Future of paper and packaging industry 1 conference ...

Future of paper and cardboard packaging in China, India, emerging markets, America and the EU. Impact of new technology on paper use. Newsprint market and newspaper readership trends -- decline in EU, growth in India. Use of paper and cardboard in Africa. Growth of middle class consumers. Future of newspapers, magazines and books. Paperless office trends -- reality. Paper consumption per person per year. Global market for paper. Exports newsprint from Russia, South America, India and China. Future of logistics, supply chain management, packaging and distribution. Energy costs in paper industry. Video on future of paper industry by Futurist Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker for Paper Industry conference in Sweden. Future of forestry and sustainable forestry -- link to paper industry. Verifiable forestry, reduction in energy use, chemical use, water use. Growth of online advertising revenues and fall of traditional advertising. Future of online newspapers and news sources. RFID technology in supply chain and intelligent packaging plus intelligent paper. Advantages of paper -- resolution, contrast, convenience, able to write on it. Future of plastics and competition with paper and cardboard in food and drink industry. Manufacturing demand for packaging. Resuseable cartons and recycling. Paperless office? Why paperless offices slow in coming. Future of direct mail and future of paper directories. Biological reasons why paper reading speed faster than screens. Human eye bandwidth and brain processing speed. Electronic books and digital paper. Why books and other paper products will have longer life than people think.
Paper industry, packaging, cardboard, recycling, forests, forestry, newspapers, magazines, books, future, sustainable, sustainability, energy, paperless, intelligent, rfid, plastics

Why consumers won't wait - impatience online

People do crazy things when in a hurry - the future is about emotion, not about technology. Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon lecture on future of telecom, mobile phones, marketing, management and motivation (more)

TV watching is becoming a lonely habit - advertisers watch out

45% of TV watchers do so alone these days compared to 33% 10 years ago.

 

Interesting but the truth is that I have almost stopped watching TV at all – at least live TV is now almost zero since having digital recording a few years ago.

 

Screen watching – yes but more likely to be home cinema movies or a few minutes of a pre-recorded comedy, and occaisionally TV news.  Hardly ever watch the main TV channels.

 

I’m not alone – ask anyone who actually works in television how many hours they watch for pleasure and the results may really shock you.  Often the answer is zero.

 

Now radio – that is something different – audiences and hours per week continue to climb.

 

TV will struggle to find a new role in the next decade, under pressure from people like the BBC which will soon have all their archives on line for instant free view.

 

It means the schedules will need to rethink…. Expect to see a premium for live TV:  where we know anything can go wrong and audiences can be involved.

 

But canned output – yes it still will live on as a community experience.  It is different watching a film on your own at home when you know a million others may be sharing the same event.

 

For more see http://www.globalchange.com/ppt4/bbc

 

Future of mailshots and direct marketing

More than 30 million people in the US opted out of direct mail within the first 6 weeks of having the chance to do so.

Direct mail needs to be ultra-personal to succeed.

The charity I started back in 1988 (AIDS charity ACET) decided to send out a mailing to 3500 people who had given to us recently, thanking them, giving them news and the opportunity to give again.

We have a great story: all our overheads are paid or given by volunteers and because we are ultra efficient we are able to feed an orphan for a month in a place like Zimbabwe for just $1-50.

In Ukraine we have seen 100,000 pupils in 12 months in a programme costing less than $25,000 a year.

But how do you get people to open the mailing in the first place? All the evidence shows that the best opening rates come when people don't know what is inside and it looks personally sent.

Well we hand-filled the envellopes using volunteers, and stuck ordinary stamps. We used a window to the address appeared on the letter - and I personally signed plus wrote comments on more than 450.

We will see what happens, but already the responses are coming in less than 48 hours after we posted them all out.

Marketing slides and videos

You will find a large number of marketing resources and other information including videos and presentations on my site http://www.globalchange.com/ppt/index.htm.

These are free for all to access. The site also contains the entire text of 6 of my books.