InfoTrends recently completed its multi-client study entitled Trans Meets Promo… Is It More than Market Hype?. In conducting this study, InfoTrends surveyed more than 1,000 consumers, 600 direct marketers, and 230 print service providers to understand the strategy and direction for TransPromo implementation. Based on this feedback, InfoTrends projects that the North American market for TransPromo applications printed in full digital color represented 1.7 billion impressions in 2007. By 2012, the number of impressions is expected to reach 22.8 billion.
The part of TransPromo that gets the most attention these days is the concept of incorporating advertising messages into bills and statements. A credit card bill, for instance, could have offers for goods or services similar to those one typically purchases, or a car manufacturer could suggest new models as the end of a lease or loan approaches. While obvious, such applications only scratch the surface of TransPromo potential. Read More…
While TransPromo documents are highly effective vehicles for increasing the lifetime value of customer relationships, they can be complex to develop and launch. Achieving the maximum impact in a Trans-Promo campaign requires an understanding of variable content database management, dynamic application layout, white space management and digital color. It can include variable data application development involving thousands or even millions of unique pages, requiring proper planning, access to clean, up-to-date customer data, and a robust, production-class printing infrastructure. But if you aren’t able to do all this on your own, help is readily available. Read More…
Océ’s new, 18,000 square foot Customer Experience Center, opened July 22 in Boca Raton, Florida is inspired by one of the company’s core values: Customer First. Find out more about this new Center.
According to an article I recently read by InfoTrends, 63% of customers prefer promotional pieces over purely transactional documents. For this reason, “incorporating promotional messaging in transaction documents can both boost the appeal of a transactional document and generate a higher read rate for the marketing message.”
When I read this, I had to stop and think about that again. Putting a promotional message on a transactional document can “generate a higher read rate for the marketing message.” On the surface, this makes sense. Use something people like more (promotional messages) to boost readership of something people like less (transactional documents).
But as usual, I had to re-think it in a contrarian way. You are hitching the more desirable (the marketing message) to the less desirable (the transactional document). In some ways, you could argue that, by doing so, it’s like putting flat tires on a sports car. Of course, you could argue the other way, too, and that’s what is being done here. Bills have nearly a 100% open rate. You can’t say that about most direct mail, even highly personalized direct mail. By attaching the marketing message to the transactional document, you are increasing the chance of eyeball exposure.
I guess what struck me was its over-simplicity. As analysts and consultants, we are prone to blithe and pithy statements that make great pull quotes. But we need to be careful not to over-simplify.
I mean, another way to put this is that, if you’re talking about transpromo credit card statements, for example, and if credit card statements irritate people (which they do), you’re hoping that your marketing message catches the coattails of something that people fundamentally don’t like and that irritates them. Those marketing messages better be cheap to add!
It’s just another way to look at it. I’ll be available for tomato throwing later
Over at Transpromo-Live, Lee asks a very important question: Do you know what your junk mail is doing?. A poll conducted by the site found that “56% of the respondents did not read any of the promotions (inserts or flyers) which accompanied their bills while 39% said they “sometimes” they read the flyers and only 6% said that they read the inserts.”
As pointed out in the article, this creates a lot of waste and creates an opportunity for embedding promotional messages within transactional documents.
Lee sums it up by ending with:
Wouldn’t it be easier to place the advertisement/relevant promotion and or educational messaging in the unused white space that already exists on the bill or statement? Hundreds of millions of trees a year could be saved using transpromo best practices.
A theme set by Barb Pellow at the event is that of simplexity:
Industry veteran and InfoTrends Group Director Barb Pellow kicked off the session by introducing to the audience the concept of Simplexity – the title of a new book that talks about how complex things can be simple and simple things complex. This is the perfect concept to help kick TransPromo to the next level. The technology infrastructure for TransPromo is now the simple part. The complex part is more human-related—organizational issues, and even a lack of creativity and vision on the part of implementers.
Simplexity: The consumer sees a simple, elegant interface, and the complex inner workings make it all happen. This is the mantra for the future of TransPromo.
TransPromo Summit the 2-day event focused on helping marketing executives and print service providers develop stratgies for using transpromo in advertising and marketing campaigns begins tomorrow in New York City.
Here is a look at some of the news announced in conjunction with the event.
GMC will showcase PrintNet, the companies application suite for designing and producing high impact, personalized print and digital communications. Dr. René Müller, CEO of GMC Software Technology will participate in a keynote panel titled: “Software, A Critical Enabler.”
Kodak experts will offer insight on trends and advances in TransPromo. Ron Gilboa, Director, Current Marketing & Operations, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG), will join other industry executives for the keynote panel “Recent Hardware Announcements and Their Impact on Your Business.” Pat McGrew, EDP, Transaction & Data Center Segment Evangelist, Kodak’s GCG, will share her expertise on how to successfully develop and implement a TransPromo campaign.
