This page contains an archive of all entries with the category resources. Oldest entries appear first.
Campaign Flowchart
Caslon have published a flowchart for creating cross-media lead-generation campaigns. The flowchart includes the key campaign development steps and illustrates project ownership and dependencies.
While everyone has a different approach to a campaign workflow and there is not really a "one size fits all" model, this flowchart could be used as a project checklist, or tool to share with customers to explain campaign tasks (and costs).
Whether this generic flowchart is helpful or not, there is no doubt that having a structured approach to campaign development and execution is critical, and a flowchart is a great tool to visually communicate the project workflow and get everyone on the same page.
Posted on Wednesday, 3 October 2007 at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Learning Languages
Several months ago I started hunting around for information on variable information (VI) languages. I quickly realised that there's very little information on this topic in the public domain — there are snippets of information scattered across various websites, but they are usually brief and don't provide any significant amount of useful information.
Many different VI languages are now supported across VDP emitters (software) and interpreters (RIPs), but how can you make an informed decision on which is the right language for your VDP work if you don't know anything about the languages themselves?
To help VDP users understand the differences in VI languages, I've published an article which explains all VI languages available, including PostScript, PDF, PCL, VIPP, VPS, PPML, PPML/VDX, FreeForm, JLT, VDF, IPDS, IJPDS, LCDS and Metacode.
This article was published in The Seybold Report last month. If you don't subscribe to Seybold, you should, it's a must-read (sign-up for a free trial on their website). In the meantime, you can download a PDF of the article from Fuji Xerox's website (made available with permission of the publisher).
Posted on Monday, 15 October 2007 at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
PODi Application Forum
PODi have brought their successful Application Forum from the US to Australia for the first time this year. I'm presenting a couple of sessions at the forum over the next two days and I've posted my presentations below for delegates to download.
» download 'VI Languages' presentation
» download 'VDP Composition' presentation
Posted on Monday, 15 October 2007 at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Handwriting
Personalisation with a handwritten effect can be very effective, providing you can find the right font. Unfortunately, good handwriting fonts are hard to find. However, Font Garden have created a large collection of OpenType handwriting fonts and insist on giving away their work for free (but ask that you make a PayPal donation if you're using the font for commercial work). Also, for around $40 they'll take your handwriting and turn it into a font. Here's one of my favourites, Virgil, in action:
Posted on Sunday, 2 December 2007 at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Revolution in Progress
Unica recently commissioned a whitepaper titled 'Revolution in Progress: How Marketing is Helping Companies Manage a Cross-Channel World', authored by Peppers & Rogers. Although the paper does not specifically focus on variable-data, it discusses how Web 2.0 is changing the way companies interact with their customers and provides interesting facts and figures related to Web 2.0 use and social media advertising spend.
If you're looking at how to engage today's social consumer across different media channels, whether you're using personalisation or not, this paper is definitely worth a read. You can download it from Unica's website (after completing a brief registration form).
Posted on Wednesday, 5 December 2007 at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Calling XMPie Users
A new 'google group' has popped up for XMPie users. This forum is for "anyone who in any way shape or form uses XMPie technology; from uCreate in InDesign, to uProduce API integration for workflows". It was only launched in the last 24 hours, so there's not much acivity just yet, but I'm sure conversations will start bubbling away soon... Sign up now and join this community.
I should point out that there's already an active XMPie user forum running for members of the XMPie Users Group, but there's nothing wrong with building a larger XMPie community, so why not sign up to both groups?
Posted on Thursday, 6 December 2007 at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
VDP for Dummies
Kodak and others have sponsored the production of a DVD titled 'Extreme Marketing Success'. This DVD looks at VDP fundamentals, explaining what VDP is all about, and makes the promise that when you're done watching it "you'll have a complete understanding of variable-data printing". What more could you ask for?
Kodak are giving the DVD away to anyone who will take a copy. Order yours from the Kodak website and get ready for those "ah-hah!" moments...
