Optimize Summer 2015 by Hopkins Printing

SUMMER 2015

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

NO SUPER POWERS REQUIRED! VIDEO MARKETING ON A BUDGET

HOW TO... It’s A Wrap! Vehicle Wraps Can Mobilize Your Brand “Get a Mentor” and other advice from Sappi Paper’s Creative Manager Daniel Dejan Is A “Mobile-friendly” Website Friendly Enough For the New Google Algorithms?

Win a FREE One-Year Pro Membership to PaperSpecs OR a Special Designer Gift Box from Parse & Parcel (details inside)

SUMMER

GIVEAWAY WIN OUR FAVORITES FROM THIS ISSUE

Win a FREE One-Year PaperSpecs PRO Membership! PaperSpecs PRO is for designers and print professionals who feel a deep passion for the tactile and powerful experience that is paper and print. PRO Membership Includes: • I nstant and 24/7 access to a comprehensive 4,300+ online paper database • Access to those hard-to-get mill swatch books • Access to hot-off-the-press mill promotions • Ability to order the latest swatch books or sample sheets at the click of a button • Binding, paper, printing facts, insights, and inspiration • Free webinars with industry experts • Insights from design and print gurus • Up-to-date “green” features and information • Personal attention! A PRO concierge is standing by to help with paper queries and answer q’s • Creative Grab Bag with exclusive samples that inspire!

OR win a FREE Designer Gift Box prepared by Parse & Parcel especially for our readers. (See page 3 for details)

Share the fun and invite your designer, creative, and marketing colleagues to register for our

FREE SUMMER GIVEAWAY! Scan the QR code to register for our giveaways or enter online at: www.hopkinsprinting.com/ summer-giveaway

WELCOME

Summer 2015

EXPERT OPINION Read insights from the following contributors in this issue:

Welcome to the Summer issue 4 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HOPKINS PRINTING

Summer. A Time for Inspired Creativity. Spring is such a wonderful time of the year, followed promptly by the blossoming of annual and perennial flowers symbolizing the beauty and colors of summer. Should that include the dandelions in front of our building? Technically, they would be classified as perennials, yet year after year, we fight the good fight to minimize them! As the summer state-of-mind spreads throughout our facility, we’re also seeing freshness and creativity in the marketing projects our customers are working on. Great design, new ideas, and new projects seem to be inspired by the fun and inspiration of the new season.

Roy Waterhouse President, Hopkins Printing 2

Kristi Hines Kristi Hines, our guest writer, has written on the topic of social media for Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, and KISSmetrics. She shares useful tools to help tackle five social media marketing tasks. (Page 2)

A Big “Shout Out” to Our Twenty New Clients. We’re excited to be able to say that we have added twenty new clients in the first four months of the year! 2015 has had a strong start as we welcome these new companies into the Hopkins family and culture. We look forward to serving them and building longlasting relationships.

New Sales Representative Joins Hopkins Printing. As we continue to grow, we’d like to welcome Steve Shepard to our sales team. Steve is currently spending his days in each of the production departments at Hopkins, as part of a comprehensive training program. Designed to increase the knowledge of the graphic communications industry and our services and capabilities, our custom training prepares our sales executives with a wealth of production knowledge ranging from offset to digital to wide format. When finished, Steve will exit the program fully prepared to work with new clients, helping them deliver their brand and messaging to their customers and prospects through the print and digital offerings at Hopkins.

David Bavati A self-proclaimed expert in designing vehicle wraps, David shares his insight with us on how companies can leverage professionally designed and produced vehicle wraps to promote their brand as a very visual form of marketing. (Page 5)

4 New Bindery Equipment. This summer we will be installing a new Stahl folder in our bindery department. Always seeking ways to realize more efficiencies and quicker turn times, our new folder will greatly enhance our bindery capabilities.

facebook.com/HopkinsSolutions

Jill DiNicolantonio We’re sure you’ll want to sign up for Jill’s blog once you visit her website and see all the great projects she shares with her readers! She’s also giving away special Designer Gift Boxes as part of our summer promotion. (Page 3)

@hopksolutions

linkedin.com/company/hopkins-printing

Optimize is printed on 100# U Velvet Cover/100# U Velvet Text paper

01 Welcome

10 The Changing Scope of PR

Discover four new things about Hopkins Printing.

Learn from two experts how to go beyond press releases to connect with journalists.

Executive Editor

02 Insights

12 Video Marketing

Contributing Writers

Ideas, opinions, news, and trends.

It’s easier than you imagined to create great video with these editing resources.

Design

06 Daniel Dejan Interview Daniel shares his thoughts on being the etc. Print/Creative Manager for Sappi North America.

Cindy Woods, cmoteam.com Kristi Hines, Tim Sweeney, Andy Brown Designlogix

14 Google’s New Rules

If your website is mobile friendly, is that good enough with the new changes Google has launched?

Printed and distributed by Hopkins Printing www.hopkinsprinting.com

Summer 2015

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

SOCIAL MEDIA »

5 Social Media Tasks and Our Favorite Tools for Each Guest Writer Kristi Hines Kristi Hines is a freelance writer who specializes in business and marketing content. Follow her on Twitter @kikolani. Handling Your Brand KnowEm.com A free service you can use to check the use of your brand, product, or username instantly on over 500 popular social media websites. Grab your name and secure your brand before someone else does. Search your business name and it will show you the networks you can join using that exact name. If your name is taken (or too long), modify it and search again until you find a name you can brand your business with across the most social channels.

Simplified Account Management Simplify the process of managing your social media accounts with one of these three site tools.

Sproutsocial.com Great when you need a more comprehensive solution. It allows you to see all your most important messages in your social inbox, post and schedule updates, review analytics reports about your growth and engagement, search for mentions on Twitter and Facebook, and more.

Reputation Monitoring Mention.com Our favorite reputation-monitoring tool for businesses whose customers are active on social media. Mention will allow you to monitor your brand mentions across social networks, news sites, forums, blogs, Q&A networks, or any web page.

