With less than a year to go to Cross Media 2012, the quickening pace of innovation in multi-platform integrated marketing campaigns is highlighting the need for this major new event.
Cross Media 2012, which will take place at London’s Business Design Centre on 3-4 September, will provide marketing professionals, commercial printers, publishers, advertising and creative agencies with a tightly-focused insight into the current capabilities and future potential of media such as print, the web, direct mail, email, SMS, PURLs, QR codes, mobile, video and social media. The event is organised by Informa Print Group, a division of Informa Exhibitions.
Says Event Director Nick Craig Waller, “Cross Media 2012 will bring together all the parties with a stake in the future of cross-media marketing. The concept is to combine demonstrations of products and solutions with strategic and tactical insights into how different channels and technologies work together.”
“2011 has been the year when marketers and their suppliers have realised cross-media is the future,” he continues; “Recent US research among print providers has found that almost 87% already offer cross-media or plan to within the next two years. The challenge now is to absorb what cross-media means in practice. This means more than simply understanding what different technologies do—we have to discover how to combine them to create effective, measurable campaigns. Meanwhile developments keep coming thick and fast. For example, no sooner have we started to get to grips with QR codes than Google decides to back Near Field Communication technology (NFC) and threatens to change the game again.”
Martyn Eustace, UK Country Manager for Print Power is also keen to support the concept of Cross Media 2012, as he believes this event will demonstrate the impact and interaction that print can play within a wider range of marketing initiatives.
Martyn comments: “Everyone in this industry understands the power of print, but as digital and social marketing initiatives evolve, it’s important to see how print and all these other new elements of the marketing mix can work together to generate the most effective communications message.”
The Cross Media show floor will be divided into four distinct zones — Print and Production, Design and Creative, Digital and Direct Marketing, and Social Media, Web and Mobile. Each zone will have theatres featuring a programme of keynote presentations, demonstrations, workshops and case-studies.
A number of leading cross-media suppliers have welcomed the concept of the 2012 event. Jon Tolley, Director of Prime Print Group, says: “Clients are scaling up their cross-media plans and increasing budgets, encouraged by response rates 20-30% higher than using print alone. An event like Cross Media will raise awareness of new technology among marketers. We’re looking forward to hearing from those involved in creating the campaigns, from advertising and marketing agencies to creative designers and brand managers.”
Alexander de Boissezon, VP of Marketing at web to print solutions provider Pixfizz also recognises the potential offered by Cross Media; “It demonstrates the breadth of communication channels available to the creative community and provides a tremendous opportunity to better understand the tools available, as well as to see what tools are most effective and produce the best ROI for a specific application and its needs,” he says. “There will surely be some innovative ideas and solutions shared and recommend it to all seeking to learn how to better leverage the cross-media portfolio.”
Equally supportive is Neil Bather, Managing Director of DirectSmile UK a leading provider of software, image personalisation, VDP and web-to-print for cross media marketing. Says Neil: “The concept of Cross Media 2012 is a perfect fit to the products DirectSmile offers and the markets we address. It is widely acknowledged that cross media marketing delivers great benefits in terms of marketing ROI. DirectSmile is committed to making these benefits available to a broad audience of service suppliers by making cross media production as simple and efficient as never before.”
Magazine printer Pensord is delighted to partner and support Informa at its inaugural Cross Media show in September 2012. “A show focused entirely on multi channel content delivery is just what professional publishers need and we hope our support will, in some way, ensure the event’s success” says Darren Coxon, Managing Director at Pensord. Darren adds, “The show fits entirely into our core business focus of ‘Content Delivery for Publishers Online, On Paper and On the Move”.
Xeikon too sees strong growth in cross-media applications, says Business Development manager Danny Mertens. “They range from simple web-to-print solutions to integrated campaigns using a mix of media and often very sensitive and complex data. Cross-media campaigns often require complex solutions, so education and information are very important. Forums where all the pieces of the puzzle come together are rare, so we see great value in events such as Cross Media 2012.”
“The future is about customer conversations, not disparate, one-off communications,” says David Baldaro, XMPie’s Sales and Channel Manager for the UK, Ireland & Middle East. “For print providers, marketers and agencies, it’s not about what individual technologies can achieve but how they can be integrated with each other. They need to understand how print and e-media can be combined with web-to-print and real-time analytics to create what we call Individualised Communications Management platforms.”
Peter Sommerville, Marketing Director of Denmaur Independent Papers welcomes Cross Media as “A great opportunity to promote the benefits of print as a tactile, visible, practical conveyor of information. Paper is a truly sustainable resource and I have no doubt, amongst all the digital noise, that it will continue to be used as an effective form of communication, whether in its own right or indeed supporting or complimenting digital solutions”.
Danny Morris, EFI’s Regional Sales Director for northern Europe, says cross-media “Heralds a new decade of innovation as businesses continue to develop new revenue streams and grow their capabilities, offering a broader range of products and services. Crucial to this will be innovations in the areas of proofing/production, MIS integration into the prepress workflow, and end-to-end JDF. Visitors to Cross Media 2012 will have a chance to see what the new decade will bring.
Other companies that have lent their support to the concept and opportunities offered by Cross Media 2012 include, Canon, Graphia Alliance, Lateral Group, Royal Mail and Shuttleworth.
For more information on Cross Media 2012, please visit www.crossmedialive.com
