OutputLinks’ Chenlong He: InfoTrends, Famous People & the Xerox Cruise
Posted on Mon, Oct 18, 2010
Part Dos: InfoTrendsPrint Plus and the glamorous Xerox cruise
Hello, my friends, welcome back. As I promised, I am going to share more of what I learned and experienced at Graph Expo 2010. If you have not read my first post, please click here for Part Uno.
After a great Sunday of browsing and visiting booths of great vendors like Cannon, Cannon-Océ, Fujifilm, HP, Ricoh, Xerox, and XMPie, I was ready to retire for the day. Andy and Julie Plata not only had introduced me to industry leaders like Bruno Henry COO of Sefas but also has enlightened me with important changes in the industry landscape.
Vanishing Offset Vendors
It was surprising to learn that Heidelberg, the world's leading manufacturer of sheet fed offset-printers had just three years ago taken a large portion in the front of the previous show, but was not present at Graph Expo 2010. Almost the presses in the front of the show are all streamline designed with automated and digital operation. Some even can do digital on-demand book printing such as the Xerox 4112 Copier/Printer with the Expresso Book Machine a.k.a the book kiosk, which can print, bind, and trim books.
Digital Software
Digital software is also an increasing trend of the tradeshow with more and more database software solutions made available to the printer. XMPie offers a suite of Variable Data software for both print and the web. For print, it is VDP (Variable Data Printing); for web, it is PURL (Personalized URLs).
InfoTrends InfoBriefing
Andy and Julie Plata kindly invited me to an InfoBriefing breakfast session at 7:30 a.m., October 4th, 2010 from InfoTrends, a market leading research company. The InfoBriefing was filled with around 100 attendees. I was introduced me to some prominent people from InfoTrends such as Barb Pellow, a director at InfoTrends. Right after a short networking period, Jeff Hayes, the President at InfoTrends started presentation by showing us the recession's effect on the printing industry. He encouraged printers to take action by getting involved in cross media marketing. He highlighted Joseph Merritt & Co, a printing company which lasted the hardships because the strong integration of cross media marketing.
After Jeff Hayes' interesting presentation, Barb Pellow then took the stage and walked us through some key marketing strategies employed by large corporations. Clinique, a prominent skincare and beauty company, integrated a keyword on their direct mail piece that the users can include in their SMS/MMS text message to receive a free gift. Why use text messaging? Well, first Clinique identified their costumer profile, and found majority of their consumers to be in the early 20's range. The one of the most frequented channels from this age range is cell phone texting. After users has texted the code, Clinique will ask them if they would like to further receive promotional alerts directly to their mobile phone. By including the text message on their printed marketing pieces, Clinique can directly market to their customers. Calvin Klein or CK uses QR codes or Quick Response codes to target their consumers. QR codes connect print to web by allowing users to scan the code via their QR reader on their Smartphone, which can decipher the code to generate the appropriate information not limited to URLs and body of text. This way, the user can directly interact with the print. Thus, it is not just printing. In CK's case, it is print plus QR codes.
Xerox Real Business Live
Right after the informative InfoBriefing session, we quickly made our ways to the Xerox Real Business Live Keynote presentation at 9 a.m. Eric Armour, Corp. Vice President and the President of the Graphic Communication Business Group, welcomed all the attendees and showed us a composite video clip on the keynote speaker, Bo Jackson. Baseball and football All-Star turned businessman, Jackson, in the flesh, suddenly appeared walked up the stage. He shared with us his inspiring childhood stories in Alabama that had prepared his success today.
Later that evening, we headed to Navy Pier for a fabulous Xerox Cruise. The cruise was complete with Jazz music, dancing, card games, delicious gourmet food, and the amazing Chicago night view! I had the chance to have dinner with Jacob Aizikowitz, the founder, president and CEO of XMPie. WOW!
As you can probably tell, I had a wonderful day and evening - and many unforgettable experiences - thanks to all the wonderful people in the print and output industry! I just wish all of my fellow university friends in graphic arts studies could have seen the industry as I did this day.
More about my experiences in the coming weeks. See you then.