SHORTLY AFTER 9 A.M. on Sept. 11 the editors at Time magazine started scrambling.

Within 48 hours a special memorial issue covering the terrorist attacks hit newsstands with a print run of 8 million, unprecedented for the newsweekly. Roughly 4 million copies were delivered to subscribers while the remainder were distributed to newsstands, quickly selling out in many places.

Riding on Americans’ urgent need for education and information about world events, Time turned up the marketing pressure to gain subscribers and increase newsstand sales and profitability.

Specialty printing is taking a lot of new twists and turns.

If your business is involved in specialty printing, it’s a good time to be you.

The market sector responsible for creating nifty gamecards, on-pack promotions, coupons, labels, and other eye-catching materials used by brand marketers is hot.

And the proof is in the money.

Although revenue estimates for 2000 aren’t yet available, the Printing Industries of America, Alexandria, VA, says there are no signs of any slowdown from 1999’s 10.7-percent rise to $6.2 billion. “It’s been an outstanding year,” says Joe Hartz, sales manager of promotional products for Norwalk, CT-based IPOP. “We’re going to continue to see growth, especially in games. Everybody’s interested in them.”

A look at just about any store shelf shows he’s right. On-pack, in-pack, and even over-the-pack materials (in the case of neck hangers) adorn aisles as product marketers try to catch the eyes of passing shoppers.

While the reasons are many and complex, what it boils down to in the minds of most industry experts is an increasing need to generate brand loyalty as well as sales in a retail environment becoming more competitive by the day. Even brands that used to keep a low marketing profile are finding promotion a necessary tool. “It’s tough to get on the market shelf, and they’re trying to separate themselves,” says Val Stark, vp-sales and marketing at Fleming Promotional Graphics, St. Louis, MO.

What’s New? Omaha, NE-based ConAgra Foods, whose brands include Marie Callender’s, Banquet, and Healthy Choice, regularly runs promotions linking its Kid Cuisine frozen foods line to children’s property owners including Disney and Sesame Street. The efforts have traditionally taken the form of self-liquidating offers, such as one run last winter in which kids got a Furby from Chicago-based Tiger Toys with proofs of purchase and $3.50.

In a move to jazz things up this year, ConAgra instead used an instant-win game that employed a thermocromatic gamepiece designed by Fleming. A touch of the thumb activated a heat-sensitive gamepiece that will reward two winners between the ages of three and 12 with a trip to either Tiger Toys or ConAgra headquarters to “Run Tiger Toys For a Day” or “Run Kid Cuisine.” Packaging also carries games kids can play and a coupon. AdPac, Elk Grove Village, IL, handles.

“In an interactive world, you have to update what you’re doing,” says Ann Rindone, promotion manager for Kid Cuisine. “If you’re sticking with a two-dimensional premium [it might not be sufficient]. You have to go to anything that can add life and an element of fun.”

Rosemont, IL-based CCL Label met a challenge from Unilever, New York City, last year with an on-pack game dubbed “Wash and Win” for All and Wisk detergents giving away 20 prizes of washer/dryers and a year’s supply of product. Unilever wanted to ensure not only purchase but use, and wanted the gamepiece to require a washing to reveal the prize. After some experimentation, CCL invented AquaPlay, a device employing a special membrane that reveals information when it becomes wet. The promotion launched late last summer and is still running.

CCL introduced another new twist to packaging with Spinformation, a two-ply label with windows on a top layer that spin to reveal a lower label. Lawry’s Foods, Monrovia, CA, just launched a new line of meat seasonings called Perfect Blend with a label that consumers spin to reveal meat-based recipes. “Customers will tend to keep this in the cupboard for a while,” says Leonard Zuk, CCL’s promotion manager, who envisions other applications for Spinformation like movie clips and trivia questions.

Package Integrity But while marketers are looking for eye-catching packages, they also want to keep modifications to the standard design at a minimum. After all, shoppers need to be able to find the product after the promotion ends. Promo Edge, Neenah, WI, incorporated scent samples of Van Nuys, CA-based Cosmetics Imports International’s FA Shower Gel right into product labels for a try-before-you-buy effort. The company also helped design a double label that Campbell Soup Co., Camden, NJ, is using in a coupon offer currently on shelves. To drive sales around the Super Bowl for Pace salsa, special coupons have been attached to jars; the original packaging label remains intact when the coupon is peeled off. The idea is to get shoppers to “trade up” from the planned purchase of smaller jars.