Buffer.com Create a schedule of when you would like to post updates on your top social profiles and then add updates to your Buffer. Each update will publish at the next available time slot in your schedule.

MeetEdgar.com Edgar takes a different approach by not letting older posts get discarded without the opportunity to use them again. You create a library of categories, write posts, and upload to the library. Edgar posts these according to your category-based schedule and automatically saves every update you post. The app will pull from the library and fill the user’s queue with a previous post if the queue is empty.

Hootsuite.com Looking for a few more features? You can create a schedule for social media updates as well as monitor your social media news feeds, messages, keyword searches, mentions (limited to Twitter), notifications, etc.

Handling Your Brand

Competitor Research RivalIQ.com

Content Discovery, Curation, Sharing Feedly.com An easy-to-use platform that allows you to subscribe to, organize, and share content. It will automatically update when your favorite content sources have published new content.

BuzzSumo.com Allows you to monitor keywords, domains, authors, or links when new content is published that matches your alerts. You can also find the most socially popular content using keyword and site searches, giving you the best content to share with your social audience.

Simplified Account Management

Reputation Monitoring

Monitoring your competitors’ social media is just smart! Rival IQ is the most powerful competitor-research tool we’ve found. Simply add yourself and your competitors to a landscape using a website URL. Rival IQ will show you how your social media presence compares to competitors in terms of audience size, engagement, and content, allowing you to benchmark your performance against other companies.

Content Discovery, Curation, Sharing

Competitor Research

INSIGHTS

Summer 2015

COOL FINDS »

Check out the cost and features, and start using these social media tools today!

During our interview with Daniel Dejan, the etc. Print/Creative Manager for Sappi North America (see page 6), Daniel turned us on to Jill DiNicolantonio and her new company Parse & Parcel as one of his favorite resources. It was love at first sight for us! Jill has taken her passion for design, print, and paper, along with her experience in the graphic communications industry, and turned it into a successful business.

knowem.com

Meet Parse & Parcel

Free to search for name availability across hundreds of social networks. They can also create your profiles for you, starting at $84.95 for 25 top social networks.

Experience the beauty of ink on paper—from letterpress to foil stamping, and everything in between. Parse & Parcel is a new online source for print and paper inspiration, helping busy designers streamline the print process and gain access to essential resources during every phase of design. Stay up-to-date on the latest paper samples, see award-winning graphic design, and learn about new techniques and trends. For marketing professionals, Parse & Parcel shows real-world samples from some of the greatest marketing and design minds today.

buffer.com Plans start at $10 per month for 10 social profiles and 1,000 scheduled posts per month, plus basic analytics. Works with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+. Small business accounts start at $50 per month to link 25 social accounts. Nonprofits can qualify for a 50% discount!

JILL DINICOLANTONIO Founder, Parse & Parcel

meetedgar.com Starter plan is $49 per month. You can store up to 1,000 posts in your online library and connect up to 10 social media accounts. Edgar works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook Pages. No software or downloads required.

hootsuite.com Plans start at $9.99 per month for 50 social profiles and 350 scheduled posts, plus unlimited monitoring. Works with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and many other networks in the Hootsuite App Directory.

sproutsocial.com

Enter TODAY to win a FREE Designer Gift Box prepared by Parse & Parcel founder, Jill DiNicolantonio, especially for our readers. You can also sign up for Jill’s blog at www.parseandparcel.com/the-blog for inspiration and education on graphic design, marketing, print, and promotion ideas.

Plans start at $59 per month for up to 10 social profiles and features mentioned in the article. Works with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.

mention.com Plans start at $29 per month for three alerts (searches) and 3,000 mentions.

feedly.com Free to subscribe to your favorite blogs and news networks. The Pro account, for $45 a year, offers advanced search and sharing tools.

buzzsumo.com Free to use for limited searches per day. Plans start at $99 per month for saved search alerts, exportable data, trending feeds, and deep content analysis reports.

rivaliq.com Plans start at $199 per month for tracking 30 competitors on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Google+.

Sign up TODAY to WIN a FREE DESIGNER GIFT BOX! www.hopkinsprinting.com/summer-giveaway Scan the QR code with your phone to enter today.

Summer 2015

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

LARGE FORMAT GRAPHICS »

Takin’ It to the Streets How a Vehicle Wrap Can Mobilize Your Brand and Grow Your Business By Tim Sweeney

business. Since he started Media Designs 20 years ago, the cost of the equipment required to wrap vehicles has decreased drastically, making it more affordable for small businesses like O’Brien’s to take advantage of this mobilebranding opportunity.

arlier this year, around the time he was preparing to start his company Floors Floors Floors after 20 years working in the flooring business, Chris O’Brien watched a report on CNN about 3-D vehicle graphics. A quick web search led him to David Bavati, owner of New York-based Media Designs and an expert who has been creating 3-D artwork for vehicles for more than 28 years. It was a perfect match. Bavati worked with O’Brien to develop a logo and vehicle wrap for his Nissan NV2500 company van. The finished design features an image of a room with a hardwood floor on one side and an image of a carpeted room on the other. Both images look as though the viewer could walk straight into them via the van. “I’m not the most artsy person in the world, but I’m proud of the way it looks and represents what we want to do in the flooring industry,” O’Brien says. “We’re not just a bunch of hacks going around doing floors. I didn’t want it to be gaudy or loud. It’s classy looking and people say it’s a work of art.” O’Brien also has learned the value of leveraging his vehicle graphics in other ways. Since his van garners so much attention, he features it in his print ads in local newspapers.

