News and Updates


f Subscribe to the RSS Feed
  • How to Design and Implement Effective Multichannel Marketing Campaigns
    09/14/2012

    The following is a guest post from Ricoh, a valued sponsor of the Digital Printing Council.

    By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation

    I very much enjoy visiting customers and talking to them about their current business.  I can be guaranteed that the topic of how to expand their portfolio in order to attract new customers and increase revenue is on their discussion list – and who doesn’t want to do that?  One of the “hot” applications that I like to share with these forward-thinking businesses is multichannel marketing.  While most theoretically understand the concept behind multichannel marketing, many companies are still challenged with implementing the strategy. Over the next few weeks I will discuss the strategy and steps it will take for you to start designing and implementing effective multichannel marketing campaigns.  In fact, I will share with you a “live” campaign that I created and implemented at Ricoh – so, “YES,” I understand the challenges and effort it takes to deploy a multichannel marketing campaign

    Understanding multichannel marketing is fast becoming a requirement for commercial printers, franchise printers and print service providers of all sizes. The Internet and mobile technologies have triggered an explosion in the types of messaging media available, giving everyone no choice but to respond. For example, it has forced marketers to use different channels to attract different demographic groups in order to maximize the reach and response rates for their messages. The good news is of all this is that it presents print service providers with an excellent opportunity to expand their portfolio of products and services.  However, there are a number of considerations to take into account when it comes to offering multichannel solutions broad enough to get results.

    First, the design and execution of a multichannel campaign will involve strategic as...

    Read More
  • Muppets and Marketing with Tippingpoint Labs' Drew Davis
    07/31/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    Would you like some useful marketing advice presented in a unique way? Check out this engaging video by Drew Davis titled “5 Marketing Lessons I Learned from the Muppets.”

    Davis is Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Tippingpoint Labs, a content marketing agency that helps to bring complementary brands together to create, distribute, and find audiences for unique content. The team at Tippingpoint Labs includes analysts, strategists, writers, designers, producers, and more.

    Davis, who also presents at a number of worldwide events on topics ranging from social media to the future of print, will be a keynote speaker at this years Integrated Print Forum, which takes places October 29-30 at Printing Industries of America Headquarters in Sewickley, PA.

    Read More
    (2 Comments)
  • 3D Printing and U.S. Manufacturing
    07/20/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    An article that gained some traction on the Internet this week (at least on a few of the sites I visit) has a title that grabbed me immediately, mainly because it upends a prevailing economic narrative: “The Future of Manufacturing Is in America, Not China.”

    The article appeared Tuesday on the site Foreign Policy. Normally, articles about global politics fall outside the purview of our news updates, but this particular article features a subject that falls in our area of interest. In the article author Vivek Wadhwa, Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University, identifies three specific technologies that he believes will bring manufacturing dominance back to the United States: robotics, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing.

    We’ve written previously in this space about the potential impact of 3D printing. Here’s what the article has to say:

    [3d] printers can already create physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1,000. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. By the end of this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. It is entirely conceivable that, in the next decade, manufacturing will again become a local industry and it will be possible to 3D print electronics and use giant 3D printing scaffolds to print entire buildings. Why would we ship raw materials all the way to China and then ship completed products back to the United States when they can be manufactured more cheaply locally, on demand?

    The whole article is definitely worth a...

    Read More
    (2 Comments)
  • SocialToaster Let's Your Friends Do the Bragging
    07/03/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    Although bragging about yourself might come across as arrogant, having someone else do your bragging for you is just good marketing. That’s the idea behind a new social media marketing platform called SocialToaster, which helps you spread your social media message through official Ambassadors. Here’s the description of SocialToaster from the company's website followed by a short video explaining the solution:

    “SocialToaster is a social marketing platform that engages supporters to promote your content directly to their social networks while driving website traffic and providing comprehensive reporting on the effectiveness of your efforts.”

