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Printers in the spotlight at Strasbourg's Printers' Festival
On 23 and 24 June, Strasbourg will be playing host to the printing industry. The 4th edition of the Printers' Festival will be taking place in the Alsatian city this year. This major event in the world of printing is organised by the Espace Européen Gutenberg association.
This association organises the Printers' Festival every two years in Strasbourg. EEG is also working towards the opening of a Conservatoire & Ateliers de l'imprimerie et des arts graphiques in Strasbourg. The association has become a key player in promoting printing and the graphic arts.
This year's project is both ambitious and meaningful, as it celebrates the 550th anniversary of Gutenberg's death. So the printing and book trades will be in the spotlight for a weekend.
A commemorative edition of Gutenberg
The 4th edition of the Printers' Festival coincides with Gutenberg Year. This is the 550th anniversary of the death of the inventor of printing. The 2018 event will feature six emblematic locations in Strasbourg's historic quarter. Printing and book professionals will be on hand to present their work and interact with visitors. Old and new trades will be represented. Visitors of all ages will be able to take part in a range of fun and interactive workshops to find out more about these trades. The tour can be either random or chronological.
The six different locations will be the Espace Saint-Michel in Notre-Dame cathedral, the inner courtyard of the workshops of the Fondation de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame, the Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame, the Popartiserie, the Chapel of the Evangelists in Saint-Thomas church, and of course the Place Gutenberg. Gutenberg's work will be showcased at this event for all to see.
This year's theme is "Gold and Lead".
Visitors will be able to discover the different printing trades around the theme of "Gold and Lead". The Espace Européen Gutenberg association points out that this theme highlights the diversity of the printing professions: "from the design of typefaces and their casting in lead to the ennoblement of books with gold in the form of illumination or gilding of bindings".
The theme will be illustrated by a number of workshops for visitors. These workshops will cover book illumination, punch engraving, typography, letterpress printing, lead casting, book illumination and graphic design.
Printing an object for this edition
Each year, the Espace Européen Gutenberg association publishes a printed object. For this 2018 edition, the object was designed and produced by two famous designers: Jean Alessandrini and Laurent Bourcellier. They have created a four-hand ABCdaire. This famous ABCdaire consists of 26 sheets, printed on a letterpress. Each sheet represents a letter. The ABCdaire is destined to be personalised as the workshops progress: enlarged, illuminated, engraved, overprinted, bound or gilded... An opportunity to put these different workshops into practice.
There will also be dedicated workshops for children aged 5 and over.
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Marketing Excellence has its prize, the sixth will be unveiled in July
It's common knowledge that the marketing professions form a highly competitive ecosystem where only the best can aspire to the most rewarding positions within the most prominent companies. In such a professional context, it is important to highlight the remarkable skills and projects that drive the profession forward. This is the role of the Marketing Excellence Awards. Above all, they reward the originality and performance of marketing approaches in front of a panel of recognised professionals who are always on the lookout for new talent and their disruptive ideas.
Originality and performance in the spotlight this year
The 6th edition of the Marketing Excellence Awards will take place during the "Nuit de l'Adetem", on 4 July 2018 in Paris. The evening will be marked by originality and performance. You could even say that the winners will be rewarded according to the professional risks they have taken to achieve excellence. A perfectly disruptive marketing approach or an integrated, highly advanced digital strategy are two good examples of the risks taken by the best marketers, their start-ups or their agencies. The various prize juries will be particularly sensitive to product and service launch strategies that are as innovative as they are effective. Each of the 6 prizes will reward a specific campaign to ensure that the honour received is truly relevant.
A grand prize, a number of prizes - the places are precious and coveted!
