SPRING 2016_PROMOTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRINT MEDIA THROUGHOUT EUROPE
The beautiful game
Why print will be one of the stars of Euro 2016
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BRAND IN THE HAND Why content marketing is the success story of 2016 TRUSTED, ENGAGING, EFFECTIVE The enduring appeal of newspapers for advertisers SURPRISE THE SENSES Give your marketing the wow factor with special inks and finishes THE DIGITAL BACKLASH Will print get a boost from privacy concerns and adblocking?
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FINISHING TOUCHES The range of stunning treatments and effects you can add to print is expanding rapidly, giving you the ability to add the wow factor to your marketing — By Simon Creasey
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A
at a time when consumers are bombarded
with a cacophony of noise from competing media channels, it’s never been more challenging for print to stand out from the crowd. Although different finishes can be added to print to help it create cut-through, such as die-cutting, foiling and embossing, these finishes can be costly and time-consuming. As a result, a growing number of marketers are turning to special inks, substrates and treatments that can be completed in a single pass on press and elevate a piece of print way beyond the ordinary. The number of possibilities with treatments and effects are increasing every week, but here are just a few that are catching the eye of forward-thinking marketers.
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Thermochromic Thermochromic inks and varnish react to heat and are a great way of surprising people by revealing a previously unseen image. Steve Middleton, sales director at Celloglas, says thermochromic varnish can be set to an accuracy of within one degree and the effect is “interactive and really gets consumers involved in the brand”. Steve cites a recent example where the company applied a wine glass-shaped varnish onto a wine box and when the box reached room temperature it revealed the words ‘Ready to drink’. Celloglas also did a special cover for Computer Arts magazine in November last year using thermochromic inks that revealed hidden printed messages when the ink was rubbed. Metallic board Printing onto mirrored metallic board is an inexpensive way of giving an image a premium look and has been used by a number of magazines for special covers, including Esquire, Wired and Empire. Mirri, a division of Celloglas, supplies a special metallic substrate available in gold and silver to printers who use a UV press to cure the inks. High intensity inks When BSkyB wanted to create a direct mail campaign to launch its Sky Q product it wanted a premium offering. “Our brief to the creative agency as well as the printers was that we wanted the best in class creative and fi nish,” explains Kirstin Phillipson, senior marketing manager at BSkyB. A key element of the pack was the use of vibrant high intensity inks, which are incredibly eyecatching and can be printed on conventional
The book you can cook The Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Zini designed an annual report for food company Podravka that had to be baked in an oven before it could be read. Titled 'Well Done', the report features blank pages printed with thermochromic ink that, after being wrapped in foil and cooked at 100°C for 25 minutes, reveals text and images in the illustrations of empty plates within the book. Get it wrong however, and like any other baked product, it will burn and make its contents unusable.
Mirror mirror (Left) Magazines such as Esquire have used the highly reflective Mirri board to great effect, giving the publication fantastic stand-out value on the newsstand
presses. According to Phillipson, the resulting DM pack more than met the brief. “It’s the most premium direct mail Sky has ever done,” she says. “It’s world class and has real impact.” Virtual embossing Merck has developed a 3D Evolution technology that enables users to print 3D effects on standard materials using conventional printing presses. First a standard image is printed offset then the sheet is transported to the second coating unit for the ‘3D’ effect and UV curing. The effect is applied to the still-damp coating using a 3D Evolution polymer plate, which creates an impression of depth – it’s effectively a 3D illusion that can be seen but not touched. The technique can be used
A different angle for Sky The April 2016 issue of Wired magazine featured a stunning 3D lenticular cover wrap to promote the launch of Sky Q. The lenticular wrap appears to show the image moving as the reader shifts their angle of sight. “We are very proud to be working with Sky and to have been chosen as the only title in the UK to run this creative,” said Nick Sargent, Commercial Director of Wired, “proving that Wired is the title of choice for interesting and innovative campaigns across all of our platforms, with print remaining at the heart of the Wired brand.”
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“ It’s the most premium direct mail Sky has ever done. It’s world class and has real impact” Kirstin Phillipson, senior marketing manager at BSkyB
for a wide range of different applications including magazines and direct mail. Another company offering the ability to add an extra dimension to print is ColorLogic through its Pattern-FX technology, which is targeted at digital printers. Pattern-FX uses five inks – white plus CMYK – printed onto a reflective surface to create a series of different patterns, including watermarks. “It’s taken off in all markets, but especially in direct mail because it stands out so much,” says Mark Geeves, director of sales and marketing at Color-Logic. “Ricoh used this technology in some of its direct mail pieces in Europe, and because of the white ink in the pattern it creates an embossed effect – it’s got a real texture to it.”
The wipe-off skincare advert Product samples have always been a great way to get your brand known, but it’s rare that samples are able to be demonstrated in the pages of a magazine. Skincare brand Neutrogena worked with Brazilian weekly Caras to create a special cover on which the reader could try their Deep Clean wipes for themselves. Using the free wipes, the reader is able to rub the makeup off the model’s face, showcasing the product’s effectiveness and the ability of print to interact with its readers.
Photochromic Photochromic inks change colour when they are exposed to sunlight or UV light. So for instance, you might have a standard black and white image printed on the cover of a magazine, newspaper or piece of direct mail, but when you go outside into the sunshine it turns into a beautiful picture full of colour. Using this technique, the DDB agency in Sao Paulo created a magazine insert that neatly highlighted the need for sunblock for the Sundown brand of sun cream (see images, left). The insert invites the reader to guess which of the two sunbathers is wearing sunblock. When exposed to the sun’s UV rays, the image of the man quickly becomes red, while the woman keeps her tanned colour. “These inks are proving to be particularly popular with charities who are looking to raise awareness of the damage that UV rays can cause to the skin,” says Oliver Dredge, materials consultant at SFXC. Colour shifting inks These inks can’t literally change colour, but they reflect various wavelengths in white light in a different way, depending on the angle of sight. The effect has been used for a wide range of different applications, including magazines and direct mail. When combined with pigments of other colours, Dredge says these inks can yield an “exceptional range” of colour shift possibilities and make an eye-catching and engaging effect. “If you look at an image from one angle it might appear white, but as you move it you get a shimmer of red or green,” he adds.
Spead the warmth with print The charity Age UK used a magazine cover wrap to highlight the problem of the elderly not being able to afford to heat their homes. By using heat-sensitive thermal ink, some objects in the pictured room glowed orange when readers placed their hands over them, showing how older people can be made warmer through donations. The wrap led to 910,000 donations from readers to Age UK’s campaign, with a 625% lift in donations from a younger audience.
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