Printers do like a good show. Just don’t invite them backstage without a chaperone. They’re not groupies, they’re your long term audience members. Treat them with respect and they’ll remember you and come back for more.
There is nothing like a standing ovation. It’s why publicity shy actors turn up at their premieres. (And why actors do the occasional play.) To soak up all those people volubly showing their appreciation at what they’ve just seen. Then there’s the reviews, when critics are effusive in their praise for the writing, the concept and most of all the execution.
A step down from blockbuster movie premieres for audience feedback are the Super Bowl ads. This year, while Eugene Levy was transformed into an action hero after he was given the keys to a Nissan, the car only became the hero at the end of the Robodog ad for the electric Kia when driver Sam Page shocked the parkour-ed out pooch back to life with the car charger. Larry David revealed the product was a cryptocurrency app right at the end of his trip through being wrong about new inventions, such as the wheel and toilet, for all of history.
Even in the print industry a sprinkling of theatrics and slick showmanship goes a long way. Landa’s only-ticket-in-town theatrics at Drupa 2016 featured drummers, acrobats, dancers, crashing music and booming narration – without a nanographic printing press in sight. When Benny himself appeared, the audience went wild.
Would The Greatest Print Show on Earth™ have had a bit of Wild West tumbleweed blowing around the Messe without the remnants of stripper glitter around Hall 9? Maybe, maybe not.
But it does go to show that when it comes to marketing in any shape and sector, the audience is everything. Without an audience, we are all of us – actors, writers, directors, advertisers, marketers – just shouting in the dark.
There may be people out there. But when we take a curtain call, who do we see? A full house of paying customers that rises as one, applauding furiously, demanding more? Or a handful of furtive concessions and people who came to shelter from the rain after the lights went down and are sneaking out before anyone asks any awkward questions like ‘can I see your ticket?’
When it comes to supplying the print industry, we all want to see rows of rapt customers, all primed, willing to be there and waiting to hear what is going to be said. Printers have problems aplenty. If they know that there’s somewhere they can go and find answers to those pains in their arses, ideas that capture their imaginations, products that are new to them that fit their bills and budgets, then they’ll be there with knobs on. They are all looking for their beacon, that one thing that speaks to them above all the chatter and nonsense.
But the thing about printers is they’re happy to be at the back of the stalls in a dark theatre, watching the show. But they’re the ones that will dive out at soon as the credits roll. They’re not ones for the limelight. For them it’s like the star going out the stage door and having the 21st century equivalent of a host of autograph books thrust at them for their signature, or for this article’s purpose, bookings for demos or site visits or enticements to visit websites. But they don’t give away their privacy lightly. They will do just enough to be polite and disappear into the night.
Printers are our audience. They are the centre of our universe. Without them, what we make (this magazine, that website, all those litho and digital presses, the finishing equipment, the paper, the multitude of products that elevate ideas into things that are printed) would not be there. We would all have to go off and find something else to do. So why do we so often lose sight of what the printer wants?
We get lost in our own little worlds. We’re glued to our phones. We’re addicted to Amazon. We sit in front of the telly and scroll through the programme listings. We shout at a speaker to play music instead of reading CD spines. There is something at the back of our minds that tells us that we don’t use print. Everything is digital. Right down to the email demanding 20% be cut from the marketing budget next year.
Faced with cutting a budget that was modest in the first place is depressing. But at least the first place to start is obvious. Print ads. They’re ridiculously expensive, they can’t be counted, no one knows if they’ve been read and they never generate any leads.
And there it is. In one fell swoop the customer – the printer, the person whose life revolves around putting ink on paper for people who value those bits of paper – has their whole reason for being reduced to an indulgent expense that can’t be justified in a management meeting.
Persuading them to come to an event is a monumental task. There are not many advantages to a global pandemic, but whetting the appetite to go out and talk to like minded people is one of them. The Print Show is not far off and our friends at Link Exhibitions will be love-bombing potential visitors with all types of communication, not least print. Many will be planning to go. But they will wait for the last minute to register. They know they’re in demand and don’t want to be bombarded with emails.
And when they do come out, they spend their time wisely and furtively. They’ll listen in to a nearby sales pitch. They’ll stand in the aisle rather than risk another video demo. But hand them a brochure and they will take it. They might even allow a little conversation. Though that often depends on two things. The second is if it is immediately apparent that your product could solve any of their pains in the arse.
The first is if they know who you are.