There are a lot of contenders, but few winners, for this 6th edition of the Marketing Excellence Awards. The industry is already wondering who will succeed such prestigious winners as Accor Hotels, Allo-média, Heineken, Ikea and Michelin last year. Six categories will be represented this year: the Grand Prix Start-Up, the Prix Marketing B2B, the Prix Marketing Expérience Client, the Prix Marketing Responsable, the Prix de l'Innovation Marketing / Digitale and of course the coveted Grand Prix de l'Excellence Marketing. The juries and Grand Jury will comprise 80 members, and all the awards will be presented at the Salle Wagram. Two hundred candidates will be competing in front of 600 participants and 2,000 marketers.
All candidates for this 6th edition of the Marketing Excellence Awards must register online and submit their applications before 14 May 2018. Early bird status will be taken into account until 1 May and the final awards will be revealed on the evening of 4 July 2018 during the 13th Adetem Night. Only 6 slides may be used by candidates to convince their respective juries. All the information you need to apply and about the event is available on the nuitadem.marketing website. Another special feature of the Marketing Excellence Awards is the low entry fee. Essentially made up of application fees, they are €75 excluding VAT for registered members, €170 excluding VAT for non-members and just €40 excluding VAT for start-ups. The Marketing Excellence Awards are open to everyone, and fresh ideas often give rise to exceptional and truly disruptive projects.
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What's the current state of print advertising?
Print still exists. Companies shouldn't ignore it to communicate their presence on the market, to promote their brand, product and/or service.
The place of print in the world of communication
Although social networks have become the preferred communication medium for brands, print still occupies a predominant place in advertising. It has always existed, even if we think that it is unable to compete with the web, and is gradually declining.
The battle against the web is a complex one, but the evolution of graphic design technology has enabled it to hold its own. What's more, there's no need to fight the web. These two advertising methods can work together to represent a brand.
There are several possibilities available to companies: business cards, flyers, brochures, leaflets, posters, etc.
So any company that wants to raise its profile should not neglect this communication medium. Print is just as effective as the web in reaching a large number of potential customers.
Why use print to communicate a brand?
Print has a number of advantages:
- It's easy to store and remember.
- Thanks to its innovation and evolution, the use of this medium demonstrates a brand's creativity and professionalism.
- Whether for B2B or B2C, print works perfectly for effective and influential advertising. Needless to say, it's essential to define your target audience clearly if you want to win them over.
- It can be used to enhance a company's visual identity. It's an effective and ideal way of promoting a product or service.
- It is possible, and totally advisable, to combine the two modes of communication that seem to be at war: print and web. Combining these two means means attracting more customers. Including websites and social network accounts can make potential customers want to find out more about the brand.
How can you use this traditional communication medium effectively?
Print is an exciting means of communication that manages to impress targets of all ages. All you need is a good imagination and an adequate budget to use it properly.
To help companies make effective use of this type of advertising, innovative and captivating ideas are on offer. Professionals offer their services to add a personal touch to the medium. So you can easily communicate your brand, whatever the format, shape, design or colour of the print you choose.
However, it's important to choose the right advertising medium to reach your target audience effectively. Although the business card is an essential means of promoting your visual identity, it is not advisable to distribute it to the general public (in the street, for example). Flyers and leaflets are best suited to this situation.
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The emergence of personalised marketing
The presence on the market of an ever-increasing number of marketing players is forcing advertisers to turn to new tools. One of these tools is personalised marketing, or one-to-one marketing. This strategy is based on an individualised approach to advertising communications.
It is not limited to simple personalisation based on the target's name, but also on other criteria such as geolocation or the Internet user's behaviour. This trend is based on a variety of levers, enabling advertisers to turn their ideas into reality.
The challenges of personalised marketing
At the end of these new marketing communication strategies lie a number of challenges that will enable brands and companies to reach their target audiences and build customer loyalty. And so increase their revenues.
Improving customer relations
By offering customers personalised content and a personalised experience, the service provider or brand lets them know that it knows them and can understand them. It's easier to convert a prospect than to keep a customer. When a customer's experience is undermined, it's easy for them to move on to the competition. At this level, personalising the user experience helps to build a solid and trusting relationship.
