Buy 1 book, get 3

Thomas Nelson, a publisher with a 200 year track record and a strong position in Christian media, announced this month that it will publish content that will be available in a physical book, audiobook and e-book. By buying a printed book, consumers will also be able to download the audioversion and the e-version for the same price. Says Joel Miller of Thomas Nelson: " ...By freeing the book we free the reader to get greater use and enjoyment of titles." The concept called NelsonFree got positive press " ...taking advantage of the internet and cheap distribution methods Nelson has dragged the book world into the 21st century."

Present bad news nicely

The New York Times reported a couple of days ago on the dramatic situation of newspapers in the USA. It used a, now often applied, data visualisation technique to show the the changes taking place in circulation of the major titles. AdAge, the advertising industry magazine, mentioned that this technique is becoming the new narrative of the online business. As data is getting more and more complex and difficult to capture in PowerPoint-based charts, and as consumers want to be able to absorb data fast and in an interesting way, data visualisation has plenty of growth potential. Visa applies the technique already in a microsite.

Direct mail in transformation

A recent report from the Winterberry Group analysed the Direct Mail trends in the USA. One of the most important conclusions is that, under influence of the recession, the use of mass mailings is shifting to more targeted direct mail. In 2008 direct mail spending declined 3%, this is the first decline in more than 60 years. Two other noticable developments are: most marketers have found that online direct mail campaigns are complementary to hard-copy direct mail and an increasing powerful array of marketing automation technologies permit marketers to be more targeted in their direct mail programs

Transpromo summit

Transforming transactional documents like bills and statements into promotional items is the growing area of Transpromo. Major digital printing press companies have launched activities. Xerox, Kodak, Agfa and others are sending out their "evangelists" to promote this new channel for client communication. Infotrends will be organising the first European transpromo Summit on October 6-7 in Brussels.

Most beautiful book in the world

The German Award "Schönste Bücher aus aller Welt" will be handed out in Leipzig on March 13. Of 704 books from 36 countries 14 books were awarded. The highest award went to Blexbolex, L'imagerie des gens (Paris) and the Gold medal to Vinex Atlas (Rotterdam). The criteria have to do with text and visual integration, the material choice (ink, paper, cover) and production qualities.

Printed content on a touch screen

Plastic Logic will be introducing a new e-reader, a super thin plastic touch display using polymer-based circuitry (which is a lot cheaper than silicon microchips). The reader has about the size of an A4 and weights as much as a notepad. The company not only introduces this reader, but also groups content partners for its Content Store. The Financial Times, USA Today and Zinio (providing over 1000 digital magazine titles) already signed up.

Magazine subscriptions the new way

Michael from Microsoft suggest a great service from Maghound. Maghound offers online membership which allows you to choose, change and manage magazines for a fixed amount per month. For example for $4,95 a month you can choose 3 magazine titles from the hundreds of titles. Seven magazines will cost $ 9,95 a month. This Time Inc company understand the needs of today's "zapping" behaviour of consumers; adding or changing titles is easy.

Win Heidelberg Scholarship

Heidelberg offers a scholarship for Creative Leadership in Print at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. The key question in the application form is: "What can be done to ensure that the importance of print is not forgotten in the digital age?"

"Magazines, no endangered species"

Advertising Age ran an article from Cathie Black, the President of Hearst Magazines, on the future of magazines. A great read when you want to hear some positive news, like 2008 featured 715 magazine launches, readership of magazines increased since 2000 with 14%, whilst newspapers and TV lost readers and viewers and total magazines circulation in 2008 was flat compared to 2007 at 345 million copies.

Smart posters

A new show on HBO in the USA is supported by 42 posters in Times Square Station in New York. No big deal you would say. However you can listen-in to the Big Love Show by plugging your earphones in the ports on the posters. You can then listen to the secrets of the cast. Like the example I referred to in a post on June 3 2007, integration of electronics and paper can lead to some stunning advertising.