There’s no business without show business
Printers do like a good show. Just don’t invite them backstage without a chaperone. They’re not groupies, they’re your long term audience members. Treat them with respect and they’ll remember you and come back for more.
There is nothing like a standing ovation. It’s why publicity shy actors turn up at their premieres. (And why actors do the occasional play.) To soak up all those people volubly showing their appreciation at what they’ve just seen. Then there’s the reviews, when critics are effusive in their praise for the writing, the concept and most of all the execution.
A step down from blockbuster movie premieres for audience feedback are the Super Bowl ads. This year, while Eugene Levy was transformed into an action hero after he was given the keys to a Nissan, the car only became the hero at the end of the Robodog ad for the electric Kia when driver Sam Page shocked the parkour-ed out pooch back to life with the car charger. Larry David revealed the product was a cryptocurrency app right at the end of his trip through being wrong about new inventions, such as the wheel and toilet, for all of history.
Even in the print industry a sprinkling of theatrics and slick showmanship goes a long way. Landa’s only-ticket-in-town theatrics at Drupa 2016 featured drummers, acrobats, dancers, crashing music and booming narration – without a nanographic printing press in sight. When Benny himself appeared, the audience went wild.
Would The Greatest Print Show on Earth™ have had a bit of Wild West tumbleweed blowing around the Messe without the remnants of stripper glitter around Hall 9? Maybe, maybe not.
But it does go to show that when it comes to marketing in any shape and sector, the audience is everything. Without an audience, we are all of us – actors, writers, directors, advertisers, marketers – just shouting in the dark.
There may be people out there. But when we take a curtain call, who do we see? A full house of paying customers that rises as one, applauding furiously, demanding more? Or a handful of furtive concessions and people who came to shelter from the rain after the lights went down and are sneaking out before anyone asks any awkward questions like ‘can I see your ticket?’
When it comes to supplying the print industry, we all want to see rows of rapt customers, all primed, willing to be there and waiting to hear what is going to be said. Printers have problems aplenty. If they know that there’s somewhere they can go and find answers to those pains in their arses, ideas that capture their imaginations, products that are new to them that fit their bills and budgets, then they’ll be there with knobs on. They are all looking for their beacon, that one thing that speaks to them above all the chatter and nonsense.
But the thing about printers is they’re happy to be at the back of the stalls in a dark theatre, watching the show. But they’re the ones that will dive out at soon as the credits roll. They’re not ones for the limelight. For them it’s like the star going out the stage door and having the 21st century equivalent of a host of autograph books thrust at them for their signature, or for this article’s purpose, bookings for demos or site visits or enticements to visit websites. But they don’t give away their privacy lightly. They will do just enough to be polite and disappear into the night.
Printers are our audience. They are the centre of our universe. Without them, what we make (this magazine, that website, all those litho and digital presses, the finishing equipment, the paper, the multitude of products that elevate ideas into things that are printed) would not be there. We would all have to go off and find something else to do. So why do we so often lose sight of what the printer wants?
We get lost in our own little worlds. We’re glued to our phones. We’re addicted to Amazon. We sit in front of the telly and scroll through the programme listings. We shout at a speaker to play music instead of reading CD spines. There is something at the back of our minds that tells us that we don’t use print. Everything is digital. Right down to the email demanding 20% be cut from the marketing budget next year.
Faced with cutting a budget that was modest in the first place is depressing. But at least the first place to start is obvious. Print ads. They’re ridiculously expensive, they can’t be counted, no one knows if they’ve been read and they never generate any leads.
And there it is. In one fell swoop the customer – the printer, the person whose life revolves around putting ink on paper for people who value those bits of paper – has their whole reason for being reduced to an indulgent expense that can’t be justified in a management meeting.
Persuading them to come to an event is a monumental task. There are not many advantages to a global pandemic, but whetting the appetite to go out and talk to like minded people is one of them. The Print Show is not far off and our friends at Link Exhibitions will be love-bombing potential visitors with all types of communication, not least print. Many will be planning to go. But they will wait for the last minute to register. They know they’re in demand and don’t want to be bombarded with emails.
And when they do come out, they spend their time wisely and furtively. They’ll listen in to a nearby sales pitch. They’ll stand in the aisle rather than risk another video demo. But hand them a brochure and they will take it. They might even allow a little conversation. Though that often depends on two things. The second is if it is immediately apparent that your product could solve any of their pains in the arse.
The first is if they know who you are.
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