A high-performance decision-making tool
Thanks to the data we have on users, personalised marketing enables us to anticipate their needs. This makes it possible to identify trends and position yourself at the right moment to offer the right service. Anticipating a trend offers promising prospects for marketing campaigns. Using data such as the consumer's age, name, location and habits, we can offer personalised communication that is sure to have a greater impact on the target than mass communication.
The levers of personalisation in marketing
To be effective, this exercise requires levers that will contribute to improving this tool. The emergence of big data, for example, has been one of these levers.
Personalisation by name
Thanks to the information gathered by a website as part of a customer registration process, it is possible to generate newsletters that are personally identifiable. The same applies to commercial mailings, such as those we receive from various e-commerce sites.
In a similar vein, birthdays are often an opportunity for brands to offer discount codes as gifts. It's certainly more tempting to make a purchase when you have a discount coupon.
Personalisation through geolocation
Online retailers such as Zalando offer different prices for different countries. So, from one location to another, the price quoted for an item on an advertising insert on a partner site will be different.
The same applies to products on sale. Some sites offer items in certain countries that they do not in others. In this sense, geolocation becomes a lever for effective marketing personalisation. It makes it possible to reach a more precise target.
Internet user behaviour
Thanks to statistical analysis tools such as Google Analytics and others, it is possible to measure the activity of a web user on a website. This means knowing how much time the user spends on an article. This is the case, for example, when someone is interested in an article and, after a certain amount of time, an online advisor offers to help.
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The benefits of an editorial identity to promote your brand identity
Generally speaking, brand identity means graphic charter. While visual identity is necessary to build a company's brand identity, it is not sufficient. Depending on the brand's positioning and many other criteria, it will be useful to build a story around the company.
This is whereeditorial identity is of vital importance. The two types of identity must of course be compatible, and convey a message that is aimed at the same target.
What is a brand's editorial identity?
For both a brand and a media outlet, editorial identity is based on a set of choices and criteria designed to achieve a defined objective. These decisions are taken by the editor-in-chief, or sometimes by a group of people who set the editorial line. This is known as the editorial board. These decisions are generally based on the following criteria:
Reaching your target audience
This involves defining the profile of the target audience. The first step is to determine who you are targeting, and then find ways of reaching them.
Defining the subjects to be addressed
This is part of content marketing. You need to find the subjects that are most likely to speak to your target audience and hold their interest. This is particularly important for blogs and social networks.
The tone
It's clear that the tone to be used in communications is not the same when addressing an audience of teenagers as it is when addressing an audience in the 40-50 age bracket.
Information content
In the same way as the subjects to be covered, we need to find content that is relevant to our target audience. If the target subject is sport, the content of the message is not the same if we are talking to an experienced sportsman or sportswoman as to someone who has never practised.
The medium
Where should the message be broadcast? Social networks, a blog, the written press, radio, television, flyers, brochures?
Frequency of publication
Generally speaking, the more prestigious a company is, the less it communicates. This is particularly true when the company's core target group is a narrow one.
What is the link with brand identity?
Brand identity relates the attitude the brand wishes to have towards its target audience. Visual codes play an important role in this, as they are created to speak directly to others. Let's take a simple example concerning the graphic charter. Typography is a key element of a brand's visual identity. A Comic Sans MS font would not be suitable for a luxury designer's communication campaign. Just as the colours, logo and many other criteria have a direct influence on the target audience.
The same applies to editorial identity. The content of the criteria around which it is based varies greatly depending on the target. For example, when selling luxury goods, you can't do away with the use of the polite form of address, whereas this is perfectly appropriate when selling toys to children.
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Printing professionals regain confidence
After a few gloomy years, or even a crisis for some, printers are feeling rather optimistic. The fears they might have expressed a short while ago are not entirely well-founded. This is particularly true of fears about the advent of the e-book. Some regions will continue to suffer from the dominance of digital media, but suppliers are still doing well.
