Wide-Format & Signage October 2021

OCTOBER 2021

28 Printing on Glass: Viewing New Horizons 44 L iving Walls: A Great Idea for Transforming Spaces 52 V ehicle Visions: The Role of Textiles in Today’s Automobiles

MOVING

PICTURES Automotive wrap applications can involve more than cars

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EDITORIAL ─ Going Digital

BLOWN TO BITS What can go digital, will.

Frank Romano RIT Professor Emeritus fxrppr@rit.edu

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A

s we all know, the electronic age has seen the virtual elimination of most road maps, annual reports, phone books, forms and other products that can be replaced by electronic methods. We have gone from atoms to bits. However, sometimes it is still nice to reflect on the power of print.

Our very own Frank Romano did just that in a recent video (video link), which sparked a lively conversation amongst print enthusiasts.

We culled a few of our favorite comments below.

co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and the first investor in WIRED magazine, asked that question in his 1995 best-seller, “Being Digital.” I have a 25-year-old printed, hardcover copy of Negroponte’s book that is, yes, available online. I base my recommendations about client use of 2D digital printing and 3D printing in part on Negroponte’s and Benny Landa’s concepts.

Frank, what product(s) do you anticipate will be the next to go digital and further disrupt the printing market?

Sean Smyth

No predictions. Print books are doing well as e-books continue to grow. Some newspaper just bought 1,000 iPads to replace print for their readers. New York Times now has more digital subscriptions than print subscriptions. Sean has some great comments above. I remember when Nick did his “atoms to bits” talk at an NAPL convention. They did not get it.

Could I add listing paper? We used to change from five green lines to brown in July for three months and then revert - two make-readies a year - airline tickets and travelers’ cheques, car tax licenses and diaries.

We used them as a summer filler after the report and accounts season was over. And my football club has stopped printing a match program.

Frank Cost Yet we all continue to eat atoms, not bits. Remember the famous line in “The Graduate” that ended with the word “plastics?” If they ever remake that movie, the word will be “atoms.”

Pete Basiliere Watch video here: https://bit.ly/2XEuVt2

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“Why ship atoms when you can transmit bits?”

Nicholas Negroponte, the

Frank Romano

Mark Decker I grew up with a certain fascination for maps and geography in general and had I not fallen into my particular printing career. I might have been interested in being a cartographer. Even today, I have several area maps in my car door pocket, “just in case,” although I haven’t had to use one in years. My dad had a Chevron station in New Jersey when I was a kid. More comments here: https://bit.ly/2XEuVt2 ●

WhatTheyThink - Printing News | October 2021

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VP, PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com 772-579-7360 PRODUCTION EDITOR & MANAGER Amy Hahn amy@whattheythink.com EDITOR Jessica Taylor jessica@whattheythink.com

CON OCTOBER 2021

MANAGING EDITOR Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com SENIOR EDITOR Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com

Cover Story

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Stephanie Papp stephanie@whattheythink.com 602-639-0530

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION Display graphics and signage in the automotive industry

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By Richard Romano - PAGE -

COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Fellman John Nelson John Giles Jennifer Matt Preston Herrin Colin McMahon Steve Johnson Frank Romano Karen Kimerer Lou Caron

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WhatTheyThink (ISSN 2642-3189) (USPS 500-850) Volume 45, Number 1 is published nine times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October, November/December by WTT Media, Inc., at 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WhatTheyThink, 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Annual subscription prices in the U.S.A $95; Canada $125 USD; all other countries $150 USD. Printed in the USA. Copyright © 2021 WTT Media, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission. WTT Media Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of causation. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not those of the publishers, unless indicated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, or of any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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3D PRINTING SHIFTS INTO FOURTH GEAR

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It’s time to increase 3D printing in automobile manufacturing.

By Pete Basiliere PRINT AND AUTOMOTIVE

Two industries driving innovation in customer engagement

By Joanne Gore SLOW YOUR ROLL

New campaign uses signage to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety.

By Richard Romano LAUNCH AND LEARN

Get over the fear of launching customer-facing software.

By Jennifer Matt PRINTING ON GLASS

The view of the future is bright with inkjet technologies.

By David Zwang REANIMATING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Like a good movie, give your customers an immersive experience.

By Preston Herrin

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NTENTS WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

44 48 52 58

LIVING WALLS

Great ideas for transforming spaces

By FASTSIGNS International, Inc. MOVING PICTURES

Automotive wrap applications can involve more than cars.

By Richard Romano VEHICLE VISIONS

The role of textiles in today’s automobiles

By Cary Sherburne NEW DEVELOPMENTS & PRODUCT LAUNCHES

Direct-to-fabric digital machinery

By Debbie McKeegan

COLUMNS

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36 40 57 66

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

AR isn’t up-and-coming. It’s already here.

By Heidi Tolliver-Walker EXECUTIVE Q&A

Kornit’s Omer Kulka explains Kornit’s shift of focus and view of the industry.

By Cary Sherburne SALES CLINIC

Three “Big Contract” practices that always work

By Lisa Magnuson BUSINESS TOPICS

An educated customer is your best customer.

By John Giles JOHNSON’S WORLD

Bad Data Needs a Scrub

By Steve Johnson

CUSTOM CONTENT 42 HP

Creative Customization Where brands can go with personalization

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DEPARTMENTS

4 Editorial 34 Watch List: Video 60 Product News 64 Classifieds/Supplier Directory

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PRINTING NEWS ─ Automotive Display Graphics & Signage

DRIVEN TO

DISTRACTION Display graphics and signage in the automotive industry

By Richard Romano

W

hen we think of display graphics in the automotive industry, the first thing that springs to mind is vehicle graphics, be they consumer wraps for passenger cars or fleet graphics for commercial vans and trucks.

But display graphics are taking on new roles as a subset of experiential or environmental graphics for auto dealer showrooms. As the auto sales experience is changing post-COVID (as are so many things), and more auto sales move online to sites like Carvana, display graphics are also in a state of flux.

Here in My Car The auto segment is an important one for some industry vendors. Avery Dennison, for example,

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makes vehicle wrapping films, and as a result have a major presence not just at graphic communications industry events such as PRINTING United and ISA, but also at auto-specific industry shows such as SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association).

“Industry shows, like SEMA, ISA and others have always been important to us as a way to connect face-to-face with our customers and the many signage and print shops that use Avery Dennison graphic and vehicle wrapping films,” said David Korvah, marketing manager for Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions. “For shops and converters working within the automotive aftermarket segment, SEMA has been an especially important showcase to demonstrate the range of color, performance and creativity of our films. While we don’t typically compare shows, as the market segments differ, we do value these shows and look forward to the return of in-person events, like SEMA this year.”

It’s important to keep trade shows in mind, as one of the pre-pandemic trends in automotive dealership experiential graphics had been to more and more emulate a trade show environment.

