Print is Back

Earlier this summer, Fujifilm launched a movement. Yes, you’re reading that right. A movement, not a product. The Fujifilm Print Life Movement was launched to educate and inspire consumers to print their photographs.

“Fujifilm is launching the Print Life Movement to provide the critical information and assistance consumers require to help organize, archive, share and preserve their precious memories for generations to come,” says Greg Poole, VP & GM, Photo Imaging Division, in a release.

The Print Life Movement’s main component is a website that features educational references about printing, how-to’s and DIY guides, and even offers customers the chance to order photobooks, posters and standard prints. Once the photos are uploaded online, the customer will be linked to a retail partner to pickup their prints in person. Partners include Staples, Shoppers Drug Mart, Henry’s, Loblaw’s and Costco.

“Fujifilm has discovered, through our research, that consumers really do want to print their photos but struggle with organizing so many digital photos from various devices or are confused at the various options available for printing their digital photos,” says Gianmarco Bernaudo, director of brand marketing, Photofinishing Products.

“Fujifilm chose to deliver an inspirational and educational movement [rather than launching a product] to Canadian consumers that provides awareness on all aspects of printing their digital images, using any channel available to them,” says Bernaudo.

The team at Fujifilm is confident that those born in the digital age will still want to have physical copies of their photos. This is the same generation that gravitated towards Fuji’s instax instant cameras, a line of instant still cameras, in the past three years. In April 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that 5 million units of the instax were sold that fiscal year, compared to 1.4 million units sold of Fuji’s digital cameras. “We’ve learned that this generation truly values a tangible printed product even though they were born in the digital age,” says Helen Hayter, brand manager, Imaging Products, in a release.

Although this seems optimistic, there is still the challenge of changing consumer business, says Bernaudo. “Only 1 in 100,000 photos are printed and [we] felt that these behaviours were important to address to ensure that consumers are educated and empowered rather than assume that they had the tools needed to print and do more with their photos,” he says.

All in all, the Print Life campaign rallies around three main messages; it’s important, it’s fun and it’s rewarding to print your pictures. “Our vision for the Fujifilm Print Life Movement is to have all Canadians start their own Print Life,” says Bernaudo.

- Sabrina Gamrot