Posted on Thursday, 6 December 2007 at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Direct Mail in 2008
The Winterberry Group have just released a white paper titled 'Vertical Market Trends in Direct Mail 2008'. The report highlights that direct mail spending grew by 5 percent in 2007 and continues to outpace that of both "above-the-line" advertising and virtually all other non-interactive marketing media. But that growth slowed dramatically in 2007 from the previous year, when marketers increased their year-over-year investment in direct mail by over 7 percent.
Continue reading "Direct Mail in 2008" »
Posted on Monday, 4 February 2008 at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
1:1 Printing Report
This week WhatTheyThink.com announced the availability of a new report titled '1:1 (Personalised) Printing: Boosting Profits Through Relevance'. This 68 page report is a primer filled with case studies, ROI calculations, and analysis designed for marketers, creatives, and others on the buying side of 1:1 print. The report is available for PDF download for US$349 from the WhatTheyThink Store.
Posted on Thursday, 14 February 2008 at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Databases and DAM
RIT have just released a report titled 'Upstream Database and Digital Asset Management in Variable Data Printing'. The report investigates the application of database and digital asset management tools, techniques and skills as they are used to prepare content for variable data printing jobs.
I've had a chance to review this report. This 46 page report does not break new ground, nor does it puport to, but explains the key concepts of database and Digital Asset Management (DAM), and their importance in variable-data printing. The report is essentially an aggregation of numerous published material and interviews. It's clear that the authors have thoroughly researched this topic and material available on this subject, with a reference list spanning over five pages.
Continue reading "Databases and DAM" »
Posted on Thursday, 14 February 2008 at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Calculating ROI
While it may seem obvious to measure the success of a direct marketing campaign, I'm continually surprised when organisations don't pay attention to campaign return-on-investment (ROI). I'm not sure why people choose to ignore ROI, it's a very straightforward calculation: ROI=Profit/Costs. It's really that simple.
But if maths really isn't your forté, then I've provided links to a selection of online ROI calculators to get you started.
Continue reading "Calculating ROI" »
Posted on Monday, 3 March 2008 at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Your Worst Customers
I've been following Drayton Bird's '51 helpful direct marketing ideas' over the past week. Today, Drayton's helpul idea (no. 4) is on database advice, which includes words of wisdom from database expert, Jon Epstein of r-cubed. Jon provides valuable advice in database filtering, focusing around the fact that "it's all about the return-on-investment" and advises to "deselect your worst customers":
Continue reading "Your Worst Customers" »
Posted on Monday, 10 March 2008 at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Transpromo Webinar
There's a lot of buzz surrounding transpromotional applications, or "transpromo" at the moment, no doubt fuelled by the fleet of new high-speed digital colour printers entering the market. Transpromo appears to be the industry buzzword of the year; mailing service bureaus and vendors are raving about it, but it appears almost no one is actually "doing it". Or are they?
WhatTheyThink are hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 12th March from 2-3pm US Eastern Time (-5 GMT). The webinar will be moderated by Barb Pellow from InfoTrends and is designed to discuss the transpromo marketing opportunity, the importance of statement design and share a case study from a direct mail firm.
Sign up for the WhatTheyThink Transpromo Webinar »
Posted on Tuesday, 11 March 2008 at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Postal Optimisation
Many challenges are plaguing direct mail today; high postage costs, diminished consumer response rates and increased mailbox "clutter" are all impacting campaign ROI. The solution? Look at optimising the postal process. That's the finding of a new white paper released today by Winterberry Group.
The white paper, titled 'A Strategy for Savings: Postal Optimization and the Future of Direct Mail', explores opportunities now emerging around the development of comprehensive postal optimisation strategies, which integrate multiple cost-saving direct mail production techniques like commingling, copalletisation and drop-shipping, in a manner that drives unique incremental value for all mailing sizes.
Continue reading "Postal Optimisation" »
Posted on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
What's That Font?