“Just like healthcare migrated from an institutional environment to a patient-experience environment, when you go into an auto dealership, it was less institutional,” said Scott Kozaruk, senior director of experiential design, product services and solutions, Sign & Graphics Division of Alliance Franchise Brands. “So from an experiential side, there were large-format graphics. Take Audi, for example, and their pursuit for performance since the RS 6 back in 2000. And they would go from nostalgic Audi applications to relevant performancebased thinking using large format. When you

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Images courtesy Signarama Downtown Louisville

walked into the dealership, you’d see large graphics on which an Audi was driving down Big Sur at a high rate of speed conveying the sensation of performance. The environment in the auto dealership was starting to emulate more of an auto show type of atmosphere creating a buyer experience.”

Kozaruk is based near Detroit, Mich., and thus is intimately familiar with the U.S. auto industry.

One thing that changed during the pandemic and may or may not persist post-COVID (if there ever is a post-COVID) is that the car-buying process transformed from a visit to the showroom in person, take a test drive, and, if you found the right car, spend an

inordinate amount of time in the dealership filling out forms.

“You were encouraged to sit in the car, touch and feel it, but the pandemic shut that down and created a situation where it was by appointment and only a handful of people could walk into a dealership at one time,” said Kozaruk. “The showroom environment was on ice. You could buy a car over the internet from an auto dealership and they would deliver it to your driveway. That’s not to say that that didn’t require some amount of signage—social disRead More… tancing, curbside pickup, curbFind article at side drop-off. It was adaptive.”

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Online Traffic

Buying a car online is nothing new, but sites like Carvana are driving a lot of potential car buyers away from their local dealerships and online.

However, there can be a hitch to this—and display graphics providers are helping solve one of these folks’ problems.

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PRINTING NEWS ─ Automotive Display Graphics & Signage “As the car business develops and constantly is adapting to new technologies, signage will follow,” said Maggie Harlow, president and CEO of Signarama Downtown Louisville (Ky.). “Even Carvana buys signs. They may not have traditional dealerships, but they certainly have facilities.”

In fact, in some states, such as Kentucky, car dealers are required to have a brick-and-mortar location—sometimes even in the city in which they want to do business.

“It’s an interesting model for car dealers,” she continued, “because despite the online business model, in a lot of states, legally, they still have to have a physical presence.”

In fact, Signarama Downtown recently completed a project for a local Kentucky car dealer that was required to have a facility in Louisville.

“They have a facility here, and we did signage for them,” Harlow said. “We put graphics on their windows to literally cover the windows because they don’t have a traditional brick-and-mortar retail site. So while the model keeps adapting, we just have to keep adapting along with it.”

Image courtesy Signarama Downtown Louisville

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Dealing with Dealers There are opportunities for sign providers in working with auto dealers, but there can be challenges in breaking into that market. For example, a lot of auto dealerships are franchises.

“Their franchises provide a lot of signage, so that sometimes limits what you can do,” Harlow said.

“What we try to focus on are things like if they’re doing remodeling or they’re doing a build-out, or maybe they’re trying to brand their waiting area or do something unique. That’s when we can have an opportunity to help. Or it might be direction wayfinding on the campus of the dealership. But it is a challenge because they do have a ton of resources at their fingertips.”

Another challenge is that the dealerships may already have relationships and agreements with the big national sign companies and franchises, so if you’re a small, independent sign shop, that can be another hurdle to clear. Harlow recommends a more local approach.

“It might be visiting with the dealership staff who might need the actual help,” she said, “and stopping in at the used car lot to find the sales manager to talk about specific products. Maybe it’s pole banners, or maybe it’s an A-frame sign with their hours of operation, maybe stopping into the service shop and looking for the service manager and asking if they need any parking signs or decals for window or floor graphics to help direct traffic or for COVID. You might actually look at going to the locals on the ground and talking to them.”

Harlow identifies another opportunity, one that is more on the construction side, and working directly with a large sign company that may be handling the project.

“Talk to some of these large sign companies that might be opening a new facility—it seems like they’re building new showrooms all the time,” she said. “The manufacturer requires these dealers to constantly upgrade their facilities, so if you see construction start, reach out to that construction company, get an introduction to the provider of the signs, and find out if they need help with installation or help with site surveys and that kind of thing.”

Kozaruk has been tracking a new kind of auto

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showroom that has emerged: “boutique” dealergraphics and signage and printable material to create ships, not unlike boutique hotels. For example, an experience to encourage people that it’s OK to there is the Marriott, and then there are several come back into the dealership environment, to get lines of smaller Marriott Bonvoy boutique hotels. people to come back in the door, that they feel that A boutique dealership operates on the same basic it’s an environment that they’re protected in.” ● principle.

“A smaller venue, higherend, better level of customer service,” said Kozaruk. “Here in “The peer-to-peer the Detroit area, I’ve seen these support we get boutique dealerships where from the corporate they might be a Jeep dealer or team as well as a Ford dealer and they have an other owners is experiential environment, which priceless.” might not have more than 10 or 15 cars in it at any given time.

But it’s a sales venue, and I’ve Eileen Rosenzweig Sir Speedy owner done several of those interiors Sarasota & Ft. Myers, FL using large-format graphics, creating an environment that has actual artwork, and a more highbrow presentation and experience for the client.”

Recovering from the Recovery During the year of COVID, there was a sense that all the trends that COVID had spawned—work at home, accelerated e-commerce, etc.—would continue post-COVID. In some cases, that hasn’t been the case—e-commerce as a percentage of all retail spiked in 2020 but has been returning to the same basic rate of adoption as before the pandemic. Are the trends we have been seeing in auto sales likely to continue?

“I think people in general— myself included—want to sit in a new car and be able to experience it,” said Kozaruk. “I see things in recovery going back a little bit old school, using

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INDUSTRIAL PRINTING ─ 3D

3D PRINTING SHIFTS INTO FOURTH GEAR It’s time to increase 3D printing in automobile manufacturing.

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D printing is accelerating in the auto industry, shifting from prototyping and tooling to finished parts.

Manufacturers of consumer, commercial and military vehicles are producing original and replacement parts with plastic and metal, which means Formula One drivers are not the only ones benefiting from 3D printing.

It’s about time.

Faced with years-long new product design timelines, automobile manufacturers were 3D printing’s early adopters more than 30 years ago. Rapid and

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iterative prototyping promised new designs and components that would cost less and go to market sooner. But slow speeds, weak software tools, limited materials and poor print quality hobbled the industry for two decades.

Nevertheless, innovative suppliers and users pushed the technology to do more. GM has used 3D printing (3DP) since 1989 and now has more than 700 employees trained in 3D printing. The company has 3D printers in production

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PROVIDER 3D Systems: https://bit.ly/3nS0D11 Carbon: https://bit.ly/39oOlos Desktop Metal: https://bit.ly/3tTVbf6 EOS: https://bit.ly/3AtWzYi

CUSTOMER Sauber Engineering

PROJECT 100-150 prototype F1 part sets daily

Lamborghini

Production dashboard air vents for the Sián FKP 37

Eaton Corporation

Passenger and commercial vehicle parts

PSA Group

Titanium parts for DS Automobile’s limited edition DS 3

GE: https://invent.ge/3krZI5i

HRE Wheels

First 3D-printed titanium automotive wheel

HP: https://bit.ly/2Zhm8yg

Skorpion Engineering

Custom combination of the fairing and fuel tank for Kawasaki KX 450 3D Core

Dunlop Systems

Electric car prototype parts and production gauges and molds

Markforged: https://bit.ly/3AqQOL9 Massivit: https://bit.ly/3nRhlOk SLM Solutions: https://bit.ly/3zuwXJA Stratasys: https://bit.ly/3CzdsBN facilities worldwide, including 17 new Stratasys FDM printers in 2019. Aaron Pearson, Stratasys vice president, reports 75% of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette prototype was 3D printed, while GM shifts to more production-related applications.

