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.

Rochester Software Associates will be demonstrating its Enterprise Workflow System which offers a closed loop, integrated solution for transactional job transform, PDF conversion, variable data personalization, and output management.

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.”

Crawford Technologies will exhibit its Document Enhancer, Electronic Envelope, and Dynamic Document Archive products.

Solimar Systems will demonstrate suite of enterprise output management solutions including Rubika, the companies application designed to automate and enhance processes associated with legacy and pre-composed applications.

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.

Pitney Bowes experts will take part in a number of Summit sessions including Innovative Software Tools, Software - A Critical Enabler for TransPromo, Advances in Finishing & Mailing Equipment, and White Space Marketing…Generating Revenue with Statements.

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 .

OutputLinks published an article today by Pete Basiliere, Research Director at Gartner on separating the hype from the real. Basiliere points to a Gartner idea called the Hype Cycle that “characterize the typical progression of an emerging technology, from initial over-enthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual acceptance of the technology’s relevance and role in a market.”

In What’s Hype, What’s Real? Basiliere shares highlights from Gartner’s 2008 Print Markets and Management Hype Cycle. These include:

• Organizations that isolate the production printing function from overall customer communications find themselves losing ground to more agile competitors.
• Trans-promo and CRM printing is steadily progressing from a dream of print technology providers and pundits into a viable, revenue-generating strategy.
• There is a need to continue to monitor Office printing to keep cost down.

I have had the opportunity to speak with over 50 companies about the obstacles in Transpromo communications. Some who have implemented Transpromo, others who are considering. Interesting is the fact that there are some common denominators:

1. A champion — someone who sees the value, understands the opportunty and views it as a “revenue opportunity” as opposed to just a operational savings.

2. Compelling evidence — as mentioned earlier in the blog, the lack of documented success due in part to people not wanting to lose their competitive edge by sharing too much.

3. Internal politics — Transpromo is an organizational committment. The larger the organization, the tougher it is to get the support. All of the parties involved within the company must be involved to be successful. Therefore, success is driven tops down.

4. Assuming there is a champion who gets senior management support a phased plan that outlines objectives, applies metrics and that can effectively take a company from where they are to where they want to be. Important is the “phasing” and not trying to do everything at once.

   Many of the issues that have been brought up would be part of the plan … data, marketing messaging, procurement procedures, etc.

Accomplishing items 1-4 — and seeing it through including measurement.

Also found that service bureaus viewed Transpromo as a major opportunity — Some corporations do, but many view as a competitive pressure.

Skip Henk is President/CEO at Xplor International. He can be reached at

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 has annouced John Blossom, President of Shore Communications Inc. as keynote speaker:

John Blossom’s career spans more than twenty years of marketing, research, product management and development in advanced information and media venues, including major financial publishers and financial services companies (Citicorp, Quotron and for Reuters

Holdings PLC), as well as earlier experience in broadcast media and advertising. Blossom founded Shore Communications Inc. in 1997, specializing in research and advisory services and strategic marketing consulting for publishers and consumers of content services. Mr. Blossom’s engagements have included strategic marketing consulting for major corporations and startups that are using the Internet to position themselves in new and existing content markets.

Shore’s research, news analysis and weblogs, including major contributions from Mr. Blossom, have been recognized widely as leading sources of authoritative insights into the content industry, receiving top industry awards including the EContent Magazine 100, the Software and Information Industry Association CoDIE award for Best Media Blog and a Top Ten Analyst recognition from Technobabble 2.0.

Blossom’s extensive global experience with the marketing and management of financial information services, including real-time datafeeds, established him as one of the thought leaders in this important market segment, leading to strategic assignments with the executive management team of Reuters Group PLC. Mr. Blossom was also a key player in a number of ground-breaking Internet-oriented initiatives at Reuters, including the introduction of content management services and a global effort to integrate Internet-based information suppliers into the mainstream Reuters information services environment.

Transpromo Summit takes place August 13–14th, 2008 in New York City. More information is available at http://www.transpromosummit.com

Eliot Harper has a Q & A on TransPromo on his VeeDeePee blog. Eliot says, Grant Stewart [of Vectis] answered some “interesting questions” on transactional-promotional mail which are worth noting. While these questions may seem obvious to many, they’re helpful for those who are considering TransPromo applications and want to understand what value they can provide.

Read TransPromo Questions at VeeDeePee.

TMC.net has a short article on the quality of data used in Transpromo campaigns. The article cites a study in customer data standards conducted by direct marketer DsiCMM.

According to the DsiCMM study:

Government, credit card, mobile phone, banks and storecards emerged as the major offenders in large part, not because their data standards are substantially lower than the other sectors, but because they generate such high volumes of transactional documents. Misdirected bills and statements are most severely experienced by the 25-34 age group, with almost two thirds (62.2%) having received such transactional documents addressed to the wrong person, consistently reducing across the older age bands up to the over-55s at 25.4%. This is perhaps not surprising in that new home activity also tails off with age. However, even amongst the more static but wealthier empty-nesters aged 55 and above, still fully one quarter are experiencing misdirected bills and statements.

