Ed #16 Digital Possibilities

This isn’t the first time Ed has focused on digital printing. In Ed #8, he provided you with an in-depth briefing on what it is, how it works and what it can do. What it can do has changed and improved dramatically, but the basics haven’t changed. Here’s a quick refresher.

Unlike offset printing, there is no film, no color proofing, no stripping or plate making in digital printing. There’s no make-ready, no getting ink to desirable levels by running waste sheets through the press and no time-consuming changeovers. This is why color digital printing is much faster and has traditionally been more cost effective than offset in smaller runs.

Among many types of digital print technologies, two have made great inroads: toner based and inkjet. Toner-based digital print technology is called electrophotography, also referred to as xerography or laser. Color electrophotography toner is made of electrically charged plastic particles, in cyan, magenta, yellow and black, that are transferred from drums to the paper and fused with heat to fix the image.

Inkjet presses print the image by propelling ultrafine droplets on the paper or other substrate at a very high rate. Continuous inkjet printers use electrical charges to guide placement of the droplets on the substrate; drop-on-demand inkjet technologies apply the droplets in response to a signal.

Electrophotographic is the process used in high-end applications—brochures, catalogs, package labels, posters and others. Inkjet historically has been used mostly for high-speed, high-volume transaction-oriented applications such as billing statements, although this is changing with rapidly improving reproduction quality.

A decade ago when you talked about printing, more times than not it was offset printing. Four-color printing was (and still can be) cost prohibitive in smaller quantities. When the budget was limited, you thought about fewer colors. Digital printing was strictly for short-run, full-color reproduction, and a drop-off in quality was a given. Personalization? What’s that?

That was then. This is now. Quality is no longer an issue. In fact many—including highly discerning designers—would be hard pressed to tell the difference between offset and today’s top commercial digital presses. The equipment has become faster and more reliable, which in turn has brought costs down. Higher quality, quicker turnaround and lower cost open the door for digital printing in a much wider variety of situations and applications.

It’s different now. The ability to execute short-run, quick-turn printed communication has new appeal, for a number of reasons. While there are still many situations where the per-unit economics of a 20,000 quantity make sense, more and more are seeing reduced storage requirements and ability to update on shorter cycles as a strong case for digital printing.

Personalization has come a long way as well. The increased sophistication of data mining in this era of social media has greatly enhanced marketers’ ability to target potential customers based on demographic and other criteria. Much more complex personalization is now possible. Where the extent of customization used to be “Hey Bob!” at the beginning of the copy, marketers in industries such as automotive are utilizing 30–50 ports of variable data personalization in one brochure or direct mail piece.

With rapidly advancing technologies andm capabilities, personalization is able to make a greater impact than ever on the effectiveness of print at reaching highly targeted audiences. And more and more companies are using it in highly creative ways.

Take one of the world’s best-known soft drink brands for instance. Thanks to the latest technology advancements, the ability to perfectly and consistently match the brand’s icon red made digital printing and mass customization possible for labels on bottles. And so, a brilliant idea was born.

That idea: to put a person’s name in place of the brand name on the bottle packaging, in the brand typestyle. Simple, powerful, unique. In 20-plus countries, lists of the 150 most popular first names were developed, and through variable-input printing those names were randomized and printed, a different name on each bottle. A case of 24 might have 24 different names. More than one billion labels, 3,000-plus names, all customized.

Consumers literally drank it up. There were stories of supermarkets having a person walk in and buy an entire shelf of cases in search of his or her name. Discussions on return on investment were easy and filled with smiles due to sales uplifts in each market where the campaign ran. Sales increases not driven by price promotions, mind you. These were sales at full price to people who gladly paid it.

Without a doubt, the pace of technology advancement is continuing. Digital printing is going to continue to get better and faster, with more capabilities. But the powerful potential of digital printing will not be realized because of incredible new, whiz-bang technologies. No. It will be driven by the increased awareness of the medium and its acceptance as a conduit for highly creative, effective strategies to get the word out and connect with potential buyers.

There is still a significant knowledge gap among creatives and marketers, but it’s steadily shrinking. Fewer and fewer are seeing digital printing as a compromise that could damage brand equity. More and more are seeing it as the huge opportunity it is.

With continuously advancing digital print technologies, print is far from dead. Increasingly, what’s going the way of the dinosaur is poorly conceived and designed print. Print produced with little consideration for whom it’s targeting and consequently offers little relevance to the person who receives it.

Print continues to change and evolve in a digital, multimedia world. And as print has developed the ability to connect to online media, it has never lost its ability to connect with people. As Ed #15 points out, print is the original interactive medium.

For the average person, every day is an onslaught of marketing messages. It’s constant noise, and anything that penetrates that noise has value. In a world now dominated by screens, print means persistence. It’s the reason marketing collateral and direct mail have not disappeared as so many have predicted—as people get bombarded more and more by electronic communication, print begins to stand out again.