Gone are the days when a white van with a company name and phone number on the side were enough to make an impression with potential customers. If your business requires a vehicle to do the job, it should be working for you while it transports. And if you think mobilizing your brand with a creative vehicle wrap is only for big corporations, consider this: Bavati is so busy that he’s turning away

Ross Sapir, the president and founder of Roadway Moving, a national moving company based in New York, says that his company’s trucks have had a logo since he started in 2008, but things went to a new level when he met Bavati. The two collaborated on a wrap design featuring a bridge that seems to come straight out of the side of the trailer or van. Sapir constantly receives positive feedback on the design, with strangers even asking for their picture in front of the trucks. “It’s not just for movers. It’s worth every penny, no matter what industry you’re in. It’s part of your brand. It’s who you are. If you’re building

INSIGHTS

Summer 2015

5-MINUTE EXPERT »

4 Tips for Designing Vehicle Graphics a long-term business, you must have it,” Sapir says. “People call me all the time and say, ‘I saw your truck.’ If you do the wrap design well, it’s like a billboard for you. It will positively affect your business.” Roadway Moving does not subcontract trucks, using only their own vehicles to execute moves, a point of difference that the slickly designed vehicles reinforce. “What would you think when a [moving company] shows up to move your whole life and then puts your belongings in a rental truck or a truck with an old, half-gone logo on the side?” Sapir asks. “If you’re a plumber and you go into a house to do a job that will take eight hours, your truck will be parked outside that home the whole time for the neighbors to see. Don’t you want people to see a professional vehicle with your message and logo on it?” As a new business, O’Brien says it’s difficult to say for certain what the wrap design has done for Floors Floors Floors, but he is convinced of its value as a mobile advertisement. “I would estimate that it has led to 15-20 percent of our business,” he says. “At the end of the year, that makes a huge difference.” n

David Bavati is the owner/operator of Media Designs, a New York-based company specializing in designing large-scale graphics for vehicles. The former mural painter leaned on his 28 years of experience to give us four tips for designing effective vehicle graphics. Busy Design is the Enemy

Think Beyond the Road

Designing a vehicle is like designing a billboard, and

Once you’ve created an eye-catching design

the most important principle of outdoor advertising

around the product or service being offered,

is this: If people don’t like what they see, they look

think of ways to incorporate an immediate

away. Your designs should never be busy. Use

and engaging digital experience. We use QR

one main visual to catch people’s attention and

codes on many of our designs. They are small

tell the consumer what’s being sold. The eye goes

enough to not interfere with the design, but

to that, then the logo, and then the website or

when consumers see a vehicle design or brand

phone number. Use the rules of viewing distance

that catches their interest, they scan the QR

to determine the size of type for the website and

code or an augmented reality marker and are

phone number. And don’t use small, miscellaneous

instantly connected to a website or engaged in

text, as it takes away from what’s important.

the digital experience we developed.

Utilize the Canvas

Convey Professionalism

The major challenge of designing vehicle wraps

Companies that perform services in which

is that you don’t have a captive audience when

people are letting them into their homes

people are moving, so you must catch their

(carpet cleaning, moving, home repairs, etc.)

attention in the blink of an eye. A business owner

require designs that make consumers feel that

might look at their vehicles and see limitations; we

the company is respectable and credible. A

see potential. For example, the body of a truck is

loud, ugly moving truck hits people in the gut,

attached to the cab and the wheels, so we work in

while a pleasing, professional, and inviting

harmony with that to deceive the eye and create a

design makes consumers more likely to call.

3-D illusion that connects all of the “moving” parts.

How you present yourself when answering the phone is up to you, but the truck might just be your first introduction and your next customer’s first impression. n

The major challenge of designing vehicle wraps is that you don’t have a captive audience when people are moving, so you must catch their attention in the blink of an eye.

Summer 2015

COVER STORY

DANIEL

DEJAN etc. Print/Creative Manager Sappi North America Creative manager, educator, mentor, and lover of all things graphic arts. By Andy Brown There are a lot of creative directors out there, but few have as much experience working with paper and print as Daniel Dejan. As the face of Sappi North America’s Sappi etc. (Education, Training, and Consulting) group, Dejan is involved in some of the industry’s most exquisitely designed projects, including the market research report Print &.

Q: Tell us about your background. Daniel Dejan: My dad owned an advertising

agency in Chicago. Back then, the training that you got was “old-school.” You had to be able to spec type and understand paper, ink, and bindery. In my 20s, I started my own graphic design and marketing firm. Later, I bought my dad’s agency and melded the two businesses. I have a powerful memory of working at my dad’s studio and meeting paper merchants and representatives from the paper mills. I was fascinated by the promotional pieces that they left behind. They were breathtakingly beautiful designs. As a young designer, I remember thinking that the most idealized projects were for paper mills.

Q: What’s it like to be involved in creative for Sappi? DD: The audience is extremely discerning. They understand design. They understand paper. They see how you resolve marketing questions. Every piece

that goes out has to be perfect. It’s going to printers. It’s going to designers. It’s going to marketing professionals. It’s going to print production folks, all of whom do this for a living. Still, Sappi is doing something very different with me. Paper companies have always had to differentiate themselves. One way was to show designers the breadth and depth of their product lines. So reps in the past were graphic arts consultants who were articulate and fluent in their knowledge of paper, print, and design. They mentored while familiarizing people with their company’s product line. Today, buyers want information, yet they will shy away if a solicitation is integrated into it. We’re incredibly proud to come from the S.D. Warren and Potlatch legacies of education where our focus is on informing, educating, and inspiring the design and marketing communities. When we produce a swatch book or a campaign, we ask the question “Does the piece educate? Does it inspire?”

Summer 2015

Today, buyers want information, yet they will shy away if a solicitation is integrated into it. When we produce a swatch book or a campaign, we ask the question “Does the piece educate? Does it inspire?”

A Few of Daniel’s Favorite Design Resources Communication Arts • commarts.com

Parse & Parcel • parseandparcel.com

This publication has been around a long time. I don’t know many designers who don’t keep a library of back issues of Communication Arts. We’ve all got shelves filled with them so we can look up what was being done in the ’80s, ’90s, or 2000s. Some of the old solutions are still very viable and wonderful.