Traditional printing continues to stand up to the digital revolution, and has even confirmed its dominance of the print market.
Digital threats less significant than expected
The least we can say is that print professionals, printers and suppliers alike, have been in low spirits throughout 2017. And yet, reading the fifth Drupa report on global market trends, the profession has reason to regain confidence.
The products linked to the digital revolution, which were thought to be the gravediggers of books in particular, have not had all the negative effects expected. Recent studies have shown that readers retain the information they read in a book much better than they do in an e-book.
What's more, printers have made the necessary efforts to make the quality of their products more attractive. There has been a resurgence of affection for the printed word. What's more, online shops and books, whether out of print or not, printed to order are now part of the consumer's well-integrated consumption patterns.
Some regions are suffering, but suppliers are coping
Despite good prospects for the coming years, some regions of the world are more affected than others by the crisis in the printing market. While America remains a strong market, and there is steady growth in Europe, Africa and the Middle East are losing confidence.
For suppliers in general, this is the fourth year of uninterrupted growth. Equipment, hardware and software sales rose by an average of 29%. These are the best results for a long time. Printers report, however, that pressure remains constant on both prices and margins. However, this pressure varies greatly from region to region. While prices are rising in North America, they are tending to fall in Australia and throughout Oceania.
Prices for packaging printing are holding steady, but those for commercial printing continue to fall.
Traditional printing dominates the print market
The industry's transition to digital printing continues, but rather slowly. Most printers who produce large volumes on all types of media are largely dependent on digital technologies. 60% of them have taken the plunge, and 50% of the remaining 40% have confirmed their desire to make the transition to digital. This is not the case for those specialising in packaging printing. Only 12% of them have been convinced, but 25% are willing to go digital. Still, it's worth noting that 27% of printers, across all trades, have a web shop window, compared with just 2% in 2014. More than 42% of printers want to invest in 2018, compared with a decline of 9% last year.
Packaging specialists will be investing at 45%, functionalists at 42%, commercials at 30% and those specialising in publishing at 20%. They will be more likely to invest in technologies that are on the up, such as Flexo and Sheetfed Offset for packaging.
Digital Toner Cutsheet Color, Sheetfed Offset and Digital Inkjet Wide-Format technologies will be adopted by commercial printers. For functional printers, Digital Toner Cutsheet Color and Digital Inkjet Wide-Format will prevail.
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Creativity: a business development strategy
Creativity is at the very heart of a company's development strategy. Emerging media and digital technology are overturning the codes of this creativity, and it is important to know how to deal with these new elements. So what are the major challenges facing creative people today? Benjamin Marchal, board member of the Club des DA, gives us his analysis and interpretation.
Today's creative challenges
Today's creative professionals face a number of different issues. First of all, the key is to achieve and maintain a more liquid creative output, without losing the purity of the idea. In reality, it is often difficult to maintain the creative side at all points of contact. The initial idea can get lost, and lose power and effectiveness.
What's more, after analysing the Club des DA's 2018 awards, we see many brands in direct competition in the same creative space. For example, MacDonald's and Burger King, Intermarché and Monoprix or Leroy Merlin and Castorama. Competing brands, exercising their creativity in the same sphere and at the same time. A rather positive analysis for creativity, given that these same advertisers had little to do with creativity a few years ago, and are now coming to the fore.
Finally, there is an emerging trend in the creative world over the next few years. The poster medium is expected to make a strong comeback. The reason for this? The over-development of the internet, which is invading our daily lives with new formats and new advertising. This invasion has led to the emergence of adblockers, which will have an impact on digital advertising.
OOH remains a simple medium, offering a simple, visual hook. The medium is unavoidable, and is inevitably seen, without provoking exasperation or an invasive feeling.
Advice for young creatives
In order to be as effective and creative as possible, Benjamin Marchal offers three tips for young creatives. Firstly, freelancing is fundamental. It's essential to see and understand what's been done before. Secondly, confronting the blank page is a fundamental step. Cut yourself off from the internet and any other environment that might interfere with your thinking: it's important to get your head and your inspiration working in the creative process.
