Submitted by: The Two Sides Team July 2, 2018

It seems that Facebook has discovered what we all know – that print is the way to get your message across.

The launch issue of Grow, “a quarterly magazine for business leaders” – by Facebook – quietly made its appearance in business class lounges at Heathrow and a few more exclusive spots in and around London in early June.

Facebook explains its new print offering:

The program is designed to deliver content in different formats that suit our audience. We know that business leaders have limited time for long reads at work, so we’ve also created a physical version with journeys in mind. We’re distributing this to clients directly as part of our marketing communications, and in selected airport and train business lounges where we know they are often to be found.

Here’s how Juan Señor, president of Innovation Media Consulting and visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute, Oxford University, reacted after seeing Facebook’s first instalment of their new magazine at Heathrow:

When the world’s biggest social media platform wants to associate its brand with credibility, it launches a print magazine w/ massive display bookshelves at LHR first class lounge. But wait! isn’t print dead? Didn’t Facebook kill it off? #facebook #fipp #wanifra #print #inma pic.twitter.com/OqwFI9Cz9R

— JuanSenor-Innovation (@JuanSenor) June 3, 2018

There is so much evidence to support the fact that a good piece of print has the power to engage consumers at a very deep level. It’s a different experience entirely from digital media, which is increasingly becoming a tarnished channel for advertisers.

Let the statistics speak for themselves.

• 36% of recipients bought or ordered something as a result of receiving direct mail¹
• 81% people have bought an item or visited a place after reading about it in a magazine²
• Newspaper ads are viewed 2.5 times longer than the average digital ad³
• Touching an ad increases its value by 24%⁴

It’s surprising that Facebook has taken so long to reach the conclusion that, if they want to make an impact, they’d better choose print.

So, Mr Zuckerberg, nice of you to join the print community and realise what you’ve been missing!

P.S. You can read Juan Señor’s “Ten Commandments of Print” in the new edition of The Page – a new magazine, published by Two Sides UK, exploring the effectiveness and sustainability of print media.

Image Credit: Twitter/ @JuanSenor

Read more:

https://www.fipp.com/news/features/facebook-first-print-magazine-grow

https://www.facebook.com/business/m/grow/about-grow

Sources via printpower.eu

[1] Touchpoints 7, 2016

[2] Magnetic, Rules of Attraction, 2015

[3] Lumen, 2017

[4] Journal of Consumer Research 2009,Touchpoints 5, 2014

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