When creating personalised images, it's often necessary to match a typeface so you can incorporate a personalised message in the image. It could be a text on a banknote, a road sign, a champagne bottle, a tin of food, or any other object featuring text.
MyFonts.com has a useful resource where you can upload image-based text and your image will be scanned, the individual characters will be identified, and you'll be presented with a list of similar or matching fonts to the typeface used in the image. Give it a try for yourself at www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont.
Posted on Sunday, 30 March 2008 at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Design Police
The printing industry is plagued with examples of bad design. It's just a sad reality of print. Usually created by folks with little or no design experience, there's a whole lot of creative out there that serves injustice to print.
This equally applies to variable-data printing. While there are many software products that enable you to create personalised printed documents, there are some people who should to be banned from using them. I'm talking about those who see an impressive mail piece created by some specific VDP software and think "oh, I can design that with this software!" No, they can't. There's just some stuff that needs to be left to real designers.
Continue reading "Design Police" »
Posted on Monday, 31 March 2008 at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
PPML Viewer
It appears that Xeikon has dropped its free PPML Viewer—this free download has now been removed from their Web site. I'm not sure why Xeikon has decided to discontinue this tool, as they still support PPML v2.1 in their X-800 controller.
As many VDP users appreciate, viewer tools are very useful for troubleshooting and catching any issues before VI files are ripped and printed. Xerox offers FreeFlow VI Explorer (for soft-proofing VIPP projects) and Creo POD offers VI Toolbox (which includes a VI Viewer for soft-proofing VPS files). However, while PODi developed the PPML specification, they rely on other vendors to offer PPML related products and services. Let’s hope that another vendor develops such a tool (or acquires the source code from Xeikon) to offer a viewer solution for PPML users.
Posted on Thursday, 3 April 2008 at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Junk Mail Galaxy
This week, I heard from Mike and Nate at Junk Mail Galaxy. The duo publish regular video podcasts, which focus on direct mail. Based in South Jersey (in the US, not my home island in the Channel Islands), they have 30 years of experience in direct mail between them.
In their regular podcasts, Mike and Nate explore the world of direct mail, looking at DM news, sharing their views and squeezing in a few jokes along the way. They only launched their Web site in January this year, but are quickly building up a library of podcasts. Each podcast episode features a supporting blog entry, so you can read what's in the episode before playing it, which is a good idea as each m4v file is around 50MB (which takes forever to download on my cheap-o broadband service). Yes, the videos aren't for faint hearted broadband connections, but if you're on a shoestring Australian broadband connection like mine, then look out for the 'embedable player' link, which takes you to a smaller, online streaming version.
Continue reading "Junk Mail Galaxy" »
Posted on Friday, 11 April 2008 at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Making Money By Mail
PODi are hosting a webinar titled 'Making money by mailing at the moment when it makes the most sense' on Wednesday 23rd April at 11am and 7pm EDT (Thursday 24th April 1am and 9am, Sydney time). The webinar, presented by Tom McDermott from AmazingMail, is aimed at print providers and provides advice on how to make direct mail both relevant and successful. Its free for PODi members and US$125 for others.
» Sign up for the PODi Webinar
Posted on Friday, 18 April 2008 at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Personalisation Works
Alan Rosenspan runs a direct marketing services company in the US and has won many awards for direct marketing creativity and results. Among several published titles, Alan has published a popular and highly recommended booklet titled '101 Ways to Improve Your Response'. The booklet features tried and tested tips to ensure DM success.
Across his list of 101 tips, the repeating theme in this booklet appears to be 'one-to-one communication'. Alan explains that "a letter should be a one-to-one communication from one individual to another" and the best method to enable this level of communication is to incorporate personalisation. Among Alan's 101 list, I've pulled the following personalisation tips:
Continue reading "Personalisation Works" »
Posted on Sunday, 20 April 2008 at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
It's All About the Data
Garbage in, garbage out—that's what data is all about. Proper data hygene and management is critical when planning VDP campaigns. WhatTheyThink are hosting a webinar next week titled "Variable Data Printing: It's All About the Data". The webinar will be moderated by Barb Pellow and will share how some companies have successfully leveraged and managed data to develop effective campaigns.
