Quick Printing

FEB 2015

Quick Printing is the resource for the Commercial printing, visual and graphic arts industries. Since 1977, Quick Printing has focused on improving efficiency and increasing sales and profits in the print shop. Industry experts share their ideas and

Issue link: https://quickprinting.epubxp.com/i/455911

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 10 of 35

Quick Printing | February 2015 11 MyPRINTResource.com A Revolution in Print? § Works without marking, editing, or reformatting source materials § Includes iOS and Android mobile apps that are free to download and use § Allows users to drive brand awareness § Enables app users to interact immediately via social media § Offers data analytics to improve campaign responses and ROI Initially demonstrated at drupa 2012 in Germany, Click- able Paper is considered a low-risk strategy because it is grounded in familiar marketing territory—campaigns, cloud services, and print. It has three elements: authoring makes a piece of Clickable Paper enabled. The cloud serv- er stores and manages documents and links. Smartphone and tablet users download the app, which displays the rich-media results. Clickable Paper also frees users from the constraints of two-dimensional QR Quick Response) codes, which take up space, typically link to simple web and email addresses, and can be unsightly. It doesn't require visible marks of any kind on printed materials, so print- ers needn't design around a barcode that detracts from document appearance. Early Results GI's management is still rolling out the product and pre- paring for its frst major mailing but has already begun to see results. What's needed for continuing expansion, Little reported, are exposure and education. "I have been working the phones myself," he noted, "spreading the information among my clients ... and other people because you need to create a buzz. This is something that as it becomes adopted, and it will be, will enhance all of us in the industry." Little makes the case that the application "frst of all is free. Ricoh has done all the work and they're giving it to our industry for free, so there isn't any huge up-front expense of having to go out and create an application that will do this." It is also highly user-friendly, he added. "A person with an iPhone or an Android can walk up to a booth at a trade show and, boom, start scanning. The infor- mation transfers anywhere you want to go. You can carry your entire marketing program on your business card." If Ricoh's technology can fulfll the kind of promise that Little and his colleagues see in it, more printers will begin working hard to make certain that they understand it. Some already have in Europe, where the technology is available as a for-sale product. While it is not yet available in North America stay tuned for a timetable to be released this coming spring, a Ricoh spokesperson said. Clickable Paper is changing the mobile game for a North Carolina beta site—and it soon may be coming to more print frms in North America. By Howard Riell F our-decade veterans of the printing industry rare- ly speak in superlatives, which means that when David Little, sales manager for Graphic Impressions, Inc. (GI), Charlotte, NC, proclaim this about a new technology—"Oh golly, is it a game changer"—colleagues around the country should pay attention. For GI's top management, it is nothing less than a revolution. Mobile technology and the instant gratifca- tion presented by online interactions and transactions will continue to grow rapidly, which is why a technology called Clickable Paper, offered through Ricoh Production Print Solutions, offers to pump new life into an industry that has faced major challenges in recent years. "We have all noticed that the printing industry has suffered through some pretty severe doldrums in the last couple of years," said Little. It is a situation he expects to be changing soon. Graphic Impressions, which was found- ed in 1977, specializes in short-run color and has annual revenue of about $4 million, was selected by Ricoh to be one of 20 frms in August 2013 to help in the initial roll out. GI began offering it to clients last spring. "We spoke with the people who were using it in En- gland," Little recalled, "and they were having limited success because Ricoh had not released the analytics to go with it." The analytics have since been released. Powerful Solution Clickable Paper promises to be a powerful interactive print solution, providing immediate one-touch access to mul- tiple online resources such as photos, video/multimedia, websites, e-commerce portals, and social networks. Users can conduct highly interactive, cross-media campaigns that yield rapid results. The tool is applicable to any kind of printed media such as newspapers, magazines, direct mail, books, brochures, and posters. The underlying technology comes from Ricoh Visual Search and was developed at Ricoh Innovations, Inc. a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd. According to the company, the cloud-based system: § Connects print to multichannel media using image rec- ognition software § Creates a new revenue opportunity via a cloud-based marketing service that is easy to implement and use

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Quick Printing - FEB 2015