Digital transformation has taken hold of all sectors of activity, and marketing is no exception. While it is true that communication campaigns are increasingly being conducted via the web, print can nonetheless boast a wealth of innovations. It’s a medium that offers limitless scope for creativity.
Here are a few print trends that will give your marketing campaigns a boost.

Olfactory print

Olfactory marketing involves incorporating a scent into a product or medium for commercial purposes. The aim here is to offer an enriched user experience, and to arouse the customer’s senses. Advertising is often limited to the senses of sight and hearing.

To stand out from the crowd, the Harry’s brand, famous for its sandwiches, launched an olfactory campaign in Paris stations. As well as the poster showing a little girl asleep on her slice of toast, the smell of warm bread was diffused around the stations. This aroused the appetite of those who inhaled it. The idea of this campaign was to use the smell to play on emotions.

Saatchi & Saatchi in Los Angeles and Structural Graphics also used smell to create a billboard advertisement. The print invited people to smell the leather dashboard of the new Toyota Camry, to mark its launch.

Interactive print

What is interactive print? Interactive print is simply a classic poster with a little something extra to interact with the user. For example, it’s a poster with an integrated tactile surface that lets you play notes.

This is the case with the Drum Poster, which lets you play the drums by touching the paper surface. To operate, tactile sensors are printed on the back of the paper, using an electrically conductive ink. On the front, the instrument graphics are printed. What’s more, there’s hardly any need to connect the Drum Poster to an audio system… the paper itself acts as the loudspeaker.

In the same vein, Ikea recently launched a print campaign based on an interactive advertising poster. As the poster’s slogan puts it, “Pee on this ad may change your life”… as you’ll have gathered, this print is also a pregnancy test. It’s a playful way of offering a product to its key segment, in this case, women. The advertising poster depicts a cot. The billboard advertising sector certainly hasn’t said its last word.

Connected paper

Connected paper is all about interaction between the company or brand and the consumer. This technology has many advantages and offers new prospects for the printing industry. Connected paper generally incorporates an NFC chip which, when in contact with the phone, can generate content directly on the user’s screen. This content can be a video, a gift code or even rich content. The applications are numerous.

The German car manufacturer Audi used it as part of an advertising campaign. Using augmented reality, the poster invited users to take control of its new model.

Of course, we mustn’t forget creativity. When print invitesinteraction, imagination and humour, it is always an effective weapon in a marketing or communications campaign.

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