It looks like buyers are ready to lead the way back ...

[Tim Greene]

InfoTrends has just completed a research project in North America with wide format digital print buyers both corporate and consumer. There is a lot of good data points in this study but one of the best is the corporate print buyers expectation that they will spend more on wide format digital graphics in the next 12 months than they have in the last 12 months by a ratio of 5 to 1. Not only that, but the companies that said they will spend more, expected to spend about 20% more.

In the personal interviews I got to do on this study I found that the ad agencies that are responsible for much of the buying activities were particularly bullish on wide format digital because of the ability to localize advertising messages at the store level, which they believe is much more cost effective than mass marketing methodologies such as television, radio, and newspapers. I know there is a lot of pressure on printers out there, but hopefully this bit of good news will contribute to some of the optimism for the wide format sector that we saw in the recent World Wide Survey.

If anybody has any questions about this new study, which we call Who Buys Wide Format or The World Wide Survey, please post a reply!

[Tim Greene]

Hi Herman - Good points, I agree that there are downsides to working with ad agencies for the printing company but they serve customers with research, creative ability and in selecting suppliers, so they are not going away. The survey we did here in the U.S. did ask about the use of digital displays. We found that it is just getting started here, but that there is a lot of interest. I wouldn't say that it is clearly where "the market" is headed because even those companies that have invested in digital display advertising reported that they still buy wide format digital graphics. Also, from The World Wide survey it shows that some print service providers are developing roles in the digital displays market, perhaps providing design and creative services as you mention in your note. Finally, a smaller percentage of respondents reported that they see digital displays as a threat now than in 2007 when the original survey was done. I think this means that some are staking their claim in the market while others are seeing that it does not usually replace their graphics business, advertisers typically supplement or complement that business with digital display advertising.

[Herman Hartman]

Is sounds like a good signal, but special as it comes to ad agency’s the like localize advertising messages not only for the higher response but also for the higher bills the can send tot there customer at the end of the day for doing extra work and that does not help to get more print volume.
If you look to the answers in the WW Survey agency’s are also not popular as customers of the printing industry because prices are squeezed by the agency’s .Tthis kind of localized print campaigns asked for a more direct relation from retailers with print providers that can do an efficient job not only on printing but also on logistics and automation the workflow. The agency just have to deliver the basic design and have to stay out to make it work and sometimes the print service provider can sol do the design part. So I do think to get an real answer on the question will there be marked grow is the question are retailers and other print buyers ready for another kind of relation with their print provider and are these print providers also ready to serve their customers with more than only print (reading in the WW Survey I still have some doubts about that). We should also find out how big the significance of the use of monitors in the store. Narrowcasting can also deliver localized messages and can take things over from print .
So I think there are still some unanswered questions that can change the outcome of the research.