to last it is printed. The environment is still an important factor, when it’s vital that all communication media becomes sustainable, it will drive people to go digital, instead of print.

Research shows that consumer brands are quicker to get into social media than business-to-business brands. Why do you think this is? With a business-to-business brand their market is smaller and you usually know who they are. Secondly for a business-to-business brand it’s more difficult to determine what your brand awareness is. Also, the interest from people is less, social media started as a place for friends to connect, so they are more interested in finding out about shoes, make-up or TV sets than discussing business deals.

What would you see as an evolution in print for your company? Integration of digital with print so everything is more personalised, like when you get a till receipt with your own name on it. It currently takes ages to produce and distribute new point of sale materials. Could I have print-on-demand facilities on every high street in Europe for point of sale materials?

“ People still want to feel what they are reading. As long as printers remain innovative enough to adapt to changes, print will always remain.” Lucas ten Brinke, Head of Sourcing, Reed Elsevier

“ …when it’s vital that all communication media becomes sustainable, it will drive people to go digital, instead of print.” Who is advising brand managers on the printed items of a campaign? I would call our internal Visual Merchandising department.

Client Service Director, Mediacom

Costin Mihaila

Printed media needs to understand the role it fulfils in people’s lives.

Costin Mihaila is Client Service Director of Mediacom, a media agency serving some of the world’s largest brands. What is the most important change in media since you started your career? Digitalisation. Not only media becoming digital but our whole way of life becoming digital. Media is more powerful than it’s ever been… in communication, and how you send information from A to B. It’s now all happening on television and online. What we know as newspapers will become news on another media, or in another way, really soon.

Pick one media today that is the most influential for brand owners? It’s a very close call between TV and online. TV still has a very significant impact on communication effectiveness. You still use TV and online in different ways. For consumer brands TV has a very direct impact on brand awareness. If you want direct response of any type, whether it is direct sales or getting people to do stuff for you or take part in promotions, the web is amazingly powerful.

Google and Amazon promoted themselves just online. Are they an exception or can other brands do it too? They’re the exception because Google and Amazon are two examples of extraordinarily strong ideas. Business ideas that are just so good because of the role they fill in people’s lives. Very few brands can put themselves up there with Google and Amazon and claim to address a consumer need so successfully.

If you think of email, the web and other digital media do you see that replacing print, not just print as collateral but print as a medium? Yes, by all means. And I think that this is very much an irreversible trend, as people are reading less printed media and making more use of the web.

How long is it going to take? I don’t think it will ever replace print completely, there are limitations to what online can do and when it can be used. In the next 20 years there will be a massive replacement by digital media, through the emergence of better devices. The other big trend we are on the brink of is convergence, because if you want everything digitally today you need four, five or six different devices. The moment we can reduce that to one or two it will accelerate the migration of printed materials to digital.

“ Social media enables you as a brand to collect first-hand feedback from customers.” Who for you is doing an outstanding job with integrated marketing? Adidas. They’ve been doing a wonderful job in below- and above-the-line media, guerrilla marketing and social media… you name it. Gillette’s team are also very successful using integrated marketing campaigns. You would be surprised at the amount of time and energy they put into search engine optimisation and new media along with traditional media.

Do you personally ‘tweet’? No, I don’t. I’m a big fan and user of Facebook, purely for private use.

What is the role of social media for brands? Social media enables you as a brand to collect first-hand feedback from consumers. It gives you an insight into what they are thinking and what they are saying about your brand. In my agency we use it constantly as a research tool. Preparing for a pitch we scan social communities, blogs and forums. It can lead to very interesting findings. Strategically it is starting to get integrated by the big media agencies.

Google trains advertisers how to get the best out of Google. Do you know anyone who does that in print? Production directors within creative agencies tend to know about that or else print production companies.

What would you actually like to see as an evolution for print media in the near future?

“ What we know as newspapers will become news on another media, or in another way, really soon.” Costin Mihaila, Client Service Director, Mediacom

I think they should be trying to be more targeted. There is a lot of wasted paper out there. The other thing print media should do is find their place. 35 years ago if you wanted news, you would buy a newspaper. Now it’s on your Blackberry or iPhone instantly. Printed media needs to understand the role it fulfils in people’s lives.

