With 24 years in the promotional print and advertising business, Banners on a Roll® is going and growing with social media.

When we started Banners on a Roll, we made a commitment to create a people-centric company that understands the value of promotional products and how they make your brand, your event, your marketing efforts come to life. We created a brand and buying experience to understand our clients’ needs and reflect our belief that people matter most. To us that means that our top priorities are to serve our customers, care for our employees and educate our customers to become savvy consumers.

This is why we are embracing social media. It is a natural extension of who we are and enables us to both serve and educate our customers better than ever. It gives us new media-driven, socially-enabled avenues to connect and engage with people in our space. Customers can contact us via email, chat, and phone, and now you can Tweet us or find us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

By sharing our story and providing real-life examples of how banners are used at events on YouTube or by getting creative with Banners on a Roll on Slideshare we are unlocking our content to educate and to be shared, viewed and commented on by anyone.

We look forward to growing, connecting and engaging with you.

“Hello, nice to meet you. Please scan my QR Code.”

What?! Scan my QR Code? Really?

Yes, really. What you overheard could in fact happen. QR Codes are no longer a “what’s next” innovation from Popular Science. QR Codes are reality. As we discussed in one of our earlier blog posts, “Twitter, RSS Feeds, Facebook, oh my! Is Printing Getting Run Off The Press?” the offline world continues to seek stronger communion with the online world. QR Codes are a manifestation of this communion. The surge of online innovation has spurred a resurgence of offline innovation. And this is only the beginning.

Take Facebook for example … recently TechCrunch reported early rumors that this behemoth of a social network was experimenting with the integration of personalized QR Codes with online profiles. Print the code on practically anything and all your friends will be able to take a picture of it and instantly view your Facebook profile in all its glory.

Microsoft is taking the concept of QR Codes to a new level. Clearly understanding the power of integrating offline with online, this technology powerhouse has created a technology called Microsoft Tag; even recently launching an Android app awarded best of March 2010. While similar, Microsoft Tag and QR Codes are quite different. How are they different? Read through this dialogue.

QR Codes are even appearing on large billboards. Take a picture of the QR Code below with your mobile phone and instantly navigate to a dedicated website with a wealth of additional information; significantly more than what is spatially possible on the billboard itself.

So if you are still wondering what a QR Code is, think of it as the mobile version of the barcode. Wikipedia also gives a nice definition:

“A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.” Read More

One reason we get excited about QR Codes is because of its ease of implementation and dissemination. Most smart phones nowadays are already equipped with the technology to decipher unique QR Codes. This makes sharing your contact information, contest rules, quotes or websites, fun and easy.

Some people even experiment with QR Codes as temporary tattoos, as seen below.

Or, if you are really brave, and maybe even a little eccentric, you could permanently tattoo your personal QR Code.  If you go this route we hope your QR Code redirect is something very special.

Because we see the value in innovation and printing, we are always trying to think of unique ways to use QR Codes creatively for our clients. Here are just a few of our favorite ideas:

• At trade shows for name badges
• Backdrops at events
• Temporary Tattoos
• T-shirts
• Business cards
• Coffee mugs
• Any promotional product that you want information shared

For purposes of this blog post, we created a QR Code of our own. Go ahead. Scan it! To be able to scan and read a QR Code, you will need to download a QR Code reader. Visit this link and select one of the many options.

The future is exciting. As the Internet continues to innovate, so will printing. If you want to get innovative with your brand and explore the potential of printed QR Codes, give us a call 800-786-7411, email us info@bannersonaroll.com, or live chat with us from our home page. We’d be happy to help blend your online and offline worlds.

We would be myopic if we were to ignorantly gloss over the forces of the digital age and their implications on the way we do business and the new types of business models that are emerging. There is no doubt that there is a macroeconomic and technological big shift, but in our microcosm of printing promotional materials, we feel the printed word is here to stay.

Advertising and business will forever be interconnected and the modes of advertising are changing, however the Internet is not the panacea. Not everyone is as Internet savvy as the 18 year old college student who spends an hour a day on Facebook.  Yes, it’s safe to say that the older generations are gaining significant traction when it comes to the web and social media and those 18 year olds will one day rule the world, but the key to this entire puzzle is figuring out how digital and print compliment each other not how one can destroy the other.

In fact, the seminal titans of the printed word world recently joined forces—Charles H. Townsend, Condé Nast; Cathie Black, Hearst Magazines; Jack Griffin, Meredith Corporation; Ann Moore, Time Inc.; Jann Wenner, Wenner Media—to talk about the vitality of magazines as a medium. Their “Power of Print” campaign will launch in roughly 100 magazines, reaching 112 million readers per month, in an effort to promote the strength of printing.

To support their campaign they highlight a few compelling statistics:

• The annual number of paid subscriptions is nearly 300 million.
• Magazine ad recall has increased by 13% over the last four years.
• Adults 18-34 read more issues than adults 35 and older.
• The average reader spends 43 minutes reading each issue.
• Readership has actually grown over the last five years.

And get passionate in this recently launched video.

As, Ann Moore – Chairman and CEO of Time, Inc., states: “… people find room in their lives for the new media alongside the media they already love”.  Well, the media we love is printing yet we have found room in our lives to use the best of the new (e.g., blog, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr) to compliment what it is we do. We encourage the reader to do the same. Find room in your lives for the media you love and find the best of the old and the new.

“Is print going to be replaced by a new technology?” The answer is no … it will only compliment.