It's free to join and will be held online next Thursday 22nd May at 4am Sydney time, or Wednesday 21st May at 2pm EDT.
Sign up for the WhatTheyThink Webinar »
Posted on Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Webinar-athon
It's 'webinar week'. If you've got the webinar fever, then after joining WTT's upcoming VDP webinar, you might also want to sign up for PODi's VDP webinar, which will be held on the following day. This PODi webinar will be presented by Debora Haskel from IWCO Direct. Debora will share her case study on 'managing the transition from mass mailings to relevant direct mail'.
Continue reading "Webinar-athon" »
Posted on Thursday, 15 May 2008 at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
New Blog
I've recently started blogging for marketingmag, the online edition of Australia's Marketing Magazine. In my copious free time I blog on One:2:One and moderate their One:2:One forum. But, don't worry, it's business as usual at VeeDeePee. My blogging focus at marketingmag is specifically on applications, innovation and information related to variable-data printing in direct marketing, while at VeeDeePee I look at variable-data publishing with a broader scope—not just printing and direct marketing.
Posted on Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
GMC at drupa
Following GMC's recent announcement of an "Integrated Marketing System", I decided to stop by their drupa stand to find out more on their latest offering and get up to speed with their PrintNet solution.
Continue reading "GMC at drupa" »
Posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2008 at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Customer Engagement
Gone are the days when if you needed a direct marketing campaign, you would have to hunt for a (usually overpriced) marketing or advertising agency. Today, many print service providers across the globe are spiraling through an identity crisis and are re-inventing themselves as marketing service providers. Armed with ideas, a designer, some software, technical skills and a printer, they can cut out the agency 'middle-man' and move directly to the client. And they are.
But unfortunately, not all printers understand direct marketing, or more specifically, how to sell it. They often miss the core objective of direct marketing which is (surprise surprise) revenue growth. I've spoken to several printers recently and they've told me "yeah, we've tried DM and it doesn't work", when the reality is they often don't know how to make it work.
Continue reading "Customer Engagement" »
Posted on Wednesday, 11 June 2008 at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Character Images
Several image personalisation solutions (XMPie uImage, DirectSmile and others) let you create characters from individual images, so recipient names can appear in alphabet soup, cubes, dominoes, etc. While these types of image personalisation effects can look impressive, they usually take a considerable amount of time to create as you need to create individual images for the entire alphabet then mask out the background for each 'character image'.
Well, I've found a nice resource for creating different character image effects. iStockphoto is an online stock photography service with an extensive collection of affordable images. If you search their site for the term 'alphabet', you'll see a large selection of pre-shot images that use different objects to create characters, including coffee beans, shells, sand, cubes and more. Some alphabets even suggest appropriate backgrounds. A handy resource, which could save a lot of time!
Continue reading "Character Images" »
Posted on Friday, 20 June 2008 at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
QR Codes
QR (Quick Response) Codes are gaining a lot of interest in Australia. For those who aren't familar with these little marks, a QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code that can be used in convenience-oriented applications for mobile phone users (known as mobile tagging). Using an encoded URL, a QR Code can incorporated in outdoor and print media advertising, including signs, buses, newspapers. A mobile phone user can use the integrated camera in their phone to capture the QR Code, then use reader software on the phone to decode the barcode into the URL and view the Web page in a browser.
Posted on Wednesday, 13 August 2008 at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Transpromo-Live
A new blog dedicated to TransPromo has recently surfaced. Authored by Lee Gallagher, Transpromo-Live provides an open discussion on TransPromo and its potential applications. It's great to see a blogger and knowledge expert who's committed to sharing and educating the market on these emerging applications.
Lee's refreshing commentary moves past the hype and discusses real applications and challenges in transactional promotional printing. Check it out at www.transpromo-live.com.
Posted on Friday, 5 September 2008 at 4:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)