WHAT IS INTERACTIVE PRINT?
Interactive Print (AR) brings together the power of print and the versatility of digital, giving marketers one of the most effective integrated marketing tools available today.
As the name suggests, Interactive Print could be a simple QR code solution that links to a predetermined web URL. In this article, though, we mean something more innovative like Augmented Reality, which gives consumers a higher level of engagement and gives marketers more control over the campaign journey and better insight into what people do. Unlike “old school” QR codes, Interactive Print (AR) layers digital content over printed material to bring the print to life, and consumers get a far better experience delivered smoothly on their mobile device. Interactive Print (AR) also lets marketers measure many metrics on consumer engagement and on the performance of print-to-digital campaigns, and add tracking codes for use across other channels. Print has evolved!
Print that can be brought to life as Interactive Print includes direct mail, magazines, publications, calendars, posters, signage, banners and even packaging & labels. If it can be printed and scanned with a mobile device, it can most likely be augmented to become Interactive Print.
WHY IS INTERACTIVE PRINT CONSIDERED THE FUTURE OF PRINT?
Strictly speaking, Interactive Print isn’t the future of print, because it’s available here and now, and it’s growing in popularity very quickly. Here’s why.
The market is getting noisier, and print is re-emerging as a powerful way to cut through digital fatigue while building trust and brand awareness with consumers. A CPC (Canadian Post Corporation) study showed that consumers were 70% more likely to remember a brand if they saw it in print than online, and Business 2 Community reports that 56% of customers consider print marketing the most trustworthy marketing medium. Print is also essential to effective local area marketing, lasts longer than some digital formats and delivers an immersive tactile experience.
Digital, on the other hand, is great at delivering smooth customer journeys with real potential for reach and virality. It’s also well known for powerful low-cost campaigns that generate strong performance metrics and are easy to integrate across multiple channels. Digital can also, more often than not, be modified and improved mid-campaign or “on the fly”.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why some businesses question where to invest their marketing budget and attention. Is it print, for the cut-through and the trust and brand building, or digital, for the lower cost, reach and versatility?
Interactive Print solves the dilemma by letting marketers get the most from both worlds. Print and digital work together, in unison, toward the same marketing goal.
The saying “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts” has never been truer than for Interactive Print (Print & Digital). A 2016 review by USPS of the effect AR had on direct mail showed that interactive direct mail campaigns enhanced by AR lifted response rates from 2-3% to a massive 35% (Printing Impressions).
The average consumer uses up to six touchpoints on the way to buying a product, and up to 50% of them use more than four (Marketing Week). That makes omnichannel marketing, which helps consumers move smoothly across those touchpoints, essential for engaging the market successfully.
Omnichannel marketing used to be built mostly around integrated digital content. Interactive Print changes that – omnichannel marketing can now be driven from Print and Direct Mail.
Interactive Print should be treated as a key part of any omnichannel marketing campaign, and of everyday marketing strategy too.
HOW ARE BUSINESSES USING INTERACTIVE PRINT?
PRINT & DIRECT MAIL
Interactive Print takes branding materials such as direct mail, brochures, press adverts, booklets and signage a step further by adding immersive, interactive content.
Consumers can scan printed material with their mobile devices to get more information about products or services and ways to connect with the brand. The interaction can even take them through to a purchase, or to social media channels where they can share the experience. The digital side of Interactive Print can also carry tracking tags, which makes it easy to follow the consumer’s journey across all channels and automatically retarget them with relevant content on other digital platforms, or with targeted print where needed.
Interactive Print can also reduce some marketing costs. Marketers can deliver more content from a smaller print piece, and on longer-running campaigns they can swap or change the interactive content without reprinting anything.
Almost any industry can benefit, but Interactive Print stands out in education. It helps with marketing and communications, and it also delivers educational content from printed resources and guides. It positions the educator as an innovative leader in the field too, which is a position most educators want.
High schools and colleges such as Sheldon College and John Paul College have put Interactive Print into their marketing and communications. Potential students can watch informative, interactive video about the school and campus straight from the prospectus. They could even register for an open day through a webform opened by an automated call to action.
John Paul College has also put AR-enabled posters of notable alumni around its campus. When students or visitors scan one, they get a personal video from the alumnus about their time at the school and how it shaped the person they became.
Interactive Print has also become a strong marketing solution in property. Marketers can immerse customers in the buying experience with highly engaging, interactive property content delivered from brochures, magazines, street signs or magazine adverts. It’s especially valuable for properties that haven’t been built yet, where realtors need a way to show the property and help buyers picture it as their dream home.
As with other forms of Interactive Print, the big benefit for the consumer is being able to reach engaging, informative content when and where it suits them. They might pick up extra property information from street signage while walking the dog, or look at 3D floor plans, models and interactive virtual tours at home in comfort and safety.
Harcourts Stafford and McGrath Estate Agents Mooloolaba were early adopters of Interactive Print in property. They created AR-enabled property advertisements in local publications and property magazines. Each one played a video of a property, and when the video ended the consumer was prompted to visit the website for more information or sent to a virtual tour, all through a strong call-to-action straight from print.
Consumers could also contact the agent directly from the property video or tour. It’s engaging, smooth and convenient.
PRODUCT & PACKAGING
Like print collateral, product packaging, labels and product brochures can go further with Interactive Print. Consumers can get more information about a product there and then, again often at home in comfort and safety on their mobile device.
Big brands like Jack Daniels and Bombay Sapphire have delivered interactive experiences directly from their packaging, labels and brochures, and plenty of smaller brands are now interested in using the video footage they already have to share their story and brand messaging from product packaging and labels.
A bag of coffee beans that tells the story of the roasting process. A wine label that talks about the land where the grapes grew and how the wine was made. A food ingredient packet or product card that offers inspiration through recipe videos.
In a competitive market, using the assets you already have to create an immersive experience can set a brand apart from its competitors and keep it recognized.
OUTDOOR
If a mobile device can see and identify it, it can be made interactive. That includes signage and banners, and a number of marketers are now adding interactive content to traditional outdoor advertising.
Tourism and Events Queensland, for example, launched the first Curiocity Brisbane event, an immersive, interactive series of science, art and technology experiences along the Brisbane River, with a series of AR-enabled event wayfinders. Scanning a wayfinder delivered either an interactive video or a 3D experience celebrating the work of a local artist.
Harcourts Stafford created AR-enabled street signage to stand out from the crowd, so passers-by could watch an interactive video overview of the property. Interested people could contact the managing agent for more information or book a private viewing straight from the property’s street sign.
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CLOSING
Interactive Print isn’t a fad … it’s here to stay, and it adds real value to omnichannel marketing campaigns. In years to come Interactive Print will be as common as email marketing and SEO, so now is the time to adopt it if you want to stand out from the crowd.
Your customers deserve the best experience possible. Contact us now to find out how we can help you make Interactive Print part of your everyday performance marketing.
