Bringing customer engagement to life, through Print.
Blippar: Augmented reality Augmented reality is nothing new – it’s been around, in one form or another, since early research into the subject began at MIT all the way back in the 1960s. However, it’s only recently that technological advances have made it possible for augmented reality to potentially become part of our everyday lives. In a nutshell, augmented reality refers to layers of digital information being placed over or within an image. One key use of this has been to add another dimension to multi-platform marketing, often allowing for the use of one medium as a springboard to another that can offer more information. And it is no longer reserved for gamers and gimmicks, it has become a powerful marketing tool, offering the ability to literally reshape the way brands interact with, monitor and track customer engagement. Mobile phones have changed the way we interact with the physical world, from socialising, playing games, shopping and even communicating. The app, Blippar, allows consumers to scan and identify a product and transform it into a marketing touch point such as a game, cartoon, video, recipe book or even song list. “Visual search and interactive print gives us an opportunity to bring together compelling stories, digital content and mobile engagement,” Blippar said. “Augmented reality has a great wow effect, its ability to pop out and grab attention, tell a story and give us fun experiences are amazing. It’s really shaping the way we connect with the world. It enables brands to connect people with content and enables them to really deepen the conversation.” By using AR and Blippar, printed products gain a new dimension and become new and interactive marketing channels that actively engage with consumers. Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Milo, Heinz, Maybelline and Nestlé are just a few brands already using Blippar’s AR capabilities to drive customer engagement internationally. The most successful campaigns have already achieved over 2 million interactions. When Coca-Cola engaged Blippar to create song lists in AR for its soda cans, it saw a 300 per cent increase in engagement compared to the previous campaign. Maybelline’s virtual nail polish testing campaign, meanwhile, not only drove customer social engagement, it also enabled the brand to identify the popular colours to manufacture and stock. Think about your interactions on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: All these applications are so image-driven. An image is worth a thousand words and nothing will change that. “We are by nature very visual creatures,” Blippar said. “We learn, discover and create all the forms of cognition and learning through our eyes.” Taking any print product from a magazine, to posters, to your packaging labels, tickets and any other marketing material you can dream of and turn it into an interactive world of possibility. Build brand engagement, build brand loyalty and be part of the innovative technology that is just about to take South African shores by storm.
Reinventing Brands through Print
Elite’s Parra (“Cow”) Chocolate is one of Israel’s most time-honored, beloved chocolate brands, their latest campaign they packaged one million chocolate bars, each with a one-of-a kind wrapper. Instead of a traditional red wrapper, each individual piece of the Cow Chocolate brand has a unique design. Connecting to the Do It Yourself (DIY) trends in social media, the wrappers can be folded into one-of-a kind paper sculptures of cows using origami, thus giving the campaign its unique name: Origamoo. The chocolate brand, part of the Elite brands managed by the Strauss Group, has used an iconic cow in its signature red packaging since its inception in 1934. Strauss-Elite wanted to breathe new life to the popular brand using innovative packaging. They are expecting a significant growth in sales based on this campaign. Brands need to start looking outside the box to pull in loyalty from customers, we need to start intriguing people, sparking their creativity and going beyond the average of what brands used to produce. Origamoo is a perfect example of how far brands can go and should be going and it is all done with print. We are only limited by our imaginations and our marketing campaigns and branding attempts should be nothing less than magical, innovative and fresh. Customers expect more, they want to interact with your brand and that is why print is still alive.