Printable Technologies is launching a new Transpromo On-Demand module for the companies FusionPro Web 6.5 Web-to-print solution. The module enables print and marketing professionals to design templates that can be map promotional information into ordinary transactional statements.
Océ is launching a suite of TransPromo Solutions and Services including the Océ TransPromo Application Development Services which will help customers design or redesign TransPromo applications for maximum impact. Océ TransPromo Support Services takes a consultative approach to helping customers develop a TransPromo strategy, implement a new infrastructure or upgrade existing workflows, streamline processes and keep operations running at peak productivity.
As InfoTrends’ TransPromo Summit nears, I thought I would cover an interesting application of TransPromo, and pose some thoughts and questions about TransPromo implementation. Last month, AdAge had a feature about a start-up advertising and marketing technology company called Sojern (full article available here). Sojern plays in the airline industry space, which has been hurting lately due to rising costs that have directly affected fliers in many ways. Most would think that many companies would be shying away from the airline market until conditions improve.
However, Sojern has taken a novel approach to marketing to airline industry consumers through the use of TransPromo, but not necessarily in the same way we often talk about TransPromo. This application isn’t a newly redesigned statement or bill, and it doesn’t require an Automated Document Factory to produce. Instead, Sojern is implementing targeted, customizable advertising on the printed boarding passes for major airlines including Delta (the first to launch the implementation), American, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways. These boarding passes are printed by consumers on their desktop printers just as they normally are, and the ads are formatted to aesthetically please both on the Web and in print. The consumer can also turn off the ads if they so choose, and will be able to further-customize their experience in the future.
I got to experience Sojern at work first-hand when my friend was printing out his boarding passes for a Delta flight to Tampa, Florida a few days ago. The boarding pass included a 5-day weather outlook for the Tampa area with three different “Destination Highlights” underneath each day. Surrounding the weather and Destination Highlights were regular Web-based advertisements. Some ads were nationwide advertisements from bookstore chains and event ticket resellers, while others were targeted to the destination, including nature parks and botanical gardens located near Tampa. All of them printed out clearly on the monochrome laser printer at home, and would probably look even better in color.
This type of application is effective on a number of different levels. There is information included other than solid advertisements within the boarding pass (in this case, weather), which adds some value to the pass other than just being a new advertising platform. More importantly, because passengers cannot print their boarding passes until 24-36 hours before their flight, information like weather is very timely and therefore more relevant to the passenger. Targeting based on destination also adds value to the boarding pass, especially as smaller, more localized advertisers take advantage of Sojern’s services. This delivery model requires no investment in print technology at all, other than making sure the page looks right when printed on a home computer (usually done through a stylesheet). Sojern also says that it has developed tools for advertisers to track online views, print impressions, and ad clickthroughs to determine the effectiveness of a campaign.
Giving control to the user to turn on or off the advertising is also an important factor in Sojern’s application, as consumers are consistently wary about the use of personal information for targeted advertising. On the same token, consumers who find Sojern’s technology valuable will soon be able to customize what type of content they receive on their boarding passes (another value-add). An implementation like Sojern’s for airlines could also be implemented for tickets to sporting events and concerts that are printed online (in fact, this may already be the case), as well as other forms of online transactions.
This brings me to my final thoughts and questions: where will real TransPromo innovation and implementation come from? Will it come from transactional statement printers who are starting to offer TransPromo as an option to more and more clients? Will it come from the marketing or design departments of corporations who want to revamp and add value to their statements? Will it come from the solution developers/vendors who enable companies to design and execute TransPromo statements? Or will it come from start-ups like Sojern who offer a whole new approach to TransPromo? Tell me what you think.
Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at .
Usability consultant Jakob Nielsen has named the Océ PRISMAprepare as on the 10 Best Application UIs of 2008.
Océ PRISMAprepare is a document preparation application. The application that imports various digital file types, provides image cleaning, imposition, allows assignment of media attributes, definition of tabs and tab captions, inserts, blank pages and other job preparation tasks.
The Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization (PRIMIR) has released their 2006 study that examined growth trends and forecasts for ink jet technology through 2011:
The PRIMIR study provides a thorough analysis and review of the status of inkjet technology, covering thermal, Piezo and continuous inkjet and their usage and adoption in display signage, graphic arts, packaging, manufacturing / deposition and decorative/textile markets.
With the recent drupa being dubbed, among other things, ‘the inkjet drupa,’ it would seem that inkjet has finally come into the mainstream in the printing industry. I.T. Strategies noted in the study that while the biggest market for inkjet technology is clearly display signage, over the course of the study timeframe (2006-2011), inkjet systems will be developed with the intent of challenging both electrophotography and analog print technologies. In the graphic arts market, production inkjet is at a very early stage with one-third of the production print volume being transaction oriented.
The study was exclusively available to PRIMIR members in 2007, but is now available to all parties for purchase through the WhatTheyThink Store.