“We wanted a new twist where we could use the label as the coupon,” says Constance Hughes, senior promotions manager for sauces and prepared foods. “Graphically, we didn’t want to degrade the existing label.”

The peel-off coupon is also being used to encourage trial of a new line of pasta sauces with chicken as an ingredient. “It’s hard when there’s so much competition in the `sea of red,'” says Hughes. “This helped people get over the hurdle of trying something new.”

Still, some brands are willing to take greater chances. “The newer and better the promotion, the more willing the brand will be to violate the label,” CCL’s Zuk suggests. Unilever liked the Wash and Win concept so much that it splashed promotional copy across the box to make sure consumers got the message.

Of course, new technology and imaginative minds can find ways to eliminate the risk while taking some chances. Norwalk, CT-based IPOP, for instance, recently developed a Mail-Well Produce Label Applicator, a fancy name for a machine that affixes labels on produce eight at a time. IPOP spokesperson Joe Hartz says produce is becoming a popular cross-promotional vehicle because it makes for a logical tie-in for cereal, baking products, cooking utensils, recipe books, eggs, and other brands.

Fleming recently developed a waterproof, plastic coupon called DuraSert that can be packaged with heretofore hard-to-manage products as turkeys, hams, or pet foods. Tyson Foods used DuraSert for couponing in some of their frozen poultry products, Hostess slipped some in with donuts, and Pillsbury made it an extra ingredient in pre-made dough.

Wrapping the Internet Think the Web is creating a paperless world? Think again. Brands looking to drive traffic to Web sites are routinely using specialty printing techniques to do so. Among the more popular applications thus far are decoder gamepieces consumers find on packages or print ads and hold up to their computer screens after reaching a designated Web site. That trend has challenged specialty printers to become proficient in Web design and develop an understanding of how to run an interactive promotional campaign.

Borders Books celebrated the release of the fourth Harry Potter book last summer by giving buyers a special ScreenPlay gamepiece created by CCL and sending them to borders.com, where they held up the device to find out if they had won a $1,000 shopping spree. The promotion generated 25,000 visits to the site.

“The Internet reaches more people at lower cost, and when a person responds, you have an immediate relationship,” says Mark Davis, vp-sales and marketing for promotional games at Quebecor, Itasca, IL. “It [then] costs basically nothing to send out your next direct-mail drop.”

Printer as Partner A great idea, however, isn’t the only thing marketers are looking for these days. As manufacturers continue to consolidate promotional vendors to cut costs and improve efficiency, they’re increasingly looking for printers that can be “one-stop shops.” To that end, some specialty printers are trying to serve as the promotion agency as well. “[Companies] don’t want to make 20 calls to get a promotion done,” says Fleming’s Stark.

Rindone agrees, noting that when ConAgra was considering a new promotional technique, they sought a specialty-printing firm that could offer advice. “We expect them to extend their expertise as to what has worked in the past, and [tell us] what’s the latest technology we can take advantage of to add some life to our lines,” she says.

“There is a lot of neat stuff out there,” adds Campbell’s Hughes. “But printers must understand the manufacturing process – survey the plant and work with the plant management – [because] their products cannot slow down our packaging plant at all.”

Zuk says CCL Label, too, tries to serve more as a business partner than a simple printer. “The brands need someone from the printing side of things that can listen to them and understand what they want to achieve through their promotion, as well as make creative decisions,” he says.

The proof is in the printing.

Improved technology makes digital printing a viable way to get personal on a mass scale

WITH ANY NEW TECHNOLOGY, a lag is likely between what one hopes it will do and what it actually is capable of doing. So it has been with digital presses and their ability to smoothly deliver variable data marketing materials. After years of tweaking, upgrades and de-kinking, however, the general consensus is that the gap has closed, and while users describe the systems – and the results – as everything from “sophisticated” to simply “useable,” no one doubts that the current technology offers marketers an excellent chance of standing out.

