There seems to be an ongoing discussion about names and descriptions of things in our industry, particularly when it comes to the seemingly hotly-debated phrases “print service provider” and “marketing service provider”, as well as their acronym counterparts, “PSP” and “MSP”. Cary Sherburne sparked some debate last year with her post on Print CEO about “PSP”. There have been more recent points of discussion, as well. WhatTheyThink’s Peer Groups blog has discussed what encompasses a company that bills itself as a “marketing service provider”. On Printing Impressions’ blog a few days ago, Margie Dana expressed her distaste for printing companies that bill themselves as marketing service providers. Dr. Joe also weighed in, providing his thoughts on how printers should approach marketing services.

All of the aforementioned posts make a number of great points, some call for new or different terminology to be used, and others call out vendors and industry analysts/consultants (like myself) for causing confusion by instituting these terms in the first place. Vendors often use these terms to describe their clients, and I certainly have used them in many of my writings for InfoTrends, although I try to mix it up a little for variety’s sake. To be frank, I see the discussion about the use of these specific terms as a bit silly at face value. That’s not to say that terminology is not important, but I think this specific discussion really leads to larger issues that are happening within the industry, mostly dealing with structural change and transitioning that many print businesses have been going through. (more…)

Over the past year or so, my colleagues and I at InfoTrends have been taking a look at software that enables TransPromo communications. For those that may have attended InfoTrends’ recent TransPromo Summit in Boston or are attending our European TransPromo Summit in October, you know that TransPromo programs can be extremely effective, but most are inherently complex and require ongoing attention and dedication for recurring success. They often require the proper organizational alignment among many departments for execution, including marketing and IT. Even though there are complexities, software vendors in this space have been working to enhance their solutions for ultimate usability and scalability in multi-departmental enterprise organizations.

The TransPromo technology landscape is very broad, and includes many different types of solutions: document creation and composition, message creation and management, post-composition, output management, production management, and campaign management. We decided to focus on enterprise-level document composition solutions with message creation and management components due to the important role they play in empowering multiple organizations within an enterprise to be involved in a TransPromo campaign. The result is a comprehensive (and lengthily-titled) guide to the leading solutions in this space: The Ultimate Guide to Enterprise TransPromo Solutions: Document Composition. While our existing Ultimate Guides have focused on software solutions for the Graphic Arts (W2P, VDP, Multi-Channel), we wanted to explore solutions that enable wide-scale collaboration in the creation and execution of TransPromo programs. (more…)

There’s been a lot of discussion on The Digital Nirvana about the ways digital printing is currently being used for newspaper production, as well as some future applications. While there’s no doubt that the ways of which people consume news and information is changing, it’s also clear that some new business model concepts for newspapers are still utilizing print as a main distribution method. Two hybrid models that come to mind include the previously-mentioned Printcasting, as well as a start-up called The Printed Blog. Each relies on reader-generated content, news aggregation, localized/targeted advertising, and (of course) print.

InfoTrends recently conducted an extensive study to understand present and future digital print applications within the newspaper industry. The result of our research can be summed up in The Emerging Digital Printing Opportunity in Newspaper Publishing, which details:

• - An overview of the newspaper industry
• - Current newspaper production workflow
• - The case for moving to digital newspaper production
• - Existing and future applications of digital newspaper production
• - Adoption challenges (hardware, software, and recycling considerations)
• - Recommendations for greater digital print adoption with newspaper

As existing newspaper publishers think about new ways to bring back print advertising dollars, they need to look not only at online models, but also how they can differentiate their print offerings. Digital printing can be utilized not only as a means for short-run production, but also for personalized content and targeted advertising. One of the things that we found when talking with some newspaper publishers is that there’s a lack of awareness about the possibilities that digital printing can offer to newspaper production. Market education is key. Reports like this one, as well as digital printing hardware vendors providing clear proof-of-concept applications and case studies of digital newspaper production successes can give a glimpse to newspaper publishers about new opportunities they can take advantage of.