    There are three basic steps for using SocialToaster. To begin, you need to set up your site to be able to recruit Ambassadors and track visitor activity. A Sign-up Widget is placed on your page and potential Ambassadors who click on it are taken through a Sign-up Wizard that lets them decide which of their social media profiles they want to use to broadcast your messages. Once your site is set up, you must recruit Ambassadors. Potential Ambassadors can be employees, brand enthusiasts, clients, members, donors, or fans. Finally, once you being to acquire Ambassadors, you need to continually generate content for them to share. Your Ambassadors will receive an email when you publish new content to SocialToaster, and depending on their preferences, they’ll click a link to either approve the content to be shared (if they’ve chosen to approve everything), or opt-out of having the content shared (if they’ve chosen to auto-post everything).

    Currently, SocialToaster can broadcast to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. The solution can be run directly from a dashboard or, for greater functionality, it can be integrated with...

    Read More
  • Involver keeps you, well… involved!
    06/28/2012 by Ms Julie Shaffer

    When I speak to groups of print and marketing service providers about why it’s important to engage through social media, someone invariably asks a question along these lines: “I’m so busy already, how will I manage to carve out the time to do this too?” There’s no denying that it does indeed take both time and effort to kick off and manage a real social media program. Saying that, it’s also entirely possible, with the right tools and an intelligent plan, to do so with minimal effort each day. This is the first in a series of stories about social media management tools that can help you maximize your outreach and impact while minimizing your effort to do so.

    Determining the tools you should use and how much time you’ll need to invest depends to a large extent upon what it is you hope to accomplish through social engagement. Do you want to use it to promote your brand in general? Do you simply want to stay in touch with others? Do you want to use it to prospect for new customers? Do you want to use social platforms as part of a specific marketing campaign? Do you want to be seen as a thought leader on a particular subject or industry? Are you interested in linking back to your ecommerce storefront or website? There are dozens of ways a business can use social media to interact with the huge potential audience they offer.  Some social media management tools were created to enhance specific social platforms while others offer a dashboard interface to help users management engagement on a number of platforms from a single user interface. A few, like Involver, do a bit of both.

    Involver is a social marketing platform and the company is recognized as a Facebook Marketing Developer, providing technology for Facebook’s own marketing team. In addition to Facebook, the company claims to enable over 100,000 global brands, including Best Buy, Sony/RCA Records, Target and The White House. I recently spoke with Involver’...

    Read More
  • Daily Data Visualizations at Cool Infographics
    06/21/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    As a color blind, stick figure drawing kind of guy, I’m always amazed when graphically oriented folks produce creative and interesting ways to visualize data. Apparently Randy Krum is a fan of data visualizations too, so much so that he created a blog dedicated to showcasing outstanding examples of the infographic arts. The blog’s sub-head encapsulates its ethos: “Charts and graphs can communicate data: infographics turn data into information."

    The Cool Infographics blog has quickly grown to be one of the top sites in the information design industry. With an average over 3,500 visitors per day and 250,000 page views per month, the site has reached a Google Page Rank of 6/10.

    Who knew data could be so fun?

    Cool Graphics Screen Grab

     

    Read More
  • Password Management Software
    06/07/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    With the recent news that almost 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords may have been compromised, we thought it would be helpful to post a short list of some of the popular password management tools currently available on the market.

    The benefits of a password management tool are clear to anyone who uses computers and mobile devices on a regular basis. As your passwords and usernames for different sites and services begin to accumulate, not only do they become hard to remember but they also become less secure. That’s because most people tend to use the same passwords for multiple sites. Unfortunately, using the same password for multiple sites represents a risk—if your password is hacked or in some way compromised on one site then your information is also at risk on any sites where you use the same password. That’s why a password management tool—which can allow you to uses different passwords for all of your online accounts and profiles can actually keep your information more secure.

    The specific features, compatibilities, and prices of password management tools vary, but for the most part, a good solution should not only store all of your passwords (securely) but should also help you generate strong passwords according to specified criteria. Of course another beneficial feature is a tool that stores your database of passwords (again, securely) in the cloud, thereby allowing you to access the tool across a number of devices.

