Contextual Content

Printed, digital, mobile: the contents of publishers today reach their customers via a multitude of channels. For successful communication, information must be prepared individually and channels must be served efficiently. The magazine PRINT&more interviewed Holger Kraemer, Director of Business Development at vjoon, on the topic of contextual content and more.

PRINT&more: What new possibilities of automation should publishers consider today when selecting the software for multichannel publishing?

HOLGER KRAEMER: Like all other companies, publishers are facing increasing digitalization and automation. vjoon K4 offers a wide range of pre-configured automations, such as importing and exporting content, the automated generation of a PDF, the conversion of page formats for tablet or smartphone editions, or the automated upload for digital platforms. Conceptually, automated tasks are planned from the outset in the workflow engine, so that 3rd party solutions can be seamlessly integrated into the workflow. When selecting software, open interfaces and flexible workflows are therefore of decisive importance.

PRINT&more: Big Data should become Smart Data. That means: Data sets are to be analyzed strategically still more meaningfully. From your point of view, what competencies do publishers need to build up for this?

HOLGER KRAEMER: Many of our customers initially collect data or content. It is often disregarded that these data are unstructured and therefore not yet accessible to a Big Data analysis. For publishers, structuring the data and appropriate metadata management are important in order to be able to bundle individual contents into interesting topic packages. However, this is only one side of the coin; on the other hand, publishers need clever people who develop new business models and market the structured content accordingly. Even today, vjoon K4 is used to intelligently manage production-relevant data. Based on many years of experience in this area, we want to use our know-how in the future and offer our own, optimally integrated DAM solution.

PRINT&more: What does contextual content mean for you and what role will it play in the future?

HOLGER KRAEMER: Contextual content will play an increasingly important role, especially in the digital field. With the potential of contextual content, companies can create a new kind of experience for customers and prospects. In connection with artificial intelligence (AI) and marketing automation, however, many questions remain unanswered. While the relevance for advertisers is obvious, the right strategies still have to be found for pure content.

The interview was published in issue 2/2018 of PRINT&more.