Corporate Publishing

Corporate publishing. And marketing collateral.

“Print is dead” … “Long live print!” These two statements can be read regularly in the media and are discussed by agencies. How this will develop in the future is open. The fact is that today, and in the near future, print media retain their place in the communications mix. In addition, we humans are equipped with different senses. All these senses want to be stimulated and experience something, including feeling. Through the tactile experience of a medium, the bond, the time spent with that medium, the remembering of content, and in some respects also the credibility increase. We are convinced of this at the agency. “Having seen it in black and white” gives information a different emphasis than “just googled that.”

Print-to-more: more efficiency for your print media

Print media can nowadays be used more effectively in many cases and synergies can be better exploited. Through the “print-to-more” approach, the agency implements print media in such an integrated way as to create the best possible price-performance ratio.

Print media can deliver information further to print media accessible via QR code on websites, for example. All too often, with print media, these links are simply placed at the end of a text or medium. It is not unusual for the same content to appear online as in the print media — perhaps somewhat supplemented or reformulated. For the reader, this is not very satisfactory, if the reader follows the link. And for the communicating company, it is a lost opportunity to bind interested readers even more strongly, to cross-sell, or to send additional brand messages.

At the agency, the “print-to-more” approach goes further. The idea here is to understand the print medium and its content as an “iceberg floating in the water.” The print medium is the top of the information and, at the same time, the basis for more: on the web, as an app, or somewhere else.

This approach is simpler, cheaper, and more quickly implemented than many think. Often, more information is already available. Two examples: During an interview for a customer magazine, the camera can run too, to be able to offer more multimedia later on. Or the existing sales presentations (PowerPoint or Presi slides) provide the storyboard for the soundtracked online multimedia presentation.

“Print-to-more” is about thinking in an integrated way with the depth of possible information. It provides important added value for expensive print media. The cost-benefit ratio is high. The print medium, which is, in reality, passive, creates more interactive and lasting communication. This efficiency approach creates success revolving around storytelling, content marketing, SEO campaigns, and other measures.

As an agency, we support corporate publishing and creating a full spectrum of marketing collateral. We do it from concept to buying advertisements. From editorial work to layout. From production to distribution of the magazine to your readership.

The success of corporate publishing success depends on professionalism: A good corporate medium offers exciting content as well as an appealing design and the credible communication of information. And … it distinguishes the brand and creates an emotional tie.

With a customer magazine, a customer newspaper, or a short customer newsletter, special target groups can be reached regularly over the long term in an interesting and entertaining way. Regular customers will be reinforced in the correctness of their decision for the company and its products. Potential new customers can be convinced of the company’s products and services. Through the objective editorial stance, you can represent the company, employees, partners, and environment in an authentic manner. The emotional effect of the brand grows, creates trust, and ensures loyalty.

Brochures, annual and company reports

Despite digitization, it is impossible to imagine marketing communication without printed matter in any form. Brochures, sales brochures, pamphlets, flyers, manuals, invitations, greeting cards… the printed media are still important. This is because holding something in your hand and reading it in black and white is, for many people, more real than viewing it on the monitor or onscreen. Therefore, hardly any company can do without printed media.

Annual reports and company reports have their own special quality. They are aimed at a very heterogeneous group of readers consisting of investors, stockholders, employees, journalists, and business partners, who concisely want to become informed about the company. The annual report has to meet several requirements: It must convey information in a very structured manner. It has to give a feeling for the company and its values. It must keep the balance between information content and emotion.

At the agency, the corporate design of the company forms the basis of the design and visual language of the annual report. The corporate design also places the different print media, from sales flyers to corporate brochures, into a hierarchy; thus, determines the layout concept for, for example, image level, general customer communication, and special product information. What arises is a clear picture of the company across all communication aims, and every medium makes a contribution to the brand.

Catalogs

Catalogs are information pure and simple: reference work, sales aid, revenue bringer. Product information is normally stored and maintained in databases. When it comes to creating catalogs, we at the agency exhaust all possibilities for combining a sales-oriented catalog design with technology. The key words here are PIM (product information management), databases, and database publishing. The goal: Increasing efficiency through generating a catalog faster at lower costs.

For us at the agency, working on a catalog — regardless of whether it is a product catalog with text and images or a trade fair catalog with text only — always starts with the analysis of the existing data supply. Where are which images and text content stored in which format and how can the information be exported and made usable for creative work? If it is not possible at the time of the analysis, we can do it at the latest when we have put our hands on it.

Then the possibilities for integrating data into the desired catalog design are explored. The layout is created and coordinated with the customer. Finally, the templates are programmed. The first standardized production run of the catalog can follow.

Two advantages result from this type of catalog production: First, making changes a short time just before printing is possible. Second, the catalog information can be output in various formats: for print production, as abridged editions for individual catalogs, for the online catalog, or in a special search system, etc. And of course, the data can also be used completely for online systems.

A well-thought-out catalog design in connection with database publishing leads to the standardized generation of catalogs, saving time and money in the process. The follow-on uses are manifold as well.