Marco den Engelsman

Pure Digital is a new event designed to connect the innovative power of digital printing with the creative industry.
The event takes place in Amsterdam in april 2018.
We’ve had an Interview with the Co-founders of Pure Digital – Frazer Chesterman and Marcus Timson.

What is Pure Digital?
It is the Digital Print Event for the Creative Industry. The aim of the event is to connect innovative digital print applications and the supporting technology with leaders from the creative industry. Digital print should be integrated and deployed in home, retail, work and leisure.
We can do this by introducing the amazing potential and power of synchronised digital output in line with the unstoppable shift to digital print 4.0.

What is Digital Print 4.0?
Digital technology connects people and processes that were previously disconnected. We see a future where design and strategic marketing campaigns become fully integrated in order to best respond to changing conditions and new opportunity. Digital print can respond to this demand for print production that is agile, nimble and efficient. We see a future where digital print businesses are accepted as a core component of the creative community. Where print service providers are indistinguishable in value to other elements of the creative process. We think that in order to thrive both creative direction and print production must synchronise to deliver value, to respond effectively to events and to produce amazing results for customers. Being first, fast and fearless is required in the pursuit of this kind of innovative production.

Marcus Timson (l) & Frazer Chesterman

Why launch Pure Digital?
To provide a unique solution to a problem. That digital printing still only accounts for a small percentage of overall print production. We think to change this, then we need to inspire creativity with digital print and drive demand for more printing. Because creative digital print gives greater value for the customer and larger profit for the printer. But without exception, during the research phase for this event the overwhelming feedback we received from OEM’s was that the power and potential of digital printing did not correlate with the actual reality of digital print volume. Today, the fact remains that digital printing commands a relatively small part of the printing pie.
According to IT Strategies, “digital printing beyond the office in the commercial and industrial markets has a value in user expenditures for final printed products today globally in excess of $75B.
That is a share of around 9% of analogue equivalent expenditures. In terms of physical output digital print represents under the same definitions 1.3% of all analogue print at about 668B A4 equivalent pages against all analogue print in all markets at around 51 trillion pages.”
If people further up the supply chain, closer to consumers, (namely designers, creative directors, marketers from brands and agencies) fully understood the potential and the value of digital printing then we are convinced that this will change and digital print demand would accelerate.

Who will attend Pure Digital?
Creative directors, designers, interior designers, brand managers, marketing directors, architects, retail designers, packaging designers, pop up shops, shop fitters, event organisers, craft retailers and producers, marketing service providers, and print service providers.

I thought this was an event for the creative industry, so why will printers attend?
Printers that view themselves as being part of the creative industry will attend Pure Digital. This isn’t defined by company size, but rather by vision and whether they believe that a future is better realised by creating products that provide new value for their customers, and these have higher profit.

How will you get them there?
People attend events for inspiration, to learn, to solve problems and to connect with their peers. The experience we are creating for Pure Digital will enable visitors to see, hear and touch the latest available creative applications for digital printing and learn just how fast, flexible and fantastic digital printing today actually is.
But the event is designed by and for the creative industry. It is not a conventional print show. The event will feature a live design and print studio, creative talks from top designers and plenty of quality networking. The show will also feature the leading print brands and providers who are at the top of their game and primed to inspire the next generation of designers, creatives and marketers with the potential of digital print.

Who will exhibit and what will they show?
Print technology manufacturers, machinery, OEMs, inks, software, materials and consumables will participate as exhibitors. They will show applications and some will also exhibit with their customers to effectively engage with creatives about the inspiring level of print that can now be achieved.

How will you best develop this event?
We think that collaboration is really important.  There is a leadership group of print service providers that makes up an estimated (3%) of the market that sell the creative power of print. However, the rest tend to trade print as though it is a commodity distinguished only by price. This is limiting growth of digital printing as the knowledge of its potential is confined to only a tiny portion of the market.

Tell us more about the experience you will be creating
We think that the visitor will need to embark on a journey. And in order for us to achieve this they will need for us, and our exhibitors, to create an experience that resonates and inspires them. So we will be enlisting the involvement of leading designers to be part of our content programme. In the design studio designers will gain a platform for showing their talent by receiving a brief then bringing their imagination to life with digital print in home, retail, work and leisure environments. From packaging, interior design, through to document printing, this is a showcase to the creative industry of what will have been missing all of these years as their attention has been diverted to some extent with digital marketing.

Why did you choose to launch this event in Amsterdam?
Amsterdam is a compelling location for an event such as Pure Digital. The City is a hub of creativity and a leader in fashion, interior design, architecture and also a thriving media centre. According to Amsterdam, the City employs over 16,000 people who work for non-Dutch companies, in the creative industry. This, in itself demonstrates what a draw the city is and this is no accident. The creativity of the City goes a long way back into history and along with London, Paris and New York is a leader in its field. Of course, this offers huge value for an organiser of an exhibition that is focused on demonstrating digital print creativity.
Amsterdam is also the #1 English speaking European City, outside of the UK, making the international profile of the city as a location for a creative event unrivalled.
Lastly, from a practical perspective, there is no event in 2018 within the Netherlands which is focused upon digital printing. And this provides us with the opportunity and the necessary space in which to launch this new event.

Pure Digital is co-located with Building Holland, what value will this provide?
Building Holland is the leading event in Benelux for construction and exterior and interior production. This creative event is attended by over 12,000 people including architects and interior designers. Pure Digital will be collocated making it easy for both events visitors to take in the other show adding value for visitors and for exhibitors.

Do you expect this event to be for only the Netherlands?
No, this event will be European. But Amsterdam is chosen because of its unique creative profile and also the fact that Amsterdam is #2 transport hub in Europe. It is really easy to get to, especially for anyone based in the northern part of Europe.

What kind of printing do you expect to be shown at Pure Digital?
The focus is on digital printing and across all types of application sectors, wide format graphics, document printing, décor printing and packaging printing that the creative industry will need to learn more about. But the focus is on creativity and applications, on how to personalise, and how digital printing gives designers the freedom to explore new innovative designs, and how fast digital can be from brief to reality. This is something that we know the creative industry wants to know more about.

How will we market this event?
We will exploit all of the available platforms to engage a new community. This includes thought leadership insight, blogs, research papers, webinars and mini events. We will be hosting various development groups with key members of the creative supply chain inside Amsterdam to create the right experience but also to connect our mission with other passionate print people from the creative industry.
We will invest in creative and arresting marketing tactics to amplify our message and inspire the creation of a new community focused on digital printing. We will ignite a committed direct mail campaign and will invest in the creation of a large database that aligns with our target audience.
In terms of platforms we will be using relevant traditional print based media and integrating a committed social media campaign as well as strategic partnerships with groups and associations that match our target audience profile. Some of these are already in place including IGI, DGI, GIGA and key print associations in the Benelux.
Using our experience of launching exhibitions that connect new markets, we are confident this event will produce new value for our customers and raise the profile of digital print for our

How do I measure ROI? We don’t sell our products directly to the creative industry?
This event will generate new business for our exhibitors. This is our primary aim. Both print service providers and marketing service providers will attend the event. Naturally, these will be leaders in their field. On top of a core commercial return we believe that exhibitors will gain a return on insight into understanding what creatives want and how best they develop technology to meet this aim. Lastly, Pure Digital will be a tremendous PR platform into raising brand awareness through creative media which up to now, has not been done.

The question any exhibitor should answer is simple.

Are you a leader?
If you are, then you should be part of this exciting new event.

For more information look at the website of Pure Digital