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By Editor Morten B. Reitoft 

9:00

Intergraf President Ulrich Stetter opens the Print Matter · For the Future event. Welcoming a fully registered conference where Intergraf and nopa members see each other for the first time in two years. Yesterday opened with a cocktail party, very nicely organized with many nice and interesting people!

Stetter starts with a view on the current status of the industry. Paper, energy, shortage, demand, products/applications, sustainability - everything is covered and leads up to the agenda that will be discussed during the day.

The program and information about the event can be found here.

9:30

The next speaker is Alejandro Mata Lopez, Director Europe Packaging and Graphic Paper, Fastmarkets Risi. He is talking about the Paper Price developments, but maybe more importantly giving background information for the reasons why the situation is as it is.

He is even talking about a bobble effect that will soon burst. 

The demand for paper is decreasing. The demand decreased more during the pandemic and had a strong rebound, but though with huge insecurity in the numbers Alejandro Mata Lopez predict a return to the "normal" downward curve from 2023.

Alejandro Mata Lopez Now presents how much the higher energy prices influence the competitiveness. Ukraine is, of course, also on the agenda. This is less about the war, but about why Ukraine plays a role in our industry. The production at risk from Ukraine - mainly uncoated paper is 21,000 tonnes.

The biggest negative effect of the war is of course the inflation. Alejandro Mata Lopez is talking about the long-term effect and potentially turning this into a recession!

Pulp prices are record high and will (as we also have written in this article) not fall to pre-pandemic prices, but with a slightly lower baseline compared to today! Selling prices are following the production cost almost 1:1.

Of course, your humble editor had to ask a few questions - so here we go: Do Alejandro Mata Lopez have any stats on how the supply/demand is influencing the fine papers - and whether high prices will potentially re-open mills.

On the first question, Alejandro Mata Lopez promised to get back to me - on the second - he said he doubt that anybody will take the risk of investing in mills, but he also said that some MIGHT be willing to do if the machines have been kept "warm" during the pandemic.

10:00

Nick Rudikoff, campaign Director of UNI Global Union participates virtually from Geneve. The title of his presentation is Amazon World: Impacts on print and publishing.

Amazon influences EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY - and for those who don't know - Amazon is not just a retailer, but is so much more - just look at the photo below, in case you are not aware. Bezos is the second richest individual in the world - and he hadn't shared with his now-divorced wife - by far the richest!

One of Bezos's sayings according to Rudikoff is "Your Margin is my opportunity - Jeff Bezos" - and this is, of course, worth consideration!

Audible, Alexa, Prime, IMDb, Amazon, Kindle, AWS, Twitch, Amazon Pay, Amazon Logistics, Whole Food, Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh - and think about it - a serious printing company with access to all the money they need, the best distribution, and even a retail space - work with them or against them??

Nick Rudikoff explains how Amazon eats every business it can for breakfast - and how it even uses profits in one area to support competition in others - which is, by all means, normal for businesses. 

Nick Rudikoff refers to the printing that happens within Amazon - as far as I remember they have three major printing sites - and they actually show how in this YouTube video!

He also mentions Amazon's acquisition of Kornit - but the 400 million USD investment is not a full acquisition of the company - but we will check and get back on this!

Great presentation and now a very important part of the program COFFEE :-)

And maybe Nick Rudikoff refers to the 400 million USD Amazon bought KORNIT machines for...
But you can see share developments here:

11:00

The next session, starting in a few minutes, I look particularly forward to. A capitalistic driven company with a Marxist approach to profit-sharing - is more or less how Simon Biltcliffe presents himself. He will at the Print Matters for the future be speaking about The Strategic Evolution of Print Management. He is the CEO of UK-based Webmart but is well-known for provocative knocks when possible!

Simon Biltcliffe starts his session excusing that he is wearing a jacket for the first time in a long time, not even why. BUT more seriously he is about to start a presentation about the history of print management - and hopefully also where we are today.

