It took another 50 years, with “Club of Rome” in the  background advocating that we could not continue exploiting the word’s natural resources at the current pace, before consumerism and environmentalism really affected society’s expectations of business.  Based on the general idea that those with great power have great responsibility, many called for the business world to be more proactive in solving societal problems. Terms such as equal employment opportunity, product safety, worker safety, the environment and sustainability became common.

A star is born

Marketers saw great opportunities in these new trends and somewhere along the line, a marketing hype was born: CSR. What to think of this new approach? Milton Friedman, for example, would have been strongly opposed it. According to this American economist, the primary responsibility of business is to make a profit. If the free market cannot solve a social problem, it becomes the responsibility of government.  The obvious CSR response? Some problems are so huge and extend across so many borders that a government can’t solve them anymore. Furthermore large corporations create certain social problems, should they not attempt to address and solve them?

Well… yes, but marketers have gone way over the top, especially on the environmental side and by doing so, are loosing credibility. Electrical cars are promoted as “green cars” but at the same time someone forgets to tell consumers that we are in short supply of electricity and that 80% of the existing electricity produced is based on fossil fuels and the lion’s share of the remaining 20% comes from nuclear energy.

Banks promote electronic account statements instead of receiving them by paper mail. To protect the environment?  Some even support this by showing a clip featuring the amazon being cut away. Others promote online catalogues instead of paper versions. To protect the environment? Let’s not kid ourselves any longer!

The heart of the matter

I learned in my very first marketing lesson, from marketer avant la lettre Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Dear bankers and retailers: your audience is catching up with you. They can easily find out that tropical forests are cut for agricultural reasons to feed livestock, that this wood is not used nor even suited for paper production, but for furniture and flooring. They also can figure out that online viewing produces 20% more CO2 than reading a paper copy. Not to mention that consumers massively reject online catalogues and the majority still prefer paper account statements, because they have lost ‘the experience” of flipping through the pages or they feel more secure having their bank statements printed. About time to admit you just wanted to save costs.

Because of the overuse of the environment as a marketing theme, the term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt.  In a 1986 essay he noted that the actual objective of this “green campaign” was, in fact, increase profit.

What is now the common denominator of the thoughts of  Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Abraham Lincoln when it comes to protecting the environment?   Self-interest.

And self-interest is not a curse word. It shows our long-term perspective to ensure we are still in business in the future; that investments in society today will reap benefits in the future. And by doing so we make the world a better place. Absolutely nothing wrong with this!

Take Toyota as a case example. The inventor of the hybrid car. When you need power, the engine uses fuel to give the needed power while in the meantime producing electricity that is stored for later when speed is reduced, saving fuel consumption and reducing emissions. You do not need external power supplies, an infrastructure and the power plants to produce the electricity. Yes, it still burns fossil fuel, but far less than a full electrical car when you look at it’s total picture.

Another example is the airline industry, trying to renew their fleet with ever lower fuel consumption airplanes. Essential in a market where margins are squeezed to the decimals. But at the same time it reduces noise levels and emissions. And for every mile flown, some of them plant trees.  

2 examples that show how sustainability can go hand in hand with profit. Toyota would not have invented the hybrid engine to save the planet, but because there is a ever growing niche market for these applications.

So why not tell our customers the plain and simple truth?  If you want people to move to electronic correspondence, tell them about the increase of efficiency, the availability of the networks or the 24/7 service, but please stop misusing the planet discussion.  In this sense, paper is not a bad product, it inspires, sustains and protects. And for those who are still not convinced that paper is not a curse word, the latest issue of What’s Next covers the conclusion of a United Nations led seminar that states “paper is the solution to mitigate climate change”.

See u soon on my next blog post.

Now screens surround us. They’re everywhere you look, in airports, cars, grocery stores, and on gas pumps. And they’re closing in, on our desks, in our laps, and even in our pockets. In fact, screens far outnumber people.

Screens entertain, inform, challenge, and connect us. We watch them, write and work on them, play with them,…

Have you given much thought to screens? I often wonder: are they simply sheets of glass that deliver content? Or do they have distinct personalities? Moreover, do I behave differently when interacting with various kinds of screens?

Hmmm, let’s investigate this further. My TV is an old friend. I grew up with it, watched Germany score the winning goal in the last minute of every game, and was ecstatic when Eddy Merckx beat Zoetemelk on every climb. These are just a few of the magical moments I shared with my trustworthy mate.  My TV is a wonderful storyteller which knows how to make me smile, laugh, and cry.