Today, the auto industry uses 3D printing for design validation, prototyping, fit and function testing, tooling, jigs, operator aids and, yes, final parts. If 3D printing was a transmission, the auto industry is in fourth gear.

As anyone with a digital 2D printing press will understand, simply installing a 3D printer is not enough for vehicle manufacturers and suppliers to succeed. The right combination of design concepts, workflow software, materials, finishing, versatile 3D printers and skilled personnel must be in place first.

More than 25 3D printer manufacturers

Streethunter Designs Bugatti GM

2020 Toyota Supra MK5 widebody kit Active spoiler bracket and brake calipers for Chiron supercar Pallet riser parts for the Chevy Bolt assembly conveyor system

count the automotive industry as a core market. One provider, HP, is well-known to 2D printing companies.

“A digital transformation in the auto industry is underway,” said Ramon Pastor, HP’s global head and GM of 3D Metals and responsible for its metal jet offering. “What positions HP to make a significant impact on the market is decades of research and expertise in printing, precision mechanics, systems engineering, data intelligence, software, microfluidics, materials science and design. Being able to share and leverage that expertise across our 2D and 3D businesses and the various technologies is truly unique.”

Notably, numerous universities and technical schools educate students on

Pete Basiliere provides research-based insights on 3D printing and digital-printing hardware, software and materials, best practices, go-tomarket strategies and technology trends.

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INDUSTRIAL PRINTING ─ 3D

designing for 3D printing and using the technology.

Monash University (Australia) students learn additive manufacturing (AM) and live it by designing, building and racing cars with metal 3D printed parts. Germany’s ambitious “Industrialization and Digitalization of AM for Automotive Series Processes” aims to make metal 3D printing an industrial-scale process. In 2019 alone, Germany invested more than $77 million in programs to advance the integration of AM in automotive processes.

BMW’s 3DP initiatives include a center of excellence to develop, refine and

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The rest of the 2D printing world should take the auto industry’s approach and use 3D printing to improve production processes and customize presses, printers and bindery equipment. expand 3D printing throughout its supply chain. Its Additive Manufacturing Campus in Munich trains employees in 3DP technologies while producing components and prototypes with about 50 metal and polymer processing systems. Another 50-plus systems are operating at global production sites. BMW 3D prints functional, rigid metal and polymer vehicle body, power train and passenger cabin components for its i8 Roadster and RollsRoyce Motor Cars series production.

While impressive, the amount of 3D printed parts remains a small fraction of any automobile’s total number of components. In theory, broad adoption will occur as the technology evolves with higher quality, faster speeds and a more comprehensive range of materials.

However, significant hurdles remain.

Mike Ramsey, Gartner’s vice president covering the automotive industry, notes 3D printing inhibitors include part validation (quality, fit, function and durability) and process integration (adapting to the highvolume workflow of large manufacturing operations). But 3DP’s primary inhibitor, according to Ramsey, is the fact that “carmakers are not behind for not using it.”

This attitude is why the 2D printing industry is slow to adopt 3D printing.

I will grant you that most of the 25,000 printing companies in the U.S. do not have a viable 3DP market opportunity. However, providers focused on POP marketing materials, scenic fabrication, and sign and display do. These “2D” companies should be using 3D printers from Massivit, Mimaki or others to expand

into complementary offerings.

The rest of the 2D printing world should take the auto industry’s approach and use 3D printing to improve production processes and customize presses, printers and bindery equipment. This will Improve manual assembly processes, making them faster and less prone to causing injuries.

Shift gears and accelerate the implementation of 3D printing. Don’t be left at the starting line by your competition. ●

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155585

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY ─ Automotive Print Solutions

PRINT AND

AUTOMOTIVE Two industries driving innovation in customer engagement

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t should not come as a shock that people are spending more of their time – and doing more of their buying – online these days. This is particularly true of those working from home.

An estimate by “Upwork” states that one in four Americans, over 26% of the American workforce, is expected to work remotely through 2021. As a result, more people are exposed to, and engaged with, more digital ads than ever before – leading to digital fatigue and a desensitization toward what they’re seeing.

The result? They’re ignoring ads that don’t stand out and connect with them – leaving digital marketers desperately seeking new ways to sell products, services and solutions. This is especially true

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for automotive brands, an industry hit hard by the pandemic.

Both the print industry and automotive industry are excellent at innovating. They also both excel at identifying growth opportunities and improving how they interact with their customers. It’s no surprise, then, that in recent years these industries have tightened their customer connection and expanded their innovative tendencies – case-in-point, the electric vehicle segment of the auto industry.

Accelerated by the pandemic, EV represents a booming new sector that feeds off innovation. BNEF expects the global share of EVs in new sales to increase by 50%, from 4% to 6% in 2021, rising further to 8% in 2022.

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Recognizing the value in using print to complement the digital experience, auto brands have turned to interactive print – some long before the pandemic. In 2012, Nissan teamed up with Layar to create an interactive newspaper campaign for their Altima model utilizing augmented reality.

Using Layar’s AR app, readers hovered over the printed image with their phone to see clickable pop-ups that showed off the car’s features and prompted readers to book a test drive. The campaign was a hit, generating 8 million views in just one day, and increasing the rate of Altima test drives by a massive 65%. This kind of innovative marketing – driven by interactive print – is what drives engagement and accelerates consumer (and business) buying decisions.

Why Print Is So Powerful at Engaging Buyers What makes interactive print so effective as a marketing tool is the unique experience it provides – an experience that unites the physical and digital worlds. This “phygital” experience has three elements to it. Let’s break them down to illustrate how innovation in print improves the customer experience and drives more business – both for the printer – and their customers.

Engaging Touch Humans like to touch things. It’s a powerful sense that allows us to gather information about objects, and is a medium for building trust and showing compassion between one another.

Studies have shown that haptic (touch) memory has the strongest impact on the human brain. This is why even millennials – who are so entwined with the digital landscape – are

so attached to paper. Eighty percent of them are unable to picture their life without it. By engaging the instinctual desire to touch, print makes it possible for companies in the automotive industry to create a stronger and more memorable brand connection.

Active Engagement Capturing attention is one thing.

Keeping it is another. In 2018, Audi partnered with Structural Graphics and PHD Media to create a custom print insert for Departures magazine to advertise it’s A8 model. The insert mimicked the lighting sequence of the A8’s unique taillight pattern, and each issue came with a plastic key fob that allowed readers to re-engage the lighting sequence.

This is where the interactive part of interactive print comes into play. Products that provide an AR experience generate, on average, 94% more conversions compared to those without. And that’s just AR. When you factor the many other forms of interactive ads, the possibilities for innovation – and engagement – are endless.

