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Print Article“Print from Digital” Push
Dealer and Consumer Initiatives To Promote Printing Digital Images at Retail
by Dan Havlik
For retailers, the campaign includes Digital AdMaker 2.0, a free
web-based resource for PMA members that provides professional print
and broadcast advertising materials that can be tailored to a
retailer’s particular market. Located at
http://admaker.pmai.org, the resource offers free ad slicks and
short television and radio spots which retailers can use to promote
prints from digital.
Consumers, in turn, will be courted through the new “Print
from Digital” promotional campaign which includes a
PMA-sponsored website, www.prints-are-memories.com, providing
digital camera users with tips on how to make prints from their
digital images.
Another component of the campaign is the Qualified Digital
Processing Center program which helps consumers find qualified
retailers who can make prints from digital images.
“It’s all part of a coordinated effort to get consumers
to think about printing digital images at retail because a lot of
times they only think of printing at home,” said Ted Fox,
executive director of PMA.
PMA’s recent push is perhaps the largest industry effort
so far to inform the public they don’t have to let their
digital images lie fallow in cameras and on hard drives. Despite
efforts by some manufacturers, and by photo retailers themselves,
many digital camera users remain confused about what to do with
their digital images once they’re captured. According to a
recent InfoTrends survey, 39% of digital camera users in 2003 were
not even aware they could print their images at retail. With
statistics showing that photofinishing has taken a hit in recent
years, largely because of digital, the effort to promote printing
from digital at retail has been seen as something of a panacea for
the industry.
“Digital cameras are going to be the hottest product at
Christmastime this year, so now’s the time to get them
printing,” Fox said, explaining why PMA decided to launch the
campaign when it did in late fall of 2003.
He emphasized that because many so-called soccer moms are used to
taking film to retail to get prints made, they’re already
familiar with the process.
“Today and tomorrow’s digital camera users are going to
be the soccer mom and she’s stretched for time but
she’s also the family archivist so she wants to make prints.
And she’s probably mad at her husband who’s been
storing all these images on the hard drive,” Fox said.
“I don’t think it’s a tough nut to crack. I think
she’s already on board.”
The ad material from Digital Admaker stresses this point. One print
ad shows a memory card shaped like a roll of film with the
headline: “Shoot 35mm or Digital? We Print Both.”
Another shows the plastic photo holder in a wallet filled with a
CD, two memory cards and a jump drive. The headline on the ad
reads: “Preserve Memories...Make Prints! We Print
Digital.”
The campaign has already started to catch the interest of PMA
members. John Moore, president and CEO of Photomagic Professional
Imaging in Austin, TX said his store and two other camera stores
and photo labs on Lamar Avenue in Austin, are considering using one
of the TV spots as a cooperative advertising commercial on a local
cable channel. The businesses are hoping to run the spot, with all
the stores’ logos included at the end, some time in the
Spring.
“[Getting prints from digital at retail] is a message that
has been lost. It just hasn’t gotten out there, and this is
exactly what this ad does so well” Moore said. “I
can’t believe the industry as a whole hasn’t been able
to drive that point home.”
To get the message across to an even larger audience, Moore
suggested that PMA ask members to pitch in $100 apiece to get one
of the spots running on national television.
“It would really serve to drive prints back to the place
where people made them before, which is photo specialty,” he
said.
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