During a recent trip to New York City, I sat in on a presentation about innovation and creativity in the publishing industry. Although the media world — and the rest of the world, for that matter — is becoming increasingly digital, the part of the talk that intrigued me most was about examples of companies being innovative using print.

For example, when recently preparing to re-launch Fanta Orange in a new market, the soft-drink company created an edible ad printed on rice paper that was infused with the new drink formula, giving readers an opportunity to taste something that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to describe.

Another company's ad in a music magazine enabled readers to sample various bands' music simply by laying their smartphone on the printed page. A far cry from the days of long-suffering Sam Goody employees peeling off plastic CD wrappers and loading up a Discman for customers' sampling pleasure.