In a Digital World, Print stands out-10 reasons print is not dead
Looking for way to break through the communication barrier between you and your prospects? In today’s digital age, it’s easy for your target market to become saturated with online advertisements and email marketing. It’s time to take a proven approach to reaching your prospects, print. According U.S. and worldwide industry statistics, U.S. advertisers spend on average $167 per person on direct mail to earn $2,095 worth of goods sold. That’s a 1,300% return on investment! Still not sure if investing in print is right for you? According to Forbes Magazine, print materials and publications offer your customers and prospects a brand experience that can’t be replicated online. Here are 10 reasons why your print publications will make a lasting impact on your target market. Print Stands out because there is so little of it. Consumers are getting less ‘junk’ mail in their ‘snail’ mailboxes while being overwhelmed with countless emails in inbox. Therefore, holding a printed piece in their hands has gained popularity as a welcome addition to their mailbox. Print is Tangible. Publications, brochures, posters and other types of printed materials are physical items. These items can stay in offices or homes for months or even years after they are received. Print is Credible. Like the feeling you get when you see The New York Times or your favorite magazine on the rack, there is something to be said about the feeling of legitimacy that comes from print. You are able to put the printed piece down and comeback at any time to resume your reading. And print requires “real estate”. As marketers, we like this! A printed piece placed on the corner of a desk will be there day after day until it is picked back up to be viewed. There’s no junk mail filter for the mailbox This ensures your printed direct mail spends at least a few moments in your customers’ hands, a luxury that online ads cannot always provide. Print Establishes Your Brand. Printed publications and other branded materials is an excellent way to establish your brand. It allows you to bring the aesthetic qualities of font, colors, images and texture that help to establish brand recognition. Print Helps You Reach Your Target Market. The design and placement of your company ads in publications, newspapers and magazines can help you reach your target audience, whether it is a niche market or the general public. By leveraging the data of demographics, you are able to strategically place your brand in the right place at the right time, in front of the right audience. Print is More Engaging. Websites are often skimmed in as little as 15 seconds per visit. When a customer or prospect reads a printed material, they are more engaged for a longer period of time. On average, a consumer spends 43 minutes reading a magazine. Less Print, Is More For You. With more companies taking their marketing efforts online, the old has become new again as print becomes the new trend. But this isn’t your parents’ world of print communications! Marketers have more information and data to make calculated decisions about content, consumption, consumers, and collateral types. Customers’ and prospects’ email inboxes are overflowing with unsolicited ads and non-worthy news, most of which is largely ignored. With this in mind, designing and sharing a great printed marketing piece should be high on your list of strategic marketing initiatives. People have become numb to online advertising. Flashing banners and pop-up ads can come across as overly aggressive and invasive. Bill Thompson of BBC News said, “When I am online, looking for information, reading the news or simply surfing around aimlessly, the ads are in the way and I block them out.” Short run printing has become an affordable option for individuals and small businesses. In today’s economic climate, every rand counts. Print companies understand this and have found ways to make it affordable to print the exact quantity of items you need.
Have South African marketers become too mundane
Change is…. Hard at the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. Sure you’ve heard that one before and I’m a firm believer in this statement especially as a marketer myself. To say that I love change and things that keep evolving would be a bit of an understatement. The idea of exploring new and interesting facts, ideas, innovations and technology is what gets my creative juices flowing. And I’m all for trying new innovation and applications, what will be the next big thing that will make our company stand out from the mundane, every day the run of the mill. That brings me to my questions… why is there no “new ideas, grab it by the horns Brand Managers and fellow Marketers out there. Take this Blippar Augmented Reality app of Ren-Form. Been sharing, presenting, blogging this awesome, mind-blowing awe-inspiring app to my fellow Marketers. Yes, agreed, I do get them excited and talking and sharing amazing ideas but that is where it tends to end! I’ve yet to meet one, that gets me super excited, someone that has the… Apples (thanks Savannah) that says… “yes it has not been tested in SA, yes we don’t have a tangible case study, yes no other brand has done this… so why don’t we be the first” What has happened to my fellow marketers that they become complacent to follow the pack and be mind-numbing copy cats…. What has happened to being first, taking a leap of faith… being that first one that said YES WE DARE TO SHOCK, INNOVATE, EDUCATE AND MAKE THIS OUR OWN, AND BE THE FIRST TO TAKE THIS TO MARKET. Stats and case studies we have, agreed it is UK an US based… but my fellow marketers why can’t we make our own case studies and make our own stats. Why are we as SA Marketers and Brand owners so cautious and reserved? What has happened to the Bold, Brave and Ba**sey Creative Monsters out there. Why are we for ever following in the footsteps of our UK and US counterparts? Are we not misjudging and discriminating against our customers and consumers? Are we basically assuming that they not ready for this, don’t have the imagination for this, or that they not as enthusiastic and educated to comprehend this? Yes, I agree strong words, but definitely one I am asking myself? Are we not making fools of ourselves “assuming” our consumers/customers aren’t ready for new and innovative technology and advertising? Or have we forgotten what its like pitching a really awesome pitch and one that takes some work and convincing? Hit a nerve… sorry if I upset your comfort zone and perhaps some egos. Just some questions I’ve been asking myself and now putting it out there.
