Summary

• Digital vs. print go head to head in a recent study correlating medium and memory.

• Print advertising, direct mail marketing, and brochures are more expensive; it may be worth the cost enlight of new findings published in the Journal of Marketing Research in September 2021. [Link]

• Print is most useful if your customer's buying cycle is not immediate, aka not Amazon/Ebay.

• Why it works.

• Limitations.

Introduction

To photographers like myself, and I imagine graphic designers and writers, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing our work in print, no matter the use case. I keep a collection of catalogs, print advertisements, and in-store banners from various projects over the years. When a client tells me that a shot or shots from an upcoming shoot will go to print, I take a little more time to plan that shot out, move the shot to a more favorable time of day in the schedule, and at times rent different cameras just to ensure quality. This extra energy is because the print medium is far less forgiving than digital. Any stitch or pixel out of place will become fully realized only at the finished result for everyone to see in glorious CMYK.

Because of the extra preparation for print, clients have questioned (understandably so) for many years whether the printed image was worth the extra effort. Now, armed with newly minted research, we see that the printed image has a lasting effect far above its digital counterpart.

Another gem of a finding from Thomas McKinlay at Ariyh [Link], illustrates the advantages print media offers over digital. A study, conducted in affiliation with half a dozen universities, sought out to understand how our biometrics & memory differ from consuming digital media vs print if at all. You can see the original findings published in the Journal of Marketing Research. [Link]

This study finds that people react differently to the same ad if they see it on Vogue's website vs Vogue's print magazine, for example.

Results showed that:

• People spent more time looking at print ads, their pupils dilated more, and their biometric measurements indicated greater interest.

• Immediately after exposure, there was no difference in how much people remembered print vs digital ads

• But when measured a week later, people remembered the content of print ads better and there was greater brain activity in the memory regions"

Why it works

• When we come across an ad, we encode its contents into memory traces that we then store to retrieve for later use (if they’re still strong enough).

• Our engagement with print ads is more intense, so this creates a stronger memory trace. This makes it last longer and gives it better connections with other memory associations (i.e. something may more easily remind us of it - such as a brand logo).

• Print ads seem to engage us more mostly because touching paper activates another one of our senses, which indirectly involves us more.

Researchers used fMRI brain scans, eye tracking, and biometric body measurements to discover that print ads are better absorbed by our memory.

Limitations

Thomas is careful to point out that this is new ground that has yet to explore the effect of print on influencing actual purchases.

Something to think about

If you are not using print in your marketing, or feel you are not using it enough, check out Thomas's steps to implementing it into your marketing channels. [Link]