Agfa Graphic Systems is on a mission to promote print as the medium of choice. The company announced the appointment of industry veteran Mac Byrd to aggressively promote Agfa's solutions to print buyers, and emphasize Agfa's commitment to print as the preferred communications medium. As part of this week’s Print Buyer coverage, WhatTheyThink.com spoke with Mac to understand what he plans to accomplish in this new role.

Prior to joining Agfa, Byrd held a number of positions with Eastman Kodak. Most recently, Byrd was Kodak's senior worldwide B2B Marketing Director, where he was responsible for media buying and production in the entertainment industry. Byrd has also worked as a management consultant to the music, healthcare, security, not-for-profit and religious industries, as well as Conde Nast Publications, DuPont and Hoechst/Celanese Corporation.

We also spoke with Susan Wittner, Marketing Director, Agfa Graphic Systems to get insight on their support of the Print IT! campaign. See the side bar below.

WTT: Clearly, there has been a lot of hype around new media as an effective communication channel. Agfa states that new media depends upon print for creative. What do you mean by that?

MB: Just like print, new media relies on graphics to communicate a value proposition to targeted audiences. The Internet is rich with graphic art, and the increased availability of broadband communications, with all of its horsepower, makes access to graphic-rich media easier than ever before. Emerging mobile visual communications technology will also have a graphics-oriented backbone for the same reason – color sells; pictures get noticed.

Currently the printing industry is the unchallenged leader in producing quality portable graphics, and other media are using our industry as a benchmark. In print, near photographic quality can be achieved, archived, manipulated, and applied to various media output – magazines, collateral advertising, outdoor advertising, bus wraps, Internet banners, flyers, brochures, television and more. Graphic images are even used in motion pictures to bring life to a scene.

Brand managers want to get their products out there in a memorable, impressive and compelling manner. Only Print affords them an efficient means to create an effective product image, and communicate it over and over and over again to their targeted audiences, causing those audiences to take action.

In its purest form, I’m talking about the management of content. Digital Asset Management (DAM) is one of the greatest needs for brand managers and print buyers today. A good DAM system can save them millions of dollars by facilitating the repurposing of images for use across many media platforms.

While there is clearly room for all types of media in the communications process, brand managers and media buyers will continue to need the expertise of the printing industry in data creation, capture, manipulation, management, distribution and output -- regardless of what form that takes. Who knows how to do this in a more efficient and economical way than the Print producers of today?


WTT: In an interview with WhatTheyThink.com this week, Bob Lieber, CEO of advertising agency LLKFB and a buyer of millions of dollars in print annually, talked about the increasing prevalence of broadband communications as a key driver that makes B2C electronic communications more effective than in the past by increasing the ability to deliver high-impact material at very little cost. How do you see that playing out with respect to its impact on print volumes?

MB: Take a look at some of the media statistics over the last 40 years. Forty years ago, when we did not have the technologies of today, the average person was hit daily with relatively few promotional images, and then only from a limited number of communications media. Today, the average person in the United States is hit with somewhere around 4,000 images a day (sometimes I think we get that much Internet spam alone in a day!). Newer technologies have always entered the communications and advertising industry, providing the very thing we call "media mix" – radio, television, cable television, the Internet, the explosion in outdoor media, the mind-boggling magazine growth, color in newspapers, point of purchase kiosks -- all of these add to continuously expanding options available for communicating and promoting.

There is no doubt that new media marketing and communications has proven itself to be a powerful tool that is a necessary part of the entire media mix for brand marketers to utilize. But new media is only that: a component of a media mix that still relies heavily on print – the two complement each other. For example, when you originate an image for a Print campaign, you have already paid a large portion of your production costs for many other new media placements. And that’s part of my mission – to educate brand marketers and creatives on assuring that other communications vehicles work in concert with Print. Print is still the best choice to deliver that ‘killer image’ quickly, cost-effectively and with quality that blows audiences away. Their challenge is, then, leveraging that work to other media.


WTT: There is no question that print run lengths, particularly in the sheetfed environment, are declining as companies become more reluctant to print to inventory. That trend, combined with the ease and increased effectiveness of alternative channels of communication, would seem to spell an overall decline in volumes in the sheetfed segment. What has to happen to counteract such a decline?

MB: Economic pressures are forcing more effective controls over inventories, no doubt. Sheetfed printing may find itself producing shorter and shorter runs, but that also presents exciting new opportunities for targeted communications using variable data and personal printing. In order to counteract the natural and expected declines in sheetfed printing, printers today need to be aware of other services opportunities and diversify their offerings to customers accordingly. As the competition becomes fiercer, the need for printers to differentiate themselves to brand marketers and print buyers becomes even more important. This differentiation comes from partnering with a supplier that can deliver the quality, speed and cost reductions necessary to compete and succeed – whether that be through automated workflow, closed-loop color management, quality screening or CTP.

Let’s face it, we’ve been hearing about the death of print for years -- remember when computers were going to eliminate the need for paper in the office? According to PIA research in 2002, the Printing industry has reached about $166 billion a year. That’s an amazingly long run of sustainable growth since the invention of the printing press and litho stone, amid all of the dire projections of doom. While it is clear that there will continue to be media mix shifts, the portability and the flexibility of Print is far too compelling – too powerful – for a media buyer or a brand manager to ignore.


WTT: How do you see one-to-one communications versus shorter-run versioned communications playing out in the market, particularly with respect to volume shifts from conventional offset to digital devices, and the impact on print volumes overall?

MB: Print volumes are changing and communications vehicles are evolving, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that Print is still a part of it all – just in different ways. The need for consistent quality of the brand remains, and the need to manage creative content across multiple outputs is key. The way I see it, digital devices only serve to enhance the availability and accessibility of Print. It is now possible to produce impactful graphics in small quantities and still remain extremely cost-effective.


WTT: So to sum it up, what is the key message you will be sending to today’s print buyers?

MB: When it comes to your media mix, look to Print to deliver the specific actions that you want your target audience to take. With today’s technology advancements in workflow, inkjet screening and CTP, manufacturers such as Agfa can help print be cost effective and sustainable. Print is powerful. Print is efficient. Print is quality. Print brings results.


WTT: Thanks for speaking with us today. We will look forward to watching the impact this initiative will have on our industry.

MB: Thank you. Now you know why, for over 20 years, I’ve been referred to as The Evangelist of Print Media!