Power Of Print 2023: Morning Overview

For many people in the print, paper and paper packaging industries, if it’s November, it must be time for the Two Sides Power of Print Seminar.

A regular fixture in the UK and European paper sector calendar, the annual event is now in its 13^th year, drawing senior industry figures from the UK, Europe and around the world to the historic Stationers’ Hall in London for a day of insight and opinion on the present and future prospects for print and paper.

Charles Jarrold, BPIF

Starting with the current state of the print industry, Charles Jarrold, the Chief Executive of the British Print Industry Federation (BPIF), delivered a detailed overview of the UK printing industry using the organisation’s recently published Q4 2023 Printing Outlook.

With a turnover of £13.7bn at the start of 2023, up 8% from £11.7bn at the same time in 2021, the industry is well on its way to recovery following the pandemic. “With around 98,000 people employed in over 7,200 companies,” said Charles, “the UK printing industry remains an important economic contributor and employer in all UK regions.”

However, according the BPIF, confidence remains fragile moving into Q3, with a shortage of employees now the main constraint on businesses. Despite that, said Charles, print remains a highly resilient industry, especially in the areas of packaging and books, with data and targeting key focus areas for the future.

To download and listen to Charles’s presentation, click here!

Mark Davies, Whistl

Mark Davies, Managing Director (Doordrop) of Whistl, then stepped up to take a deep dive into digital marketing and how print can solve many of its current challenges. With third-party cookie deprecation, brand safety and ad fraud all weighing heavily on the average marketer’s mind, the high trust value people place in print is a strong reason for brands to use more mail in their campaigns.

And many do, driven by findings by organisations such as JICMAIL, who revealed that direct mail drives online activity across all age groups – particularly the young. It’s a channel favoured by companies such as Oddbox and Boden, a company that recently reinstated its print catalogue, with founder Johnnie Boden stating “I’ve been a complete nitwit.”

To download and listen to Mark’s presentation, click here. 

Mathew Faulkner, Canon Europe

While Charles and Mark concentrated on the facts and figures, Mathew Faulkner, EMEA Marketing & Innovation Director, Wide Format Printing Group, at CANON Europe, investigated the emotional side of print. “I want to investigate why print has impact,” he said. “How does it make the emotional connection with people?”

He achieved this with help from Plutchik’s classic Wheel of Emotions, which breaks down the four core emotions – happiness, sadness, fear/disgust, anger/surprise – into their constituent parts. What Mathew found was that print taps into positive emotions such as anticipation, surprise, joy and trust, and offers a customer experience that’s comfortable, frictionless, inviting and personal.

Using a series of case studies that reveal how digital print can target the “evolutionary hardwiring” of humans to make them more comfortable, such as forest views in city centre hospitals, Mathew finished by urging the room to “put emotional connectivity at the centre of your thinking.”

To download and listen to Mathew’s presentation, click here.

Ian Gibbs, JICMAIL

Next up was Ian Gibbs, Data Director of JICMAIL, who revealed the trends that currently driving the marketing sector. Among those trends are an increase in short-termism thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, consumers becoming more price-sensitive, and a decrease in customer loyalty. All that results in a desire for brands to gain more attention from consumers – something print mail has the power to do.

Citing JICMAIL’s recent Attention study, Ian went on to provide plenty of evidence for mail’s ability to attract and retain attention, with facts such as the average person spends 108 seconds a month with a piece of mail, while a door drop can increase the effectiveness of a campaign by between three and five times. He then described the JICMAIL Attention Manifesto, which outlines five considerations for attention-based planning. For more information on the Manifesto, go to jicmail.org.uk/data/attention-the-time-we-spend-with-mail

To download and listen to Ian’s presentation, click here. 

Maja Kjellberg, IKEA

A treat for packaging fans next as Maja Kjellberg, Packaging Development Leader at IKEA, stepped up to the podium for an insight into how the furniture giant uses print and card to boost the value and sustainability of its packaging.

Using over a million tons of packaging a year across four billion packages and eight billion labels, IKEA primarily uses paper-based materials (91%) over plastic (9%) – a gap that’s going to increase as it phases out even more plastic as it aims to be plastic-free by 2028. Demonstrating their commitment to paper-based packaging, even IKEA’s pallets are made of paper, saving the company around €50m every year.

To download and listen to Maja’s presentation, click here.