So what are your thoughts on digital printing for newspaper production? Let us know.

Way back in September ’08, I talked about a study that InfoTrends conducted entitled “Trans Meets Promo… Is It More Than Market Hype?” and I said that I would be posting some high-level results from that study on The Digital Nirvana. Well… that didn’t exactly happen in 2008. However, since everyone is putting on their soothsayer hats to proclaim what they think will happen in the next 12 months, I thought I would present some of our study’s results and give some insight into what the world can expect for TransPromo in 2009.

To give a general overview of the study, InfoTrends surveyed consumers, transaction document owners, direct marketers, and print service providers about the use of direct mail, transaction documents, e-Presentment, and TransPromo. While the primary focus of this study was related to TransPromo, there were a number of direct marketing-related questions asked as well. There were also a number of interviews and case studies conducted of companies that have successfully implemented TransPromo applications. Below are some intriguing results from the study.

• - Consumer respondents spend an average of two to three minutes each reviewing statements; 20% of consumers spend five minutes or more.
• - Consumer respondents still prefer to receive bills via the mail; 44% of respondents prefer mail with an additional 18% preferring to receive transaction documents via mail and Internet .
• - 68% of direct marketer respondents who include promotional messages in transactional documents are printing at least some of those messages directly on the statement.
• - 54.4% of document owner respondents produce less than 100,000 bills or statements per month.
• - Print service provider respondents expressed that the average number of unique addresses included in transaction print jobs is 36,000, and the median is 3,000.

Consumers spend a significant amount of time reviewing their statements, which can be capitalized upon by implementing TransPromo onto statements. Direct Marketers are clearly taking advantage of statement viewership by placing promotional messages directly on statements, which can also be viewed through e-Presentment.  There is also a significant opportunity for print service providers to take advantage of mid-market TransPromo opportunties, as many are well-equipped to handle these volumes.

InfoTrends is formulating a road map for trends in TransPromo we expect to be prominent for 2009. Our road map is based on our own primary research, past trends, current & future vendor and service provider initiatives, and a little bit of guesswork on our part. While the actual road map document provides much deeper insight, here are a few trends that we see occurring this year:

• - 2009 will bring with it a greater understanding and acceptance of TransPromo, fueled by better education and deeper penetration.
• - Vendors and service providers will focus increased efforts on sales force education for TransPromo in order to be better equipped to sell clients and prospects on the value that TransPromo can bring to their organizations.
• - Interest in mid-market TransPromo applications will lead to increased competition between both TransPromo statement print providers and software providers positioning themselves to enable mid-market TransPromo applications.

Overall, TransPromo is definitely poised to become more conspicuous in 2009. We are well aware of the potential of TransPromo here at InfoTrends. Aside from our TransPromo study and the third annual U.S. TransPromo Summit.

So what do you think about TransPromo? Will Trans Meet Promo in 2009? Please comment and let us know.

Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at InfoTrends.

My colleagues at InfoTrends have been extremely busy over the past few months conducting an extensive study on the North American TransPromo market. InfoTrends Group Director Barb Pellow, Associate Consultant Cary Sherburne, and fellow Senior Research Analyst Matt Swain have put together “Trans Meets Promo… Is It More Than Market Hype?” Some of the study results were previewed at our annual TransPromo Summit in New York City last month.

The study builds upon prior InfoTrends research on the future of mail and transaction documents, as well as the future of commercial printing, and also includes comprehensive survey data on the TransPromo market from consumers, document owners, direct marketers, and print service providers. From the press release:

While the North American market for TransPromo communications printed in full digital color stood at 1.7 billion impressions in 2007, InfoTrends projects this number to reach an astounding 12.8 billion by 2012, for a CAGR of 68%. Also compelling is the fact that 63% of document owners surveyed stated that they currently add marketing messages to statements or are planning to within the next 36 months.

