Advancing its directive to promote printing, The Print Council began a print advertising campaign this summer to give media decision makers, corporate marketers and graphic designers solid reasons to use print.
Through education, awareness, market development and advocacy, The Print Council, Greenwich, CT, serves the industry to develop, maintain and increase the market for printed materials. Launched in 2003, members include Agfa, International Paper, Cenveo, U.S. Postal Service, Heidelberg, IBM, Quad Graphics and Xerox.
The ad shows a woman enjoying coffee and a catalog, and it invites corporate communicators to: “Double your online success. Just add print.” The body copy cites a statistic from the Multichannel Catalog Study, completed by comScore Networks Inc. last year for the USPS: “Online consumers who received a printed catalog from any given retailer were nearly twice as likely to make an online purchase at that retailer's web site.”
The print ad appeared on the back page of an ad agency directory polybagged with the June 20 edition of Brandweek. It is also running in the Aug. 22 edition of Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and PrintMedia. The ad also is aimed at art directors and graphic designers and will appear in Graphic Design USA's August and September issues.
In another ad that may be used, The Print Council tells its target audience to: “Generate an extra $3,300 per person. Just add print.” The ad's text block points to another comScore finding, proclaiming: “The U.S. has the largest direct mail consumer market in the world, amounting to $3,300 per person per year in revenues. Print is the only medium that lets you access it.” The ad's graphics reinforce print's versatility and responsiveness.
Both ads feature the campaign's tag line: “Print: The Multi Medium,” and end with the invitation: “Contact us today to learn more about tapping the persuasive power of print.”
The graphic arts community also will be able to view either ad in its industry trade publications including Printing Impressions, Graphic Arts Monthly, American Printer and PrintMedia. These industry magazines, which are running the ads pro bono, will carry them tagged with an announcement: “This ad is for your customers. See how The Print Council is instructing them about the persuasive power of print. Call Martin Maloney at 203-622-1333 for membership information.”
Maloney, executive director of The Print Council, sees the ad campaign as a way to pinpoint the industry's resources where they will have the most effect.
“Of course, the best way to promote print would be to go after every potential reader with a 'Got Milk?' approach,” he said. “But the cost of such a strategy would be astronomical. By reaching corporate marketers and art directors where they work and live, we're maximizing the impact we will generate.”
The campaign was created and developed by NAK Marketing & Communications, a full-service marketing communications agency for the graphic arts.
“This series goes way beyond image advertising,” NAK president Thaddeus B. Kubis said. “It gives marketers value propositions that involve using print to increase their profits. It's information that will strengthen their promotions, and that in turn will make our medium stronger.”
The council conducted a similar campaign last fall to promote print as an ad and marketing medium and increase its use.
The Print Council and Graphic Arts Monthly magazine also produced “A Voice for Print,” a 16-page insert of educational articles and ads promoting print and print media. The insert, distributed in the magazine's August issue, contains articles by Graphic Arts Monthly editors as well as contributions from The Print Council and individual member companies.
The articles let readers learn the mission of The Print Council as well as its achievements, plans, performance and leadership in the industry. The insert also will be distributed at the council's exhibit booth at Print 05, a commercial printing conference and exhibition in Chicago next month.
Meanwhile, late last month, Maloney announced the six members of the council's executive committee. Roy Grossman, president/CEO of Sandy Alexander Inc., and James P. Dunn, president/CEO of Heidelberg USA, now serve as co-chairmen of the executive committee, a new, expanded leadership structure that reflects the council's increasing industry-wide activities.
They succeed Paul Reilly, founding chairman of The Print Council, who continues to serve on the executive committee. The membership committee will be co-chaired by Yves Rogivue, CEO of MAN Roland, and Ken Garner, president of United Litho, a division of The Sheridan Group. They also serve on the executive committee.
Gina Testa, vice president, customer business development of Xerox Corp., continues to chair the council's marketing committee as well as serving on the executive committee.
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