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155841

A Smooth and Seamless Process Looping physical and digital experiences together turns a previously fragmented customer acquisition journey into a fluid, smooth, trackable one. It allows buyers to seamlessly navigate their way through a myriad of channels, and helps businesses achieve a core objective – convert prospects into customers. Let’s take Nissan’s campaign as an example. In the first moments of your experience with this ad, the newspaper itself is evoking your

Joanne Gore is founder of Joanne Gore Communications. She has spent the last three decades helping companies maximize their marketing and communications efforts. Contact Joanne at joanne@joannegorecommunications.com.

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY ─ Automotive Print Solutions instinctual desire to touch. When you turn the page, the tactile, physical experience continues as you bring out your phone and hover over the image of the car. Suddenly, you’re seeing the car’s many features, in virtual 3D – and being prompted to book a test drive with a simple click.

Interactive Print and Direct Mail: The Dynamic Duo For a long time, personalization meant inserting someone’s and/or into a form field throughout a document. Today, technology has removed those shackles and liberated us with unlimited data mining, audience segmentation and predictive modeling opportunities. Looking at the data through a variety of lenses, you can isolate the information that will help you attract, engage and convert buyers.

Integrating direct mail with the digital is better at driving consumer action than just using one or the other. Combined, the results generated 39% more attention, 10% more brand awareness and 5% more interest in the brand messaging. Imagine a dealer that has a large number of leases nearly at term. Now imagine a direct mail campaign targeting the relevant leaseholders. Picture yourself as one those leaseholders. You receive a direct mail piece reminding you that your lease is nearly up and shows you a newer model of your current car. On it, there is a QR code that, once scanned, takes you to a personalized video that features the model of your current car, then transforms it into the newer version feature-by-feature, highlighting key features until, like the Nissan campaign, a link brings you to a portal for booking a test drive. In this scenario, direct mail, interactive print and hyper-personalization play a powerful role in the customer journey – complementing digital, social and telemarketing campaigns.

What’s more is that postcards have

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become an increasingly popular form of direct mail. They’re small (but mighty) brand ambassadors that are easy to read and get to the point quickly. When coupled with personalization and interactive print, postcards are powerful attention-grabbers. Take the above leaseholder campaign as an example and imagine receiving the direct mail reminder via a postcard, as well as a letter. In contrast to the letter, the postcard is begging to be read as it sits in the palm of your hand. Much like a landing page, there’s no envelope to open and you can quickly see what it’s getting at. Unlike a landing page, though, its image is crisp and bright, and its glossy (or matte) finish is oh so touchable and memorable. An inviting and engaging experience, postcards are putting more brands into people’s hands – and are increasingly being used to incentivize recipients to action.

Why Now is the Time to Gear Up Your Print Solutions – And Drive the Automotive Industry When lockdowns began to occur, auto sales dropped radically. In turn, innovative auto campaigns like Audi’s and Nissan’s geared down. Fast-forward 16 months and the situation is very different, as more and more people head back out on the road – for both business and pleasure.

With a long-standing relationship of providing each other value; printers, automobile brands/dealers, media agencies and tech companies are teaming up, creating increasingly engaging and innovative marketing campaigns for automobiles – and driving business. Leveraging new print technologies, substrates and multi-channel communications, savvy printers are helping the auto (and print) industry bounce back – and potentially even surpass where they were prior to the pandemic. ●

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Signage

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SLOW YOUR ROLL New campaign uses signage to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety.

By Richard Romano

A

ccording to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 846 bicyclists were killed in traffic crashes in 2019, and while that represents a slight decrease from 2018, bike accidents in general—be they fatal or non-fatal— are up 25% since 2013, according to the Department of Transportation.

In my community (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) alone, there were 71 bicycle– vehicle crashes in 2016. And while the statistics reflect an increasing number of bicyclists on the road, they also show that a better job of “sharing the road” needs to be done.

One simple thing that can be done is for vehicular traffic to drive more

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Signage

slowly, especially in areas where pedestrians, bicyclists and cars share the same strip of asphalt. A 2020 traffic study showed that “lowering the street speed by 6.2 mph was associated with a 28% decrease in pedestrian motor vehicle accidents,” for example, and according to the World Resources Institute, “Every 1.6 kilometer-per-hour (1 mph) reduction in vehicle speeds on urban streets results in a 6 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.”

To help promote safer streets here in Saratoga Springs, this summer, a local organization launched a bicycle safety campaign that uses lawn signage to encourage drivers to slow down.

Founded in 2005, Bikeatoga is an organization dedicated to promoting bicycling among the population, as well as working with the city to develop

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bike lanes, paths and other bike-safe initiatives. Bikeatoga also operates the Bikeatoga Workshop, a volunteer-run bicycle recycling program that repairs used bikes and gets them back on the streets.

Earlier this summer, Bikeatoga unveiled its “Slow Your Roll” lawn sign campaign.

“We as an organization have been talking about how to keep the streets safer,” said Jen Natyzak, president of Bikeatoga. “In particular, track season seems like a time that traffic gets really crazy. So we wanted to create a way to connect with residents and visitors and help support a culture of driving slowly, looking out for bicyclists, as well as pedestrians, people with strollers, everybody.”

Saratoga’s horseracing season—six weeks in July and August—brings thousands of additional cars, bikes and pedestrians to this small town.

At Bikeatoga’s Saratoga Springs workshop, they take in used bicycles and repair them. Volunteers interested in “adopting” a used bike help with their restoration.

Bikeatoga has applied for and received grants through the Capital

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District Transportation Coalition (CDTC) to fund activities such as kids’ bike getaways or to obtain supplies, and they were recently awarded 2021 “Capital Co-exist Mini-Grant” for a slower streets campaign this summer.

And thus was born the “Slow Your Roll” signage campaign, the brainchild of Natyzak, past Bikeatoga president Will Ryan, and Bikeatoga VP Dan Lynch.

“The three of us were talking about what we wanted to do with the grant, and we decided that this is where we wanted to head,” Natyzak said. “We were tossing around names of how to make something sort of catchy and fun so people won’t just glaze over it and it could resonate with them a little bit.”

Natyzak came up with the basic design, choosing black on yellow to mimic other kinds of traffic signage or other cautionary signs such as “Our Kids Live Here” or “Watch for Motorcycles.”

Printing was done by E&A Custom T-Shirts in Ballston Spa, N.Y., which also offers screen printing, vinyl printing, wide-format and direct-to-garment printing. Bikeatoga had 250 lawn signs produced, some single-sided for storefront windows.

Part of the grant will also include social media advertising, and the first ad is slated to go live this week—keep an eye on Bikeatoga’s Facebook page.

As if to highlight the importance of such safety campaigns—and that it is not just applicable to bicyclists—a week before Natyzak and Lynch began distributing signs to local businesses on Saratoga’s main drag, two pedestrians had been struck by a car while crossing the street (thankfully not fatally).

“We talked to half a dozen store owners or staff who were there when the incident happened, so everyone was kind of up in arms and said that

this [campaign] is absolutely needed,” Natyzak said. “As we went around, people had anecdotes that were like, yeah, it’s scary to walk around.”

Bikeatoga is using social media and word of mouth to raise awareness of the campaign, and also partners with other local organizations, such as Sustainable Saratoga (full disclosure: I am on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Saratoga), which then use their channels to get the word out.

