There are hundreds of these attention-grabbers, even thousands – although the potential numbers are difficult to trace back to actual studies, let alone verified consensus. It is essential that brands operate and compete online in this increasingly complex arena where customers are easily distracted, and attention spans have become stretched to wafer thin. Becoming faster, bolder, and more focused is one route to keeping-up. But from a customer perspective, the bombardment can create fatigue and resistance. Here is where longer-form printed materials have a special opportunity to engage.
Like sitting down to listen to an album on vinyl versus catching a single song on a Spotify playlist, printed magazines or newspapers offer a very different level of quality and experience to customers or employees. Print has many similar benefits to the reasoning behind the significant growth of record buying – an appreciation of design and artwork, the opportunity for collectability, the chance for discovery, and the hand-held tangibility that builds a deeper connection between the person and the content. Print is not for every situation, or even every brand, but for those organisations with a discerning or specialised audience that like a little more time, a little more depth, and will welcome some time-out from screens, a well-crafted and intelligently curated piece of print has a lot to add to the marketing mix.
If you have a whole body of content that supports your purpose and would showcase your network of expertise, or a major shift in strategy or team structure that needs to be communicated in full, a special edition printed magazine or newspaper is highly worth considering. Read on for more about our expertise in handling print projects for different situations or get in touch to talk about how adding some print materials to your communications strategy could make a real difference.
Research has shown that reading supports cognitive development through reasoning, comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary extension, and grammatical development. And that’s not just reading in any format. Researchers have found that print reading boosts comprehension skills by six to eight times more than digital reading does. This is because when we read digital documents, it is found to be a ‘shallow read’ compared to how we read printed materials, with scanning being common. This can mean that as a reader we don’t become fully immersed in the narrative, or we don’t fully grasp relationships across the grouping of content. Here is where the physical format of a printed document is inherently helpful in conveying the length of a document, where we are in the content, and why a collection of content belongs together.
In contrast to the benefits of print reading, there are concerns being raised about social media and constant phone connectivity. A study in the US found that social media use may be a risk factor for memory failures in adults of any age. There are also connections with internet use and attention deficit and hyperactivity that contribute towards a problematic relationship with social media. This does not make digital marketing bad, but it does mean that people are questioning the amount of time they spend online and some are actively seeking alternatives. An example of this is a US survey in 2022 that revealed Gen Z and Millennials are using public libraries at higher rates than older generations to escape digital, with one young person explaining: 'I think people my age are craving something more authentic and looking for something that’s real. What’s more real than books and physical material?'.
Addressing audiences with print requires careful thought – high-value print projects are not quick or cheap. It’s no surprise that companies happily embrace the speed and cost effectiveness of online publishing. Organisations can email, post or blog on a regular basis and we help our clients to ensure that brand and content guidelines allow them to do this with maximum impact and consistency. In contrast, not least because the outcome of printing is a physical product, it requires a deeper level of planning.
Some of our magazine clients already have editorial teams that have planned and sourced written content from specialised writers. They also might have existing imagery from in-house photography banks. In these situations we focus on the design layout, boosting that content to engage the reader in the environment in which they might be reading.
But other projects require a full-service approach to content creation. In these situations, our writers, photographers, illustrators and filmmakers step in to capture the people, products and locations and tell a unique story. Here’s where the newspaper format, with iconic broadsheet pages, supports a sense of timeliness that makes them brilliant for headline news and features that get read on a train or passed around an office.
The surprising affordability of newsprint allowed us to support one of our global clients to communicate internal strategic plans in 11 languages across 14 countries, to drive cultural transformation. And we’ve helped businesses that target the luxury market to transform company magazines so they compete in the ‘coffee table’ browsing space, and art organisations to deliver visually stunning materials that extend their collections into the living rooms of visitors.
Whether we develop content from scratch or focus primarily on stand-out layout design, attention to detail in the final production phase is essential for every print project. Alongside our own triple-checking system, we work with client teams to co-ordinate and streamline the sign-off process. We also liaise with printers to ensure that paper stocks, colour matches, and finishing processes have all been covered – which of course includes the environmental credentials of certified recycled papers, waterless printing, and plant-based inks. Modern print-on-demand digital technologies also ensure that while the engagement impact is high, the production footprint stays small, and can also be off-set through our partnership with Ecologi.
So, in a world where digital is still evolving with very exciting abilities to take us to new dimensions, don’t overlook the enduring power of print. When it is done properly for the right audiences in the right situations, it has an ability to reach hearts, minds, and hands, with a level of credibility that the ephemeral nature of digital just can’t match. When you're ready to not just grab people's attention but to hold people's attention, let's talk.
