Archive for July, 2010

How This Fall’s Fashion Season Has Helped Revive the Print Industry

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Whether or not you call yourself a dedicated follower of fashion, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the chic, stylish publication Vogue. The magazine has been a staple in the fashion industry for years, counting among its readers both experts and admirers of the industry.

Typically, the magazine is filled with advertisements, demonstrating the latest styles and designers. Yet over the past few seasons, magazines such as Vogue have seen a significant decline in their advertising space, seriously affecting the revenue numbers for the magazines.

Fortunately, the annual September issue has reversed this decline in ad space, with an additional 100 pages being added for the month (a 23 percent increase from over a year ago). September is a pivotal time for designers and stylists to display next season’s lineup, revealing their brilliant ideas to the world for the first time.

Glamour magazine, another fashion magazine from Condè Nast, has also seen a generous increase in content, putting together their biggest issue in 20 years this September. The magazine has reported that their ad pages are up by 57 percent for the month, including 241 ad pages in the issue this year compared to the 153 pages the previous year.

In the case of Glamour magazine, we’re also seeing the benefits of the connection between digital and print advertisements. Advertisers who bought slots for the magazine’s iPad application were also required to buy advertising space in the print edition, a perfect example of the print and digital medley benefiting publishing companies rather than detracting from their revenue streams.

So what do these statistics prove? The print industry is bouncing back! This week, the Publishers Information Bureau released its 2Q 2010 ad report, confirming that magazine ad revenues and pages have increased for the first time in nine quarters. At the time of the report, ad pages were up by .8 percent, which is actually a significant amount considering the fact that there hasn’t been an increase for two and a half years.

Does the publishing industry have fashion to thank for the uptick in revenue, or are publishers just getting more creative in the ways they can tie in their advertising space? I would surmise that the crossover between digital and print advertising is finally helping to fatten up our print publications, allowing both methods of consumption to thrive.

What are your thoughts on these findings? Do you think magazines such as Glamour and Vogue will continue to see an increase in ad revenue? Or is September just a lucky month?

Best,
Lee Gallagher
Director, Precision Marketing Solutions

Posted in Multichannel, Precision Marketing | 1 Comment »

Catching up with ADFSavings!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

As many of you may know, in addition to the posts found here on InfoPrint Insights, we have been hard at work highlighting timely mail and workflow trends and news at ADFSavings.com. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been making a lot of changes lately, such as Intelligent Mail® and proposed rate hikes. In case you haven’t caught up on what we’ve got going on in that space, here is a quick recap.

USPS Projects Rate Increases – post by Don Dew

Mailing may become a luxury to many, and a costly necessity to some, as the USPS is proposing an increase in rates. I spoke with Chantal Tode of Marketing Powers Activate about why this proposal may actually hurt the USPS. We’ve found that many consumers receive bills via mail but actually pay for those statements online, preventing the process from running full-circle. Even with a business reply envelope, many consumers are set in their ways and won’t change their habits. So why does the Post Office think customers will want to go back to the expense of including reply envelopes in their mailings?

In addition to the conversation held with Chantal, we’ve outlined the strategies to overcome some of the upcoming challenges posed by the USPS, including Intelligent Mail.

Preparing Your Workflow – post by Don Dew

In a contributed post for Marketing Powers Activate, I discussed the price of violating confidentiality via  mail, and the importance of high integrity workflow. High integrity workflow ensures that documents are tracked through the production process, following mail from “host to post.”

Electronic Documents Receive Lukewarm Welcome – post by Don Dew

Do you display your diploma prominently on your office wall? What would you say if, to save a little money and some paper, your university just sent you a PDF? This post looks closely at a poll asking our youngest minds about their willingness to receive such personal documents electronically, and how they view print’s impact on sustainability. Want a chuckle? Follow the links to the poll results, and see what they really said to the pollster!

New Bill Lowers Costs and Increases Green Initiatives – post by Jay Robinson

This post discusses InfoPrint’s new bill design to improve clarity and comprehension of the bills for a utility company. InfoPrint’s integration of this new system allows the company to create highly communicative bills in a high-integrity environment, while reducing postal and customer service costs.

We hope you’ll continue to read our new content on ADFSavings as well as InfoPrint Insights! Let us know what topics you’d like to see us discuss on these blogs.

Best,

Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager

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Who Says Print is Dead? Direct Mail is a Proven Success for Non-Profit Organizations

Friday, July 9th, 2010

In an online world in which we expect to receive content as quickly as possible, it’s refreshing to remember that direct mail remains a successful tool for businesses as well.

A recent study from Target Analytics has found that direct mail has been especially useful for non-profits, bringing in 78 percent of donations for various organizations. More specifically, this equals out to be $8 of every $10 donated.

This marketing tool has often been deemed as a source for junk mail, but statistics prove that many consumers will more likely donate to an organization when they receive the information directly via traditional direct mail. That being said, marketers should also know that they cannot simply send any irrelevant and impersonal communication they wish to their customers. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, precision marketing, driven by data, can help businesses to connect with consumers by providing relevant recommendations to them.

To prove this fact, Target Analytics looked at transactions from 79 different large non-profit organizations, which included 38 million donors and more than 74 million gifts with a combined revenue of over $2 billion. Over a 12 month period, they found that although direct mail is the preferred method, the Internet is quickly growing as the second method of choice. Only 4 percent of revenue for non-profits came from the Internet in 2005, and in 2009 this number increased to 9 percent.

NonProfitExpert.com has also noted that direct mail is the best way to reach donors. With direct mail, complete packages describing the organization and what they do offer a better understanding of new programs and benefits for donors, which may even entice individuals to become volunteers for the non-profit.

And what’s the first thing consumer advocates tell you when responding to a non-profit organization soliciting via telesales? Get it in writing. This study just goes to show that although we do live in a high tech world in which information can be sent with the click of a mouse, sometimes the direct approach is truly the best approach. Print is still a vital communications avenue, and the most trusted.

So what do you think? Will direct mail continue to be a communications avenue for your company?

Keep checking InfoPrint Insights for more on this topic in the coming weeks. We’ve been working with a number of experts in the field who believe, like us, that direct mail is a vital communications vehicle and we’ll be sharing their insight with you as well. Stay tuned!

Don Dew

ADF Solutions Manager

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ExpoPrint Delivers on Its Promise of Success!

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Jam-packed booths, crowded aisles and overzealous printer enthusiasts can only mean one thing – ExpoPrint Latin America has been a great success!

Over the past week, InfoPrint Solutions has received very positive feedback and reactions to the array of solutions and software displayed at the show, from ADF and Precision Marketing to the InfoPrint C900 and InfoPrint 5000. ExpoPrint has proven to be an exciting and fruitful event for us this year, providing us with a venue discuss our solutions and the business capabilities of our products with the Latin American market. 

Overall, it appeared that the show was a success for everyone on the show floor.  Quite impressive!

Were you in Brazil for the show this year?  If so, share your feedback!  We’re eager to see if our outlooks is the same as others. 

Best,

Aline Liu

Worldwide Marketing Program Manager

Posted in ADF, Events, Precision Marketing | No Comments »

What’s new at ADFSavings?

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Don Dew discusses confidentiality breaches and how they can be prevented. Read all about it at ADFSavings.com!

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