Finally, culture is essential. Cultivating yourself and changing codes remains the surest way of achieving an original and unique creation.
A record-breaking billboard
To promote a new SUV, Ford drew up the brief for an impressive campaign. The aim was to present a new Ecosport SUV, capable of criss-crossing the city as well as getting out of it. The manufacturer set up its campaign on a giant 5,265m² photo, installed on the famous Espana Building, in the heart of Madrid in Spain.
The canvas required many hours of work, including no less than 65 hours devoted to retouching. With a height of 135 metres and a width of 54 metres, the manufacturer beat its own record of 241.93m² in 2014.
Proof that billboards can be seen by everyone!
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On the road for the 2018 Fedrigoni Top Award
Italian paper manufacturer Fedrigoni has officially launched its printed design competition. The competition, which has an international dimension, is designed to reward creativity, innovation, final quality, printing techniques and the use of paper and its various communication possibilities. The competition is aimed at paper professionals: graphic designers, printers, publishers and end users. The aim of the competition for these professionals is to highlight their best creations printed on Fedrigoni or Fabriano special papers, or on Manter self-adhesive labels.
How the competition works
The competition concerns specific designs. In fact, four categories of printed creations are represented. Publishing (books, art editions, magazines), Labels (labels for wine, spirits, gastronomy, etc.), Visual Identity (brochures, catalogues, invitations, calendars, diaries, etc.) and Packaging (packaging cartons, shopping bags, displays, lined containers, etc.). Each project must therefore fall into one of these four categories. In addition, the printed materials must have been created between July 2016 and June 2018.
Once these projects have been submitted, three prizes will be awarded per category. A prize will also be awarded in each category for the best project developed using HP Indigo printing technology. Internet users will be able to elect a winner.
The best projects in the competition will be awarded a symbolic trophy, and will have the chance to be presented at an exhibition, which will take place in Berlin in spring 2019. A catalogue will also be published, presenting the winning projects. The catalogue will be distributed internationally.
Projects for this new edition can be submitted until 10 June 2018, via the competition website. The results will not be announced until the end of January 2019.
A look back at the 2017 Fedrigoni Top Award
The final ceremony of the 2017 edition of the Fedrigoni Top Award was held in Spain, at the Museu del Disseny in Barcelona. The winners of the 2017 competition were announced.
The tenth edition of the competition was a great success, with more than a thousand entries received: 1,116 projects were submitted, compared with 800 the previous year.
Every category was represented, and the winners were rewarded:
- In the Edition category, the winner was the project designed by Tomadesign (Czech Republic). Jde o to aby o neco slo, typograf Oldrich Hlavsa by Barbora Toman Tylova, was the winner. This is the first comprehensive book on the work of the typographer and designer Oldrich Hlavsa.
- In the Labels category, Piquentum Sv. Vital, printed by Etikgraf doo (Croatia). This educational label uses embossed circles to show the monthly rainfall for the year in which the wine was produced.
- The UK came out on top in the HP Indigo category, with Off Black printed by FE Burman. This fashion magazine was published in large format, and features four different covers.
- The Corporate Publication category was won by the French project Ysl. Mon Paris printed by Opero (Italy) and designed by the Paris agency Akatre. The press kit for the haute couture brand is a particularly elaborate work, stitched in black thread and packaged in a case with two notepads.
- Finally, in the Packaging category, the award went to the premium and functional Adega Velha 6 and 12 Xo packaging by Manufacturas Aeme, LDA (Portugal).
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Internet to the rescue of the advertising market as the press collapses
In the advertising market, while television is doing rather well, this is unfortunately not the case for all media. The print media are facing a headwind and seeing their advertising revenues plummet. It fell by 7.4% in 2017 in France. This follows a 6.7% fall the year before.
