With new technology like the iPad and other tablets, magazines are offering digital copies of their content. The question is, how many consumers are taking advantage of the content magazines are offering digitally?

Web-to-Print Technology or Storefront Applications can simplify your print campaigns and get your projects done faster and easier. These template-based website applications are easy to use and drive dynamic content to personalize your direct mail campaigns or help you quickly reorder everything from catalogs to corporate brochures.

There have been many new advances in technology over the past decade, including high-tech cell phones, three-dimensional televisions, global positioning systems, iPods, and one of the newest, the iPad and other tablet devices.

The iPad is still a relatively new technology, but one that has been growing more and more popular. Many magazines are making their content available for iPad users, as well as other tablet brands. This opens the door for many new marketing opportunities for advertisers.

Augmented reality is a new technology that brings print to life through webcams and other computer-generated sensors. Through this technology, marketers are able to manipulate content and make it come to life for consumers. Many smartphones are equipped with the technology to use augmented reality, so the technology is not limited to only computers.

Most businesses see the value in printing their name on pens, folders, key chains – but USB drives? It could be a cool idea, printing a business name on a memory drive, giving that constant reminder of a brand name whenever it is used. Try taking that idea one step further. Why not place content on the USB drive to give your audience more interaction with your brand?

Print pieces have been proven to be an effective way to market brands and products for years, but with all the new technology available today, it is important to make print interactive.

There has been a lot of hype about these new two-dimensional barcodes that hit the market about a year ago. The USPS is even offering a discount to marketers who use these codes on their direct mail materials. The question is, how many codes actually get scanned?

The latest new technology in printing is one that has many people intrigued – 3D printing. Three-dimensional printing is a form of manufacturing technology that actually creates a 3D object from successive layers of material. This process is a faster and more affordable way to create product prototypes and help engineers develop products in a more efficient way.

This is the question everyone is asking, what is the future for publishing and the paper media industry as a whole? Will the nation expect all magazines and newspapers to cater to them online? Will tablets and touch screens replace physical printed materials or will the traditional method of gaining news and information hold strong in its original form?

With QR codes becoming more mainstream, the big question now is determining the best way to use them. Direct mail is a great medium to use when advertising with QR codes; it takes a traditional approach to a new technology. Instead of asking for a reply, consumers can just scan the QR code and interact with the advertiser in that way.

Custom USB keys are a great new marketing tool that allows companies to supply consumers with custom information they can plug right into their computers. Not only can the information on each individual key be customized towards a specific customer, it can also be trackable. These keys typically send users to a website which then authenticates the user for login via the embedded serial information on the USB key.

Still a new marketing phenomenon, QR codes are 2D barcodes that consumers can scan into their mobile devices. QR codes can be generated online, for anything from a corporate website, to an electronic business card that lets users automatically enter contact information into their address books. Any mobile device that has a camera can decode one of these scan codes, although the technology does work best on a smartphone with internet access.

SMS text message marketing is a fairly new phenomenon, but one businesses certainly can’t ignore. Marketers can connect to their customers by sending a 140 character message directly to their mobile device. And since statistics show that we are on our cell phones 80% of the day, this is a great tool for getting an audience’s attention.