Digital mind, analogue heart: PacPrint interview with Anders Sorman-Nilsson

What will you be discussing at your seminar?

The session will focus on what I call ‘digilogue’, which is how to win the digital minds and the analogue hearts of tomorrow’s customers. While  customers’ minds have become digitised by social media, mobile technology and being connected 24-7-365, our hearts are still analogue. The way to win hearts and minds of tomorrow’s customers is to combine the best of digital with the best of analogue print. We should not throw away the analogue baby with the digital bathwater.

Why should visitors attend?

One of the essential components of this presentation will be to develop a digilogue strategy map for your business. You will walk away with concrete ideas, tips and tricks to take back and apply to your business.

How can print companies best manage transition?

There are opportunities in the market for those that still love traditional offset print, but if you see yourself as a traditional printer, you must be smarter about who you target. For example, I do a lot of work in the agricultural space and there are question marks from the big vendors to that industry on how to reach farmers. Farmers have embraced technology; even Old McDonald has an iPhone. But there is a sense that the printed brochure is still a way to reach that type of customer. 

Can printers re-imagine themselves as cross-media companies?

Everyone is talking about it but it is easier said than done. Being an expert in omni-channel communications will be absolutely key. Clients and customers are struggling to work out the media mix; they want someone to provide insight. Printers are doing clients a disservice if they only want to sell print: that will not help clients do more business.

When you have been selling print and paper, moving up into services and solutions requires a mindset change. You need to recruit or train up staff who can look at the whole communications mix of the clientele and start advising them more strategically. Printers can point toward decades, if not centuries, as providers of communications expertise. Many small businesses do not have the budget to hire an advertising agency or brand consultancy so SMEs might look at getting their printer to do that strategic advisory work for them.

Are other industries facing similar challenges?

I call this digital disruption. There are two notions: one is the length of the fuse and the other is the size of the bang. Every industry will be affected by digital disruption. But the length of the fuse is longer or shorter for some industries, and the size of the bang is bigger and smaller. Utilities and mining might not be affected so much or so soon as a retail, banking, financial services, media, communications and printing, which are in that space where there is a short fuse and the size
of the bang will be huge.

What was a print campaign that left an impact on you?

One that struck me as ironic was Google’s $75 voucher, sent as snail mail to encourage SMEs to start marketing digitally; they are selling digital advertising but the way they reach the client is by post. 

Name one thing to make people optimistic about working in print?

When you see digital disruptors, such as Facebook, Google, Apple and eBay all using print as a way to connect with customers, it proves the point that you need to go digital but also remain true to analogue roots. 

[Related: More PacPrint news]

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