What about my PC? It’s very different character in more ways than one.  For instance, my PC is   a practical companion and also a working tool.  I engage with it, and provide and receive information.  Instantaneously. There’s a continuous give and take.

Let’s look at a screen that never leaves my side: my mobile phone. It’s personal. It’s intimate. It’s always there. Everywhere I am. If truth be told, I feel completely lost when it’s not with me.

Last but not least is my tablet. New and still a bit unknown, but oh so versatile and flexible. It’s the start of a budding relationship.

But can I cope with all these information sources? Well, what I’ve learned is that I often interact with more than one screen at a time. And with more than just the screen.  I love to read the Saturday paper early in the morning when everybody is still sleeping and the house is quiet. Usually my tablet is by my side so I can read more on topics that pique my interest.  Or react to opinion pieces and see what other people think about a certain subject.

As a car lover, I read the automotive press on a weekly basis. And my PC is never far so I can check out cars that catch my eye on Youtube to see how they perform in real life.  The movies I quickly forget, but I have a collection of dream cars that I cut out and keep. I also love reading a business book while watching TV. It actually focuses my attention and increases my concentration.

Upon reflection, I believe the more information sources that surround us, the more exciting the dialogue becomes between individuals and brands and products. Don’t think of this as a threat, but rather as a huge opportunity.

But I’d like to hear how you relate to the screens in our life. Do you embrace them lovingly, have an unhealthy attachment to them or feel overwhelmed because they’re constantly in your face?

More than 25,000 people were reported dead and missing. The World Bank estimates the clean up cost at $235bn, making it the world’s most expensive disaster. Talk about cleanup…have you ever given a thought that this is probably a phenomenal engineering and waste management challenge. The disaster area included at least 16 towns, 95,000 buildings, 23 railway stations and hundreds of kilometers of roads, railway tracks and sea walls. A total of 25m tons of debris according to the  Japanese government estimates. Debris that needs to be removed first and foremost, and than sorted. Have you ever stopped to think about the waste that had to be or will have to be scrapped, burnt or recycled?

Are  there many people out there who know the condition of at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant today… has it been shut down? What is the impact of the release of radioactive fumes on the environment and people in the immediate and surrounding areas of the plant?

For some of the questions, we can find the answers. I found “before and after” pictures on the internet from towns like Sendai for example. Huge piles of debris left after the disaster are gone. Like in many other villages along the coast. But where houses and streets used to be, today there are mostly empty spaces. What happened to the people that used to live here?  What happened to the human suffering, survivors  who lost everything and much more. Who lost their newly bought oven, their suitcase, a buddha statue, a family shrine, a set of golf clubs, a school yearbook, their album of wedding photographs, their posed and framed memories, their pets, their mother, father, child, family member, their everything… all this, gone,…in one stroke of a gigantic wave.

That’s the damage to Japan that cannot be photographed easily. The social, cultural, and psychological sufferings that are still now being experienced and cannot be “cleared up” so quickly. These victims, in the hundreds of thousands, remain mostly silent.

And the world does not seem to care anymore and has moved on to more spectacular news. Back to our favorite game of playing invincible. Back to our indifference. Back to our magazines and newspapers of more bad news of the same old story. What a missed opportunity to fill up the news pages with, for once, some good news of a country and a community that fights back. I hoped we would learn. So far we did not. I did not see this coming!

According to a source that is steady as a rock, on Friday 21 December 2012 the world will cease to be. Whether mother earth will explode, evaporate or being sucked up by a black hole remains unclear. But the Mayans said so and Nostradamus agreed, therefore this must be true.

So why are we still debating the future of paper? Well, it certainly beats freaking for another year or so. And on the off chance of both the Mayans and Nostradamus being wrong: if the world doesn’t end, neither will paper. So, let’s first dig this one out and we all can go peacefully about this time next year. With or without a bang.

Drawing digitally on analog paper.

You’ve definitely heard about WacomTechnologies. The company is predominantly known for its pressure sensitive drawing tablets. Lots of artists use them. But those who can afford it still prefer the Wacom Cintiq, which is an interactive pen display. Why? Well, it has everything to do with eye-handcoordination. On a tablet you’re not watching your hand but the screen. On a Cintiq, you are actually drawing on the screen. Which comes closer to resembling drawing on paper.

