Contrary to fifty years ago, there is a pervasive shift to delivering information in shorter and shorter bites, whether or spoken or written, and the explosion of media methods to deliver news and information means that we are hearing/seeing more information everyday than our parents were probably exposed to in a week.  And I am not even seeing/listening to most of it.  My kids are exposed to more channels than I am with Twitter and text messages and regular focus on the screens of their mobile devices.

But there are inherent problems in communicating without printed reference – we plain old don’t remember more than about 20% of what we hear once.  And it is hard to go “look up” something that didn’t appear in print.  Enter the Internet solution – one can search for more information on something that is only vaguely remembered!

And what about advertising in retail?  Gone are the days when adults lolled over the newspaper ads while drinking their morning coffee.  Again, fifty years ago, store fronts carried mannequins displaying clothing and samples of hard goods for sale in the store.  But without print advertising to draw customers to the store to “see” the displays what you find is that more and more store displays contain printed material – banners, sale information, product brand names and logos.  And, in recent months, more and more QR codes to direct shoppers to the Internet to get more information on products and offerings.

More print, but less printing.  Banners on lamp posts, signage on storefronts and building walls, scrolling news on flat screens in elevators . . . and an explosion in electronic devices that let you “find” and read the more printing.  Our challenge is harness what we know about producing that printing for our clients and getting it into the new mainstream!

When I tried to find a taker for my World Book series of encyclopedias two summers ago I was horrified to find that NO ONE (not schools, not shelters, not libraries) was interested in having such an obsolete print edition of data.  Internet publishing has virtually eliminated print editions of encyclopedic data.  And, beyond that, Wikipedia has pretty much replaced professionally written and edited copy.  It is the “world as writer” approach to encyclopedias (twenty-first century version of the million monkeys on a million typewriters).  When people need random bits of information today then need it to be easy to access and they want it quickly.

I guess that what I miss is the experience of digging around for information.  I realize that part of my education was the act of searching for answers and, in the process, learning things that I might not have ever found any other way.  I don’t know that it is quantitatively better or worse, but it certainly is different.  The way in which the information is delivered has materially changed the way in which we receive it – quickly, written in easy to understand language, and filtered by what we enter into the search engine.

With my age showing, again, I confess that I worry that the faceless “world as writers” effectively edits what we find when we search for information.  If Microsoft and Google and “others” control all the data on the Internet they do, by extension, determine what it is we will find when we use the fast and free tools at our disposal.  That makes the case for not relying exclusively on this fast food approach to gathering information. 

Printed road maps are almost extinct, replaced by GPS and Smart Phones with real time traffic mapping.  Bound printed Encyclopedias are really only used for flower pressing.  But the need for the information doesn’t change even though the distribution of the printed communication is changing.

I heartily subscribe to the exciting reality of our OWN home grown companies moving from neighborhoods to the Loop!  One of those success stories is Grub Hub, an Internet site that helps users find restaurants in a certain radius to their location and order online for take-out or delivery.  Started in Chicago, the company has spread to other markets and recently acquired some similar organizations. The article in Crain’s this week about Grub Hub’s headquarters moving from Bucktown to the Burnham Center in the fall.  At more than 250 employees they have outgrown their space in the neighborhood where they started, and know that they will be able to attract talent from a wider labor pool downtown. And what better aspiration to be able to relocate in the heart of a continental class city, for a company that intends to be a national service provider!

While it is healthy to attract newcomers, it is heartwarming to see our market home grow tech businesses that become stable participants in the City’s economy.  Congratulations to Grub Hub and Chicago!

But an interesting article caught my eye last week in the paper about ANOTHER meeting that is taking place here in Chicago without very much fanfare at all.  In late April the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates is taking place here at the UIC Forum.  It is quite an august gathering:  President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa from Poland, Mikhail Gorbachev from Russia, Oscar Arias Sanchez from Costa Rica and F W de Klerk from South Africa.  In conjunction with this meeting the RFK Compass Program, headed by Kerry Kennedy, is meeting to encourage pension funds to invest in peace and human rights initiatives.  Some of the biggest names in Chicago money management will be in attendance.

Now THIS seems important to me.  Not only am I in concert with the efforts of the RFK Compass Program, but I am impressed that these individuals —  whose names will be in the history books for all our children to read and learn about —  will be right here in my city.  They will ALSO be staying in our hotels, eating our food and travelling our streets.  I have contemporaries who stood in vile weather to catch a glimpse of Lech Walesa; I have devout Buddhist friends who would pass up riches to hear the Dalai Lama; and like him or not, Jimmy Carter has kept the dialog about peace and human rights alive on behalf of the United States for more years as a citizen than he spent as President. 

I honestly don’t think that I would recognize the names of the NATO participant who will attend the Summit, but I am honored to know that these leaders for world peace will be our guests for a few days. I hope that they enjoy our hospitality.

One of the exciting things that print media has the potential to bring to the reader is interactive digital information as viewed through the eye of your cell phone, digital pad or webcam.  The ability to “see” more than the printed image by focusing that electronic eye on a particular point on the page and having software open up another form of communication – it could be static images, animation, video, audio or all three.  Cross Media Marketing assumes that your message reaches the reader in a number of ways; Augmented Reality (AR) tools expand the message that your reader receives.  Follow this link to the February issue of Deliver to see an AR example.