Which is why it’s more about impact and quality than ever. Bad printing on low-quality paper gets recycled without reading. Ugly look and feel? Forget it. Poorly written, cliché-ridden, copy dense? Not reading it. I’m too busy.

Things that have visual power, things that strike an emotional chord, things that speak to the individual, that know something important about the individual besides his or her first name—these are what cut through the clutter. These get read, and kept, and acted upon.

Ed #14 told you, and it’s just as true today, that print’s ability to bridge the gap between media makes it a valuable part of the mix. Study after study have shown that direct mail is more effective than email at reaching consumers. Studies also provide a wealth of data indicating that print materials can drive increased online traffic and higher per-transaction spending (again, see Ed #14).

It’s more clear than ever that print can drive potential buyers to the virtual world; in the virtual world, your expressed interests and other information can drive highly personalized print that brings effective communication back to the physical world. It’s no longer two distinct worlds. They’re integrated in multiple ways, flowing naturally from one to the other and back.

As print drives traffic to the virtual world, it becomes easier to track, especially when it’s around personalized experiences. Online activity tied to a print piece offers yet another way to measure return on investment, or ROI, the holy grail of marketing communications. Print, made more effective by better data and personalization, leads to clicks that can lead, in turn, to sales.

Workflow technology is making it easier than ever to create a multimedia strategy. Automation makes Web-to-print efficiencies possible, simplifies versioning, optimizes files for different media and formats, and more, speeding the process while eliminating or greatly reducing human error. A print piece—seen so often as static communications—becomes an interactive pdf, optimized for tablet or smartphone viewing, with video or links to other resources embedded.

Print lives, and digital print is growing. According to Frank Romano, professor emeritus of Rochester Institute of Technology, here are some compound annual growth rates (CAGR), 2009–2014: digitally printed collateral, 14%. Digitally printed books, 22%. Digitally printed magazines and catalogs, 43% and 57%, respectively.

Interesting, right? In packaging, digital print growth is even more robust. Between 2009 and 2014, the CAGR for digital flexible film printing is 41% and in digitally printed package labels it’s 50%. Digitally printed folding cartons, 61%. Pretty big numbers.

Why is digital printing growing so fast in packaging? Supply chain efficiency, plain and simple. Shorter lead time, easier revisions, reduced inventory costs, reduced waste. Companies don’t have to print and warehouse large volumes. They can reduce quantities and order as needed, reducing the time, cost and waste to update ingredient lists, freshen packaging or introduce new flavors or products. Traditional limitations, removed. New horizons, opened.

Talk to anyone in the digital print industry and they’ll tell you the next growth area—and most see explosive growth potential—is production color inkjet. Because it has the potential to bring the advantages of digital print to high-volume applications. They can see a time in the not-too-distant future when digital inkjet will compete with high-volume offset. Currently inkjet can’t match web offset for speed and quality, but printing equipment manufacturers and paper makers are investing aggressively to change that.

As it always has in offset printing, paper makes a big impact on digital print quality. In digital printing, it’s critically important to use the right product with the process and desired impression.

We have been a leader in digital papers since digital printing technology first emerged, with specialized expertise, dedicated production capacity and one of the broadest offering of digital-specific products in the industry.

Our products were designed specifically for digital printing. At the high end, Sterling^® Premium Digital™ with 94-bright optics, premium surface quality and budget-friendly pricing.

We offer Productolith Pts. Digital^® for heavier-weight packaging and direct mail. Blazer Digital^® is the economy digital coated paper of choice. And award-winning TrueJet^® is a specialized line of digital coated papers for production inkjet presses that not only optimizes quality but also is designed to deliver significant savings in ink costs. All, from Sterling Premium Digital to TrueJet, with multiple-OEM certified performance.

Paper matters to printers, too. Many seek to improve pricing by using conventional offset stock for digital print projects. It’s a short-sighted strategy. Paper not created specifically for digital presses is harder on the equipment, increasing down time and waste, negatively impacting productivity as well as quality.

The future of digital printing is happening as you read this. Processes, technologies and equipment are improving constantly, with new products launching in ever-shortening cycles, driving increasing speed and quality at lower cost. It will continue to get easier, faster and more economical to realize all the benefits of digital printing.

As the economics for digital printing in larger runs improve, digital printing will begin to take more and more market share from offset printing. And as highly sophisticated data analytics become more a part of the equation, there’s a high likelihood that it will take mass customization beyond the tipping point.

In addition, finishing techniques continue to advance in digital print media. Increasingly, the impact enhancing effects you’re used to seeing in the offset world can be accomplished in digital printing—folds through ink coverage. Embossing. Coatings, and more.

In short, the possibilities are huge. Open your mind. Ask questions. Articulate your objectives. Push for new ideas. Be persistent, and don’t take no for an answer. Challenge your suppliers to apply their expertise to get the results you want.

Today and in the near future, if you dream it, chances are that digital print can do it.