Printer and publisher, Grafiche Siz S.p.A

Nicola Simioni

You’re not only selling a product through the paper but also the image of yourself. Nicola Simioni is an Italian printer and publisher, his family’s company Grafiche Siz S.p.A has been in business for more than 50 years and is based in Verona, Italy. Since your company started what has been the most important change in media? My father started this company in 1963 when print was just black and white with few images, mainly text. TV gave people the opportunity to experience a new world to advertise through colours, images and through models. On the printing side we had to make big changes to align ourselves with what was happening on TV.

What’s been the biggest change in the printing industry? The introduction of digital media. The whole process is digital, from DTP to plates it’s all done on computers. Technology is growing and it is making our job faster. Also working digitally has created alternatives to printing. Last year the European publishing industry lost a lot of their business. But paper will always survive because if you go to meet with a client you can’t leave your computer with him.

Today what is the most important medium for consumer brands? For consumer brands it is still TV. You can reach the whole world in a second. With TV people know you have developed your brand to get there. Anyone can have a website but not everyone can get a one or two minute TV spot on an international channel. TV has credibility that makes it a more powerful brand awareness medium than the Internet.

Google and Amazon promoted themselves solely online, are they an exception?

Which brands are setting the standards in integrated marketing using all media?

Amazon and Google are exceptional, how they’ve grown just through the web. They didn’t have to advertise at the beginning, because they were the first to propose a new type of brand and a new way of selling. Amazon was the first to sell books online. Any person or company can have a web page, but that doesn’t make you Bill Gates or Microsoft. You need the right idea; companies who’ve successfully grown through the web, and don’t forget the thousands that have failed, have had strong ideas, like Facebook.

In Italy, Diesel. They do a lot on the web, on TV, everywhere. They have a good product with the right message being communicated in the right way. They also have a good grasp of how to use social media as a tool to reach young people in a way that is not forced. People are quick to see spam and they are tired of brands forcing messages on them.

Can digital media replace print for brands? There are already brands that are looking to communicate using the iPad. Publishers have to be able to offer brands placement on a page in their magazine and a page on their website. We created Tar magazine, a publication which won us the best magazine in Europe this year. We publish and print Tar ourselves using a number of beautiful printing techniques to show off our capabilities. It is a great tool for public relations because it shows what we are able to produce, which is why print is always going to be more important than the Internet for us.

How do you think it would affect brands if they would stop doing print advertising? Paper and print can’t disappear for brands. Online can be complimentary of print, whereas print can’t become complimentary of online. You can only read so much text online, and what we see on the web passes through our consciousness at the click of a button. With a printed item you keep it around and sometimes read the content more than once.

Do you use Twitter? Yes, but I use Facebook more. Social networks are very useful, but I wouldn’t recommend big companies to launch a product through Facebook. It’s better to use a mainstream medium, such as TV or print.

Google train advertisers on the best way to use their technology. Who is doing this when it comes to print? Our sales managers have been trained at the school here in Verona, where they teach you how to become a printer. Most of our sales managers have been to this school and they have started inside the company as regular vendors. They are also trained inside the company on how to advise customers on the type of binding, press, paper, etc.

“ We can only read so much text online, what we see on the web passes through our consciousness at the click of a button.” Nicola Simioni, printer and publisher, Grafiche Siz S.p.A

When would you recommend to a client to print a brochure? If you have a nice brochure that is printed with the right ink, on the right paper, showing the best photography, it makes a big difference for the brand. You’re not only selling a product through the paper but also the image of yourself. For example with a furniture catalogue you can’t show the different type of wood on an iPad. If you are going to put a piece of furniture in your home you need to get the right shade of wood, so a buyer needs to see the shade of wood not on a screen but on paper. 17

Creative Director, Brandnation

Damiano Polcaro

We have to trust our printers to give good advice.

Damiano Polcaro is Creative Director of Brandnation, an integrated brand communications agency based in London. Since the start of your career what’s the biggest change in media? The rise of the Internet and digital media.

If you asked your clients which media they find the most important what would they choose? A lot of them would actually struggle to choose. Some clients are still nervous about the web. They have seen what other companies have done but they don’t know how to go about it, which is why they favour print. Consumer brands are more likely to use digital media to complement print, even on relatively simple projects. For one client we used to produce a printed look book to showcase their new collection, now it’s only a digital publication.

Is it budget driven? Obviously price comes into it. If we design a print brochure the client will ask for an online version too, even if it’s just a downloadable PDF for their website. Social Media is also playing an increasingly important role as it makes the brand much more accessible to the consumer; you almost feel a part of their brand because you are able to interact with both the company and other followers. Sometimes consumers can actively shape the direction of marketing campaigns.

