Creative Pros Eyeing Work in Cross-Media

In the most recent TrendWatch Graphic Arts survey of design and production professionals, creative professionals voted cross-media campaigns as their number-two sales opportunity (61%, up from 46%).

The markets reporting the greatest opportunity in cross-media communications campaigns are advertising agencies (79%, up from 60% in the last two surveys), followed by corporate designers (65%, up from 52%), photographers (52%, up from 39%), and graphic designers (46%, up from 39%). Corporate designers and photographers voted cross-media communications as their top sales opportunity.

TrendWatch data indicates that more than half (53%) of all design and production firms currently work on cross-media projects. Ad agencies reported the most interest in cross media (64%), while commercial photographers reported the least interest (42%). Graphic designers (52%) and corporate design firms (55%) also reported that they are heavily involved in doing cross-media projects.

Design and production firms across the board reported that cross-media capabilities were strategic to their business survival (42%). Other top reasons these firms are building cross-media capabilities include client requests (22%) and expanded portfolio offering (22%).

Very few firms indicated that cross-media capabilities were of no importance at all.

As for how these firms go about the actual mechanics of working on cross-media projects, nearly three-fourths (73%) of design and production firms said they still rely on the laborious serial method of preparing files for each medium. Only 16% of design and production firms reported using desktop publishing tools with specific cross-media capabilities (like avenue.quark or InDesign with XML tagging capabilities). Only 1% of design and production firms noted using XML or enterprise publishing systems.