Covid-19 lockdown created opportunities and threats in equal abundance. While many printers were busy diversifying into making PPE and floor/wall signage, some were additionally forging ever-closer associations with creatives.
Nutshell Creative Marketing experienced this trend first hand and captured the Government’s spirit of ‘we’re all in this together’, seeing an opportunity back in April to work ever closer together with technology providers and printers by launching an online hub called ‘Keep Calm and Communicate’.
It enabled marketers and printers to download and personalise public health messaging for their customers to use. All the creative had been done, as had the artwork; it proved a valuable web-to-print resource for many.
(Above and Below) Nutshell Trade Services has been created to provide the print sector with access to creative and marketing services for its own business development needs as well as those of its customer
Over the years, Nutshell has helped a number of printers develop their own business generation plans, as well as white labelling its marketing and creative services to their customers. Now seemed the perfect time to extend such support to other printers with the launch of Nutshell Trade Services. Help is provided in two ways:
- Strategic and tactical marketing support for printers’ own business development aspirations
- Marketing and creative design services for printers’ customers campaigns and projects.
“Our expertise is in marketing and creative services and bringing brands to life, in doing the legwork to diagnose where a business is at. In coming up with a strategy that takes them to where they want to be. And in creating the tactics that will enable them to get there,” says Lucy Swanston, Managing Director of Nutshell.
“Printers, like so many other organisations, aren’t always very good at promoting themselves. So our first service offering is to help them devise strategies and campaigns that will not only gain them new customers but will also increase awareness of the amazing innovations going on in this vibrant sector,” suggests Lucy, who adds: “Obviously, print will be at the heart of it!”
Nutshell’s second offering will see it partner printers so they can enhance their service offering and secure new projects from clients and print buyers. A proven way for the agency’s creative and marketing expertise to really make a difference.
“I remember reading an article a couple of years back claiming that printers weren’t marketers and decrying their offering ancillary services like marketing. The argument was ‘stick to your own lane’,” comments Lucy.
“It seemed brutal at the time, but the reality is that the only way that brands are going to see all the amazing and creative innovations coming out of the print industry is largely through their design agencies. And the truth is that unless these agencies are talking to their printers about more than just price then it’s an opportunity wasted,” she suggests.
Lucy recently helped facilitate the IPIA’s #PUNCHBACKPRINT online conference and a comment by panelist Ben Glazier resonated with her and many other delegates. He said that printers and creatives need to talk to each other, reflecting on how learning stops when people leave college unless agencies continue with workplace teaching.
“The fact is that each party isn’t aware of the capabilities of the other. We should be pulling together, harnessing all that knowledge and creativity for the good of brands,” says Lucy.
#punchbackprint ran a real live workshop over four sessions entitled ‘How to Sell Solutions’ (you can still catch the replays on the IPIA’s #punchbackprint website). It was a masterclass in action where a charity got the chance to brief a creative and marketing agency, and professionals from print and mailing houses.
It would be rare to see such a group gathered together around a boardroom table for a brief but this ‘virtual’ consultancy illustrated how much each party had to contribute in terms of strategic and tactical proposals.
Valued partners in print
Print can add real value to a campaign so it’s time that printers were seen as valued partners rather than price-pressured suppliers.
It’s no secret that print has been part of Nutshell’s 15-year history. It has a wealth of experience designing for print, publishing and paper, and has even picked up a few ‘gongs’ for its efforts along the way.
It has been fortunate enough to have worked with some amazing brands over the years, such as the Premier League and Costa Coffee. And while it has great designers, listeners and executors in its camp it puts its success down to more than that; it attributes it to working with valued suppliers and industry experts.
“They inspire us to create exciting and compelling campaigns that use their innovations, which enables us both to develop business and forge stronger and more trusted relationships with brands,” says Lucy.
Nutshell Trade Services has been created to provide the print sector with access to creative and marketing services for its own business development needs as well as those of its customers. It can help with:
- Creating powerful and effective campaigns
- Design and artwork production
- Concept work and presentations
- Maximising web-to-print opportunities
- Platforms to manage marketing campaigns
- That spark of innovation and channels to get brands noticed
See more about the service at trade.nutshellcreative.co.uk or email hello@nutshellcreative.co.uk.
If you’ve got a live project on which you need help call Nutshell on