    Listed below are some popular password management solutions. Let us know of any we missed or if you have any positive/negative stories about using a password manager.

    Read More
  • Benefits of Social Media Aggregators
    05/25/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    Recently, my manager (Julie Shaffer, Vice President, Digital Technolgies, Printing Industries of America) and I decided to consolidate our social media efforts. Julie has a Twitter profile (@juliesdpc) that she uses regularly to post about printing related topics, and we also have a Twitter account (@digitalprinting) and LinkedIn group (Digital Printing Council) that are used by both of us to promote the Digital Printing Council (the special interest group at Printing Industries of America that we manage).

    Here's the Wikipedia definition of a social media aggregator:

    Social network aggregation is the process of collecting content from multiple social network services, such as MySpace or Facebook. The task is often performed by a social network aggregator, which pulls together information into a single location, or helps a user consolidate multiple social networking profiles into one profile.

    Two popular aggregators for Twitter are TweetDeck and HootSuite. TweetDeck is a desktop program that requires you to download a separate application called AdobeAIR. I've used TweetDeck before to manage my personal Twitter account and the DPC Twitter account, but it didn't have all of the functionality that we needed for our consolidation efforts. HootSuite, a web-based application that works through any browser, is the aggregator we decided to use. We signed up for HootSuite because it fulfills three important criteria: it allows multiple members of a team to access the same account (i.e. both Julie and I can log in to our HootSuite account at the same time), it allows us to magange our Twitter feeds and our LinkedIn group from one location, and it allows us to "schedule" oursocial media messages.

    In a case study that will be going up on the DPC website next week, I'll be explaining how to sign up for a HootSuite account, the different types of accounts HootSuite offers, and how we used HootSuite to schedule automated...

    Read More
  • Landa Nanographic Printing™ Presses Making a Splash at drupa 2012
    05/09/2012 by Kristina Iorio

    One of the major stories developing at drupa 2012 involves the Nanographic Printing™ Presses unveiled by Landa Corporation founder, chairman, and CEO Benny Landa. These presses use water-based inks comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometers in size. These nano-pigments are reportedly extremely light absorbent and the new process used to print with them—Nanography™—boasts high uniformity, high gloss fidelity, and a broad CMYK color gamut. And here’s the hook that’s getting everyone excited: Nanography is a digital printing process with offset speed.

    Landa spoke about the implications of the new process:

     “Nanography is a new technology for applying ink to paper. In developing Landa Nanographic Printing we had to re-think and reinvent the printing press.

    The result is digital printing with remarkable performance—from a family of presses that share stunning ergonomic design, a small footprint, and some of the most advanced user functionality available in the market."

    Landa has unveiled six Nanographic presses at drupa—three sheetfed and three web presses. Also, news releases have come out in recent days reporting Landa has entered into partnerships with both Komori and Heidelberg for the development, manufacturing, and sale of presses based on Landa Nanographic Printingtechnology.

     Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America’s vice president of digital technology, attended drupa 2012 and sat in on one of the Landa Corporation press events where the technology was demonstrated. She sent along the following video snippet to share.

    Please feel free to share your opinion with us! For more information like this, visit the...

    Read More
  • Landa Nanographic Printing™ Presses Making a Splash at drupa 2012
    05/03/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    One of the major stories developing at drupa 2012 involves the Nanographic Printing ™ Presses unveiled by Landa Corporation founder, chairman, and CEO Benny Landa. These presses use water-based inks comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometers in size. These nano-pigments are reportedly extremely light absorbent and the new process used to print with them—Nanography™—boasts high uniformity, high gloss fidelity, and a broad CMYK color gamut. And here’s the hook that’s getting everyone excited: Nanography™ is a digital printing process with offset speed.

