Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 6052 SPRING//SUMMER 2017 invited illustrator Ben Rothery to take over their Instagram account on March 2nd. They let their community know in advance by promoting it across their social media networks. On the day itself, the greatest engagement came from a slow-motion mini video of the takeover artist sharpening a pencil with a razor blade. Simple but mesmeric. Given the stationery industry is so design-focused, it stands to reason that networks hot on visuals are most popular with both brands and consumers. Instagram is a clear favourite across the sector for many reasons. For Elly Vvaller at Dear To Me Studio, this is because “we can show our designs and products. Using hashtags means people looking for products similar to ours will also find Dear To Me Studio. We’re just starting to use Instagram Video - it’s great for telling more of a story and putting life into stills.” Competitions are a tried-and-tested method to grow a brand’s social media community and to promote new product to a huge audience. Pentel, for example, ran a successful campaign from April to October 2016 targeting students and young adults on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The campaign, which included student vlogger Kaitlin Dobson’s ‘Stationery Haul’ video review, and an interactive app called It’s a Write-Off, reached over a million people. Players accepted the Write-Off challenge more than 12,000 times. Social media doesn’t need to be the domain of large companies with big marketing budgets alone. Andy Youings, of Say Nice Things, a new company currently selling direct to the consumer, recognises the importance of using social media to get noticed in a busy market. One advantage for young companies like SNT is the control they have over budgets. Andy says: “We’re finding it very cost effective. Sometimes we’re spending less than £10 to promote our website to a segment of our target audience. We have some very specific interest groups within our customer demographic and we’re finding it invaluable to be really targeted on social media.” Pentel’s Wendy Vickery agrees, saying “what people often forget is that social media marketing can be highly targeted – it’s not the ‘mud at the barn door’ approach that above-the-line advertising can sometimes be. Equally, it’s not under the radar. A properly constructed and professionally executed campaign has the ability to enhance brand awareness, help launch new products and generate demand.” So, what are you waiting for… Q. What are your main goals on social media? A. We use social media to share our enthusiasm for our products and artists and also to increase company exposure. We collaborate with a lot of illustrators, photographers and designers so it’s also a great way to interact with them and find new work that we love and want to publish. Q. Currently what are your most successful platforms, and why? A. I would say Instagram. It’s really useful for gauging enthusiasm for products we launch and also for keeping an eye out for new trends and artists. We also love using Pinterest to research and get inspired! Q. What’s one of your most successful recent social media campaigns? A. We’ve been running Instagram ‘Artist Takeovers’ for around a year now. We invite artists that we publish work with to run our Instagram account for the day and we give them free rein to post what they like (all arty stuff, mind). Luckily they’ve all been well behaved so far…  Q. What do you think of the industry’s attitude to social media? I think overall there are some strong stationery voices online and a lot of companies sharing beautiful product photography and great ideas. We’ve found the social media world to be a positive, inspiring and supportive environment - like a cheerleading club for people who like paper. We asked Sally Holland, creative at gift and stationery brand UStudio: GIVENTHE STATIONERY INDUSTRY IS SO DESIGN-FOCUSED, IT STANDSTO REASONTHAT NETWORKS HOT ONVISUALS ARE MOST POPULAR WITH BOTH BRANDS AND CONSUMERS. STATIONERY BIZ