First slide or actually second he titles himself as "Dr. Simon Biltcliffe - A Marxist-Capitalist (R)evolutionary" - does this set the stage? Of course :-)

Started his business in print management by analysing the market - some printers are above, some below average without knowing it :-)

And part of the journey for Webmart is happy employees - and the result is considerably higher productivity (sales per employee) - now with the purchasing power of 20,000,000+ pounds annually!

Webmart is an omnichannel design/campaign/print management company that uses all the newest tools for delivering relevant print/communication to their customers!

If you want to know about his business and views - watch this TEDtalk

Webmart could do "ok" even with no revenue for two years, Biltcliffe say at the event - and also state that they pay their suppliers in seven days. All the right things for many printers to keep working - and my guess - being one of the best customers you can get!

If you like to dig into the latest reported earnings/balance - find it here.

Webmart has developed a carbon mail calculator, so the carbon footprint is accounted for and can be offset! The solution is called Enviromail and has its own website - read more about it here!

The latest recognition Webmart has got is the Certified B Corporation (B for Benefit). Biltcliffe quote this to be one of the most important recognitions - read more about B Corp here.

Amazing how Biltcliffe brings new dimensions to the office environment - and also how incentives are built around profit-sharing called the Sexi Scheme - and not - it has nothing to do with SEX :-)

11:30 (actually 11:36) :-)

Now Maria Johansen from Zuora is speaking - about subscriptions! 

From book club subscriptions to Netflix. Maria Johansen speaks about how Netflix started by sending DVDs to customers with a return envelope.

Subscriptions are also about getting market shares. Netflix is the leader in films, and probably Spotify is for music. Maria Johansen speaks about different companies - and how they use subscription models. Now talking about how the company Fender uses subscriptions to engage musicians by giving them education!

Why are companies interested in the subscription economy? Johansens claim is that consumers don't want to own and always want the most recent. She is also talking about the change from physical to digital.

Growth in the subscription economy is growing six-fold - quite amazing!

What's next? Consumers expect personalization - personal, recurring surprises, immediate Fulfillment, real-time, memorable services - interesting, but of course now new :-) 

Maria Johansen speaks about the space above the Core Subscription box, where you can add added value to core subscribers. The core subscribers could be interested in more tailored content based on you, your needs, your consumption, etc. 

Maybe - or almost certainly - the subscription economy will change how we see content, how we create products and services, and how the product life cycle needs us to think differently!

Great presentation!

12:00

Next topic is How to make Door Drops Work - by Eduard Quintana from Traycco.

Traycco has specialized in mailing to 158 million households in 16 European countries! The number of marketing pieces delivered to households is very different across Europe. Households in the Netherlands on average top with 35 different pieces per week. 

We shouldn't fight "digital", but combine digital - so in other words embrace the omnichannel. 

Combining multiple channels will better reach different segments in the market. Young people are not really interested in the door drop channel!

Door Drops are effective. The effect can be measured. According to Eduardo Quintana, 18.2% of the door drops used Mcdonald's coupons - and other interesting results - proving the effect of door drop marketing!

More and more data are accessible to marketers. In the slide, he is now showing you customer data, modeled data which gives the advertiser a proposed targeting model for the best ROI. Eduardo Quintana previously talked about how much the paper shortage and prices influence the Door Drop business. Could be interesting to know if postage increases have a similar effect and where the pain threshold is - are we close or far from?

Don't measure the value of Door Drops on one campaign. Sometimes you will need to do more, as you can see from the graph, the effect comes with patience!

The biggest threat to door drops is opt-ins - and yes - that's a genuine threat!

12:30 and lunchtime - I will stop reporting now as I will also need to leave a bit earlier for the airport - thank you for following!

Next week office works planning for our LIVE coverage at FESPA in the week after. Hope to see many friends and followers in Berlin!

Thank you INTERGRAF and NOPA

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1 Comments
user

user

If a printer was a restaurnt, they would be the person who delivers eggs. Where they need to be is delivering the omelette, cooked to the customer's specifications. That is where the value is, and accordingly the profit. Personalized omelettes, made to order. Personalized print products, made to order. Value.

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