The death of print has been forecast for such a long time that writing about it seems almost cliché – and yet, print continues to roar on. Apparently, new technologies were supposed to make print and print management redundant years ago, with the rise of online content and ebooks expected to put paid to newspapers and novels respectively. Our continued existence suggests that some predictions along the way may have been a little incorrect…
Ironically, it looks as though an emerging digital technology could help to swing the pendulum back in favour of the print marketing industry even further. Cheap digital marketing techniques, including social media marketing and viral advertising, have diminished the market share of print marketing in recent years. However, augmented reality promises to revitalise the print marketing industry in the near future.
New data from Juniper Research expects users of augmented reality to reach 200 million by 2018, up from just 60 million today, and print media is likely to be a direct beneficiary of the impending user upswing.
Augmented reality allows companies to embed additional information, images and interactive features into all kinds of print media, from flyers to billboards, posters to leaflets. This development will bring new meaning to the phrase ‘clever print management,’ and you can bet we’ll be heralding the way for our clients.
Will your company look to get in on the ground floor and catch the wave of augmented reality just as it breaks? Give us a call if you’d like to discuss how we could help.