So far, the response has been very positive.

“It’s been really well received,” Natyzak said, “just talking with people and as we put them up. I’m really excited to see the interactions.”

There is no easy way to quantify the impact the campaign had—they are not doing any traffic studies—but that’s not really the point.

“One of the most measurable things we’ll be able to see is the interactions we get on social media with the ad that we run. We’ll see how the ad resonates.” ●

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155839

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Web-To-Print

LAUNCH

LEARN

AND

Get over the fear of launching customer-facing software.

By Jennifer Matt

S

ometimes I wonder if we’ve totally lost our way with the print industry definition of “web-to-print.” It seems we’re way more focused on the printer’s experience of the tool when the tool’s entire purpose is for making print ordering easier and more convenient for the printer’s customers.

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Lots of printers invest in web-toprint, and a significantly smaller percentage are actually successful at deploying web-to-print to its target market: the print buying customers. I witness this daily. There is a reluctance to introduce this new way of interacting with the print business to the customers.

The best explanation I found about this

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phenomenon is from Reuven Gorsht in a Forbes article titled “What is Customer Phobia?” My favorite quote from the article is: “Quite simply, whenever we get the opportunity to spend time with customers, we go at them with the lens of our own products and services—the classic aspirin looking for a headache.”

I remember being on a call with a printer and their customer to get their input and feedback on order entry and the artwork proofing process. The customer started talking about their challenges, and the printer started leading them with comments like, “Wouldn’t you prefer to just send us an email? Aren’t you more comfortable using a spreadsheet?” When a customer answers a leading question like this, you didn’t get to the bottom of anything. You simply confirmed your bias towards tools you understand and have been working with for decades.

Another great quote from the Forbes article is “...but everything we do is in the tone and spirit of confirming our own biases.”

I think we’re scared of the customer.

We are scared to ask them to change.

We’re scared to introduce any tension into the relationship. We are scared to stand up for ourselves and for ideas that would benefit them. Our fear comes in the form of delaying the launch of customer-facing solutions until they are deemed “perfect.”

I have seen major launches held up for months for a feature that the customer ended up not even using. We have this crazy idea that we know exactly how a customer will use the tools we provide them. We have no idea, and the sooner you admit to that fact, the better for your business.

I remember talking to a top executive at Adobe right after PDF and Acrobat were launched. He admitted that they literally had no idea all the ways the PDF file format was going to be used and couldn’t even imagine what the future might bring. They didn’t know. They let their customers find all kinds of ways to use PDF. They launched and learned.

So here we are. We invest in tools

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155840

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Web-To-Print for our customers’ benefit, then we stall, we delay, we convince ourselves that the tool has to be perfect (according to our biased definition) before we show it to our customers. The software world came up with an idea to break this habit because perfecting software is very expensive, especially if your perfection turns out to be something the customer doesn’t care about. The idea is minimum viable product or MVP: a working product that you launch before it is “perfect” because you accept that you don’t actually get to define perfection, your customer does. And your customer can only define perfection if they are actually using the product. Launch early and learn.

Your customers are telling you about the problems that online ordering/ web-to-print solves. Start listening.

Guess what launching early and listening to your customers’ feedback does for your relationship with the customer?

It builds trust. They feel heard. Then you can invest in what your customers tell you is the next most important thing.

Remember, you don’t know.

Launch and learn. Get a little smarter then iterate from there. There is no perfection. There is no “done.” There is only a respected relationship where you keep providing your customers value and keep listening to their feedback. Be careful when listening to feedback, filter out the suggested solutions, and get insanely curious about the underlying problems your customers

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are struggling with. We humans think offering solutions is what makes us look smart—we’re solving things. What really matters is understanding the actual problem because until you understand the problem all your solutions are a crapshoot. When you get to the bottom of a problem, you also get to pick from lots of different solutions. A wide variety of solutions is so important because if you’re using commercial software, you don’t have the ability (without lots of time and money) to customize it to solve a problem in a specific way.

When you define the problem, you can look for ways to “configure a solution” rather than “code a solution.”

The customer is always right about their business challenges. You are there to listen and ask clarifying questions so that you can come up with the right solution for your business (where you are the expert).

A lot of printers say to me, “My customers aren’t asking for online ordering, so I don’t see a need to invest in web-to-print.”

Online ordering is a solution. Your customers are not supposed to solve problems for you. Your customers are complaining how long it takes a job to get on press. Your customers are complaining that it still takes 24 hours to get an estimate. Your customers are complaining that they can’t easily get order status or shipping updates. Your customers are telling you about the problems that online ordering/web-to-print solves.

Start listening. ●

Jennifer Matt writes, speaks, and consults with printers worldwide who realize their ability to leverage software is critical to their success in the Information Age.

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For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10004777

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DIGITAL & INKJET ─ Glass

PRINTING ON

©Enhance a Colour

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The view of the future is bright with inkjet technologies.

By David Zwang

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interlayer of custom printed fabric or paper positioned and sealed between two layers of glass. Unlike decals, these can be permanent decorations and be used in any glass application. Enhance a Colour has created glass walls and even glass floors for Broadway shows, automotive trade shows and business decoration.

In automotive applications, laminated safety glass has been used to provide protection from harmful UV radiation.

This has been done through the use of film laminates either tempered between the glass or as film decals on the interior

©Enhance a Colour

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©Moon Shadow Glass

lass is fairly ubiquitous in our lives, and historically people have been looking for ways to bring functional and artistic decoration to this interesting medium, think stained glass for example. Some of my earliest memories of decorating glass were of the guy hand lettering someone’s name on the glass of an office door, it was simple but useful. Today, decorating glass can be used to control levels of transparency and opacity or graphic decoration and signage.

Over the years, many different methods have been used to decorate glass including painting, silk screen, sandblasting, etching, decal and cling films, and of late the increasing use of inkjet technology. Using ceramic frit-based inks in a flatbed inkjet printer, you can print directly on to the glass.

To create permanence, you fire or temper the printed glass to fuse the ceramic inks to the glass in a fairly quick and repeatable way.

To achieve color matching as well as variable levels of translucency and transparency, specially designed inks and image processing software have been developed.

Enhance a Colour, a visual and graphics solution company in Danbury, Conn. has perfected this process.

“You can print full-color vibrant images and designs onto glass measuring up to 120 in. x 60 in,” said Owner Jim O’Connor.

You can use printed glass for light-enhancing printed windows, privacy panels, facility décor or more. They can also add an

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DIGITAL & INKJET ─ Glass ©TECGLASS

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155584

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surface of the vehicle glass. With singlepass 2880 dpi ceramic inkjet printers, like the Evolution press manufactured

by TECGLASS of Lalín, near Pontevedra, Spain, car and window manufacturers can now print that protection in custom formats directly on the automotive glass.

Obviously, printed decoration on automotive glass is limited based on regulations and safety, however there are specific applications like border frames, identification logos and detail and even some tints for decoration and gradients to address glare at the top of the windshield.

