Page 11 - Print21 Magazine May-June 2022

From the Editor
Super changes
22 Size matters
In a big change for our retirement savings, the industry’s super fund Media Super is now part of the much larger Cbus. Print21 editor Wayne Robinson asks Cbus CEO Justin Arter what the merger means for Media Super members.
Marketing
New opportunities
70 Augmented Reality
Christophe Bussot says the time for printers to bring
AR into their offerings is now.
Legals
Long term leases, trademarking
Legal eagle Wal Abramowicz outlines the potential hazards in both long- term leases and in trademarking your slogan, as recent court cases highlight enforcement difficulties.
Columns, News, Views, Reviews
14
76
77 PVCA
As the PVCA prepares to merge with TRMC, new president
Peter Clark says
the association is ready to lead in these challenging times.
78 PrintNZ
CEO Ruth Cobb
says the easing of restrictions is a call to get out and about.
80 People in Print
All this month’s movers and shakers from the non-stop world of ANZ print – who is buying,
who is selling, who is fraternising.
90 Print’s Diary
Events are back,
here and overseas, and all in the Print21 essential Diary.
fter two years of trial and tribulation, the likes of which we have never before seen, and hopefully never will again, the print industry now faces a new future, and one it can face with optimism.
Some former certainties are disappearing, while new opportunities are emerging. For instance, the printed newspaper sector is much slimmed down, and while unlikely to go the way of printed street directories for now, will never regain its former pre-eminence, On the other hand, Covid was a boon for label printing, especially those who produced millions of metres of hand sanitiser labels, and new digital print technology means labels are now within reach of all printers.
The display graphics sector was hammered, with many markets such as expos, conferences, sports, concerts, tourism, shut completely, with commuter and retail spluttering their way through the last two years. But that market is now roaring back, and is on track to reach the record levels it achieved in the year before Covid, and, even more so than labels, the technology means any print business can become a display graphics printer.
One of the big heatset printers has exited New Zealand completely as the market shrank, but on the other hand a new short-run packaging pouch printing business has set up in Australia, using new technology to help small brands make a big impression.
Digital communication channels continue to stake a claim, but those in the know, such as marketing guru Malcolm Auld writing in this issue, show that the physical beats the virtual hands down, every time.
Whichever way you look there are momentous changes underfoot, but print, able to adapt to a changing environment as it always has, especially over the past 100 years, has shown throughout Covid that it remains a core platform for communication, and that bodes very well for the future.
Reasons to be optimistic include the exciting development
that sees the industry’s two big associations Print & Visual Communications Association and The Real Media Collective set to merge into one ‘super body’.
Bringing together the complementary strengths of the two groups into one association is great news for printers and the print industry. Everyone from the prime minister to a suburban kids’ footy coach knows that unity is strength. Having one body to represent print will bring clarity, precision and strength to the industry and its voice. The commitment and talents of the board members and the execs is clear for all to see.
PacPrint will mark both an end and a beginning, the end of the Covid nightmare, the beginning of a new era, where print builds on its strengths, and moves forward with confidence into the new world. 21
Physical outperforms virtual every time Marketing guru Malcolm Auld
says combining digital technologies with print gives impressive
results in personalisation.
RAeasons for optimism
Keep up to date with print:
Go to Print21.com.au
exclusive print industry news, from the people who know print
Wayne Robinson
– Editor
Print21 MAY/JUNE 2022 11