The Ultimate Trust Hack: Why Physical Touch Wins in a Digital World
Tired of digital banner blindness? Dive into our conversation with INKISH’s Morten B. Reitoft as we explore the power of “phygital” marketing and why combining high-end print with embedded video screens is the ultimate strategy to build consumer trust.
Nobody actually likes watching intrusive digital ads on the internet anymore. We have developed a collective “banner blindness,” scrolling past thousands of advertisements every single week without a second thought. So, how do innovators and brand builders cut through the digital noise?
The answer lies in bridging the gap between digital storytelling and physical reality—a concept known as the “phygital” space.
During a recent sit-down with Morten B. Reitoft of INKISH, we geekt out over some seriously cool innovations in the printing industry. To illustrate the power of physical marketing, I brought along our award-winning NFL Draft Las Vegas folder. To the naked eye, it looks like a standard, albeit high-quality, presentation folder. But the reaction it gets is where the real magic happens.
The Power of “The Petting”
Whenever I hand these folders out, I always watch people do what I call “the petting.” Human beings are tactile creatures; we naturally want to feel and touch high-quality physical items. The raised UV finishes, the intricate foil stamping, and the varied textures immediately draw people in. It builds an instant emotional connection before they even know what is inside.
But when they finally open it up, the experience is elevated to an entirely new level. Inside the folder is an embedded video screen that immediately starts playing high-end video content. It combines the tactile satisfaction of physical media with the dynamic storytelling of digital video.
Fighting Digital Fatigue and AI Spam
We debated why going through all this physical effort is necessary when the internet exists and digital distribution is practically free. The answer comes down to two massive shifts in consumer behavior: digital fatigue and the rise of AI.
With the explosion of AI-generated content, consumers are being bombarded with a digital mess of automated advertising. People are tired of intrusive pop-ups and unskippable pre-roll ads on platforms like YouTube. It has reached a point where seeing constant, low-effort digital ads can actually make consumers dislike a brand.
Physical Print Proves Investment
This is exactly why physical marketing is making a massive comeback. When a potential customer receives a high-quality, printed video mailer, their first thought is, “Wow, this company actually spent money on this.”
In a world where anyone can spin up a convincing, AI-generated scam website in five minutes for zero dollars, trust is the most valuable currency a brand can have. Sending a premium physical item proves that you have skin in the game. It proves you are legitimate, invested, and willing to put real resources behind your message.
It is no longer just about getting eyes on a screen; it is about proving you are worth their time. In the modern marketing landscape, physical touch isn’t just an embellishment—it is the ultimate trust hack.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT (AI-GENERATED):
[00:00] So how I mean, let’s let’s talk about what of the products you have here. Oh. Um, I mean to the naked eye, it’s a it’s a brochure or folder that keeps… A sales folder, yeah. Yeah.
[00:12] So this actually won an award last week at the FSEA for best embellishment. Thank you. The best embellishment in a self-promotion. And it has amazing embellishments. Again, this is raised UV, raised foil using an MGI JetVarnish. And if you notice on the back, we always texturize both sides. Why? Because when you’re holding things and you’re actually feeling the back, and when we give this to people, we actually feel them—we call it the petting. So it builds that emotional connection to it.
[00:43] But when you open it up. So this is how we kind of started adding electronics. It actually plays a video on an embedded video screen.
[00:52] And of course that acts like, as we always talk about when we’re talking about embellishment and tactile as well, is that the tactile experience brings attention to people. But having something that combines the electronic space with tactile and print actually just enables even further senses to the experience, right?
[01:12] I mean, that’s right. And especially with this, I mean, there’s so much digital content. I mean, you guys do a lot of video content. But this also allows customers to use that high-end video content in other places, including physical media. You know, normally you would think it was all digital, but you can actually load this up in a direct mail piece or sales presentation.
[01:33] We did a couple of hundred of these I think it is maybe five, six years ago. And it was actually for the purpose as you said that, you know, sending them out to potential customers that could see, instead of trying to get them on a website, it was like, “Oh, it paid so much like, whoa, attention span to this kind of thing.” And I guess that’s also why you do it. Because I mean, your customers, yes it may cost some money, but the value and the return of investment is just not comparable, right?
[01:58] Well, there’s two reasons I think why there will be a return back to print, and also including this. And I feel AI has a lot to do—we talk about AI a lot. But AI is causing two things. One, an explosion of this digital mess of advertising. They say we see thousands of ads every week. But Morten, let me ask you this. Out of the past couple of days, you must have opened up your email or browsed on the web or looked at some videos. How many ads out of the thousands do you remember? Do you remember five?
[02:28] No, and I think it plays into… I can tell you why we don’t have advertising on INKISH, for example. It comes down to, I think you recognize it. First and foremost, if you don’t remember them, then let’s say then it’s just like worthless basically, right?
[02:43] But it also comes down to that most people really hate if they’re going to watch something on YouTube and they don’t have a paid subscription, then you have to see some stupid advertising that you never asked for before. So it is very intrusive in your way of achieving something you want to. So we have said that we don’t want to have that. And I guess that’s… I mean this is a…
[03:05] It is. I mean, you just got used to, like I was saying, you don’t remember it. You’ve just gotten used to seeing an ad and just… we call it banner blindness, just ignoring it.
[03:13] I can tell you it’s even worse. I think Chico and I, we spoke just a not so long time ago that sometimes if you see an advert on YouTube, for example, and we start disliking the company. So it has a very negative impact if you really start… don’t like what you see basically, right?
[03:30] But I think this is funny because even if you got an advert on this one, you would just… I think for most people that still haven’t seen that kind of product, they would be just like, “Wow, that is just cool,” right?
[03:40] So I mean, this cuts through that noise, having that physical. But what people don’t think about is AI and trust. And I actually had a speech that I did at FSEA where I talk about how embellishments, raised UV for example, raised foil or even the five or six colors that we see here, can help to fight AI. And what I mean by that: trust.
[04:05] So a lot of scammers can now create a convincing website that looks legitimate, like a company, in a matter of minutes for virtually nothing. But doing a piece like this, first of all, a printed piece, a printed mailer… just a regular one takes time and effort. But once you get into… yeah, that’s my point with embellishments. When a customer receives this, they will think, “Oh, this company spent money. They actually spent money.”
[04:36] It actually creates that trust, because it actually proves to people they spent money on it. So…
[04:44] And that is, I think that is a very broad and generic thing, because basically the internet has maybe made things and communication too easy. And that’s why we get… I don’t really trust the advertising.
DISCLAIMER: All brand names, logos, and trademarks appearing in this video are the property of their respective owners and are used solely for illustrative and demonstration purposes. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is implied.
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