Good Old Print Remains Effective in Creating Successful Cross-Media Campaigns

According to an article by PrintWeek, despite the interactive and personalized touch that online and mobile marketing provide, entrepreneurs still find print marketing as the most reliable way of getting in touch with prospects. Though the Internet is the name of the marketing game nowadays, print remains the best way to break the ice; it’s still the cleverest approach to engage customers and generate sales, especially in cross-media campaigns.

However, creating the right marketing mix is a bit difficult to achieve. Companies have to find the best medium that will engage their prospects and encourage them to act at once. PrintWeek spoke to three business giants—BP, Lakeland, and Rank Group—about their experiences in cross-media and print marketing.

BP is a British oil and gas company that is the official partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and London’s 2012 Sustainability Partner and Official Carbon Offset Partner. Its Target Neutral scheme helped “ticked spectators offset their carbon footprint as they travel to the Games.”

For the London 2012 campaign, BP worked with Ogilvy for their ‘Here’s to the home team’ ads, both in print and on TV. Sheila Richardson, spokeswoman of BP said that the company is not trying to sell anything on their campaign, but rather trying to “raise awareness of the Games and to celebrate the athletes and those who support them and others.”

Lakeland is a creative kitchenware store which started from selling plastic bags to home freezing to more than 4,000 kitchen and home solutions today. According to Tony Preedy, marketing director of Lakeland, they use a variety of marketing techniques. They experiment with different printed publications; they have their own catalogue, website, and email marketing programs; and they recently created their own digital magazine for tablets.

Rank Group is a European gaming and betting company whose established brands include Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo. David Bealing, Head of customer communications, said that "Across both Mecca and Grosvenor Casinos brands we have created customized, trigger-based CRM campaigns, utilizing all forms of cross-media through our best-in-class Web2Media platform." He added that direct mail continues to be effective for their marketing campaign, and so are email and SMS for some customer segments.   

It’s clear that good old-fashioned print marketing remains effective amid the blizzard of modern techniques these days. It will strongly hold its place as an effective driver of customers.