Their solution comes with the Vitro Scan tool standard to ensure perfect print results. This automatically reads and records the dimensions and position of the glass prior to printing, reducing the possibility of error and providing more reliable results. This is especially valuable when working with irregularly-shaped sheets of glass, as it automatically resizes the file to be printed, based on the data gathered by the Vitro

Scan. TECGLASS printers can be configured with up to 12 color channels, including the six base colors: cyan, red, yellow, green, black and white.

Alternatively, UV printers, like the VR5D-E from Vanguard, recently acquired

by Durst, can also be used to print on glass as well as other unique substrates.

Moon Shadow Glass of Sandy, Ore. used their EFI H1625 UV LED printer to print on glass for displays like one created in the Oregon Zoo’s Elephant Land exhibit. While these solution offer great color stability, depending on the curing and fusion into the glass, the applications can be a bit more limited.

Glass has many uses and benefits in our lives. The ability to decorate it graphically and functionally increases its value and use. With the proliferation of inkjet technologies we can expect to see even more applications on the horizon. ●

David Zwang specializes in process analysis, and strategic development of firms involved in publishing and packaging across the globe.

Contact him at david@zwang.com.

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY ─ AR

THE

FUTURE IS NOW

AR isn’t up-and-coming. It’s already here.

A

few weeks back, you might have seen my roundup in Printing News and What They Think on interactive print and the relevance of augmented reality (AR), QR Codes and other interactive print features for the printing industry. Not the “pie in the sky” applications, but the real-life, on-the-ground applications that are selling and creating ROI. But really, why should you care?

Interactive features like AR, VR and QR Codes offer more than just a “cool factor.” They have benefits in consumer behavior that your clients should know. By understanding these benefits, and potentially offering AR/VR services (with QR Codes as the doorway to those experiences) yourself, you are improving your clients’ business, as well as your own.

Deloitte Digital recently released a report, “Snap Consumer AR” (conducted on behalf of SnapChat) on the impact of AR on retail, and I included several of the charts in my presentation for WTT’s Aug. 25 “Lunch N Learn” webinar on this topic. Here are some of my takeaways from that report, along with some other data from around the AR world.

1. Use of AR is growing… so ignore it at your peril.

The growth in AR is fueled by many behaviors, notably “mobile for everything” and social media (i.e., SnapChat).

Deloitte forecasts that the number of people

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155678

classified as “frequent AR users” will rise from 1.5 billion today to 4.3 billion in 2025.

While these are largely social media (i.e., SnapChat) users, a growing percentage of consumers are using AR as a tool, including for shopping. Indeed, Deloitte found that 41% of AR users are interacting with AR for this purpose. What might this look like on the ground? It might look like virtual try-on Continued on page 62 Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, and author for more than 20 years. Her industry commentary can be found in national printing publications, blogs, and marketing publications.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Customer experience

REANIMATING THE

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Like a good movie, give your customers an immersive experience.

T

hink about the best film or show you recently watched. It was likely immersive and refreshing in an entertainment era where quality production has become an afterthought. Conversely, when was the last time you stopped watching a film or show because the characters were grossly unbelievable or the plot was incongruous?

Customer experience in business succeeds or fails for similar reasons that movie productions succeed or fail. Customers seek an immersive experience orchestrated by authentic people that consistently delivers. Do this well and you will build long-lasting, predictable customer relationships. Do this poorly and the discontinuity of an unpredictable experience will churn customers out of your portfolio.

Continuing the same analogy, qualifying customer context is exactly what the online streaming services do with the entertainment they present to us. Their algorithms have created the context of what we expect to see and enjoy. What exactly is customer context? It is a clear understanding of customer expectations and characteristics utilized by your customer-facing workforce to meet them at every point of need.

To reanimate the customer experience let us evaluate two types of context: “New” customer context and “Nurtured” customer context.

New Customer Context New customer context focuses on prospects who are evaluating your company and value proposition in an effort to determine if they want to partner. This includes the awareness, evaluation and early engagement stages of the buying process.

In this customer experience economy, buyers have moved away from price and product as the primary brand differentiator. The differentiator is now the

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depth and authenticity of the customer experience.

How then can you arrive at this depth of understanding about prospective customers and the experience they expect? You must objectively know your capabilities as well as your limits. Socrates scribed as one of his ancient axioms, “Know thyself.” If you have an objective understanding of your current operating reality, then you have the framework within which you can consistently deliver value.

Here are four steps to building context in new prospective customer relationships: 1. Qualify customer needs. “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Too many sales teams are ill-equipped and approach the market with a transactional mindset. Sales teams are trained only on products, and they spend exorbitant amounts of time and effort looking for a place for the product to fit. Rather, ensure your team is actively seeking to understand customer challenges and devising solutions. The greatest sales people and high performance teams are genuine problem solvers.

2. Qualify customer fit. Is the opportunity your team is pursuing worth winning? There are deals that look magnificent on the surface but will sap resources and create an imbalance in your business delivery system that negatively affects your core business. Live within your operating reality and strategic growth plan.

3. Qualify your value. Once you clearly understand customer challenges, pivot to align

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measurable value with specific customer needs.

Value drivers that are within your operating reality should be correlated with previous successes.

Demonstrating sustainable, repeatable success that have been delivered for other customers will cement your value in the critical closing stages of the sales cycle.

4. Qualify expectations and outcomes. Work in partnership with your prospects to define their expectations, and correlate them to the value of the ultimate outcome. Taking time to translate customer expectations into an agreed-upon definition of success will build the underpinnings of a partnership that will flourish over time.

Nurtured Customer Context Nurtured customer context is where promises made must become promises kept. This is the process of ensuring that the ascribed value your customers accepted during evaluation is proven in execution.

Here are four steps to nurturing the customer experience promised to your customers: 1. Ensure continuity across the entire customer experience. It is imperative that you have mapped out the journey and touchpoints that the customer experiences every day in their interactions with your team. In doing so, you can examine each interaction point and establish internal communication standards that ensure the continuity of experience.

Continuity dictates that anyone in the workforce knows how to address issues. While this seems like common sense to most, the reality in execution is woefully lacking. A well trained, well-informed team with a bias for action will ensure continuity across the entire customer experience.

2. Ensure speed and accuracy of information.

The premiere customer experience is where relevant information is pushed to the customer in a timely fashion. Deliver on each stage of your promises by bridging expectations to performance realities with

fast and accurate updates. For large Read More… projects, these can be milestone Find article at PrintingNews. driven updates, regularly scheduled com/21155632 updates or a more formal performance review process. For transactional business, this means digital disbursement of critical job information. Online dashboards can be updated in real time and a host of notifications can be pushed to customers’ mobile phones or emails.

Customers expect seamless access to accurate information as an ante just to be in the game.

3. Ensure convenience and reduced effort.

Combining continuity across all touchpoints with speedy and accurate information will transform the customer experience into one of convenience and little effort on the part of customers. Train your team to think multiple steps ahead of your customers and anticipate their needs. An effortless relationship, where your team is proactively providing everything the customer needs, is a nurtured, longlasting relationship.

4. Ensure measurable and repeatable value.

Without a measure for success, you expose your customer relationship to the risk of subjectivity and whim. Change is inevitable at your customer’s place of business. While relationships will come and go, quantifiable performance will stand against the winds of change. No matter the change endured, a disciplined, measurable and repeatable process to track results and continuously prove your worth will nurture an enviable customer lifetime value for your company.