Credit crisis and the graphic industry

Digitalisation of information is affecting the graphic industry for the last couple of years. And the credit crisis is amplifying the effects of consumers turning more often to the Internet than the printed word. As we're now feeling the impact of the credit crisis on our personal life, we're more often asked how this could happen. I came across a beautifully made video that explains the origins of the increasing rate of unemployment, the problems with Fortis, GM, RBS ..., the plunge of the ad spend and the worries of the graphic industry.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Printing a book as fast as preparing an espresso?

Jason Epstein, a book publishing authority and currently with On Demand Books, referred in a recent speech to the Espresso Book Machine (EBM). This high speed duplex printer produces library quality pocket books in seven minutes. The University of Alberta has one installed and prints about 100 books a day, seven days a week at a penny a page for consumables. Epstein sees great potential for the successor of Gutenberg as the cost of the hardware will eventually be comparable to that of an office copier. In his view the EBM can find its place in bookstores and other book selling outlets, as these stores do not carry sufficient stock.



Pretending you're reading a book

Wired's Gadget Lab showed how to pretend you're reading a book and not an e-book. The book remains the standard, also for the digitally savvy.

Which agency integrates print and digital?

Integrated media planning - using print media, TV, radio, direct marketing and online- depends to some extend of the way agencies are organised. I came across an interesting point-of-view from Giles Rhys Jones. He points out that the digital agency should be able to handle all aspects of the communication job: PR, advertising and DM.
Today though, many digital agencies exist next to traditional advertising, public relations and direct marketing agencies offering through-the-line brand activities. The role of print media is obviously better understood by this group of agencies, than by the pure digital agencies.

Traditional media consumption by Internet users

New research from Ketchum and USC Annenberg among Internet users (18+) in the USA shows the mixed media use and the dominant position of TV and local news. The table shows the evolution over the last three years.

The future of...

Not so often has 'The future of...' been the title of presentations. The economic downturn is accelerating the need to know in which direction industries will move. The UK Institute for Practioners in Advertising (IPA) released a report on the future of advertising titled: 'Social Media Futures - The future of advertising and agencies in a networked society. A 10-year perspective'. The focus of the report is on social networking, and the way this is transforming society. When social media could take the lead in future brand communication, and the ad industry does not react appropriately, the market face a growth of only 1,2% per year in 2016. With social media growing in importance, the paid-for advertising will represent a decreasing share of all advertising activities. The report includes advice for agencies about to benefit from this shift of channels.

IPA Social Media Report

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Xerox launches Lab 1:1

Xerox Belgium sent out invitations today to announce the launch of their Lab 1:1 on March 17. Lab 1:1, which already exist in Canada and the USA, assists brand owners in developing innovative and personalised multi-media solutions. With the help of a team of Direct Marketing experts from the Belgian Post results will be analysed.

Selling newspapers the USA-way

Today a new initiative was launched in the USA to support the newspaper industry. The Newspaper Project is to present "insightful articles, commentary and research that provide a more balanced perspective on what newspaper companies can do to survive and thrive in the years ahead".
Their first ad makes that point loud and clear.

From blog to print - The printed blog newspaper

On January 27 the first issue of The Printed Blog appeared in Chicago, using one of the most popular Internet applications to turn into one of the oldest media. The idea is simple, bring local news provided by free reporters (citizen journalism), attract local advertisers (buy an ad for $15-$25), offer it to local readers, for free and PRINT it. Joshua Karp, founder and publisher, hopes eventually to reach, twice a day, a multitude of neighbourhoods in major US cities. In Chicago for example, there could be 50 local editions. The paper printed on a 27 *43 format, presents news that has been chosen by the readers of The Printed Blog site, selected among articles of 300 bloggers.
The business model is based upon advertising revenues; advertisers can reach a well selected audience and are prepared to pay more for a printed advertisement than an online ad.

Green Google?

Sustainability and CO2 emissions are often related to paper but almost never to Internet search. A Harvard graduate student - Wissner-Gross - recently opened the discussion about how green the web is. He claimed that every web search creates between 5-10 grams of CO2 from the power required to keep the servers going. Google reacted immediately by saying that its emissions are only .02 grams. Gartner, industry analysts, calculated that the global IT industry contributes 2 to 3 % of global carbon emissions, which is as much as the world's airlines. Another calculation indicated that maintaining an avatar in Second Life requires as much electricity as used by an average Brazilian! With growing online use and time spend with the computer this figure will further increase.