“It’s no longer rocket science,” says Alex Hamilton, principal of Computer & Communications Consulting in Philadelphia. “These machines do what they’re supposed to do.” Unlike traditional presses, which excel at printing massive runs of static information and images, digital presses allow for changes in content and four-color pictorial elements from piece to piece without interrupting the process.

Doug Johnston, general manager and vice president of The Digital Printing Initiative (PODi), a West Henrietta, NY-based trade group, attributes the efficiency to “a convergence” of faster computers, better software and the recent introduction of Personal Pagination Markup Language (PPML), new standards that – like Postscript for printers – provide a common way to run variable data applications across different types of presses. “Anyone’s software can talk to anyone’s hardware,” says Dave deBronkart, PODi standards program director. “That will mean a lot more choices and a lot less expense.”

For marketers, the convergence means a true ability to customize printed materials well beyond the run-of-the-mill inkjetted names and addresses.

“You are only limited by your imagination,” says Patrick Fultz, vice president of marketing at Channell Communications, a Manhattan-based e-business solutions company. Creatively applied, he says, variable data printing (VDP) promises significantly better response rates, order size, and overall profit through cross-selling, upselling, fulfillment and acquisitions.

Fultz points to early adopter Whirlpool Corp. as a sterling example. When consumers call the appliance manufacturer’s 800 number, an operator asks a series of specific questions designed to elicit what’s most important when they purchase a major appliance in terms of color, price, style, size and other parameters. Would an creme-colored unit match their decor? Would an icemaker take precedence over the fridge’s size? Within 24 hours, the customer receives a relatively slim, high-quality, four-color printed brochure, including detailed information and photographs about products, including that creme-colored refrigerator with an icemaker, and a list of local retail outlets. As a result, says Fultz, Whirlpool has realized a shorter sales cycle and a 15% to 20% reduction in mailing traditional paper catalogs, as well as a better relationship with its customers. “You’re giving them exactly what they asked for. They don’t have to wade through a huge catalog of stuff they don’t want to find the stuff they do want.”

“The industry is moving from mass marketing to mass customization,” says Johnston, citing one of 44 case studies in PODi’s “Best Practices of Personalized Printing” report, being released incrementally on its Web site (www. podi.org). He points to an association of regional automotive dealers that has been using a VDP marketing program to drive sales.

For about two years, association members have been sending prospective buyers a tailored direct mail piece within 48 hours of their visit to the showroom floor. Information gathered by the sales rep is e-mailed to a data clearinghouse, and then transmitted to the printer. Each four-color, trifold piece includes a thank you note with the sales rep’s name, and pictures the exact model in the same color in which the customer showed interest, as well as the specific dealer’s logo and a personalized incentive, typically a sweepstakes coupon.

“These brochures are not just thank you notes. They are very relevant and timely. Car dealers don’t have the luxury of waiting, or of saying, `Oh, I guess they won’t buy it,'” says Johnston. According to a five-month study, the program yielded response rates of 10.2% to 13.4%. Of those, 7% to 9% of respondents purchased vehicles. Thus, 1,000 pieces produced an average of $27,000 in dealer profit margin.

Without question, the Web has helped drive the need and desire to customize print pieces. As Hamilton and others point out, the Internet is a model of one-to-one marketing and relationships that typically reach out to the individual. Amazon.com, for example, makes product recommendations to customers based on previous purchases. Nike.com recently began an online offering that allows customers to design their own sneakers. The online program’s savvy tagline: “It’s all about you.”

VDP, says Fultz, is “taking Web-customized information and pages and putting them in paper form. The Web has the raw power, the information. Digital printing is the high-quality delivery mechanism.”

The Internet has also proved to be an ideal “collection box” for data, says Hamilton. Agfa, a major supplier of electronic imaging equipment, has been successfully using the Internet as a gathering tool for nearly two years. Created and hosted by application service provider Banta Integrated Media, its “Agfa 1-to1” program asks users to answer 40-plus questions about their company. In return, customers get a 16-page customized workflow recommendation, including graphs, charts and product illustrations, which can be downloaded or digitally printed and snailmailed within two days. Vaughn Taylor, Web manager at the Wilmington, MA-based company, says that all of the 3,000 visitors, who invested between 20 and 30 minutes filling out the questionnaire, subsequently met with a local Agfa sales rep.