Can digital media replace print?

When it comes to print production who is advising clients?

I don’t see it killing print. However what would have been produced in print, for example newsletters and direct mail, are often now sent as email. It has the advantage of immediacy and allows for greater consumer-to-brand interaction. For an advertiser print has a permanence that digital media can’t match. People still hold onto magazines. They like to receive something physical. It’s not a pleasure to read lots of text on a screen. With a well-designed brochure, you can get the information you need quickly.

Working in the industry you build relationships with printers. If we have a project I call a printer and invite them to chat about what’s possible. Then we advise our clients. Nine times out of ten we do both the creative and the production of projects, so we have to trust our printers to give us good advice. If I didn’t have a printer to call it would make my job very tough.

Will the iPad take a large share of that? Personally I like books. But I see more and more people reading books on an iPad. The Internet is connecting all media. How can print compete with that?

Recent research shows business-to-business brands are still much more likely to use print such as direct mail and sales collateral than digital media. Why do you think this is? It is all about the target audience. Consumer brands are trying to play catch-up with their customers who are always one step ahead of them when it comes to mobile and web technology. Corporates that we work for are still keener to communicate via print through their corporate publications because of the perceived value it adds to their communications.

What’s the biggest issue you face when working with a printer? Getting the finished product out on time. I’ve had instances where a printer has promised to make a deadline, and missed it. That’s fatal. As a business we need to meet deadlines. As a designer you want a final product to impress your client so quality control is also a big issue. I like to know I can trust a person who can advise on materials and has good attention to detail. One good thing about the printers we work with is they have, on occasion, spotted something wrong that the client and we have missed… even though it’s been proofed a million times. That’s invaluable.

“What’s dangerous is not to evolve.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

What would you like to see as the next evolution in print media? Paper that is sustainable and recycled needs to be cheaper. Brochures that I’ve received from printers on recycled paper have been designed to highlight that is has been produced on recycled paper. The printing doesn’t look as good but it’s excused because it’s environmentally friendly. A lot of people already feel there is too much waste paper being sent out. Where are the better, cheaper sustainable options?

Business Development Director, Adare International

Rob Thomas

Marketing is now much more targeted. Rob Thomas is the Business Development Director of Adare International, the print management company. Since the start of your career what’s the biggest change in media? The arrival of digital marketing, the Internet and the move away from things like mass push communications. Marketing is now much more targeted with more one-on-one communications than ever before.

For your clients what is the leading medium today? For our clients, Nokia are spending a large amount in some markets with big campaigns on TV and digital, on social media and blogs. It’s youth orientated so online is a massive area for them.

Google and Amazon are two examples of companies, known around the world who promoted themselves just online. Do you see other companies particularly for your clients repeating this? If you go back to the mix, different markets have different levels of online maturity. Markets such as Russia for instance are more of an analogue market. The examples you mentioned are exceptions because they are solely based online so they can solely channel customers through the Internet.

Could you take print out of the mix and transfer to digital? It’s unwise for anything where the promotion of an item requires a lot of technical information or prestige. If we’re looking at the launch of a new campaign for Nokia its necessary to have 22

the mix, I can’t picture a time when they won’t have that. Very rarely do I receive brochures anymore. I devote more time to a hard copy brochure, because I don’t get very many of them. Print now stands out. Particularly if it’s well targeted, if it’s going out to the right person, with the right information. If I get a newsletter and it’s something that takes my interest as an email I will give it perhaps 5 seconds to skim through it before I delete it.

“ I don’t consider myself techno-savvy but if I’m interested in making a purchase I will find out information online.” Who out there is doing integrated marketing particularly well? Tesco are outstanding in the UK. Giving you offers that are targeted to you, the websites are pulling you in, they are directing you there, you’re receiving sms’s from them. So as far as consumer brands I would say major retailers are leading in integration.

What is the main role of social media for brands, if you don’t know your customers is it a good way to get to know them? Yes, but it depends on the type of product or service you have. I don’t consider myself techno-savvy but if I’m interested in making a purchase I will find out information online. Whether it’s availability, price point, comparisons or what people think of it. Personally for any type of purchasing decision I use forums or blogs, particularly for technical devices.

