Tuesday 2¢: That Whole “Print is Dead” Thing – Part 2

This week, Ian revisits a subject he has touched on before - this whole thing about print being dead, because according to millennials...it's really not.

  1. chevron left iconTuesday 2¢: That Whole “Print is Dead” Thing – Part 2
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Ian TruscottMarch 20, 2018
  • Content Marketing

Welcome to the Tuesday 2¢. It’s Tuesday, the weekend is a distant memory and it’s time to let off some steam and give our 2 cents on a hot industry topic. This week Ian Truscott takes another look at this whole print is dead thing, because according to millennials...it's really not.


This week I am inspired by a conversation with my industry chum, Misia Tramp, VP of Customer Experience Strategy and Insight at Metia Group, and revisiting a subject I have touched on before - this whole thing about print being dead.

In my eyes, Misia is a guru of marketing research and insight, and we got chatting about some of the work her agency has been doing around defining customer journeys and marketing automation (as you do, over a glass of wine). It seems there is a glaring gap in the well-oiled marketing machines we are building and guess what, it’s the surprisingly not-quite-as-dead-as-everyone-thinks-it-is, print.

I shared a bit of research in my last post on this, and one of the remarkable things that I discovered was that according to a Content Marketing Institute survey, 57% of B2B marketers continue to invest in paid print advertising and this medium is only narrowly beaten to first place by Search Engine Marketing, lying ahead of the cool kids of Social Marketing and Promoted Tweets. And maybe more surprisingly, millennials, yes millennials, are reading print - as this article in Forbes discusses – shocking I know. But more than that, Xerox put together some research which claimed:

  • 84% of Millennials take the time to look through their mail
  • 64% of Millennials would rather scan for useful information in the mail than email
  • 77% of Millennials pay attention to direct mail advertising
  • 90% of Millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable
  • 87% of Millennials like receiving direct mail

Perhaps we shy away from print as it doesn’t come dripping with the data that we marketers have become so dependent on, but where does print sit in the marketing technology discussion? Well, the poor fella is dead, and it seems from my discussion with Misia, he is rarely invited to the table.

Print is a tricky thing to get right, but there are solutions and if you’re interested in print we’ve just kicked off a new newsletter – Gutenburg’s Ghost – you can subscribe to it here.


Which, on reflection, writing this, perhaps we should be sending in the post!

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Ian Truscott
Ian Truscott has a passion for creating ART (Awareness, Revenue and Trust) for B2B software companies as a marketing leader and is a censhare alumni. Wanting to connect a like minded community and share something useful, he founded Rockstar CMO, a monthly digital publication, and is currently helping B2B companies create ART at appropingo.

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