The Real Media Collective (TRMC) has announced a new campaign – backed by emergency funding from the Australasian Paper Industry Association (APIA) – to combat “the misrepresentation of the paper and print sector across Australia and New Zealand.”
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| "Paper comes from a renewable resource": TRMC CEO Kellie Northwood |
"Following the recent Coles Supermarket announcement that it was ending production of its printed catalogues, industry group TRMC has been on the front-foot to defend the industry," says TRMC CEO Kellie Northwood, “challenging the negative claims made that using less paper saves trees as well as other environmental myths and suggestions print is no longer an effective marketing channel.”
The newly launched Insight Series will include exploration of key areas of strength the paper and print sectors offer for those managing marketing budgets.
“To deliver the campaign a ‘call to arms’ was issued and the Australasian Paper Industry Association (APIA), by unanimous vote, did not hesitate in providing emergency funding support,” Northwood said.
APIA is made up of Antalis, Ball & Doggett, Direct Paper, Elof Hanssen, Norske Skog, Opal (Australian Paper), Sappi Fine Paper and UPM Kymmene – and already has a long-term partnership with the Two Sides environmental campaign (TRMC holds the regional license).
“We have held a working partnership with APIA for many years and it is these projects, when the paper and print sectors can partner with a united goal to defend the industry, that these partnerships are most important,” said Northwood. “I would like to personally thank each and every APIA board member company for not only supporting the industry campaign with this funding, but also for the unanimous support they all provided. It really is a welcome support from our print members and broader industry during this time when we have been treated unfairly.
“Our industry has long endured claims that paper is bad for the environment which is simply untrue. Paper comes from a renewable resource, tree farms are important carbon sinks and household paper product recycling rates in Australia is one of the highest in the world at 87%.”
The Insight Series will explore key areas of effectiveness to ensure print remains an important part of the marketing mix. The first will kick off with ‘Navigating through a pandemic’ a paper exploring the importance of print when working through the COVID period and how to strengthen your brand through recovery. Members will be issued the Insight Series prior to public release for their customer discussions, a media campaign will also be developed using the content and key stakeholders will partner to provide expert environmental and marketing opinions.
Stakeholders announced so far include: Professor Phillip Lawrence, a sustainability expert across paper substrates; Malcolm Auld, an industry advocate, marketing Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney and published author, to provide retail and brand marketing advisory; and international research from Peter Field, Les Binet and Mark Ritson.
In its recently released annual report, the increasingly high-profile TRMC reported a 40 percent jump in membership over the past year. TRMC’s membership has grown to just shy of 700 member businesses across Australia and New Zealand, of which 191 are new resulting in an annual growth rate of + 39.87%.
“The team have worked tirelessly this year and the results are a positive indicator that what we are delivering is of value to our members and our industry,” Northwood said. “Even during a very tough year we have welcomed new members and retained our existing members.”
The membership demographic has also evolved with 71% of their membership now being small businesses. This is followed by supplier members at 17% and trans-Tasman print media companies representing 7%.
From FY13 to FY20, TRMC has realised an increase of nearly $1M in membership revenue with an average growth rate of + 15.78%. Over the past twelve months this growth has been moderate, achieving a steady 1.4% increase. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, growth has been stabilised and strategic review is in place to look to grow membership through an increased service offering from Industrial Relations, Workplace Health and Safety, Industry partnerships and sponsorship alliances.
The association has been busy this year with campaign and activity updates reporting the Rebuild Together webinar series achieving 23,582 member engagements, attendances, downloads, views and/or likes/shares. Their digital engagement strategy, released in FY20, was aimed at communicating to audiences not using print and the strategy has paid off achieving 78,799 LinkedIn views from posts and a 98.3% YOY increase in LinkedIn Followers. 2,432 new eNews subscribers, 190,727 Twitter impressions, 193,459 website page views and average 3mins 9secs spent within the site/s.
The Real Media Collective (TRMC) is an industry association representing the collective interests of companies in the paper, print, publishing/media, magazine publishing, advertising, mail, packaging, design, graphics, and related distribution sectors across Australia.
