Intelligent Print: 4 Lessons Extended Reality Can Teach Us About Print Marketing

This morning, I tested out 10 pairs of glasses and a new sofa. I didn’t even have to leave the dining table; the latest shopping experiences let me try before I buy using augmented reality. I got most of the information I needed to make a buying decision without putting down a credit card or waiting for items to arrive at my door. 
 
Extended reality (XR) blends our physical and digital worlds to create more immersive experiences, and technology is quickly changing how we shop, play, learn, and work. While DCG ONE is already using XR to build first-of-their-kind experiences for brands like MOD Pizza and the Seattle Kraken, the latest advances are also reinventing one of our oldest marketing channels: print. 

The invention of the printing press in 1440 started a revolution in literacy and communication. It was the key to humanity’s first mass communications. Even in Ancient Egypt, mail has been traced back to 2000 BC, when pharaohs used couriers to send important messages. Thousands of years later, we still treasure the novelty of getting something special sent straight to our mailbox.   

So how can you make print a more intelligent part of your marketing efforts? 

Elevate your message into an experience 

With XR, we gain new ways of interacting with spaces. 

• Virtual reality replaces our physical environment with an entirely new digital space we can enter right where we are. 
• Augmented reality lets us see the real world while adding interactive digital overlays. 
• Mixed reality blends the two, mapping your physical environment to make real and virtual objects operate as one. 

Likewise, your print marketing can blend the physical and digital to create interactive moments for your audience.

Of course, the most literal way to apply this idea is to add XR to your print marketing for immersive storytelling or virtual demos. But you can also coordinate the timing of print delivery with emails and other digital activations that turn a piece of mail into a personalized multi-channel campaign. You can create physical event spaces with social media activations. Or you can use URLs and QR codes to connect the dots between print marketing and your digital channels. However you do it, bridging the worlds of print and digital marketing can create experiences that are easy to use and hard to forget. 

Give your audience the reigns 

It’s easy to see how XR embodies the saying “show, don’t tell.” These activations are far from a virtual billboard—it’s all about immersion in the brand. When your audience enters extended reality, they learn by doing. Within your virtual environment, they create, problem-solve, explore, and learn on their terms. They drive the experience. 

Your print marketing can feel more like play too. Integrating the physical and the digital is an opportunity to make static print assets feel more interactive. Let your audience choose their own adventure. Puzzles, games, challenges, visualizations, and inspiring environments transform your marketing into an unmissable event. 

Create an audience of one 

Together, data and customization can make XR feel like it was made just for you. In the ideation phase, companies can tailor experiences based on the data they already have about their audiences, then build in customizable environments, avatars, or settings so people make it their own. Personalization motivates people to keep engaging and exploring. Plus, it reinforces the idea that your brand understands exactly what they like. 

Personalization has come a long way in print, too. It’s no longer the case that everyone on your mailing list needs to get the exact same postcard. Personalized URLs (PURLs) and personalized QR codes (PQRs) can be generated for each unique recipient, incorporating names or preferences into the URL and directing them to personalized microsites to take the next step. In the few seconds you have to capture their attention, these personalized elements can keep your mail out of their junk pile. These tools also let you track audience behavior and better target future campaigns. 

Your campaign, made to measure 

In XR experiences, companies can track their audience through each step of the interaction, and through each step of virtual space. They collect data about interactions, preferences, and behaviors that help them measure their success and optimize the experience over time. 

In contrast, print has historically been thought of as a data void. Once it’s out of your hands, you’re unsure what happens to the flyers, brochures, direct mail, catalogs, and other print materials you created. Even when these materials convert, companies have relied on customers to self-report what influenced them to buy. But today’s print materials are far smarter. By implementing the other learnings above, you unlock more metrics to see how your print campaigns contribute to business outcomes. Even better, when you work with DCG ONE, we do all the reporting for you! 

You can track: 

• Informed Delivery email opens from USPS 
• Clickthrough rate (CTR) on ride-along content for Informed Delivery 
• CTR on PURLs 
• QR code scans 
• Website visits 
• Code redemptions 
• Behavioral data from XR activations in 3D 
• And more, based on your unique campaign 

All that to say, print is far from dead. With every advancement in technology, we find new ways to revitalize our oldest marketing tools and make them a centerpiece of your most advanced marketing efforts. 

When you need an expert opinion on how to make print work smarter for you, contact us. Our team of technologists and creatives can help you see what’s possible.