Every month they send you one of the most beautifully packaged boxes I’ve seen. Inside are samples from all the different paper companies, delivered to your door. For designers, particularly those without much access to paper merchants, it’s terrific.

HOW • howdesign.com

Print • printmag.com

I love the fact that this magazine focuses on all aspects of design and implementation— type, packaging, great collateral design, a paper issue, an excellent design competition . . . every issue is a wonderful learning experience.

This is a superb blog that takes on different print production challenges. Great resources for production and marketing ideas and tips.

One aspect of Print that I love very much is that it’s regional. We have to appreciate that we design differently from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Midwest to the South. Culturally, we have different tastes. We use different color palettes, and we have different font preferences. This site showcases all design styles.

PaperSpecs • paperspecs.com

Wallpaper* • wallpaper.com

Resources from PaperSpecs include an online paper database specifically developed for the design and print industries, free webinars, tools, and downloads. Too much great stuff to mention!

Wallpaper* does a breathtaking job of showing what’s happening on a global basis. It’s not just about print design. It’s also about architecture, furniture design, and product design.

What’s happening to the paper and print industry is what happened to the music industry 10 years ago. We now have more devices that can deliver content beyond print. It’s incumbent on print marketers to understand that having digital channels is an imperative. If you’re printing a catalog, it has to be associated with an online store. If you’re publishing a magazine, it has to be complemented by a strong website and social presence.

It’s an extraordinary way of reaching targeted and subtargeted audiences. Big data has impacted marketers’ ability to add more and more filters, above and beyond geographic, demographic, and psychographic. That translates to highly targeted, intelligent mailing lists that ensure marketers are really sending the right piece to the right person at the right time. Of course, it’s incumbent on marketers to create the correct advertising to engage that group and to lead them. In many cases, the lead is to invite them to visit a website, then reward them with discounts, coupons, or information in exchange for their email address, and thus starts the beginning of the digital relationship.

InkOnDaPaper • inkondapaper.com

Q: You travel more than 200 days out of the year for Sappi. Tell us about what takes you on the road so much. DD: When I started with Sappi 17 years ago,

I proposed a plan based on education and training. I believed we could establish relationships in a nonsolicitous way. It started with traveling a few days a month, offering seminars, keynotes and workshops to designers, marketing groups, print buyers, and print organizations. A few days a month turned into a few days a week, then more. Last year I celebrated 30 years of leading seminars, workshops, and keynotes. I love being on the road because I meet such great people. Practically speaking, I also believe the best way to convey education is in person. Over the years I have developed 65–75 presentations. Right now, I have presentations on 19 different topics ready to go on my laptop.

Q: What are your thoughts on the state of print and direct marketing?

Q: Sappi has done a tremendous amount of research on how print fits into integrated marketing. Tell us about your findings. Is there anything surprising?

DD: I think we’re all working towards the same goal, to keep print not just alive and flourishing, but evolving in a multimedia world, where the business model is very much about integrated marketing.

DD: We realized that direct mail is very much still growing. It has great importance as a launchpad that gets recipients to visit a website and begin forming a digital relationship with brands online.

Summer 2015

COVER STORY

Print & market research report and covers from Sappi’s design guide series titled “The Standard”

We want to access information quickly. It’s an excellent medium for presenting, but once you’re used to the weight and temperature of a tablet or smartphone, the device itself is no longer involved in the process. On the other hand, paper addresses multiple senses. The sense of touch, obviously, with the weight and the feel of the paper’s surface. Different printing techniques—coatings, foil stamping, die cutting, embossing, and others—attract and engage the reader dramatically. Paper can even incorporate the senses of sound, smell, and taste. So all that becomes very much a component of the messaging. The more senses you can stimulate, the more engaged readers are with your content. Physiologically, we slow down when we read print. Our heart rates and blood pressures drop. We really try to read the words. When readers have this experience, they actually assign the piece as having more significance. From a marketing perspective, if you’re building brand loyalty, print absolutely must be one of the components.

Q: How is the paper industry innovating?

If everything is done correctly— the postal discounts are taken advantage of, the lists are clean, the offer is organic, relevant, and timely—for every dollar invested in direct mail, the return can be as high as $12–$13, according to the Direct Marketing Association. We also discovered that print is very prevalent in younger demographics. They just use it differently. They love to see their names

in print, whether it’s the front of the magazine or on a piece of collateral. That level of personalization and relevancy is very important to younger demographics.

Q: You have also researched haptics, the sense of touch. What did you learn? DD: When we read online, we’re really just using two senses—the visual and auditory; although I recently read that up to 70 percent of online searches and surfing is done with the sound on mute. We have become skimmers. We look for keywords and links.

DD: The paper industry is evolving in ways that you would not expect. We’re seeing paper that has been manufactured to hold an electrical charge. The fact we can actually print with ink that can carry an electrical charge means suddenly we can do things in print that we could never do before. Go to YouTube. If you type in “electroluminescence printing,” there are videos showing packaging that lights up or automotive wraps that literally have pixels printed on them that can change the car’s color or deliver a message. There’s wallpaper that lights up so you don’t need light bulbs and lamps anymore; the walls themselves can be the source of light. We’re also seeing papers developed with built-in near field communication. There’s a whole area right now in printed circuitry. Kate Stone, a scientist from England, did a TED talk on how she was able to print circuitry using offset presses and connect it with Bluetooth technology. So now here’s a printed product that facilitates sound generation! I’m also a huge champion of mobile applications such as augmented reality. The idea that a print device facilitates a continued online marketing conversation is extraordinary.

Summer 2015

Nobody reads without their phone or tablet next to them anymore. The idea is that the publisher has the wherewithal to say, “If you want more information, use this app to access more.” If you’re really curious, you want as much information as you can have, and it’s wonderful to be able to access it instantly.

