Why Physical Marketing Still Matters in a Digital World

I have spent a huge part of my career working in digital marketing. Websites, social media, email, online advertising and digital content have been central to what I have done for years, so I am hardly going to argue that organisations should turn their backs on screens.

But some of the marketing ideas that excite me most at the moment are physical.

There is something interesting about a real object in a world where so much communication disappears with a swipe. A sticker, shirt, badge, notebook, printed item or piece of merchandise occupies actual space. Someone can pick it up, keep it, give it away, photograph it or put it somewhere other people will see it. Yes a digital flyer or post on facebook is free (sort of) so the physical item carries the weight of cost, but its a longer lasting touch that makes it worthwhile.

My experience with the Aberystwyth Town sticker album reinforced this. The idea obviously had a digital marketing campaign around it, but the thing people cared about was physical. The book created nostalgia, collecting, conversations and something supporters could keep. Ironically, that physical product then became extremely good digital content because people wanted to photograph and talk about it.

I have seen the same principle through some of the sporting work this summer. Physical items connected to a major event can become far more than giveaways if they are distinctive enough to create a reaction. They create an experience that an Instagram graphic simply cannot replicate.

This is where brand theory becomes particularly useful. Distinctive assets are valuable because they help people recognise and remember an organisation. Those assets do not need to exist only in advertising. Colours, symbols, graphic devices and brand language can move into physical environments and objects.

That is something I have been thinking about a lot with Cardiff Met Sport. If an identity is strong enough, it should be able to leave the screen and exist across clothing, environments, merchandise, events and everyday student life. Repeated exposure then starts building recognition.

Byron Sharp's work on mental availability provides part of the rationale. Brands need to become easier to notice and retrieve from memory. The more recognisable touchpoints an organisation owns, the greater the opportunity to reinforce those associations.

There is also something wonderfully human about physical marketing. Digital communication tends to be consumed individually through a device. Physical things often create interaction between people. Someone asks where a sticker came from, notices a shirt, takes a photograph beside an installation or swaps something with somebody else.

The strongest approach is therefore not physical versus digital.

It is physical and digital working together.

A physical activation creates content. Social media amplifies the activation. Video extends the audience beyond those physically present. The website gives the story somewhere permanent to live.

Marketing channels become much more powerful when they stop being treated as isolated boxes.

Digital marketing is not going anywhere, and nor would I want it to. But perhaps precisely because our lives are so digital, a genuinely interesting physical object can now stand out more than ever.