If I want to get the most out of print production who do I phone? Who do your customers phone? Us! Traditionally it’s been the role of creative agencies to advise on production, but some of the agencies are losing this skill set. And that is why we have grown so dramatically. Agencies focus on creativity, and print managers focus on execution. It’s their job to come up with ideas and give instruction, we feed into the idea that already exists and make it into a reality. And sometimes we feed a lot in to that creative process free of charge, which in turn provides the spark that takes it on to excellent results.

What would you like to see as the next big advancement it print production and print media? Consistency is number one for brand owners, so let’s forget about improvements in personalisation and job turnaround. We need constancy when it comes to price, quality, et cetera.

“ I devote more time to a hard copy brochure, because I don’t get very many of them.” Rob Thomas, Business Development Director, Adare International

Who is helping with consistency, the printers, or the paper? Do you look for printers with the same presses? We operate from the UK to Russia and the technologies available are very different, and so are the materials. Availability is a key part of the answer, it goes back to making sure you have consistent suppliers and materials, particularly from a Direct Mail side. Getting that consistency and quality would be the next advancement for me across the industry.

Senior Communications Advisor, Rijkswaterstaat

Job Stuijt

High quality, in-house printing on demand, is that too much to ask?

Job Stuijt is a Senior Communications Advisor of Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Ministry of Transport. What is the most important change in media since you started your career? When I started in 1997, the Internet was in its infancy. Today it’s hard to imagine life without it.

Which media do you think is most important for your company today? For us it is the entire mix. As a governmental department we need to use a combination of all media. Legally we’re obliged to communicate with the public and some media, like newspapers, give us guaranteed reach. I can’t make one media our hero – and that’s also reflected in our spending.

Google and Amazon promoted themselves just online. Are they an exception or can other brands do it too? It’s the exception. In our business we have a duty to communicate, so we can’t take high-risk strategies with media that might not reach the public. Because of the hit-and-miss nature of the Internet we can never be sure if the public has seen an online ad, so we concentrate on media everyone can access.

If you stopped all print communications, how would that affect your communications with the market? We need printed communications. We do a great deal of face-to-face work and that needs to be supported by tangible printed tools. For example at meetings and exhibitions, printed materials are vital and can’t be replaced. Maybe as our Customer Relationship Management systems improve and we can target the public more effectively we will print less, but it won’t be replaced.

“ Media agencies advise us on media, but no one advises us on print work.” Do you ‘tweet’? No. We actually have an internal version of Twitter, and I use that. It’s a good way to keep in touch with colleagues to see where they are and what they’re doing, just informally.

What do you think is the role of social media for brands? Social media can start conversations. It can create dialogue around a brand. It can also make or break brands very quickly, as Nestle recently learnt. Greenpeace used the various social media sites to create huge pressure and a change of policy at Nestle. Brand managers are used to being in control of their media, and with social media you relinquish it. It allows branding to become a‘movement’rather than an advertising campaign.

Recent research shows business-to-business brands are still much more likely to use print such as direct mail and sales collateral than digital media. Why do you think this is? The risks attached. As a government agency we need to be sure to reach people with our communications. Social media can’t guarantee results in the way that radio, TV and press advertising can. We still need tangible printed tools to play a role. The Internet is an evolving idea. We’ll sit and watch how other prolific marketing companies like Nike or Coca-Cola use it, and see if their experiences can be applied to our situation. At present it’s a big learning curve and there are no guarantees.

Google trains advertisers how to get the best out of Google. Who does that for print? Media agencies advise us on media, but no one advises us on print work. I wouldn’t know who to call! We talk about centralising this type of activity because there are clear opportunities for efficiency, but we also want to stay flexible.

“ The arrival of all these new media has been the biggest change and for us also the biggest challenge.” Robbert Bosch, Commercial Director, Royal Printer Callenbach

Why would you choose to print a brochure? To put something into people’s hands. We have a significant budget for print communications. But with print you never know if it always achieves its goal. I’d like to be able to get a better return on my print spend. It’s clear we need print, but no one can tell me if I need such high volume print runs.

What should be the next evolution in print? High quality, in-house printing on demand, is that too much to ask?

Managing Director, ESP Colour

Anthony Thirlby

If print is aligned with what’s online I think it works very well.

Anthony Thirlby is Managing Director of ESP Colour, one of the UK’s most respected independent commercial printers. Since the start of your career what has been the biggest change in media? The Internet. It’s had a huge transitional impact on print. Another big change is the rate at which you now have to change your business strategy. We used to be able to forecast three years ahead; now we are lucky if we can look three weeks ahead. On a daily or weekly basis we are responding to changes in technology.