Q: Do you have any advice for young designers? DD: In many ways, designers have a responsibility

to be facilitators of communication. So you have to be a sponge. Surround yourself with communications of all forms and styles. An advantage of the Internet is that you can see design from all over the world. I read magazines that highlight what’s going on in Japan, Poland, and South America. Their approach to design is different than ours, just from a cultural basis. Knowing what’s going on can enhance your understanding and acumen. Mentoring is also important. Young designers should seek out a mentor, somebody whom they see doing design well, somebody whom they admire. Good mentors make sure you keep the highest level of standards. One of the great pieces of knowledge my mentor gave was that a great designer designs for the printing press that they’re going to use. So have an understanding of what that press is able to do and not able to do. It broadens your ability to resolve the marketing challenges of the piece. Understanding equipment, ink, and paper becomes vital to expanding your design repertoire. I think that’s really what young designers should be asking: “What can I do? What’s out there? What are the possibilities?”

Connect with Daniel: Blog: www.sappietc.com/view/sidebar

Facebook: daniel.dejan.52

Twitter: @danielatSappi

LinkedIn: in/danieldejan

Meet Sabine Lenz, Founder, PaperSpecs Ten years ago, graphic designer Sabine Lenz was working on a print project. She painstakingly researched paper options and finally found the perfect solution. The project was spec’d, and everything was good to go. That is, until her printer called to say the paper was unavailable. It had been discontinued by the mill six months prior. “How was I supposed to know? How was anybody? Designers are busy. We don’t have time to chase the latest paper information and swatch books,” says Lenz. Lenz channeled her frustration by founding PaperSpecs, an online database and education resource for designers. “We began solely as a searchable database, a place where designers can easily spec the right paper and be confident that the sheet they choose is still available,” she says. The database currently features paper from more than 100 mills, including private labels, available in North America. Lenz says her team keeps in touch regularly with mills to ensure the information is up-to-date.

As the company has grown, so has its mission. “PaperSpecs was created with creatives in mind—print designers specifically—who make up about 70 percent of our demographic,” says Lenz. “We realized that creatives need information about the papers as well as the printing techniques that continue to evolve.” To that end, the site features weekly videos, which offer a short burst of print inspiration to get the week started. They also feature some fabulous printed pieces in their online gallery and share the details of their creation with their audience. The site hosts educational webinars on topics ranging from dimensional marketing to the intricacies of digital ink. “When I talk to designers about developments like digital silver ink, I see the light in their eyes as they consider the possibilities,” says Lenz. All those possibilities add up to a medium that isn’t going away anytime soon—print. “Are we printing less? Absolutely. Smaller runs? Yep. The choice to print is more strategic now. A lot of your clients will ask about digital marketing, and this is precisely why a printed piece can make a much greater impact,” says Lenz. “A printed piece says ‘value.’ It says someone cared enough to take the time and effort to create this stunning piece. And that can be an amazing marketing advantage.”

Q: What can designers learn from printers and paper merchants?

DD: If you typically think of vendors as salespeople

and manufacturers, think again. They’ve become counselors with a deep knowledge of marketing applications that utilize print. A good print sales representative can educate and problem solve. They can tell you how people are solving packaging problems, collateral problems, direct mail problems, digital problems, and more. And they can regularly bring you samples to keep you up-to-date on what’s new and exciting in the world of paper and print. n

Win a FREE One-Year PaperSpecs PRO Membership!

Register TODAY for our SUMMER GIVEAWAY! Share the fun and invite your designer, creative, and marketing colleagues to register for our FREE SUMMER GIVEAWAY. Scan this QR Code to register for our FREE PRO MEMBERSHIP GIVEAWAY! Register online at: www.hopkinsprinting.com/summer-giveaway

Summer 2015

MEDIA TRENDS

THE CHANGING SCOPE OF PR Two public relations experts explain how your approach to generating media coverage for your brand must change in the new communications landscape. ave you asked your media contacts how quickly they delete press releases from their inbox? You probably won’t like the answer. The rules of PR are changing. Smaller editorial staffs are now required to create content for multiple media channels, leaving many without time to investigate all the pitches they receive. And in today’s media world, your media targets should expand well beyond reporters to bloggers and freelancers with wide-ranging audiences that require many different kinds of content. “The tools these media professionals use to build content have expanded beyond press releases into search and influence,” says Christine Pietryla, Owner and President of Pietryla PR & Marketing. “A press announcement is part of the outreach, but it can’t stop there. You have to know how to connect and communicate with these media professionals online, and how to present unique angles to your story that would be of specific interest to them. Timing can also be important using local, regional or national trends and news to jumpstart your own story.” Pietryla, who has more than 15 years of experience in corporate and B2B public relations, investor relations, and crisis communications, says there is nothing she loathes more than blasted pitches to media. “They send the wrong message to your media contacts. A personal message shows that you have respect for their time and the work they are doing.” Scott Goryl, in his more than 12 years as a PR professional first at Sony PlayStation and now as Director of Communications for Callaway Golf, has seen a clear shift toward individually crafted pitches and away from efforts like large-scale

The tools these media professionals use to build content have expanded beyond press releases into search and influence. Christine Pietryla

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PITCH

Make It Personal Even if your pitch is a long shot, a personalized pitch means you’re more likely to stay in contact with that media member or journalist to pitch to him or her down the road.

Know Your Contacts’ Responsibilities Think beyond an editorial media member’s primary area of responsibility (they have many). Within a pitch, call out a specific column for which they are responsible.