    Landa spoke about the implications of the new process:

    “Nanography™ is a new technology for applying ink to paper. In developing Landa Nanographic Printing™ we had to re-think and reinvent the printing press. The result is digital printing with remarkable performance—from a family of presses that share stunning ergonomic design, a small footprint and some of the most advanced user functionality available in the market."

    Landa has unveiled six Nanographic™ presses at drupa—three sheetfed and three web presses. Also, news releases have come out in recent days reporting Landa has entered into partnerships with both Komori and Heidelberg for the development, manufacturing, and sale of presses based on Landa Nanographic Printing™ technology.

    Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America’s vice president of digital technology, is attending drupa 2012 and sat in on one of the Landa Corporation press events where the technology was demonstrated. She sent along the following video snippet and will have a more detailed write-up about the technology in this space tomorrow.

    ...
    Read More
    (2 Comments)
  • USPS Set to Fully Transition from POSTNET to Intelligent Mail Barcodes
    04/23/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    At a recent meeting of our local chapter of the Postal Customer Council, representatives from USPS discussed the upcoming phase out of automation discounts for POSTNET barcodes and the switch to Intelligent Mail. Here’s the official statement from the USPS RIBBS website:

    The proposed rule includes the basis for discontinuing use of POSTNET™ barcodes and allowing only Intelligent Mail® barcodes (IMb™) for automation price eligibility by January 2013. The Postal Service™ understands that many mailers currently use POSTNET barcodes and we are committed to providing information to and working with individual mailers and software providers to ensure that the use of an Intelligent Mail barcode is achievable for all mailing customers.

    The two important dates to remember here are January 2013 and January 2014. Customers using Basic IMb and Full-service IMb will be eligible for automation discounts through December 2013, and the USPS will propose increasing the discounts for Full-serivce IMb mailings during this time. Then, as of January 2014, only Full-service IMb mailings will be eligible for automation discounts.

    For a starting point on information about Intelligent Mail services, you can check out the Intelligent Mail page on the RIBBS website. There you’ll find links that lead you through a number of steps to begin using Intelligent Mail barcodes.

    Read More
  • PrintChat Hosting Changes Hands This Week!
    04/19/2012 by Ms Mary L. Garnett

    Energetic conversations, brief comments, some confusion, and plenty of ideas are exchanged in networking groups and office cooler conversations daily. Virtual gatherings with Twitter chats create the same experience, and, in some ways, are even better. You stay in your office, read the comments, and meet people with passion for the industry who reside all over the country. Meet “PrintChat,” an industry Twitter Chat.

    This week marked a milestone—the original host, Quad/Graphics, passed the hosting baton to PrintMediaCentr (www.printmediacentr.com). For over a year, Quad/Graphics has hosted PrintChat on Wednesdays and has done a terrific job introducing many of us to the value and fun of a TwitterChat.  Topics change, participation fluctuates, people who have never met make acquaintances and chat. The experience can be odd the first few times. I just watched and became amazed that out of 140 character comments, an actual conversation emerges where opinions are expressed and ideas exchanged. Better yet, contacts for further connections are initiated. Eventually, I entered the conversations with a few thoughts now and then. Some people become regulars on the chats. Some people are observers, but from it all, ideas are exchanged.

    Can actual substance and a coherent conversation occur? Oddly, yes. Do non-business comments enter into the session? Yes, just like real life. Does it get confusing at times? Yes, just like a group discussing anywhere—one person is answering a question while a new topic starts up with the group. But with a little patience—and a sense of humor—out of the banter opinions are expressed and ideas emerge. 

    Deborah Corn is the person behind the PrintMediaCentr Logo. Deborah debuted as host this week after serving as a guest host several times. There were several questions related to sales calls, researching customers, getting in the door, cold calls, and other sales-...

