In September 2024, the IPIA announced its pivotal national print research and advocacy project with research agency, Madano, utilising groundbreaking digital data acquisition and analysis technology.
Capturing the research results, gathered over a 12-month period covering over 12,000 data points, has provided an accurate, detailed picture of how the print industry is truly perceived by consumers and key print buying markets across a range of critical metrics: from effectiveness, trust and sustainability, through to the role of print within multi-channel marketing campaigns.
A new white paper distils the key findings of the research – an important example being how trust in print as a communications and marketing medium is very high among consumers and results in high engagement rates and positive sentiment towards the medium.
Part of a long-term transformative project for the industry, the aim of the initiative is to permanently shift the perception of print across an end-user and consumer audience. The IPIA is working in partnership with its members Citipost Mail, Imprint MIS, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Epson and The Printing Charity to drive this important project forward.
Ricoh has announced its support of the New Narrative for Print initiative. Tim Carter, Commercial Print Director at Ricoh UK Graphic Communications said: “We are really proud to be part of this exciting project, and it’s forming part of our commitment and focus. We believe print delivers a different, emotive outcome; it makes things happen; it enables decisions to be made. Print still remains unique in terms of its resilience, its permanence and trust. Ricoh continues to advocate, innovate and invest in print as we believe it will remain an important part of the communication mix in the future.”
Phil McMullin, Head of Sales (Commercial and Industrial) at Epson UK, stressed the importance of shaking up the view of print: “Print is an innovative and sustainable business with a great future; important to the UK manufacturing industry both in terms of profit and the number of people employed. It’s clear to us at Epson that the future of the print industry relies on us being able to attract young people into the industry.
“We need to get the message about print across through education – getting the right information cascaded down to the right people, who make the decisions. If we can change how end-users perceive print as creative, innovative and sustainable, that’s going to be a good thing for everybody.”
