||| November 5, 2025 by William Rogers

NAMP: Stretching your collateral budget

When Wendy Hower Livingston of The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University was told she had to cut her Marketing budget, one of her major obstacles was maintaining the production of the massive amounts of printed collateral the Nasher had been publishing for years. For all of us out there in non-profit land that means “we have to have a newsletter, we have always had a news letter.” What she did instead of staying the collateral course was to get smart about her printing. By doing so she cut her budget while increasing efficiency.

You should really look at your printing as an ad buy and figure out where you get the greatest bang of the buck

In her efforts to reinvent Nasher’s printing needs, Linvingston had the support of Dewy Mooring of Jennings, a advertising/PR/brand development firm based in North Carolina. At the NAMP Conference, Mooring and Livingston had the following advice for addressing your materials:

Start by doing a collateral audit

Get some crucial information you will need to maximize your efforts. That audit should include the following questions:
What is the audience for each piece?
With what frequency and in what quantity do you publish?
What is the shelf life of your materials?
What is your budget for each project?
What is the cost of each project per thousand?
What is the Method of delivery for each project?
Gather any information you have about the results and return on investment of each piece? (this last one isn’t a question I know, but I felt it still deserved a questions mark)

When the Nasher did this they found that 70% of their funds were going to materials for current members instead of reaching out for new ones. Mailings were often clumped, lessening their impact. They had low usage of their exhibition guides among visitors. They were then able to reduce quantities reduce and revise pieces.

Combine and Reinvent Pieces
The Nasher was able to combine three major pieces of collateral into one new one by thinking creatively. Their exhibit direct mail piece, mini poster, and New York Time Insert became one piece that could be folded different ways to facilitate all three needs. They also moved much of their annual report and newsletter information to an online format. Linvingston does caution that it was a bit of a sales job to convince the organization to try moving in some of these directions, but in the end they were happy with the outcome and even enjoy the new freedom they have online. However, she does caution that moving online does not just mean moving the content from print to web. The internet requires a different kind of writing and layout. So moving to the web with a newsletter will cost you money…well it will if you want it to be good.

To Find: The right printer for the right job
Mooring says that good printers should be true partners. You should really look at your printing as an ad buy and figure out where you get the greatest bang of the buck (I promise, I will try to never say “bang for the buck” again). But Mooring says that you have to understand a printer’s capabilities. If you approach the wrong kind of printer it may be more expensive for them to stop the presses to work you in than to take your job. Here are a couple of cost reducing efforts to think about:

Use your entire press sheet. By reducing waste you can decrease cost. Slight alterations to the size of a project can mean big savings. Here is a helpful link about some ways to do that: printcatalogs.com/pagecounts
Run jobs together. Can you plan ahead and run two or more at the same time?
Select a preferred stock for your company. This is a great way to extend the brand of your company to a tactile experience. You would be surprised how quality of paper can change a piece. And if your printer knows they can order it in bulk and save.

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So Chicago peeps, I’m wondering if any of you have answers to these questions.