Some of this is still Star Wars on a number of levels – the investment in software tools to develop messages is still very high, and the number of “digital eye users” is still relatively low, but that will shift as the consumers of advertising messages become more reliant on this tool.  It is exciting to me in terms of preserving the value of print media to distribute a portion of the message, and it is exciting to marketers if it means that readers will hold onto pieces longer and continue to refer to them for a repeat of their message.

And it makes me hope that the Postal Service will not go broke as long as they are still providing such a fertile ground for research!  There is a great deal of good thinking going on behind the mail sorting equipment.

The article points out that the industry is still huge ($20 billion) in terms of revenues but not in terms of what it takes to produce paper print news in the quantities that we grew up with.  The business of gathering and disseminating the news is not going away but the way we consume it is changing rapidly.  The way news spreads is changing too – I read this article originally printed in a newspaper by clicking on a link in a Tweet that I received.  Having an eye on Social Media seems to be this decade’s version of keeping your ear to the ground!

In our reprographics industry we had (up until twenty years ago) defined ourselves by the market we sold into (construction documents to the Architecture-Engineering-Construction industries) rather than by what we sold (large format printing and document management for distribution). In the past ten years we have expanded our customer lists to include other consumers of multiple format graphics – banners, posters, short-run signage – because the technology has evolved to make full color services readily available and cost effective.  But that expansiveness reflected a desire to find more opportunities for growth.  Now those “new” markets and unsuspecting customers are no longer a luxury – they are the New World of consumers for the products that we have perfected.

The point when the buggy whip folks changed the sign over the door to Car Starters Here! was when they realized what their core competency was.  They specialized in making things move from park to drive. 

What we know in our industry is that we specialize in Improving the Process by which consumers use print or digital communication to accomplish their goals. 

• When a page is designed – as a blueprint or a text document or a banner or a sign – our specialty is providing the most efficient way of distributing that in either print or digital form. 
• Software tools to provide portals to store and distribute design and construction documents – that’s what we have!
• Internet programs to harness as much data as possible in your marketing campaign – we have partnered with the leaders in that field to give you that value when you come here!
• Interested in doing your own wide format scanning and printing – we will be glad to place that equipment in your office in a rental or purchase mode — and deliver the supplies when you need them!

When the economy begins to expand in our market, the demand for construction documents will never return to the halcyon days because technology and the need to manipulate data in its digital form has supplanted the need for many iterations of a printed sheet in the construction  process.  We are tasked with marketing our core competency to that wider New World.

This year I am going to attempt to create a more personal voice for our posts in the hope that you (Gentle Readers) will be disposed to respond and contribute to the discussion.

The unseasonable winter weather in Chicago has been really welcome.  It is easier to get around without ice and frozen roadbeds, and spirits all seem to be improved by the extra fresh air.  We are enjoying stretching our wings, too – using some of the digital tools that we are exploring on our own marketing efforts.

The whole idea of cross media marketing as a way to expand the reach or the users brand is starting to take root.  Using a combination of different types of media reaches – direct mail with personalized variable printing, email blasts to targeted recipients, using PURLS to bring contacts to your webpage and allow them to share additional information about their needs, printing QR codes on print materials to increase Internet traffic – increases marketing efforts many times over.  AND there is the added benefit of getting direct feedback through these channels that allows the user to reach out directly to people with an interest in the material being transmitted.  Our partner in this endeavor has made it easy for us to use the tool internally and that is the best example that we can share with our clients.

Expand your marketing efforts by trying this technique in your next campaign!  Give us a call.

Quite honestly, it is a good thing that the season starts with Thanksgiving because – at least for me – that is really the most important thing to celebrate.  I am thankful that we have come through another year with our company intact and good things on the horizon.  I am grateful for co-workers and staff who have stuck with us through the worst of the recession and are helping give shape to the future.  I am very glad for loved ones who have learned to do more with less and care for each other more thoughtfully.  I am often overwhelmed with the realization that so many men and women are serving our country on our behalf around the world, separated from their families by choice. I am glad to have the wisdom of those who are gone now and the presence of mind to remember their humor when times get tough.

I don’t really care if I get a Kindle Fire or a pair of slippers or a warm hug.  They all mean the same thing.  Please accept my best wishes to you all for holidays filled with stories and laughter and the warmth that comes from being with other people right here at home.

Our Website has really gone through generations of change – from a static billboard about the business to a digital brochure about the company to a rudimentary tool for customers to upload work to our shop, and now to an interactive means of communicating with our market, disseminating information about emerging technologies and services while serving as a gateway to our production areas.  What was once as novelty – getting an email through the website – is now a many-times-a-day occurrence.  People inquire about services, pricing and jobs while we download job confirmations, information on best practices for best results, and highlights of what goes on at Cushing.  It is not static anymore!

Come on over and see what is happening.  I am especially excited about the Marketing Campaign!!  I will keep you posted about how that works for us.  It has been a while since something felt like fun in this business climate and we intend to share that feeling.