Summer 2015

press events and familiarization (FAM) trips, where a group of media members are invited in to experience a brand’s product in hopes that they write about it. Callaway’s approach to marketing is heavily focused on creating in-house content, so their PR follows suit. “When we launch products, we use our in-house production team to create things such as interviews with our R & D team that are just for media and designed to give them exclusive content,” Goryl explains. Knowing that his top-tier media contacts are hungry for details and won’t simply regurgitate marketing copy, Goryl’s goal is to deliver a variety of assets that allow each media member to tell the story in his or her own way. That could include a podcast, infographics, or exclusive photos. “We know that most media today have many channels to feed and that makes their time valuable, so our pitch is about empowering them to tell the story in different ways,” he says. “We use similar tactics for the public, but the content is very customized to the audience.” An obvious strategy, now more important than ever, is knowing your media’s target audience. It sounds simple, but you would be surprised how a bit of research can separate you from the competition. From there, crafting the story angle so that your media contact sees value for his or her readers is critical. Remember, in the eyes of a journalist, a story is not about how much stuff you

sell and why people should buy more of it. Media members want shareable, value-based content. “Reporters behave differently than your other audiences because they only care about news and influence, not whether you succeed or get customers from their article,” Pietryla says. “Ask yourself, ‘If I saw this news online from a competitor or an innocuous, unrelated company like Target, would I share it on social?’ If not, it’s probably not a good pitch.” She cites a fire extinguisher brand she is currently working with that is attempting to break into an old industry with a new design. Rather than cutting down the competition, the plan is to focus on positive reasons to think differently about safety. “It’s more of a win-win and, in the end, will net a better messaging platform,” Pietryla says. At Callaway, Goryl deals with a wide range of media whose interests range from the loft on Phil Mickelson’s new driver to the company’s stock price, making it paramount that he caters to each media member’s specific needs in his pitches. A golf blogger focuses on consumer feedback and therefore wants to receive something exclusive to their community, while a business reporter is likely to be drawn in by stats pertaining to Callaway’s bottom line. “If I’m pitching a Wall Street Journal reporter, I will bullet sales and market-share data at the top,” Goryl explains. “He is going to look at the pitch

on his phone on the subway, and you’ve got two thumb scrolls to impress him. He isn’t going to care about our new golf product, but if it’s contributing to a corporate turnaround, he wants to see it in that lens.” n

We know that most media today have many channels to feed and that makes their time valuable, so our pitch is about empowering them to tell the story in different ways. Scott Goryl

Use Your Tools, Respect Their Time

Catch the Big Fish with the Best Bait

Take Full Advantage of Press Releases

By learning how your contacts want to be contacted (press release, phone, email), you’re halfway to meeting a reporter’s requirements simply by respecting their time.

Track the work of your most prized media contacts and, where possible, offer exclusive content, access to sources, or a behind-the-scenes look.

Use company keywords if the goal is for it to be viewed online. From there, reach out directly to reporters who cover the type of news you’re sharing.

Summer 2015

VIDEO MARKETING

Y Is It Time to Test the Waters of Video Marketing? You might be able to live without video content promoting your brand, but with new options that make it easier than ever, why take the chance?

ou’ve considered it, investigated the costs, maybe even thought about doing it on your own, but producing branded video content has always felt just out of reach—too expensive, too time-consuming, or too technical. If time, money, and your own lack of expertise were your obstacles in the past, take heart; the landscape is rapidly changing, and so are the opportunities to produce quality video content. It is true, you can run a business without ever producing online video, but there is compelling evidence to suggest it certainly doesn’t hurt. Forrester Research reports that when marketers included a video in their company email, the open rate increased 200-300 percent. According to comScore, those who view videos stay on websites on average two minutes longer than those who do not. Despite these numbers, Kantar Media says

Summer 2015

Companies hire PR agencies to beg the media to cover them. Now you can be the media by producing your own video. Rocky Walls, 12 Stars Media

that only 24 percent of brands are using online video in their marketing. So while the audience may want video, not enough businesses are producing them. Just a few short years ago, if you wanted video coverage of your brand, you’d be relying on the efforts of a public relations team. That’s old news. “Think of it this way,” says Rocky Walls, founder of 12 Stars Media, an Indianapolis video production company that also offers editing services and strategy consultation. “If a local TV station were to call you and say they wanted to do a story on your business, you’d say, ‘Absolutely!’ In fact, companies hire PR agencies to beg the media to cover them. Now you can be the media by producing your own video.” Today, anyone with a smartphone is carrying an HD video camera in his or her pocket. That may be bad news for misbehaving celebrities and athletes, but it’s good news for businesses that may not be able to hire a production company but are more than happy to do it themselves. About six years ago, the flip video camera was at its peak, and people could suddenly record their own quality videos. The missing ingredients were skills such as editing and storytelling that turn that raw video into engaging content. That’s how Candidio, a service offered by Walls’s 12 Stars Media, was born. Candidio allows people to record on a smartphone, then use the application to upload their content to the company’s cloud storage, where a professional editor can edit it on demand, shortly after it has been recorded. “Our smartphones and the bandwidth and cloud storage solutions out there mean that we can all get our videos on the Internet instantaneously,” Walls explains. “In addition, all of those devices are connected to each other. You could have 15, 20, or even 20,000 people collaborating to gather video with minimal effort. ‘You shoot, we edit, you share,’ is our motto.”

WHAT TYPE OF VIDEO IS BEST FOR YOUR BRAND?

Do I have a vision for my desired end product?

How fast do I need to produce this video, and what’s the shelf life?

What’s my audience?

The preproduction aspect of your video creation is crucial. Think about what you want to develop on a high level and then how you will record with purpose to turn that into a video.

Is it a video to promote an event in the next few days and you won’t need the video afterward? Or is it something you have six months to produce and everyone will see for the next five years? If it’s the latter, you better make sure it’s of high quality. If you need it tomorrow, you may have to settle for less.

Is this a video that presents your company culture for everyone to see when they come to your website’s homepage? Or is it a quick thank-you to 25 people who came to your meeting? If only a handful of people will see it and it will be gone next week, you likely don’t need to spend much time or money on it, and you can shoot it with your iPhone.

