The impact of Covid-19 is still unfolding and it could be years until we understand the full effect of the pandemic and what it leaves behind. However, we do know that one industry, in particular, has been affected by Covid-19 – the print industry. We’re going to take a look at the impact it’s had on printing and what the future could look like.
Lockdown saw many businesses shut their doors. Weddings were cancelled, exhibitions were cancelled and even now events are slowly rescheduling for next year. That’s one year’s worth of print marketing for events lost. Which is where the first impact of the Covid pandemic comes in:
No events means no printing
Print marketing is a big boost for events and exhibitions. Flyers, banners, business cards and other materials are all essentials in getting people through the doors of an event – but what if there are no events to market? Some of the world’s biggest events – the Olympics, Glastonbury, Eurovision, London Marathon, Coachella – were all cancelled (and that’s not including all of the smaller exhibitions, parties, weddings and funerals which have all been affected). All of these events require some form of printing:
- Tickets
- Lanyard passes
- Signs
- Posters
- Invitations
- Order of services.
No offices mean no printing
Businesses which also supply printer ink will feel some effect from Covid-19 as no open offices means no printing. When lockdown first occurred, offices across the country shut their doors with people working from home where they could.
No one really knew how long this would last – but it turns out that some people don’t want it to return to normal. In fact, a survey by 2,000 staff by Theta Financial Reporting found that 57% of those surveyed, said they did not want to go back to “the normal way of working in an office environment with normal office hours.” While the ‘normal way of working’ may not be the same again, we can expect there to be more flexible working – which, while it won’t signal the end of office printers, there is a chance their usage will be less infrequent.
Digital at the forefront
That leads us nicely to this point: Digital is at the forefront. As we said at the beginning, it could be a while before we see the whole effects of Covid-19, but one thing we do know is that the way people work has changed forever.
While technology has played an important part in our working lives for years, it’s never been so heavily relied upon for things such as video conferences and communicating with team members. While we said earlier that office printers may become used less, this will now likely lead to a rise in home printers being purchased for those working from home. Printing is still essential, especially if you need to make hard copies of important documents, or if you need to ‘print, scan and send back’.
The print industry is a resilient one which has been around for years. Once Covid-19 has run its course weddings will be back to normal, the exhibition will resume and events will once again need the help of printers to get people the information they need.
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