The latest addition to their product line however, is neither a tablet nor a screen. It is a pen called ‘Inkling’. It has real ink and it is intended for drawing on real paper. Obviously, it is much more than that. It gives you the advantage of drawing on paper while adding the advantages of drawing digitally. The Inkling is nothing less than brilliant: it basically turns your Steinbach into a layered Photoshop or Illustrator canvas. It is high tech perfectly married up with high touch.

Magazines are in no need of an iPad version.

How does this relate to magazines? I know the following words must be very brittle by now because they have been used in and out of season. But here we go. Yes, we are indeed living in a world where digital rules, where everyone is always connected and where even the elderly have grown used to instantly sharing interesting stuff with their networks however distant they may be.

Isn’t it time to finally recognize that magazines are pretty much dead on paper and can only survive on a tablet?

Well, as somebody who has been typecasted as ‘a radical digital person’ all the time, let me break this one to you. Magazines most definitely don’t need an iPad version. They simply require an ‘Inkling’ of their own.

Have you ever tried reading –let’s say– WiredMagazine on an iPad? Even indoors it is quite a feat. I know lots of action games which are far easier to accomplish. Not in the least because, with action games, you’re not supposed to read while tapping, swiping, spreading and pinching. As much as I love Wired on paper, so much I hate it on the iPad. Nowadays, Wired is even giving away the digital duplicate of its magazine if you happen to have a paper subscription. Thanks but no thanks. I’m very much satisfied with my Attention-DeficitHyperactivityDisorder as it is.

But, wait, what with sharing stuff? Piece of cake. Thanks to the Dutch. Kind of.

New! Paper magazines with real Facebook functionality.

In the heart of Amsterdam, there is this startup called Layar. It is a buzzing young company with a considerable war chest. Their thing is ‘augmentedreality’ for mobile. And with the latest incarnation of their mobile browser (Layar 6), they are trying their best to prove the added value beyond gimmicks.

‘LayarVisions’ is directly aimed at the publishing world. At this time, it is the ultimate bridge between paper and digital. It does not require any codes to be printed while offering everything that is digitally possible on top of what you’re reading.

Let’s say you’re reading a very interesting article you want to share on Facebook. Simply pop out your smart phone, hold it on top of the article and –voilà– there you have it: a button which shares a link to the content you’re reading with whoever you want.

If a second screen makes sense for television, it makes sense for magazines.

Today, when you’re watching ‘So you think you can dance’, you’re explicitly invited to not pay attention to the commercials during the break but instead access exclusive content on your smart phone or tablet. Good for the sponsors, maybe not so for the advertisers.

But this is how one should see this: your smart phone is a perfectly legitimate second screen to your paper magazine too. And with an application like Layar 6 (or your own application using Layar’s API), just like Wacom’s Inkling, you are making plain stupid paper digitally smart.

And here is the best part: it’s totally up to your audience to access the smartness. Or not.

Cover stock

300g/m² Galerie Art Gloss

Colours

Printed using 5 colours: CMYK + Pantone 805C

Finish

This issue had an overall gloss UV laminate to the outer covers. The covers were then die cut to crate the ‘punched’ circles. The inner covers had a machine seal to prevent rubbing when the magazine was bound. The covers were printed sheet-fed and the gloss laminate and die cutting were applied off line.

Cover stock

300g/m² Tempo Silk

Colours

Printed using 6 colours: Key Black; Pantone Process Blue; Pantone Rubine Red; Pantone Red 032C; Pantone Fluorescent Orange 811C and Pantone Fluorescent Yellow 803C

Finish

The ‘What’s Next’ masthead had a white foil block over the printed cover. The inner covers had a machine seal to prevent rubbing when the magazine was bound. The covers were printed sheet-fed and the foil block was applied off line.

Cover stock

300g/m² Magno Satin

Colours

Printed using 6 colours: CMYK + Pantone Black in the background only and Pantone Metallic 8002C on the masthead

Finish

The cover had a full soft touch lamination (sometimes called a double matt lamination in the UK) applied to the outer cover, over this we applied a spot gloss UV to the ‘What’s Next’ masthead. The inner covers were machine sealed with a machine aqueous varnish called a ‘silkoseal hard seal varnish’. The covers were printed sheet-fed and the sot touch laminate and spot gloss UV were applied off line.