What is the most important media now? For me, a printed product backed up by an online campaign. My wife still buys every glossy magazine that exists. Magazine advertising still influences her buying decisions, from fashion to cars. If print is aligned with what’s online I think it works very well.

Google and Amazon promoted themselves just online. Are they an exception or can other brands do it too? In my opinion the mix should always be there. It’s a combination of all media channels that helps you deliver your message to a customer. I don’t foresee a time when all brands solely advertise online. Google and Amazon are examples of an exceptional time in the development of the Internet.

Who is showing excellence in integrated communication? Apple over the last five years have been head and shoulders above anyone else, because of the reinvention of what they do through TV, online and print.

Do you personally ‘tweet’? No. I do use Facebook. The fantastic thing about social networking is it gives you a window back to your past. That’s what I use it for. Twitter is great for celebrities, it’s a great way to control their brand. Our business is on Twitter and Facebook to connect with the new generation of customers that is now emerging.

What role can social media play for brands? I have actually been very surprised with Facebook that the advertising is not right in your face. Social media can manipulate brands into people’s mindsets in a very subtle way. They’re advertising in the background. Facebook seem to be very in tune with its users, and what they expect or will tolerate from online advertising.

Who advises your customers on creating better print work? We take it upon our business development teams and ourselves. Unfortunately we do that in a very small percentage of orders because we rarely have the opportunity to do so. Most people involved in buying print are not trained in print production. There isn’t much dialogue, communication, development or improvement around a print job. I always suggest to any customer to get us involved as soon as possible. Let us participate in the brief and you will never end up with a bad product.

Print is shifting from a marketing to procurement responsibility. How does this affect you? That’s been a huge problem for us, because when it goes into procurement it becomes about unit cost. We all know that it isn’t that simple. Buying a paper clip is not the same as buying print. It amazes me that people still think we’re simply pressing a button and a finished product comes out. Customers are astonished at the capital investment and write downs we have to make, but it doesn’t change their buying practice.

Do you have strategic suppliers? We have aligned ourselves with four or five key suppliers, including paper merchants. The biggest concern I have as an industry is that we keep trying to beat each other on price. I don’t understand why this trade can’t get around the table every couple of months to set industry practices. We have a couple of industry federations, but I do not notice them addressing the urgent issues. They are too detached from the actual marketplace, for example they are still working on the basis that print is a skill. Yes printers need to know the basic processes, but today it’s more about organisation and desire. You’ve got to want to beat your schedule for the day and want to produce a fantastic job for your customer.

“We still print our business cards.” Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter

What is the next evolution in print that you would like to see? From a business point of view I would like our customers to engage in more dialogue with us. Then I would like to see some industry standardisation - establish good working practice. The question is how?

Head of Marketing & Sales, Open Universiteit

Stef Petit

Social media can make or break a brand, much faster than you think. Stef Petit is Head of Marketing & Sales for the Open Universiteit, one of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest correspondence learning institutions. If you look back over your career, what are the most important changes in media? Digitalization. When I say digitalization I mean television and computers. The Internet is very important with regards to the interaction that occurs. With TV, newspapers and brochures you have no interaction.

Today what is the most important medium for brands? Either personal contact or the Internet. My preference goes to personal contact in all its forms, this includes social media: the contacts you make there help define your brand. If tomorrow you buy a bad product, you tell your contacts. What happened at the dinner table; today is on the Internet. Personal contact is becoming more important to your brand and your brand experience.

Google and Amazon are two companies, which promoted themselves just online. Do you see other companies only using online media or does the mix still need to be there? With Google and Amazon there was a market, it was the right time and people picked up on it very quickly. That will not happen again soon so I do think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an exception.

For the Open Universiteit, you use printed material in the communications mix. Is it possible for you to do everything digitally? I’m not sure, in the last six years our campaign, in the Volkskrant (Dutch daily newspaper) of two small ads three times a week, was incredibly successful and attracts two to three times more traffic to our website. If we look at our brochures, 73% is downloaded and the rest of people want a real brochure. More customers should decide for themselves what they want. I see lots of information on the Internet but when I buy a camera, I want a beautiful brochure and that I can’t get from the Internet.

“ We increasingly opt for a cross-media approach; we usually use the web, banners, newspapers, magazines and brochures.” Which companies are using integrated media well? Tesco in the UK. They do a lot digitally, but also lots of print. Basically, you can order everything digitally, the way you want it and that applies to goods and services. You can have a personal page at Tesco where you can specify how you want it. That to me is a good example.