At the same time, the internet has come out on top as the big winner in this economy. In 2017, advertising revenues generated by the web in France amounted to no less than €4.09 billion.
Collapsing advertising revenues for the press
While an advertising insert sold in a print magazine is more expensive than on the web, as we pointed out in this article, the fact is that it attracts only a limited number of advertisers. The figures speak for themselves. The regional daily press alone has seen its advertising revenues plummet by 4.6%. This steady decline in advertising revenues has hit the magazine press particularly hard. However, it alone generated nearly €730 million. Despite its status as the locomotive of the paper publishing advertising economy, the sector recorded a fall of 11.4% over one year.
Only the specialist magazines are still recording rising figures. This is the case, for example, of the gardening magazine sector, which saw its volume of advertising insertions increase by 51% in one year. While the number of advertisers in Family - Health magazines increased by 4% over the same period. The regional weekly press had to make do with estimated advertising revenues of 108 million euros, with an overall drop of 2.9%.
Internet takes the cake
The big winner in the advertising market is the Internet. Over the year, this is the sector that has seen the biggest increase in advertising revenues. The increase is 12% compared with 2016.
In the digital and internet sector, advertising revenue can be divided into two main types. Display (display banners) and Search (search engines). Display saw a 20% increase in advertising revenues, reaching €1.450 billion in 2017. In 2016, the sector had already recorded an increase of 14.5%. Search advertising saw its revenues rise to €2.050 billion. This represents an increase of 8% in one year.
As you can see, the online advertising sector is doing rather well. Alongside sectors such as print (flyers), TV and cinema, it has succeeded in boosting revenues from advertisers. Quite simply, its sustained growth means that it now generates more advertising revenue than television. With a gloomy climate for the print media, it's clear that publishers need to reinvent themselves, or bet on digital from now on.
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The new standards in sublimation printing
Dye sublimation printing is a digital technique that has overtaken older methods. It is particularly economical and practical. This process offers a great deal of latitude, allowing you to personalise the different prints you make. All the while benefiting from the flexibility of the machines.
The textile, glass, porcelain and other industries are no exception to the rule. Screen printing has recently given way to this digital solution, particularly in terms of product customisation. What are the new standards?
What is sublimation printing?
Before getting to the heart of the matter, let's try and define whatsublimation printing is. Sublimation printing is a transfer printing process using special inks. These inks are sensitive to heat and transform into a gas under the effect of heat. The ink is then combined with a polyester substrate and becomes part of the target material. This ensures that the printed images do not peel off, let alone crack, over time.
Most printers have these dedicated image transfer machines. In fact, it has become virtually essential for printers to have them, given the growing demand. This ranges from corporate communications to the personal needs of customers. Or as part of the marketing of a new product.
Standards constantly being raised
In the field of graphic design, the constant aim is to achieve better results. Sublimation printing is no exception to this rule. This is particularly true when it comes to inks. This is the case with Sublisplash® sublimation inks, which offer a number of innovations affecting print rendition. These improvements include better ink stability, stronger intensity, and an improved quality/price ratio. The one that interests us here is the intensity of the colours, in particular the black tint. Sublisplash ink offers high contrast, resulting in a more dynamic image. This is made possible by a new, much deeper black tint. This intensity produces impressive visual results. A real boon for printing on textiles, mugs or glass as part of corporate communications.
Personalised glass: a new application for sublimation printing
Talking of printing on glass, this too is benefiting from new sublimation printing techniques. Customisable glass is booming, and a number of companies have decided to jump on the bandwagon. Manufacturers have identified the challenges.
The applications are numerous. From interior glass doors to shower walls. TheImpala from SwissQprint offers impeccable printing speed and quality. In addition to glass, the Impala offers a wide variety of substrates. It can be used to reproduce an image on an entrance door or kitchen splashback.
In conclusion
Clearly, successful printing requires a high-quality printer and dedicated inks. As the customisation of objects becomes increasingly popular, there is no doubt that sublimation printing will set new and ever more innovative standards.