Marketers have more ways to reach consumers than ever before—at home, on the go, and in the office. Today’s marketing budgets continue to rise in the face of more channels, more technologies, and additional complexity in the overall process. According to the DMA Fact Book, advertising and marketing spend reached 347.5 billion in 2016, representing a 6.0% increase over 2015. To remain competitive in today’s growing but evolving market, print service providers must have a keen understanding of marketers’ demand for the print products, and the role print plays in channel integration.

According to the DMA Fact Book, offline marketing spend—which includes direct mail, shopper marketing, sponsorships, and teleservices—was valued at 147.8 Billion in 2016. According to NAPCO Research & Target Marketing, printed media accounted for a healthy 28.5% of the overall spending during that same year.

At the same time, big investments are flowing into data and data management. As data continues to expand rapidly, marketing and advertising spend is also increasing. Practitioners invested $11.87 billion on data and related services in support of direct mail, e-mail, and display advertising during 2016, up over 4% from the previous year. Direct mail continued to capture the largest portion of data budgets in 2016, accounting for $8.19 billion. Meanwhile, digital data spend (including data management, analytics, and technologies) is growing rapidly, up 35.1% year-over-year and reaching $2.33 billion in 2016.[1]