Research Outline

Canvas/Print Company Marketing

Goals

Gain information on the marketing strategies of the top canvas/print companies in the US, including size of each company, media channels used, estimated total market spend, estimated market spend per channel, and samples of ads used in each channel, in order to support a 2021 marketing plan for a company in the space.

Early Findings

  • Some of the largest canvas/print companies in the US, as ranked by revenue, include Snapfish, Shutterfly, Zazzle, Red Bubble, Printful, Icustommadeit, PosterGully, GotPrint, Staples, Minted, and Mixbook.
  • While there was limited data available on specific marketing budget, we've provided preliminary available data on Zazzle, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Red Bubble below.

Zazzle

  • With over 30 million monthly visitors, Zazzle is considered one of the world's top platforms for customized print items including custom canvas.
  • The company's revenue was $20.28 million USD in 2018.
  • The platform is structured as an online marketplace which allows customers to create their own custom prints, as well as designers to create custom art shops featuring print products.
  • This structure allows Zazzle to encourage self promotion as a key part of their marketing reach.
  • There was limited data available on the marketing budget of Zazzle, but it is noted that their primary marketing channel is social media.
  • While the company does promote their offerings through its own social media pages, given their commission based marketplace structure, much of the social media marketing is users generated as they self promote items they've created.

Shutterfly & Snapfish

Red Bubble

  • Company RedBubble is focused on high-quality custom prints featuring uncommon designs, including canvas prints.
  • The company had an annual revenue of $257 million in 2019.
  • RedBubble also uses a marketplace format to involve artists in self promoting their products on the platform.
  • While no specific annual marketing budget was publicly available, the company does note in their annual report, they "generate a lot of inbound organic search and social traffic, which keeps marketing costs low".