By Heidi Tolliver-Walker on December 2nd, 2011 - 5 Comments
When you think about the U. S. Post Office’s new Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program, you might not think digital print. After all, this program, while offering postal rates as low as 14.2 cents per piece, appears to go against everything we like about digital. It’s nameless, addressless (at least to the sender), and…
By Nancy Scott on December 1st, 2011 - 6 Comments
It’s all over the Internet, stuffed into every eNewsletter, offered up on any website that works, glowing LED at every click. It’s marketing VIDEO. By the end of 2012, we’re going to be seeing so much of it people will begin to ask [all over again] whether “this is the death of print.” Examples? How…
By Guest Contributor on November 29th, 2011 - Comment
Distributed execution through technology… With today’s digital and production technology providing endless opportunities for variability and personalization, keeping brand consistency and even regulatory compliance has become a unique challenge. This is particularly true when your product or service is offered by way of captive or non-captive agents, franchises, dealers and re-sellers. These “representatives” want and…
By John Foley on November 28th, 2011 - Comment
“Tactics, Tactics, Tactics…. Everywhere I look, all I see is tactics!” Perhaps you have also felt that same way recently. We hear about tactics across nearly every marketing channel out there. QR Codes. Personalized URLs. Augmented Reality. SMS/Text-Messaging. Mobile Email. Social Media Advertising. Those are just a few of the terms that we hear and…
By Heidi Tolliver-Walker on November 25th, 2011 - 2 Comments
I recently had the opportunity to watch a Webinar moderated by Barb Pellow and paneled by Sprint and its agency Weber Associates on the topic of Web-enabled marketing supply chain management. In other words, Web-to-print. Sprint has 7,000 B2B reps and 1,000 (ish) assets in its B2B library across multiple verticals. It has to run…
By Nancy Scott on November 24th, 2011 - Comment
Becky Graninger, a professional colleague with whom I’ve worked for years and whom I admire a great deal, recently went to work at Barton-Cotton. With a website tagline that says “momentum makes it happen,” Barton-Cotton is busy executing its “reversal of fortune.” To that end, Becky is part of a group of seasoned direct marketers…
By Richard Losch on November 22nd, 2011 - 1 Comment
Two things I read last week hit me with a one-two punch: first I read about Warren Buffet’s investment in IBM, and then I read information from a Gartner report on leveraging customer loyalty. The AP article on Buffet’s investment says: Warren Buffett said Monday that his company has spent $10.7 billion to buy more…
By Nicole Schappert on November 21st, 2011 - Comment
Here is a special treat for Thanksgiving week… First is the Swing Cover Direct Mailer. This piece combines a swinger fold technique with a tri-fold and was completely done by machine at Bindagraphics in Baltimore, MD. Second, watch the actual footage of this mailer being printed in the production facility. Think of it as your…
By Heidi Tolliver-Walker on November 18th, 2011 - 2 Comments
I recently aggregated all of the QR code demographic and usage data I could find (and am adding to it all the time), and one of the trends that surprised me is while much of the data is highly consistent — such as age demographics and usage patterns — gender is not one of them….
By Nicole Schappert on November 17th, 2011 - 4 Comments
A New World for Real-Time Metrics In today’s market, the tools are available to measure, manage, and monitor campaigns in real time. Technology from a number of sources, ranging from Pageflex to MindFireInc., enables marketers to see how people are interacting with campaigns in real-time and allows them to make immediate changes. The service provider…
By Nicole Schappert on November 16th, 2011 - 1 Comment
A New Accountability Back when the economy tanked, an old word crept back into our lexicon: accountability. Marketers already had plenty of metrics in place, particularly at larger organizations that were well-schooled in tracking sales leads, market share, and CPM. Nevertheless, these pockets of performance measurements didn’t provide the big picture that senior managers are…
By Nicole Schappert on November 14th, 2011 - Comment
Newmark Print is one of the premier full-service commercial printers in the Denver area, providing turnkey corporate printing, mail, distribution, and digital media services. Its services include one- through four-color sheet-fed printing; specialty substrate printing; one- through four-color digital offset and variable data printing; and sophisticated prepress, bindery, kitting, direct mail, and fulfilment. Founder and…
By Heidi Tolliver-Walker on November 11th, 2011 - 5 Comments
Next Tuesday (November 15), Starbucks will launch its first major augmented reality app, according to Mashable. You’ll be able to view the app by pointing your iPhone or Android device at a Starbucks holiday cup or other object in its stores (such as a coffee bag) — 47 options in all. What will you see?…
By Nancy Scott on November 10th, 2011 - Comment
Crowdsourcing our own opinions and relying on others’ is all the rage: Yelp, Angie’s List, Facebook Likes — apparently, we won’t buy anything unless we consult to see if groups of strangers think it’s okay. Crowdsourcing, first name-tagged in a 2006 Wired magazine article, has infiltrated the creative arts, too. For instance, the Japanese are…
By John Foley on November 9th, 2011 - Comment
From the day Google+ was released a few months ago, it has made quite an impact on the world of social networking. Many reports indicate that 50 million users signed up for the service within the first three months. Yes, it’s true that there is still quite a gap between Google+ and Facebook and Twitter….
