Printed media in a digital age

The electric toothbrush should have marked the end of the bog standard toothbrush, with its static bristles and playful colourful tips. Social media should have wiped out the concept of meeting up for coffee and Saturday carnage at the supermarket checkouts should be no more thanks to online shopping and delivery.

But none of the above has happened…why not?

Something the makers of the Back to The Future films acknowledged was the idea that the future doesn’t start from scratch. This concept is clearly evident in the world we live in, and captured perfectly in this photograph of the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, specifically of the modern Selfridges building and St Martins Church.

St Martins & Bullring
Selfridges building and St Martins Church

Every technological development occurs in a world that still retains everything up until that point. Even in the home, who else had a shelf of VHS tapes with labels like “Terminator 2 – KEEP THIS” and “You’ve Been Framed” next to a DVD player? If you were born after 2000, a VHS cassette is like a bulky rectangular DVD that we used in the late 20th Century to watch, record and accidentally delete films from – the protection mechanism being a hole and some sticky tape. You will never experience the rage provoked by having to rewind a cassette you rented from the video shop because the last person to rent it couldn’t be bothered.

Today’s Use of Print Media

Digital screens have reached a point where they’re no longer prohibitively expensive to use in promotions, even for smaller budgets. But the adverts we see around us are still often on a printed media: the sale signs in a shop window, the catalogue you can pick up from a high street retailer that sounds like Bargos, the large billboards on our streets. Could it be that that digital media isn’t cutting the mustard?

We think not. Digital and printed media simply have their own strengths and weaknesses. One has not replaced the other, one has merely given us two options where there previously wasn’t a choice. Much like how the electric toothbrush has to bow to the flexibility and space saving qualities of a normal toothbrush when packing an overnight bag, the digital screen has to admire how a printed sign manages to stay alive without a constant source of electricity. Many, many businesses still leverage the power of print media in the form of brochures, menus, booklets, business cards, and a whole host of other material for branding and promotion, not to mention information dissemination. Companies like Duplo International have a wide range of printing equipment with versatile functionalities to cater to the thriving print media industry, and it’s not going anywhere soon.

Both print and digital media can be engaging and effective, we simply have to weigh up the options available to us for an individual application and choose on merit.

Merging Print and Digital

Print and digital media occupy the same world and for some time there have been efforts to merge the two. This makes sense now that in almost everybody’s pocket sits a smartphone with enough processing power to crack the Enigma code in the time it takes to say the word “kitten meme”. The usage of smartphones in this digital world is no longer a transition but a revolution. If interested, you can head down to blogs written by Cell Phone Deal and similar others to see the impact of smartphones in this 21st century and how they affect digital media.

That said, a great example of how merging print with digital can be used to good effect is how pin badges have evolved over the years. Pin badges were once a festival fashion staple, and still are, but nowadays you can go online and design your own pin badges on sites like Pincious. From these sites, you can ask for anything you want to be printed on your pin badge, from hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, to QR codes that people can scan if they place their phone near to you. Similarly, Max Factor made its products scannable through a smartphone app. By scanning the product the consumer can gain access to related content such as reviews, tutorial videos and a whole host of other information. The idea came from an analysis of market trends which showed that 70% of women research online before purchasing in-store. By providing this information at all touch points, Max Factor was able to empower the consumer to help them make the right choice.

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We mustn’t forget social media as Twitter hashtags have evidently thrown their online shackles off nowadays and we can happily include a hashtag on a printed advert and not have people flag it up as a spelling mistake or typographical error! We’re even seeing political parties using them in the displays behind speakers who will receive media attention. Also, businesses that are based a lot on social media are able to utilize social media management software from websites like https://reputation.com/products/social-suite/, so they can focus on print media at the same time.

Let us know what you think of printed media in a digital age over on our Twitter or LinkedIn.

Microsites – small in name, big in nature

The microsite is a peculiar thing that brings up many talking points amongst us marketers. What is it, exactly? Why do we bother with it? Is it effective? What is the meaning of life?

Ok, so admittedly that last question was a bit off the charts and has nothing to do with what we’re talking about today…but I would still like to know if someone has the definitive answer.

To begin with we should ask: What is a microsite?

To quote Wikipedia, “A microsite is an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite’s main landing page can have its own domain name or subdomain.”

So a microsite is a website (and is subject to your usual web design rules and systems), but a very small website. Unlike your corporate websites which are designed to contain all your messages, products, services, motives and everything else in between, the microsite is purpose made to be small and contain only one message or motive.

To quote one industry professional, “Because it is little, it has to pack a big punch and, because it only has one message to convey, it can focus completely on doing just that. Many brands’ main websites say everything and, therefore, say nothing” Fred Brown, Partner, Last Exit (follow them on Twitter here).