Keep a pulse on changing customer preferences and expectations. These changes will require regular investment in innovation and people development in order to create an ever-improving customer experience and journey. Immerse your customers in an experience that has a predictable outcome every time. While it may not earn you an Academy Award, it will earn you brand loyalists and fans clamoring to see what comes next. ●

Preston Herrin is a strategy, growth, and performance consultant. He has served in c-level and senior leadership roles at fast-growth companies like 4over LLC, Café Press, and Drummond. In his 30-year career Preston’s roles span strategy, business development and executive management providing e-commerce, software, logistics and service solutions for all vertical markets such as Manufacturing, Finance, Healthcare, Nonprofits and more.

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EXECUTIVE Q&A ─ Kornit Digital

STRATEGIC FOCUS

Kornit’s Omer Kulka explains Kornit’s shift of focus and view of the industry.

By Cary Sherburne

K

ornit Digital showed a 118% yearover-year revenue increase for the second quarter of 2021. The company also has shifted its strategy a bit and made a couple of acquisitions that reflect this shift. In this Executive Q&A, Chief Marketing Officer Omer Kulka shares insight about Kornit’s strategic focus and the state of the industry at large.

Printing News: Congratulations on a great second quarter! You serve both the Direct to Garment (DTG) and Direct to Fabric (DTF) markets. How are sales allocated between the two?

Omer Kulka Omer Kulka: We have Chief Marketing Officer had tremendous growth, that’s the bottom line, across all segments. DTG is still leading, by far, but we do see a lot happening in DTF. The promise of DTF is that it is a far bigger market because of the broad array of applications, markets and verticals. But there is a lot of work to be done for that to really become an alternative.

PN: For direct-to-fabric, it would seem that the finishing process for many home décor products would be easier than for apparel in terms of cut and sew.

OK: To be honest, we are not looking at the market like that anymore. During the second half of last year, we saw a fundamental shift in the industry. Everyone was affected by the huge pandemicdriven changes, of course. But another layer of understanding arose about how that relates to our industry, our market and our ecosystem. We understood that we really need to transform the industry to on-demand, sustainable production, and it doesn’t really matter whether it is DTG or DTF; it doesn’t matter how it is done. The drivers

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for change are coming from consumers. And consumers don’t care whether it was printed and then cut and sewn; or was cut and sewn and then printed directly on to the garment. When we start looking at the business that way, top down instead of bottom up, the story becomes more cohesive.

On-demand fashion, which includes home décor, is our mission.

PN: Interesting that you include both home décor and apparel together in that way.

OK: We coined the term FashionX, which includes home décor, as it is any means of selfexpression on textile, regardless of whether it is displayed in your house or on your body. It’s about you as a consumer and how fashion puts out there: who you are and what you believe in and what you want people to see. COVID also blurred those lines because everyone is at home on Zoom and video. On the one hand, everything is remote. On the other hand, everybody is inviting us into their homes. We also talk about Smart Textiles, not so much in terms of the typical way wearables are thought of, like you have a built-in computer on your shirt, but adding other types of functionality to the textiles through digital textile printing.

PN: Talk a little more about how this shift in the way you view the market and your business affects your overall market approach.

OK: For many years, we looked at the market trends as our friends. As a management team, we built the company so that when those trends – sustainability, personal expression, on-demand manufacturing – kept rolling, we surfed those waves, and we were happy. But we now understand not only that we can, but we actually have an imperative to play a much bigger role and proactively help drive the industry to transform, to accelerate that transformation. Instead of positioning ourselves in the best way possible to enjoy the trends, we have become more proactive. This helped us realize

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MAX at work.

the need to expand our position in the market. So now we are extending horizontally on the production floor beyond the print room; and vertically, not only staying on the production floor but going all the way to the end consumer, and all the way down to logistics, blanks and textile providers; the entire ecosystem to enable and accelerate the on-demand and sustainable manufacture of fashion and home décor. We are starting to imagine the future production for our printed textiles, what the microfactories will look like, urban production, how to produce sustainably in urban areas - so far beyond our traditional core.

PN: To that end, you’ve done a couple of acquisitions recently. Tell us about how that fits with this strategy shift.

OK: Our acquisition of Custom Gateway allowed us to expand vertically, all the way to the end consumer. Voxel8 is more of a horizontal expansion that allows us to extend phases of production well beyond what we are capable of today.

PN: Let’s talk a little more about Voxel8, the most recent acquisition, and how it fits into the picture.

OK: With Voxel8, we identified a very unique technology, but the key was understanding how to merge that technology and capability with our

existing capabilities and those on our technology roadmap. We understood we could begin to create things that don’t exist right now. We can enable the execution of our vision of on-demand sustainable manufacturing, not only in this vertical or that category, but for more and more categories. It is a true technologiRead More… cal acquisition that allows us to Find article at PrintingNews. enable transformation of addicom/21155593 tional categories right now from analog to digital. Instead of producing to inventory, which has a lack of sustainability, we can help move these categories to a more sustainable on-demand model.

PN: Can you be more specific about those capabilities?

OK: It enables new capabilities in both decoration and functionality. It opens up a lot more opportunities for us to offer decorative applications like metallic inks when added to our core technology.

On the functional side, it opens up multiple opportunities such as reflective materials, which have larger particles and are difficult to inject through inkjet printheads. Here you have a different way of applying materials to a textile and it’s easier to do. It could also apply conductive materials.

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EXECUTIVE Q&A ─ Kornit Digital

MAX embroidery at work.

PN: So are you looking at this as post-print treatments?

OK: It’s not necessarily a post-print function. Some applications may still be pre- or postprint, but our goal is to integrate it right into our current printing technology to provide more freedom in the design and production process.

We’ve already done some of that with our current technology, with the launch of MAX which enables printing layers on top of the fabric to create 3D effects that can be either functional or decorative.

PN: Anything else Voxel8 brings to the table?

OK: A really unique capability of the Voxel8 technology is the ability to change the characteristics of the material they deposit on the fly. That means we can deposit a material that has different characteristics, in different places on the fabric - in the same process. A simple example is if I want a line of support, I can actually deposit some material across the fabric that will vary from super flexible to super hard. And the change can be gradual, so one area can provide support and then the same material becomes protective somewhere else, like on a shoe where you want the sides to be flexible and the heel area to be more rigid. When you integrate these capabilities into our system, we have a lot more levers to play with. The scope of

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possibility is pretty much unlimited. Activewear is another good example where you might want different levels of support in different areas. On top of that, we could also add a layer of therapeutic functionality. That’s what we mean when we talk about Smart Textiles. When it is produced on demand, it is not generically functional but can be customized depending on the needs of each individual piece.

PN: Let’s talk a little about the market as a whole. We hear a lot of different numbers in terms of the penetration of digital textile printing and the percent of the total printed fabric market that represents. What’s your take?

OK: We believe it ranges from 5% to 7% of the total. Digital textile printing grew to 3% of the total printed fabric market fairly quickly, and then from 3% to 5%. But it has plateaued over the last few years. I think that it reached a certain point of equilibrium.