Currently, Candidio has a standard turnaround time of five business days, but many of their clients pay a premium to have their content edited more quickly. “Our platform allows people to create a shot list,” Walls says. “So someone can collaborate and say, ‘In order to bring our vision to life, we need these 20 shots.’ And anyone contributing to the video can stay on course. When our editors get all that content, it’s edited in a way that falls in line with what was envisioned.”

If you’ve got a hankering to do your own video editing, but not the patience to learn editing software, there are a number of companies in the business of simplifying the hands-on editing process. WeVideo, Loopster, and Magisto are a few more platforms that allow you to edit your own content without paying an arm and a leg, but still deliver a high quality final product. In most cases, you choose from a variety of subscription plans, then create individual movies for far less than you’d pay a production company. n

Summer 2015

WEB DESIGN

Is Your Website Ready For Google’s New Rules? By Tim Sweeney

n its never-ending quest to make the end user’s search experience a productive one, earlier this year Google announced changes to its mobile ranking algorithm that take into account our significant use of tablets and smartphones for accessing the web, the breadth of screen sizes and device types consumers are using, and the need for websites to be viewed properly on all of them. The result, according to Google, is that mobile users will, “find it easier to get relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” Your website likely falls into one of three categories: it is a standard site that does not display properly on mobile devices and

tablets; it displays well on some, but not all mobile devices and tablets; or it is a responsive design, adjusting automatically to the size of any device for optimum viewing. Or perhaps you fall into a fourth category of having a separate mobile site running alongside your standard site, giving you the pleasure of maintaining two different sites. THE LOWDOWN ON “MOBILEGEDDON”

Ten years ago, most of us accessed the web via a standard browser on a computer, but the times they are a-changin’. “Most sites we’re working on, we’ve seen mobile traffic go from 15 percent to more than 50 percent in the last three years,” says Max Stocker, VP

of Engineering for ThinkSwift, which does everything from web hosting to web-based application development. “People with sites designed just a few years ago think, ‘Well, if it looks usable on mobile, that’s okay.’ But that’s not good enough anymore. If your site is providing a bad experience through mobile, you may be losing half your traffic and not know it.” Starting on April 21 of this year, Google has stated that those without mobile-friendly sites will see their search ranking suffer when users search via mobile devices. That means if a user looks at your site on his or her phone and can only see 25 percent of your content, Google docks you points.

Summer 2015

“Search results vary whether you are on a desktop or mobile device, and if your site is not mobile friendly, or, better yet, responsive, over time your search results on desktops will be affected and could diminish as well,” says Adam Henige, Managing Partner of Netvantage Marketing, which has specialized in SEO and pay-per-click management since Henige started it in 2008. A recent report released by seoClarity stated that mobile search results were 67 percent different prior to April 21 this year, and have already climbed as high as 73.1 percent following the mobile update. Henige adds, “Historically, if you don’t follow the rules when Google lays them out, you will get left behind.” If your business relies heavily on Google search traffic—especially mobile and tablet users—to drive visitors to your site, it’s time to build a mobile-ready site, and the best way to do that is via a responsive website design. CAN THIS AFFECT MARKETING AND SALES?

Yes. For example, inbound marketing tactics that are designed to drive traffic to specific pages on your website to build email lists or distribute content will be affected, since the user might respond to your offer via their mobile device or tablet. When a user experiences poor load time, is unable to navigate the website easily, or has to “pinch and squeeze” to view the page on their mobile device, bounce rates and abandonment increase significantly, affecting your ROI and conversions. Whether you are an association or a local pizzeria, you should analyze your website to determine where it falls on the scale that ranges from standard to responsive. “It isn’t a matter of if, it’s when,” says Henige, explaining the benefits of a responsive-design website. “You need to be aware as a business owner or marketer what this means to you and your organization, as

the number of spend, organic traffic, and paid clicks coming from smartphones and tablets is expected to surpass traditional desktop/laptop search activity in 2015.” WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE RESPONSIVE?

Being responsive means the site will automatically adapt to the user’s screen resolution and the platform being used. Ten years ago, a developer had to create multiple versions of a website for it to display accurately for people using differently sized screens. And a separate, second mobile version of the site was necessary for mobile devices. The next generation was the mobile-friendly site that displayed accurately between your desktop and laptop and worked the exact same way when displayed on a mobile device or tablet. While this type of site appears smaller and can be functional on mobile devices, it does not always work perfectly on multiple-sized screens or touchscreens, and features such as drop-down navigations are difficult to use. With a responsive design, the user’s experience is greatly enhanced. Text and images may automatically change from a multicolumn layout to a single-column display. Images may be hidden that are deemed unnecessary so as not to compete with more important information, and navigation may display as a scroll system. When the time comes to review your website functionality and user experience, Stocker always recommends going with the longer lifespan of a responsive web design as the best practice, but cautions that the Internet is an ever-changing world. “Anything past five years, in Internet time, is a long time,” he says. “Maybe in five years all of our devices will be in 3-D. I don’t think that will be the case, but we have no idea.” n

IS IT TIME FOR YOU TO GET RESPONSIVE? A few things you can do to determine if your website needs a responsive design as Google moves the goalposts. Rely on Google Analytics to determine what percentage of your traffic comes from mobile devices. If it’s a large percentage and you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, make it a priority.

Put your site to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test (https://www.google.com/ webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/), a tool that allows you to enter your URL to see where you stand on the mobile readiness scale.

Use Google’s PageSpeed tools (https://developers.google.com/speed/ pagespeed/), which score your site on desktop and mobile page speed as well as on mobileuser experience. The tools also tell you what content you could serve more optimally. If your images are too large, you’ll get feedback on which ones need resizing along with the data savings you’ll gain by compressing them.