This brings us neatly onto: Why do we bother with it?

You’re probably now thinking: It costs a lot of money; is it worth the investment to promote just one part of your business?

The microsite’s use is to provide a platform for individual products/services/events/whatever it may be to be solely promoted without the interference of your other offerings getting in the way of the message. It cuts out the noise, and gets straight to the point.

The whole idea is you don’t want to waft through hundreds of products that don’t matter to you. You just want to get to the one that does with minimal fuss.

There are a number of notable advantages to the microsite too over your primary website, including:

  • Creative license – don’t hold back, just go off the rails! A good thing about the microsite is it’s meant to get noticed. Put as much creative flair into it as you can.
  • Quick and easy to create – Microsites shouldn’t take a massive amount of time. If you’re slaving away building hundreds of pages then you’re doing something wrong.
  • Cheap – with the emphasis on being small but perfectly formed, they shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg to get the word out there.
Case in point: Red Bull

Red Bull are in my eyes, one of the greatest users of the microsite. With their renowned brand of energy drink, they advocate their message through multiple major self-branded events such as the Red Bull Soap Box Challenge. All Red Bull events are heavily promoted and gain national, if not international, recognition.

How have they done this, you may ask? Well as much as it is down to their promotional efforts and brand reputation, it is also down to their dedicated microsite that works effortlessly behind the scenes. This is where those enthusiasts congregate, talk and build a community. Do these enthusiasts care about what else Red Bull do? Possibly, but more than likely possibly not. What they care about is soap box racing and drinking Red Bull, which is what the microsite fuels them to do.

The best thing about it? 

They share and tell their friends about it, and suddenly you have your very own brand ambassadors.

See how our web projects come together here, from start to finish.

Let us know your thoughts on microsites by tweeting us, getting in touch on Facebook or contacting us directly here.

How to create a great advert – 4 key principles

In today’s world, attention spans are short. So short in fact that we’ve dropped our attention span from 12 minutes to five minutes, according to an article by Neil Vidyarthi on Social Times. And that article was written three years ago, meaning it’s likely your attention span has probably dropped even further since.

Heck, you’ve probably already stopped reading, haven’t you? Haven’t you?! (Please don’t, because there is some interesting stuff coming, promise.)

Obviously, the big culprit is social media and the rapidly evolving technological world that is making us ever more “connected”, or probably a better word is distracted.

So, to stand out from the crowd takes a colossal amount of creativity and marketing, especially when it’s print marketing. Thankfully, creative marketing is in abundance here at Jask and we’ll now discuss four key principles of creating an advert to give it the best chance of standing out and be able to grab attention.

  1. Message

    Whether you’re educating the audience on your products, showcasing a range of services, raising awareness of new products or offering discounts or sales, every advert needs to have a clearly defined message.

    Once you have your message, stick to it. Don’t overload your advert with too many points as that will convolute your message and give the audience too much information to take in.
  2. Focus

    Focus is a crucial element to whether your advert succeeds or fails. Once you have your message, you need to draw attention to your advertisement and make it memorable. Usually this means thought provoking imagery, but you can also use copy to good effect. A great example is Air Asia’s play on words seen here.
  3. Media Placement

    Once you have your advert’s content, it is important to understand that it needs to be placed in the correct media for maximum effect. There is little to no point in advertising business to business products in a shopping centre poster site as that is not where your trade is looking for your services, for example.

    Some advice? If you’re advertising in a publication, always look to place your advertisement on the right hand page as that is where your eyes are naturally drawn to first.

    Some further advice? Use some common sense, unlike those who placed this Turkish Airlines advert.
  4. Call to Action

    Every advert needs a call to action (CTA), a clear instruction that gets people to interact after seeing the advert. Whether it is a ‘click here for further information’, snap this QR code for a discount (love/hate on QR’s – that’s another story), visit this site for tickets etc., every advert needs it so your audience know what the next step is.

    From a graphic design point of view then, your CTA is very important in terms of it’s placement, size, colour, contrast and appearance. It needs to be placed in a logical way that stands out and gets your audience to interact with it.

    Hubspot’s Magdalena Georgieva (@mgieva) has compiled a list of effective CTAs that not only show them in action but also how and why they work. Have a read!

Of course, the rulebook to creating a good advert isn’t limited to what we’ve said here, and in fact is forever evolving with the changing ways we behave and are influenced. We like to think that these are the four cornerstones to a good advert and ones that should be followed to give you the best results.

Looking to design an advert or need more information? Just give us a shout. Or you can reach us through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.