Hi, it’s John Foley from interlinkONE and GrowSocially and I’m here at Graph Expo 2012. It’s pretty busy downstairs. I just got here, it just started about an hour ago. I saw all the vendors here. I think people are really excited.

It’s interesting because we have a changing industry and what’s next? I look at the marketing pavilion and see how much that has grown. I look at vendors that provide more than, that is, a manufacturer more than just providing a piece of equipment. They’re providing the tools and the equipment around it, not just the printer itself. I think that’s – and resources, so services. I like to see how that’s diversifying.

Someone asked me last night, “What do you see in the future of Graph Expo as an event?” I think we’re gonna see some monumental changes in order for it to actually grow versus contract. That’ll be in terms of marketing. I think the more marketing things that they can help their target audience with will actually help them grow and prosper versus stay in the transactional commodity business. And anybody that knows me knows that’s my shtick anyways but its reality. We have to find different things that people can learn to grow their business for service providers to actually thrive. There’s no such thing as survive for me. You have to thrive or grow your business.

So I think the shape of the shows will change. I think we’ll start bringing in folks that actually, that is, marketing things. Maybe we have sales seminars. We have all kinds of things in here and vendors that aren’t in just selling maybe a manufactured piece of equipment or software or mailing or inkjet. I think you’ll see other vendors come in – different types of software that come in here and do that. And everything from content management – maybe some inbound marketing – all these types of things will come in here and I think it will make and continue to have a very good event here.
?Today I thought I’d take a quick second and talk a little bit about mobile marketing for the print industry. Or let’s call it the marketing industry. I think today it’s a great opportunity – I hear on the streets that QR codes are already dead. They’re far from it. Much like print might be not dead in some marketing campaigns either but the reality is there’s so much opportunity for a service provider to embrace mobile communications like interactive print with a QR code or augmented reality.

I know you might be hearing it but really you should be practicing that today and just because the iPhone didn’t come out with a near field communication component doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be experiencing near field communication because it’s in the galaxy. What is it the S – I forget what particular model it is but - the Samsung Galaxy.

Anyways I think that service providers have a great opportunity to actually maximize on that, learn how to sell it, learn how to bring it in and listen to customers, try to reach their mobile audience because that’s really the value proposition that a service provider could give to their potential customers. I can help you reach your mobile audience. How do you do it today?

So anyways, that’s my two cents on mobile marketing for the service provider.