Yesterday, WhatTheyThink.com published an article by Barb Pellow on using data to drive a marketing campaign. In the article Pellow states, “Data-driven marketing starts with good data. You must work with your customers to examine both internal and external data sources. Internal data sources abound, and marketers must work across the array of internal data points. These include: Purchase or transaction histories; Customer service; Trade show leads; Prepaid business reply cards; Web leads.”

Transpromo is making its way into marketing conversations at at conferences, trade shows and in the boardroom according to recent article at MarketingProfs.

The article TransPromo Is Born makes the case for TransPromo or “onserts” as they refer to them:

ROI is the key driver for the success of TransPromo. Organizations face increased budgetary constraints, staffing issues, and both boardroom and investor demands for favorable quarterly returns. Business is focused on cost more than ever before, both on containment and measurement.

Leading-edge enterprises have been successfully, and quietly, achieving significant ROI on marketing spend using multiple tactics, including the elimination of additional inserts from statement envelopes, replacing them with a more sustainable option: onserts.

Read the rest of TransPromo Is Born at MarketingProfs .

Within our industry, there is an interesting debate about the definition of TransPromo documents. Is it a bill/statement that has promotional messages embedded? Does it have to be promoting a product, service, or just a call to action? How about simply educating the customer and cultivating the relationship? At the other end of the spectrum, there are proponents that have gone as far as to extend TransPromo to primarily promotional documents that are composed based on transactional data and a lot of business logic. Think of these documents as one to one marketing on steroids. So who is right? And how does this impact print volumes? And, why is it relevant?

It is relevant for those that are trying to defend the paper-statement, or the paper direct mail letter, or even the static brochure. The concept of TransPromo shouldn’t be paper centric.. It should be to nurture and cultivate a stronger relationship between supplier and customer, while improving retention rates, keeping the customer actively engaged in the relationship, and hopefully building enough trust that the customer chooses to grow the relationship over time. In this sense, using transaction information helps to engage the customer in a dialogue and improve the lifetime value of the relationship.

So, does this have to occur on a printed statement? Of course not. The best approach to nurturing the supplier/customer relationship is many coordinated and ad hoc touch points, driven by business logic, common sense, and a determination to develop mutual trust and respect. Remember the old adage that every employee is a salesperson? Well, perhaps we should rewrite this and say that every touch point is an opportunity to cultivate the relationship.

Can TransPromo save the paper-statement? Honestly, it doesn’t have to save the paper-statement. But by effectively implementing a comprehensive TransPromo strategy, the supplier gains a strategic strength that will link the print room to the board room. This might not save the paper-statement, but it will certainly drive many new print applications that will be tightly coordinated and integrated into the supplier’s business strategy.

Here is an example for the potential of TransPromo. When was the last time you received a coupon in the mail as part of an affinity program? You probably receive these all the time. I am willing to bet that you don’t always remember to bring them with you to the retail store. Am I right? But, the coupon did, in fact, “get you in the door”. After you pick out the product you want to purchase, and go to the counter and tell them you received a coupon, but didn’t have it with you, what is their answer (yes, I know some do this better than others)? Most likely, they tell you that you can’t use the coupon if you don’t have it with you. Seriously? Their promotion got you to change your behavior and come back to the store when they wanted you to be there and you decided to buy something. This is complete success! They aren’t going to reward you for that? Why not implement a registered coupon that is produced using variable data. It is tagged in their retail system and only you can redeem the coupon. You can do this on the phone, in person, or by mail. It doesn’t matter. The point is that you tell them you received a coupon. They look it up in their retail system and surprise!!! I bet you would be thrilled to have a positive experience where you know that the coupon wasn’t just another indiscriminate offer.

I think the lesson here is that we shouldn’t get fixated on the medium. Customers must come first and strategy should drive how they are engaged and cultivated. If we do it right, print will thrive. If we don’t, then the supplier may falter either way.

USPS’s Deliver magazine takes a look at TransPromo and a recent switch by Ford Motor Credit to use promotional offers in the monthly invoices it sends customers:

Ford Credit uses its monthly invoices to communicate with customers on everything from vehicle service schedules to special financing offers and new vehicle promotions. Guided by info gleaned from customers, Ford Credit tailors statements with marketing messages and promotional offers targeted to its customers’ buying preferences and patterns.

The declining cost of color printing and the increasing quality and speed of printouts influenced the division’s switch from preprinted, company-branded paper. The division prints about 175,000 statements daily — or about 42 million invoices each year. Ford Credit saves significantly on postage costs by reducing the number of inserts inside invoices and consolidating mailings. Although Ford executives don’t reveal specifics, they say the transpromo initiative is meeting the company’s expectations in terms of returns.

Head over to Deliver to read the rest of Keeping Your Eye on the Bill.