This growth is not surprising.  TransPromo provides a cost-effective way to communicate educational and promotional messages to customers. TransPromo documents leverage opt-in relationships and incorporate relevant and compelling promotional or educational messages in the white space of transactional documents. By leveraging TransPromo communications, document owners can reduce the number of mailings that must be sent, which translates to substantial savings in terms of postage and printing costs.

Just as document owners continue to embrace the TransPromo opportunity, an increasing number of print service providers are implementing TransPromo in their offerings. One factor that is catalyzing this change is the availability of affordable high-speed inkjet devices with lower running costs. For print service providers with 20+ employees, nearly 60% are considering the purchase of one or more of these devices within the next two years, with 14% stating that they would consider such a purchase within the year. In addition, software providers are starting to introduce easier to use solutions that are enabling mid-market print service providers to add this valuable offering to their portfolios.

The study is rich in fresh information about the TransPromo market, but also significantly covers the direct mail market. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the results of our study to spark more discussion on these growing markets. In the meantime, if you’re interested in purchasing the full study results, please contact Matt Swain at 781-616-2100 ext. 204, or via email: .

Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at InfoTrends.

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 InfoTrends.

As showcased in the news over the past few weeks, the newspaper industry is being hit hard by declining ad sales and a dwindling readership. The whole situation is exacerbated by the less than ideal state of the current economy. There have been a few blows to the newspaper industry in Boston over the past few months. Most recently in the news is the Boston Herald considering to outsource its printing to two independent printing companies outside of Boston. Always looming is the threat of the Boston Globe being sold off by the New York Times as well. However, there was another sad newspaper event in Boston this past year: the closing of BostonNOW.

BostonNOW was a free daily start-up newspaper geared toward the commuters of Boston, set to compete against the Boston Metro, a widely-distributed incumbent free daily. Unfortunately, BostonNOW’s financiers felt that the newspaper was not valuable enough to continue funding, and it folded just a year after its first publication. This happens to be the case with a number of media start-ups. What was unique about the concept of BostonNOW, however, is that it had three aspects: print, web, and mobile, with the print aspect being driven by reader-created content.

Most of the content that wasn’t from wire services or general local news was created by the readers of the paper through the use of blogs setup on BostonNOW’s website. Anyone with web access could create a blog on BostonNOW’s website and start writing content. The content that caught the eye of the editors would be selected and be scattered around the newspaper. Sometimes larger articles (many of them rants from everyday Bostonians) would get their own headline and article space, while most other snippets would appear in groups of black boxes.

Regardless of the content or the placement, an interactive element to the newspaper was implemented, adding value for the content creators (making them want to pick up a paper with what they said printed in it) and for the general readership (seeing what your peers have to say). Trends in current social media, such as use of review sites like Yelp.com show that people want to know and also trust what their peers in their community say, especially with the existence of an open feedback loop or forum.

Another example of leveraging communities for content creation is the implementation of Kodak’s Microzone Publishing technology at the Chicago Tribune. With Microzone technology, newspapers can create websites for different communities within a city or town. Citizens of that community can register on the website and share community news or create their own original content. Editors can then grab that content to publish in a weekly community section of the newspaper. Each community gets a special targeted section with content from its members. Companies within targeted communities can advertise within the locations they want their ad to reach, adding value to a newspaper advertisement, while keeping the cost down to allow smaller companies to advertise. In theory, the newspaper circulation will increase because of the higher value of the content.

Reader-created content is one way to add value to traditionally printed newspapers in hopes to increase readership. As some newspapers eventually transition into digital printing, there are limitless possibilities! At drupa 2008, various newspaper solutions were showcased by Océ, InfoPrint Solutions, HP, Wifag, and others. Clearly vendors want to get into this market, and are making great advancements in technology to make concepts become reality. For newspaper subscribers, this technology could mean a totally personalized newspaper containing reader-created content and targeted advertising not only by region but by the reader’s buying habits and personal preferences of that reader. Perhaps the term NewsPromo will be used to describe this new digital phenomena. While it’s still a far cry from this digital newspaper, it’s a big step in adding more value to every newspaper sold.

Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at InfoTrends.