Warm news

Students from the University of Linz (Austria) have designed the news knitter, clothing that integrates the news of the day. Via news feed and a data visualisation programme news from all over the world is integrated in the knitting of sweaters.

Thumbs up?

Digital natives are changing many habits. One of these habits involves our fingers, the thumb is taking over the role from the index finger as it is used a lot for texting and playing. They are also showing all of us that multi-tasking is perfectly possible given information is presented in bite-size formats and in digital format. The downside of the multi-tasking was shown in a recent study by a British professor. He concluded that multi-taskers who continuously switch between responding emails, phone calls, text messages and chat sessions, have a 10 point lower IQ score (which is the equivalent of missing a night sleep). The compulsion to answer emails immediately was found with 60% of the workers. The stress of multi-tasking is putting a strain on the effectiveness of workers which is why certain companies are installing quiet time, time to think and read offline.

On the future of media

I came across a very interesting list of articles on the Life, Death and Rebirth of Media via Patou Nuytemans. It includes articles from the USA and Europe about the developments in the print media. An excellent read.

How to make the digital native read a newspaper, by Pres. Sarkozy

After three months of intense meetings, interviews and research the French government published the recommendations to support print media in France. In the context of the growing importance of online news and the economic situation of the print media "Etats Genereaux de la Presse Ecrite" was created. This Conference worked on four aspects of the print media business: the journalist function, the industrial process, print media and Internet and print media and society. Earlier this month the group presented its conclusion in the "Livre Vert". On the basis of these recommandations President Sarkozy decided to give all 18 year old French a free newspaper subsription of one year. The French government is also to double its advertising budgets spent in print media to 40%. Other measures have also been announced. Together with the ban on advertising on public broadcast television, the French have put together robust measures to support the print media.

Livre Vert

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Do newspapers offer own view?

Dutch research confirms what many fear: the strong position of news provided by news agencies and PR companies. It was estimated that almost 32% of all Dutch news was not written by the journalists of newspapers. The news articles were provided by the news agencies or PR companies. Cost reductions and the time pressure in the print room force journalists to look for easier solutions to produce copy. The research was inspired by a UK study, which was the basis for the book by Nick Davies called Flat Earth News.
In a media landscape with increased interest in news from online consumers, and a reduced interest in printed news, one might question whether this is the right strategy for the printed newspapers. Doesn't this strategy slowly kill the independence of the newspapers, reduce the quality of the news, lessen the interest of readers and minimise the attractiveness of the newspaper for the advertiser? Sounds almost like a self-fulfilling prophesy from Andrew Keen.

Recession increases wear-out of TV commercials

The current economic situation will move advertisers to run more often the same commercial or ad. This despite the increased wear-out of TV commercials. Wear-out refers to a situation that an ad or TV commercial gets unnoticed - because of lack of interest- or even creates irritation because of the high showing frequency. For print advertisements this point is reached after three ads, which proves the effectiveness of print advertising. This figure has been stable over the last 10-15 years. For TV advertising the wear-out figure has plummeted from 15-20 exposures during that same period to only 8 now. Advertising Age has some interesting views on this subject in a recent article.

Writing a book like Tom Kelley

I recently met Tom Kelley, the General Manager of the design company IDEO, and he mentioned how he wrote his most recent book 'The ten faces of innovation'. He refers to Tom Peters as his mentor for writing books. He taught him to use blank cards to jot down ideas. Kelley used a notebook system from Levenger (comparable to the Belgian Atoma notebooks). Levenger brings the story about how Kelley creates his book on their website. An interesting read for those who use longhand to write books.

Magazine ad shows invisible 3D Mini

I saw this great example of integration of online and offline media in the German press recently. It uses a print ad, 3D software, a webcam and the internet to show a Mini Cabrio on the ad. It looks like the work of David Copperfield! You can be your own illusionist by downloading this pdf and by following the German instructions on this website. By the way this new technology also come with a new name: Augmented Reality.