Big Picture - May 2018 - 38

The Next Step for
Graphic Arts: Interactivity

BIG PICTURE

May 2018

by Dan Johansen, Senior Manager Wide Format

In the print industry, just about everyone's talking about
how fast wide-format printing is growing and evolving. With
the recent explosion in omnichannel campaigns, it only
makes sense to look for new ways to leverage and blend
both traditional print signage and electronic communications for even greater results.
According to analysts at Keypoint Intelligence, the North
American wide-format print market is expected to experience a 4 percent compound annual growth rate through
2021, with banners, posters, P-O-P, and sign graphics
representing 80 percent of that growth. Now is a great time
to be in the wide-format and signage and graphics market,
as technological advancements drive down costs and turn
times while broadening capabilities to help create breathtaking applications.
Thanks to the rise of augmented reality (AR) and related
technologies, the line between physical and electronic
communication is blurring. AR takes elements of the real
world, typically through a camera, and adds additional
substance to it. Perhaps the most famous example is
"Pokémon Go," the mobile game that allows users to battle
and capture familiar cartoon critters superimposed on the
backdrop of the real world and rewards players for walking
around outside on the lookout for new enemies and
in-game experiences. This is different from virtual reality,
which takes place wholly in artificial environments. Ultimately, AR is opening up new ways for people to interact with
their world - and with brands.
For communicators, this presents an opportunity to
overlay digital experiences on top of physical media. An

example: a pedestrian notices a P-O-P display advertising
an upcoming concert, and, through an AR interface, the
recipient can check out videos of the band's past live shows,
buy tickets, or invite their friends. AR can even make basic
calls to action for physical signage easier to complete and,
therefore, make them more likely to succeed. Instead of
taking down a sale reminder or tearing off a tab for contact
information at the bottom of a poster, recipients can save
coupon data directly to their smartphones, or fill out a
digital form instantly from their tablet.
AR provides audiences the opportunity to learn more
about the ideas in a physical sign, whether it's in the form of
videos, static documents, or websites. This makes effective
physical signage even more effective. Once the physical
communication's hook succeeds and a recipient begins
exploring its AR potential, they spend more time with a
communicator's messaging and are presented with more
opportunities to engage with calls to action. Even more
exciting is that the content can be driven by the communicator, and not controlled by traditional Search Engine
Optimization, where the highest paying advertiser will
dictate what you see. Controlling your messaging is critical
to ensuring the return on your marketing investment.
Some AR solutions, such as Ricoh's Clickable Paper, even
allow communicators to update campaigns on the fly.
Historically, if a sign was ineffective, you might not know
until the campaign was over, and if you wanted to try again,
you'd have to put the money into printing a new set of
applications - and then wait just as long, again, to see if it
worked. With Clickable Paper, metrics can be accessed, and
updates made immediately. For example, is a 15-percent-off
sale announcement not making the splash you'd hoped?
Now you can immediately change the signage to represent
a discount of 20 percent, then reassess.
This is just the start. AR provides near endless opportunities. As AR continues to grow, more innovators will get
onboard, pushing it in new and interesting directions. We're
on the precipice of many exciting opportunities in how we
communicate and interact with graphic arts and signage. The
only question is, how are you going to make the most of it?

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - May 2018