    Read More
  • 3D Printing Making Headlines
    03/30/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    Recent articles in USA Today and Forbes have highlighted the growing 3D printing market. 3D printing, which has roots in industrial prototyping, is the “printing” of objects by devices that function somewhat similar to inkjet printers or plotters. Devices that create 3D models from Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) programs have existed since at least the 1990’s. Basically, 3D printers use plastic or other materials to create models layer by layer. If you’ve never seen one of these devices in action, do yourself a favor and search YouTube for videos of 3D printers.

    Traditionally, the major markets for these printed models (or prototypes) have been engineering, automotive, and architectural businesses. Recently, though, this process has been used in applications ranging from toy models to jewelry and even prosthetics. The research firm Wohlers Associates estimates sales for all 3D printing products and services worldwide at $1.66 billion in 2012 and approaching $3.1 billion by 2016.

    Stratasys, a Minneapolis company that developed some of the first 3D printers, partnered a couple of years ago with Hewlet Packard to create the HP Designjet 3D printer series. The cost of the device is reported to be in a range equivalent to about $17,500. Stratasys also offers 3D machines under their Dimension and uPrint lines. One more major vendor, the Z Corporation, which has a product line that includes a number of 3D printers, 3D scanners, and 3D software, was recently acquired by 3D...

    Read More
    (1 Comments)
  • Do You Have Social Media Kred?
    03/29/2012 by Ms Julie Shaffer

    So you have a Linkedin account, a Facebook Page and a Twitter account. Maybe you check in to your gym or the place you have lunch on Foursquare, post videos on YouTube and try your best to figure out how to fit Google Plus into the mix. In short, you’re doing what people like me have been urging you to do — you’re engaged in social media conversation. Congratulations. Now, what do you know about your social standing? Do you have Kred? Do you have Klout?

    Just as a bank uses your credit score to measure your financial soundness, and Google Analytics measures your website’s reach, services Klout.com and Kred.com measure your social media influence. If you haven’t used either of these services, it’s worth the time to head over to each site and check it out. But be warned, once you sign up and see your scores odds are human nature will kick in and you will become obsessed with improving them.

    Klout measures, as the language-distorting name implies, your social “clout.” When you sign up, you authorized the service to connect to at least one of your social accounts (Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus) and linking to more will yield a more accurate measure of your influence across the entire social web. Klout can also connect to Linkedin, YouTube, Foursquare, Instagram, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Last.fm and Flicker with half a dozen more on the way. Klout uses these connections to come up with your Klout Score, reported as a number on a scale of one to 100. The average score is in the 20s and as one’s score moves up the scale, it’s much more difficult to increase one’s Klout Score. Klout defines influenced as “the ability to drive action” and looks at interaction through social networks over a rolling 90-day period. Engagement is key, and Klout will rank a person with fewer connections but more engagement (via Retweets, Mentions, new Follows, Likes, Wall Posts) higher...

    Read More
  • Print's Electric Future
    03/20/2012 by Mr Samuel G. Shea

    In the 2002 sci-fi detective thriller Minority Report, director Steven Speilberg presented a future where information abounds, touchscreens adorn every possible surface, and a soft ambient glow illuminates all spaces. Ten years later, thanks to advances in organic and printed electronics, this sci-fi future is fast becoming a reality.

    In the summary of the fourth edition of their Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics, the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) sums up the dizzying potential for printed electronics:

    The combination of special materials with low-cost, large area fabrication process (such as printing) enables thin, lightweight, flexible, and low-cost electronics. This means integrated circuits, sensors, displays, memory, photovoltaic cells, or batteries can be made out of plastic. Applications like flexible solar cells, flexible displays, lighting, RFID tags (radio frequency identification), single-use diagnostic devices, or simple consumer products and games are only a few examples that represent a future multi-billion Euro market. Smart objects (e.g., smart packages that integrate multiple organic and printed devices) or smart textiles are additional examples for applications in organic and printed electronics.

    Currently, a variety of different printing processes are being used in the development of printed electronics, including offset, gravure, flexo, screen, and inkjet. As in production graphic arts printing, inkjet presents unique opportunites because it is a digital process...

    Read More