According to research conducted by Zussi Research for the digital marketing show ad:tech London, traditional advertising is perceived by consumers as more informative, entertaining, and necessary than online advertising. Of more than 1,200 people surveyed for ad:tech London, 69% believed traditional advertising was relevant to them, compared with 45% for online. In the 25-34-year-old bracket, the gap widens further: 81% believed traditional advertising was relevant, compared with 53% for online. Annoyance around advertising on the Web is twice as high online as offline. Comments made were that digital advertising is "ill-structured," "mainly irrelevant," and represents a bigger, unwanted distraction. Such data present even more opportunities for 1:1 printers and marketing services firms to encourage customers to use 1:1 printing. While many people think of online media as the ultimate personalization medium, it's not working out that way. Notes Christophe Asselin, ad:tech conference and marketing director in a press release, "Customers aren't responding positively the way that the industry believes. While we are witnessing some amazing online campaigns out there, this research simply shows that the overall advertising and marketing community isn't hitting the mark with online users. Customers are becoming more and more savvy to online marketing tactics and are less forgiving toward sloppy and clumsy practices mainly adapted from the old mass media communication model." Here is a real opportunity for those involved in 1:1 printing. Combined with the fact that consumers — including those in the coveted 18-34-year-old bracket — actually prefer direct mail and newspapers over online marketing and 1:1 printing has a real opportunity to pack a punch. Unlike online marketing models, where the personalization can actually seem completely random and even totally inappropriate, true data-driven print campaigns are far more targeted and intentional. This creates a relevance far higher than the average online campaign. The ubiquity of online ads and e-mail communications also has created a marketing haze that inevitably causes people to tune out. In a great irony, the darling of the marketing world (online advertising) is getting its own way. Meanwhile, as the amount of mail in consumers' mailboxes shrinks, individual advertisers' print marketing is now starting to stand out and become more effective because it's, well, print. There's a real opportunity now for print marketers — especially those using 1:1 techniques — to get under the online marketing radar and develop solid customer relationships that online marketers are still scrambling. So tell your customers. Make it print. Make it relevant. Make an impression.