What does lenticular printing cost, and is it worth the investment?
There’s no denying that lenticular printing costs more than traditional paper printing. So why spend the additional dollars, no matter how cool the final piece may look?
For most of our clients, lenticular is a business investment. They are producing an advertisement or a promotion that is intended to motivate their target audience to act. Perhaps the action is signing up for a conference, enrolling in a school, or picking up a package and ultimately buying the product inside. Whatever it may be, a decision has been made to print and distribute a message to that audience.
While traditional printing works to achieve that goal, the only real questions are how well it works in return for that investment, and is there a better choice?
A study conducted in 2018 found that in a direct mail piece with similar artwork, a lenticular postcard generated: 10X the brand recall, 20X the brand engagement, and 15X the brand’s positive impression. Most importantly, it showed a 10-15% response rate competed to 1-2% for the traditional print postcard. That’s about 10X the response rate!
If you are marketing a 50¢ piece of candy, spending 60¢ on a piece of advertising is not likely a good investment, no matter the response rate. But if you’re marketing to a customer who is worth hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to your business, then a 60¢ advertisement doesn’t need to bump response rate by much in order to be a worthy spend. At that point, it really comes down to what grabs attention and drives response, and in that department, lenticular printing is the clear winner.
Lenticular printing also has another less obvious business benefit. The print piece itself has a much higher perceived value. This is self-evident; a paper postcard is seen as having zero value to the recipient. Lenticular cards are often kept, shown around, and even sold on eBay. When a customer receives a card like this, there is a message that the product associated with it must be of value to justify a valuable marketing piece. It conveys value even before it conveys its message.
Although “ROI” may be a cliché term, the fact is that ROI is all that matters when choosing to purchase any form of advertising, including printed materials. The choice to purchase lenticular printing over traditional print is profitable if you’re marketing a product of substantial cost. The fact that the piece is super cool and fun is really just a bonus.