Free e-book! Responsive Design vs. Mobile-Friendly Websites: 10 Things You Need To Know About Your Website Download today at: www.hopkinsprinting.com/ responsivedesign

Summer 2015

MY WORKING DAY

My Working Day

One of the questions often asked of the Synergy team is “Who comes up with the ideas for your events?” Coming up with that winning idea isn’t always easy. Read Seven of Synergy’s (many) brainstorming rules to help your idea “Stick” at:

The Event Marketer Peter Hurley President and Founder of New Jersey-based Synergy Events

n 1992 Peter Hurley started Synergy Events, an event marketing company that focused mostly on tennis. Today, he oversees five departments that have worked on launch events for Reebok, M&M’S, got milk?, Nike, and more. I grew up in a professional sports family outside Boston, so I had a look at sports through a unique lens. Despite working for two great companies early in my career, I missed the passion I had for sports, especially tennis. In the early ’90s, tennis participation had dropped from its peak of 38 million people to 17-20 million. I thought, “If you can’t

were awarded the got milk? mobile mustache campaign, a grassroots educational initiative that went to 129 markets the first year and continued for 12 more years. Today, sports are just 25 percent of our business. As the president of an experiential marketing company with five departments reporting to me, I spend much of my time building and

www.bit.do/synergyeventideas Scan this QR code to read the blog:

to do it yourself. We’re a lean, nimble group of very resourceful people, although we hire a number of part-time brand ambassadors across the country by relying on a great database of staff. There are two primary challenges we face in experiential marketing. First are the everyday challenges at events. We’ve been hit by tornadoes and hurricanes, but the show must go on. Ninety-nine percent of those challenges are foreseeable, so you need to have a plan A, B, and C. The second

you’ll be. As a smaller company, it’s better if we are taking our ideas to the marketplace and working closely with our clients on how to make their efforts more impactful. My key to staying organized is that I plan the work and work the plan every day and respect the golden hours. That means doing paperwork after hours or before work and focusing on what needs to get done during those work hours of nine to five.

“ The goal of any event should be to extend the conversation long after it is over. Studies show that 78% of event attendees will tell at least one person (about the event).” bring the people to tennis, why not bring tennis to them?” That led to the creation of portable tennis experiences in unlikely, high-traffic locations. Our first event was held around the US Open in the streets of New York. Over the years, we’ve evolved from strictly tennis to events for various sports and well beyond sports. In 1998, we

WHAT INSPIRES ME? RECOMMENDED READING Two books I’d recommend: 1. TouchPoints by Douglas Conant and Mette Norgaard – It’s about creating powerful leadership connections in the smallest timeframe. Conant walked 10,000 steps per day and wrote 30,000 thank-you notes to staff around the world. The small things go a long way.

maintaining relationships with current and potential clients. Besides being goal oriented and adaptable to change, I need to serve as a catalyst to grow and inspire highly functioning teams. If you have five direct reports, and can lift the team and provide direction, those five people working as a team are much stronger than you trying

2. What’s Your Purple Goldfish? by Stan Phelps – It’s about the little extras— like a cookie at the hotel checkin—that you can provide for your clients. Again, the little things. DAILY READING I spend 30 minutes each day on LinkedIn, reading general industry items to see what people are sharing and discussing. BEST ADVICE RECEIVED Legendary ice hockey coach, Jack Kelley, was a family friend growing up. At a

challenge is deciding how to maximize the energy and efforts of the team. Over time, the pitch process in this industry has really changed. We’ve been asked to participate in an RFP that included 75 other event groups. The model is broken, and as long as people keep participating, it will continue. The higher you value your own time, the better off

critical time in my life, he told me: “Follow your heart. Whether it’s sports, art, business, or something else, follow your heart and the rest will take care of itself. The fame, success, and reward will ultimately follow.” MY ADVICE You’re only as good as your last event, and sign your work with excellence. If we know what’s important to our client and they are willing to share, there is no reason we can’t work with them forever if we continue to surpass their expectations.

What keeps me motivated is looking for the next big idea. That’s typically what will launch our client into success. We’ve worked with companies such as Nike and others that never want to do something twice. The top brands are always pushing the envelope, so we go to great lengths in our brainstorming process. Some of the most rewarding work we’ve done was after Superstorm Sandy. We participated in the launch of the TODAY Show’s 2013 Summer Concert Series, hosted live from Seaside Heights, New Jersey with the band Fun. On the Friday before Memorial Day, we created the world’s largest ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5.5 miles long. Governor Chris Christie cut the ribbon to announce that the Jersey Shore was open for business. Seeing the storm affect friends, then participating in that event was a personal high for me.

CALENDAR SHOWCASE Each quarter, Hopkins Printing produces and distributes a quarterly calendar and notepad that have been designed for Hopkins Printing by one of our talented design clients. We are pleased to showcase the design by Cardinal Health Creative Services, for our 2015 Q2 calendar project.

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

4 INDEPENDENCE DAY

SAT

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

LABOR DAY

FIRST DAY OF FALL

Want to receive the Hopkins Quarterly Calendar?

design: Brady Design printing: Hopkins Printing, Heidelberg XL 105 6-color, in-line coating unit â&#x20AC;˘ hopkinsprinting.com (614) 509-1080

design: Brady Design printing: Hopkins Printing - Heidelberg XL 105 6-color, in-line coating unit

Contact your Hopkins Printing Account Executive today or visit www.hopkinsprinting.com/ index.php/optimize/ to place your request.

1-800-319-3352

www.hopkinsprinting.com

When it comes to social media, US leads the pack with 90% of all U.S.based companies including some form of social media into their marketing plans.

87% of marketers

in the US report using video in their content marketing. Commercial Sheet-fed Printing Wide Format Printing Digital and Variable Data Printing Pre-Press and Production Services Bindery Mailing and Shipping Email Marketing Web 2 Print

1.800.319.3352 hopkinsprinting.com

Email marketing that incorporates video can realize a 41% increase in email sharing and forwarding.

66% of marketers in the US

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T MISS OUR SUMMER GIVEAWAYS!

use video in blog posts.

Check out pages 3 and 9 for more details

Marketers who integrate video into email can realize a 55% increased click-through rate.