If you have ever played Peek-A-Boo with a baby, you know what Object Permanence is. Typically, babies learn between 4 and 8 months that you haven’t completely disappeared when you cover your eyes.  And, in a sense, that is what businesses are trying to do with our marketing and advertising efforts. We want customers, and potential customers, to remember us even when they aren’t looking at our name, our logo, our products or our people. So how do we accomplish this in this crazy age of old and new technologies?

The gold standard of marketing success has always been face-to-face contact. People like doing business with people they like, and the quickest way to do that is in person or with a personal referral. The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance is a perfect example of facilitating these kinds of opportunities with their monthly AM Alliance and Alliance After Hours networking events. There are also ribbon cuttings that happen several times a month and can be the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to local businesspeople.

Once you’ve met somebody how do you become memorable? The most obvious way is to hand them a business card or a promotional product with your contact info. Those are great but don’t miss the opportunity to link them to your internet and social media marketing tools. Here they can find more detailed information that is designed to be helpful 24/7. One common shortcut is to add a QR code that takes them directly to the page you want them to see first.

The advantage to physical forms of marketing is that people don’t need to be online to have access. One limitation is that once something is printed, that information is set in time. A website is a central location that allows you to make updates as needed and people can access it from anywhere. BUT, current trends are treating printed material as retro-cool. It’s not just people going back to vinyl records with great covers, it’s also paying extra attention to your business communications so that people will keep them handy.

I like to think of marketing as creating pathways to business. I start by asking “Who are my ideal customers?” and, “How do I build an efficient path between us?” Every business is different, but most find that combining physical and digital materials is the best way to go. It’s a matter of finding the balance. The addition of AI to the system is making huge differences in how we do our marketing but not as much in the end user experience.

So how do we get people to remember us when we metaphorically say “Peek-A-Boo, here I am”? We stay in front of them in their digital world and their real world. That’s object permanence in 2026 marketing.

 

Bright Images is a Central Virginia based Printing and Media Company that handles:

-          Traditional Printing: from business cards to brochures and books

-          Big Printing: Banners, signs, displays, posters and blueprints

-          Stuff Printing: pens, mugs, bags, apparel and thousands of other items

Mike Roach is the Bright Images Salesman to the Stars and an Ambassador to the Stars at the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.