Banta also created an online literature fulfillment program for 3M Dental, a St. Paul, MN-based company that manufactures and distributes more than 1,300 products used by dentists and hygienists. The purpose of the site, says 3M marketing manager Keith Haig, is to help its 50 authorized resellers create customized marketing materials and to distribute information to them. Banta’s software lets 3M dealers output a customized four-color, two-sided sellsheet with variable content including SKUs, pricing, channel partner name and logo, and customer service information. “We have realized our goals,” says Haig, including a consistent branding message, and significant savings in turnaround time and material costs.

The use of VDP is still in its infancy, says Hamilton. At least part of the reason is cost. VDP costs roughly between $1.00 and $1.50 for two sides of an 8 1/2 x 11-inch sheet, says Fultz. “On the face of it, that seems prohibitive,” he says. But viewing what you will spend through a traditional printing lens is a mistake, he adds. “Cost per piece is the wrong measurement tool. Cost per order and return on investment are the important metrics. You have to think differently about the business model, just as people had to do at first with the Web.”

Fultz and Hamilton say marketers need to factor in that response rates will rise dramatically. “If you usually get a 2% to 5% response rate with a 1 million mass-produced mailing, a customized mailing of 100,000 can mean a rate of 25% to 40%,” says Fultz.

Agfa’s Taylor believes color quality is lacking – and while that may be prohibitive for catalogers who rely on accurate color – for the majority of direct mail employing VDP, “that’s not the point,” he says. “Most people receiving these pieces aren’t looking that closely at the print quality. They are looking for information that is relevant to them.”

There are several ways to implement variable data printing (VDP). The route you choose depends on your goals, your staff and, of course, your pocketbook.

PROCURE THE SOFTWARE. Products range from Personalizer X, a Quark-Xtension, to the costly but powerful Pageflex from Bitstream, which is licensed on a per use basis. Simple programs like Personalizer X turn Quark into a database program, allowing the user to change text and graphics on a per customer basis. Bitstream’s sophisticated features includes layout flexibility within a single template.

The software option appeals to companies that want total creative control of their design, as well as those who have security concerns about data or don’t want the expense or maintenance headaches of the press.

Other programs: Focus Gold from Visions’ Edge, Scitex’s Darwin, Variable Information Postscript Printware from Xerox, and DataMerge from Meadows Information Systems, a division of Banta.

BUY A SYSTEM. Companies including Xeikon, Indigo and Xerox manufacture proprietary hardware, software and digital presses that enable you to do everything in-house. This is an expensive and labor-intensive option, cautions Patrick Fultz, vice president of marketing at Channell Communications. It may be perfect for the large corporation producing ongoing marketing or fulfillment projects, but it’s not appropriate for businesses that don’t have a significant volume. Buying the front- and back-end can run anywhere from $250,000 to $600,000. Ask yourself how much you will use the press, and whether you can afford to hire and train the staff you’ll need to operate and maintain the system. And factor in the expense of constructing an air-conditioned, humidity-controlled space to house the equipment, as well as machinery and staff for back-end tasks such as cutting, folding and mailing.

PARTNER WITH PRINTER OR OTHER SERVICE PROVIDER. To stay competitive, printers have in recent years bought or created application service provider (ASP) divisions that offer a variety of technological and marketing solutions. Independent ASPs have been springing up to address the growing demand for one-stop-shopping in one-to-one marketing, such as Clickupdate in Morristown, NJ. When evaluating any VDP partner, says Fultz, find out if it has database marketing expertise. “Without data, it doesn’t matter how many beautiful pictures and names are in the piece.” Also, determine whether the company understands what one-to-one means. “Inkjetting a name and address is not personalization,” says Fultz. And find out how much experience the firm has had using VDP technology. “It’s a new process. Some printers may not be conversant.”