Digital Print’s Latest Technology
Digital print refers to methods of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers. Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset printing methods, but this price is usually offset by avoiding the cost of all the technical steps required to make printing plates. It also allows for on-demand printing, short turnaround time, and even a modification of the image (variable data) used for each impression. The savings in labor and the ever-increasing capability of digital presses means that digital printing is reaching the point where it can match or supersede offset printing technology’s ability to produce larger print runs of several thousand sheets at a low price. We at Ren-Form cc recently added two new machines to our Digital Print department, the new HP Indigo and Xerox Versant, they will give us an even greater capability and allow us to deliver on both high quality and quicker turn around for our growing number of trade printing customers. We spoke to Jean-Claude Du Sart in our Digital print section and got some insights in what we can expect from these new innovative machines. Jean-Claude shared that the HP Indigo can print on various new stocks including Vinyl’s and textured materials, it can also print raised effect and embossed effect images as well as printing white ink! The Versant can saddle stitch and offset various data jobs and helps as a backup press when the department gets too busy. “The Digital print department can be stressful at times with all jobs being urgent as we are “print on demand”, however the rewards comes from customer satisfaction and follow up orders. We can achieve quick turnaround with exceptional quality and we specialise in producing only quality.” – Jean-Claude Du Sart
Print Media marketing: a look towards the future
Being a Marketer constantly expected to come up with mind-blowing ideas and initiatives can be a bit daunting. John Keynes puts it this way “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. However, having innovative partners like HP/Kemtek and Xerox XMPie makes our lives in print and Print Marketing that much simpler. Imagine searching through cobwebs of old, new, “almost there” ideas and creating that one piece that creates not only excitement but enjoyment and interaction from your audience or customers. Then translating your view (Marketing) to a sales force that looks at you as if you have arrived from another planet with the aim of moving mountains. Daunting task at its best, but one we would not substitute for anything at the Ren-Form Group. Now imagine you, as a Marketer get this awesome application whereby you could produce more than 4 million unique packaging images/labels. Create for the consumer their own personalized label, gear, t-shirts, mugs and or mobile phone covers to match the Brand/product you are promoting. Sounds too good to be true, right? Sounds quite costly… and I can see the Brand owners immediately doing the ROI calculation and risk attached to this. So, what did it take for a Brand like Coke to launch the “Extraordinary” Campaign in Israel, or Oreo Biscuits to put their money behind a Mosaic campaign. In my opinion it took vision, ingenuity, enthusiasm and exceptional trust in their product to try the “unique” approach to Brand marketing. Taking not a gamble, but a calculated risk on knowing what their “BrandLoyals” expected of them as an awe-inspiring Brands. Think you would agree with Dorothea Brande when she says, “as long as new ideas are created, sales will continue to reach new highs” So why aren’t more Brands jumping to take advantage of this awesome technology available to them? Let’s take a closer look at this technology then. Available in South Africa, from the Ren-Flex and Ren-Form respectively. Adding to this they have fully trained design staff and Digital Marketing staff available for a free consultation with your brand. What we can offer you in a nut shell, is a Mosaic campaign that combines, scales, transposes, and rotates high-resolution base design patterns to create limitless unique variations. Creating a label or product, that is different from one to the other just like your consumer is. Once the base patterns are developed, the automated software handles all the processing. For best results, the base designs should be complex, with a lot of detail and color. The more complex and colorful the original file, the better the results. What more does any Marketer want for his or her Brand? Glorious sales, ROI in abundance and the Board members are as merry as the day is long. In conclusion let’s assist you connect or reconnect as it may with your consumers on a personal level, more of a one2one basis. Let’s make the consumers feel that they are valued and seen as individuals and not just as a number on a ROI data sheet. Interact, get to know and become part of the consumer and millennial “I am” factor and see them for who they really are. Individuals that make a difference, care about their image, care about how the world and their peers perceive them, and most importantly “What’s in it for ME”
What is CMYK? Colour printing terms explained
What’s with the CMYK printing terms – who understands it? Most often when I mention I work in print, I get asked the question, what does CMYK stand for? What is more what’s with the “K” if it supposed to be Black? Simply it is the basis of the four ink colours that are applied to paper to produce our print masterpieces. Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K), yes, it’s not a typo it is “K” for Black. The “K” or Key is what adds detail and adds the contrast to the printed image. Some sources suggest that the “K” in CMYK comes from the last letter in “black” and was chosen because B already means blue. This statement too is for another day and another explanation. When we do Litho (Offset) printing the 4 colours CMYK are applied to the paper via plates, in 4 Stations. Each station makes us the CMYK colours and that gets applied to the paper in sequential layers/dots. Each dot (C+Y+M+K) makes up the completed image in the end. By varying the concentration of these colours we can also create a vast variety of colours. One can add what we call SPOT colours (Pantone Colours) and then the job becomes a CMYK+Spot. But more on that on another occasion. However, in Digital printing it gets a bit more “Digital”, Toner that can be either ink, wax or powder format, is applied to one image unit or belt (completed image) and then applied to the paper in one pass or application. Now before my Digital friends shoot me down here… yes, this process can differ from production press to another. Some presses apply the image to the paper in 4 passes. But again, we talk about dots per inch approximating the Litho process. (However not the same. More a simulation process.) This process we will explain in another issue as it is quite controversial and intricate, depending on who you speak with. I trust this short explanation has cleared up any “grey” areas you may have on the CMYK question. Should you require any further info please feel free to contact us on inquiries@renform.co.za
Psychology of colour in Marketing
The psychology behind colour is known to have an impact on consumers behaviours and decisions – as marketers, we should be using this to our benefit when building brands and promoting these brands to market, whether online or in our print media.
