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Print Buyers Conference Showcased Many Solutions for Marketers—Be They Print or Not
September 15, 2008

Just as I said I would, I went to Boston last week for the Third Annual Print Buyer’s Conference, to see the latest in what printers are offering their clients, and, perhaps more importantly, what print buyers are asking of their printers...and others.

This week, I will be focusing on some of the sessions I attended, starting tomorrow with the dynamic Peter Muir’s session on marketing initiatives (a heavy emphasis on cross media which went over much better than I would have expected with such a print-centric crowd). There was also another session Friday afternoon on cross-media projects presented by the only company that was specifically billing itself as a “cross-media services provider”: Reynolds DeWalt (www.reynoldsdewalt.com), which I will talk about on Wednesday. And on Thursday, I will discuss a session presented by Dr. Joe Webb called “2018: Did Print Survive.” (And if that doesn’t get you humming “In the Year 2525” nothing will.)

Friday I will check my e-mail and share with you some of the things that came in while I was away.

There were about 50 or so exhibitors at the Print Buyers Conference. I helped conference organizer Margie Dana conduct “mini-tours” of the show floor, which was an interesting way of doing something I have never done at a trade show or conference: visit each and every booth and listen to a 45-or-so-second “what I do” spiel.

The one thing you learn if you have never spent time with printers is that it is still very much a craft business. Printers, generally, tend to be proud of the things they produce, and rightfully so. On the other side of the equation, print buyers are very proud of things they do and what their printers help them accomplish. Some of the things they were doing—with either offset or digital equipment—was very cool. Here is a random round up of some things that caught my eye.

Finlay (www.finlay.com) attracted a great deal of attention with its foil stamping processes; and they had a swatch card of sample colored foils that, if you were trapped in the Bastille, could be used to signal for help.

Johns Byrne (www.johnsbyrne.com) specializes in unique packaging, POP/POS materials, cards, printing on plastic, and other applications that combine printing with “structural engineering.”

American Printing (www.amprintri.com/) showcased their ability to print on just about any object or surface, such as tiles.

Large-format applications were well-represented in all their myriad forms. While inkjet printing is the dominant technology used, some companies have carved out a niche using other technologies, such as photoprinting. The folks from Indianapolis’ Firehouse (www.fire-house.net) showcased not only their flame-emblazoned shirts, but also their Durst Lambda-based large-format photoprinting. And let’s not forget the original large-format printing technology: our old friend offset lithography. Lawrence, MA’s Graphic Litho (www.graphiclitho.com) specializes in large offset applications up to 54 x 77 inches.

“Greenness” was a big issue among both exhibitors and attendees. In fact, during our mini-tour, on occasion when an exhibitor announced that s/he was “green-certified,” an audible cheer went up among our little tour group. Many exhibitors had a number of white papers (or perhaps “green papers”) on their own sustainable printing initiatives. One thing about printing conferences; there is no shortage of printed promotional materials! A flyer at the Flagship booth (www.flagshippress.com) said “Ask us about our Green Initiatives,” one of which, the company says, involved their purchasing enough renewable energy credits to offset 100% of their facility’s 2008 energy usage. The FSC certification logo was visible among a large percentage of the booths; there were even sessions and “learning labs” on green issues and sustainable printing. Sappi Fine Paper (www.sappi.com) also showcased its line of recycled and environment friendly papers.

It’s funny; as I have said in this space before, printing gets a bad rap on the environmental front for “killing trees,” but I would argue that in many ways print media is more environmentally friendly than electronic media. After all, trees can grow back; all the coal, oil, and natural gas burned to make all the electricity to power the hundreds of thousands of servers and clients that comprise the Internet are not renewable. Paper, as long as it has not been coated or laminated, will decompose and will not leach harmful chemicals into the ground. Not so for all the batteries, old computers, discarded devices, and other e-waste we produce.

But I digress.

Heidi would have mixed feelings: variable-data printing was represented at the show, but not as visibly as one would have hoped. And if you were pre-registered, you received all sorts of personalized mailings before the show, but honestly? I thought these promotions lacked imagination. Come on, guys: seeing my name incorporated into a paragraph of text stopped being impressive—or even eye-catching—about 20 years ago. I have always said that to keep being truly effective, variable-data printing applications will need to keep pushing the envelope—so to speak—and evolving new eye-catching ways of using variable data. While this is going on elsewhere in the industry, it was not well-represented at the Print Buyers Conference. The exception, however, was the Reynolds DeWalt cross-media conference session, about which more on Wednesday. On the other hand, Web-to-print is firmly rntrenched in the industry, but is scarcely even thought of as anything special anymore; it is rapidly becming simply the way printing companies do business.

There were also a few “marketing services providers” at the conference, those companies that have taken the bull by the horns and have sought to get as far forward in the process as possible and be the ones responsible for developing marketing “solutions,” part of a transition we have been seeing as print moves from a manufacturing industry to a service industry.

At any rate, over the course of this week, I will be focusing on some of the individual conference sessions as they applied to marketing and marketers.

Posted by Richard Romano on September 15, 2008 | Comments (0)