Quick Printing

DEC 2013

Quick Printing is the only business resource serving the quick and small commercial printing niche in North America. Quick Printing is the authoritative source for business information, emerging technologies, shop profiles and management insight.

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OVER THE CROSS-MEDIA BRIDGE Cross-media campaigns are complex and the learning curve is steep. Is the return worth the investment? By Bob Hall ross-media marketing. Multi-channel marketing. Cross-channel marketing. Multi-media marketing. These terms get tossed around almost interchangeably, but the general idea is that marketing service providers are using more than one type of media in their marketing campaigns. C For the sake of simplicity let's stick with the nomenclature used by InfoTrends, which defines cross-media marketing as: "the use of two or more media types (print, email, Web, mobile, and/or social) in an orchestrated campaign targeting a specific demographic and/or psychographic segment. These campaigns can be retention programs targeted at existing customers or acquisition programs targeted at prospective customers. A cross-media campaign delivers relevant content and a call to action through multiple media simultaneously as an integrated campaign." It's pretty straightforward, but are printers really doing it or is this just another hot topic that is more terminology than action? The answer is that some are indeed doing it and some are doing it well. Some have tried it and quit. Others are not sure what to do. Just as it takes more than addressing mail pieces to become a true marketing service provider, creating an effective cross-media marketing campaign takes skill sets that many, if not most, commercial printers don't possess in house. Scott Cappel, owner of Sorrento Mesa Printing in San Diego, CA, may sum up the dilemma best. "We have actually moved away from this area and are refocused on more of the traditional fundamentals of the smaller printer portfolio of offerings," he w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m says. "It may be hot, but it's damn hard to do." "I think it is being practiced, but not in the way that it should be to maximize responses," says John Foley, president of marketing software provider interlinkONE. "The print world still thinks print. Okay, so I am generalizing here, but my ongoing experience has shown me that printers are still not moving rapidly enough to offer value added solutions versus strictly marketing services like cross-media without a solution behind it." Slow to Adopt The concept of cross-media is nothing new. XMPie was founded in 2000 and the XM supposedly stood for cross-media. However, even if the term is now fairly well understood in the printing industry, that is not necessarily the case among print buyers. "Despite 10 years of promotion by the graphics industry, it still means nothing to the average marketing professional," according to a PODi Insights blog. "Cross-media is another term that is known well by the print Cross-media campaigns strive to reach the target audience via a combination of communication channels. December 2013 / QUICK PRINTING 13

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