What can social media do for brands? Social media can make or break a brand, much faster than you think. When you want to build your brand you should use social media from the start. To ensure that people around you talk very positively about you. Even though the risk factor is very big. I don’t know if it’s true, but I read an article that some 70% of communications within an organisation is outside of your reach in social media.

Who is advising you to help you get more out of print? With printing, I think an advisor could be very beneficial. Here everything has to go via central purchasing, we have no idea on which basis a purchase is made. I think there’s a definite need for this kind of advice.

At which point do you decide to print a brochure? This is done in our marketing strategy. We increasingly opt for a cross-media approach; we usually use the web, banners, newspapers, magazines and brochures. It depends entirely on what information we want to communicate. Brochures are still very important to us.

The next evolution in print what should it be?

“ Our sales team want a big catalogue with nice paper and a good-looking front page, they want it to look as expensive as the products, because they don’t believe that people are going to the Internet to look at beds.” Nina Stordalen, Marketing Manager, Jensen Møbler

Printing on need, not on demand. That way we get to the stage that everything posted, whether in print, is personalised. When you can do that, you’ll have come a long way.

Do you use Twitter? No. I just don’t have the time.

Communications and Brand Manager, B & B Italia

Lucia Nadal

We sell luxury, and our customers need to feel that luxury in all our communications.

Lucia Nadal is Communications and Brand Manager of B & B Italia, the luxury Italian furniture brand. Through the course of your career what has been the biggest change for you in media? The Internet and mobile communications, no question.

What is the most important media now? For B & B Italia the most important media is print, and that covers both publishers and our own catalogue and brochures. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never used TV or broadcast media. Our brand has become established through lifestyle magazines and word of mouth.

Google and Amazon both achieved global awareness using the Internet. Can other companies follow their model, or are they the exception? They are the exception, but it is also the trend. They are web-based companies and in some ways they belong in that medium. Of course every type of company can use the Internet, but these two companies were a part of what made the Internet relevant to people.

With new technologies like the iPad for reading documents, will digital ever replace print? For us digital media cannot ever fully replace print. We sell luxury, and our customers need to feel that luxury in all our communications. At the moment print is the only medium that can truly, tangibly express the level of luxury and quality of our actual products. It comes though not just in the photography, but in the feel of the paper, the weight of the book. It’s a complete sensory experience. We use digital communications as part of our media mix, but it can’t replace print for our brand.

Can you think of a brand that is excelling particularly at integrating all media channels? For me it’s Mini. Their media mix - from the TV to print and web, and the innovative use of the media all made the core values of the brand very clear and distinctive. They stand out for me.

“ I’d like to be able to make a beautiful, limited edition or unique, personalised book for each B & B Italia customer.” Do you ‘tweet’? No. Personally I’m not interested in publicising my activities every moment of the day. People keep telling me to be on Facebook but I don’t feel the compulsion.

What is the role of social media for brands? People’s conversations that used to be on the phone, around the kitchen table, or in letters, are now online. And much of it is public. Social media has provided a platform to make communications visible, searchable, and international. The challenge for brand owners is to try and use this platform to influence in a positive way how much and how people talk about their brands.

Why are consumer brands quicker to use social media over business-to-business brands? I think business-to-business brands are perhaps hesitant; they have other priorities. The end consumer is always priority number one for consumer brands, and they know their audience is online. For business-to-business communications, other media are more reliable for targeting prospects. They know who their trade customers are. As the trade communities become more specialised business-to-business communication will grow.

Who is giving the advice to your customers on creating better print work? We have an in-house creative studio and we work directly with printers, so we’ll ask their advice. Printers are not proactive towards us. It’s a traditional industry and they wait to be asked. They are focused on production, they do not see themselves as consultants.

What is the next evolution in print that you would like to see? I’d like to be able to make a beautiful, limited edition or unique, personalised book for each B & B Italia customer. Basically a brochure with the quality and luxury of our furniture. Does a luxury brochure need to cost as much as luxury furniture?

Will all media become social media?

The digital revolution could be the biggest thing thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happened to print in the past three hundred years. If print utilises digital techniques and ideas it can only become a more dynamic medium. More targeted. More relevant. More personalised. And more integrated in the marketing mix.

Share your thoughts and hear what others are saying about the role of print at hellopaper.com

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