But also consider that the way we measure digital

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printing on textiles right now is about replacing a very specific part of the entire supply chain, a single link, replacing analog printing with digital. In these times, we need to do things that are transformative and not merely incremental. It’s not really about calculating how many digital printers you need to replace one rotary printer.

That’s pure replacement. We don’t think that way at all. It’s not about replacing the way we do things today. It’s about enabling completely new ways of doing things, for both production and the business model. Let’s say you print to inventory in Pakistan and you ship it to the U.S. and there is a time span of six months from when it was designed and when it will be sold, and you also have a minimum order quantity to make it worthwhile for you from a pricing perspective. You inherently introduce a 30% overproduction into the model. That doesn’t fit today’s world, and the pandemic really exposed this.

PN: Plus, as the pandemic highlighted, things can occur that dramatically change demand so your products you designed six months ago don’t fit today’s market.

OK: Exactly. Consumers might be saying, “I wear yoga pants to work; I don’t need that suit anymore.”

The other change that needs to happen is how brands do their buying. Most buyers are compensated on how effectively they reduce cost per unit. They don’t really care if 50% of it is never sold. But another thing that COVID changed is getting the buy side and supply side at the same table with the same issues. Everything shut down all at

(Above) Close up of Voxel8.

(Left) Shoes using Voxel8 Technology.

once, and now everyone had the same enemy, the same problem. The solution is a more nimble supply chain, and that requires an increase in on-demand manufacturing capabilities.

For the industry, it is not only that we can do that or should do that, but we are realizing that we have to do that. It is an imperative. It’s not about another business opportunity; it’s bigger than that. Running a business right now that only cares about dollar currency and not environmental currency, for me it’s not a viable approach.

PN: There are many challenges ahead, but overall, how do you feel about where the industry is going?

OK: I’m super optimistic about where the industry is going. The supply chain is going to change.

Things are moving a lot faster today. Today we can begin to imagine a world where supply chains are different and more sustainable. And that’s what we are trying to enable as we work towards helping to accelerate industry transformation. ●

Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.

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SALES CLINIC ─ Bigger Contracts

LAND THE

BIG ONE A Three “Big Contract” practices that always work ll salespeople want bigger contracts. That’s just a fact. Bigger contracts equal big commission dollars and no stress for making your sales targets. Big contracts are the rising tide that floats all boats. Although big deals are complex, messy and sometimes involve moving backwards to go forwards, there are three practices that always work.

Relationships Developed Did you know that the average enterprise deal has six to 10 decision makers on the buying team?

This group includes decision makers, decision validators, decision influencers, stakeholders, subject matter experts (e.g., technical experts, security, legal, procurement) and end users.

Account teams, the people with a vested interest in the deal, should start by assessing the relationships they have, as well as the relationships they will need.

Relationship development goes well beyond an initial meeting. Relationships are developed over time and built on mutual trust and in-depth rapport. For large opportunities, relationships should be mapped by the internal account team. For example, who best aligns with your prospect from your company? The account team can analyze each relationship to best understand the appropriate engagement plan. The account team must think strategically about those relationships and take note of the ones they have and ones they will need.

Account Strategy Meetings (War Room Sessions) Did you know that 79% of prospects prefer interacting

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with salespeople who are trusted advisors who can add value to their business?

Account strategy meetings (or war rooms) are an opportunity to discuss how to be a trusted advisor for your prospect.

They also allow the team to do the work necessary for future success. A sampling of topics covered over a series of war room sessions include: ● Mapping relationships ● Executive engagement planning ● Designing the Win Themes ● Developing competitive blocking and analysis ● Pre-call planning (for every single prospect meeting) This work can’t be accomplished in just one or two war room sessions. It must be done over time. A normal schedule would include monthly or bi-monthly war room sessions for each big opportunity from beginning to end.

Each session builds on the prior one as new information is learned. To truly put the account team in a position for success, all the above components must be completed prior to the issue of an RFP or proposal for a large opportunity.

Months of Solid Sales Engagement Did you know that many companies report a successful sales runway to be about nine months or more for 5X opportunities?

It takes time to develop relationships and work through all the war room elements. Big deals include progressing through your normal

sales process along with the extra work required during each stage for large opportunities. If early sales stages, such as qualify or develop are missed or rushed, results will suffer.

The other critical part of the time equation is understanding the buyer’s journey for big contracts. What is your prospect doing, thinking and feeling at each stage of their journey? Can the account team put themselves in their prospect’s shoes?

According to Gartner Research, three-quarters of buyers involved in a complex purchase described their purchasing journey as “very complex” or “difficult.”

The prospect’s journey takes time, too. It is the job of the account team to add the right value at the right time.

Now more than ever, salespeople must approach the sales process with the following three things in mind: ● Make it simple for your prospect. ● Show immediate impact for your prospect. ● Eliminate risk for your prospect.

Summary Salespeople trying to identify, develop and close big deals can increase their success ratios by: ● Solidifying key relationships ● Engaging in on-going account strategy development sessions ● Giving yourself a sales runway of months to learn, qualify, develop and close the opportunity ●

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Lisa Magnuson founded Top Line Sales in 2005. It has a proven track record of helping companies overcome the barriers to winning TOP Line Accounts. Learn more at www.toplinesales.com.

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CustomContent

CUSTOMIZATION Where brands can go with personalization Custom Content Provided by Gershon Alon, HP

M

ass customization avoids many pitfalls of typical VDP projects, because it doesn’t require the development of elaborate cross-sections of personal user data. Creating such campaigns is relatively worry-free and less complex, yet it can be a very effective way of giving each individual the feeling of being unique.

So, what’s the difference between mass customization and personalization using variable data print? VDP is a digital printing technique that changes certain elements, such as text, numbers, barcodes, graphics, images and so on, for each recipient instead of creating a single message that is delivered to your entire

list of customers.

The simplest form of VDP is based on text, like the name and address on a static design. This is a fairly common method, but as personalization goes, it is not very effective. A more sophisticated method is to change the text, colors, graphics and images based on your targeted group demographics, or even on the characteristics of the specific person who will receive the document.

Marketing-wise, this method is far more effective, yet it is a lot more complex. You need to have a database with the personal characteristics of your recipients. You need to maintain the data—which might be an issue in a world where privacy is important.

Lastly, it is relatively easy to make mistakes, and you not only fail to achieve the marketing impact, you create a negative one instead. For example, promoting a product to an individual who has already purchased it can be a real turn-off.

Mass Customization Mass customization using visual elements is a VDP method that avoids the pitfalls yet is very effective. Apart

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CustomContent from not needing a huge database of user preferences and data, creating such innovative campaigns is relatively simple and does not require purchasing complex software or massive hardware.

Of course, this is not exactly “personalization” as you are not targeting individuals, but it is a creative way of giving each individual the feeling of uniqueness as if they were the only person in the universe receiving this design.

For example, the purpose of Ferrero’s “Personalized Nutella” campaign was to create a more personal relationship with customers and inspire shared moments of happiness. In one move, Nutella converted hundreds of thousands of consumers into Nutella Brand Ambassadors.

In another engaging campaign, a local beer brewery in Amsterdam, called Dutch IPA, wanted to tell the India Pale Ale beer (IPA) story and the legend about the pirates who sailed around world.

They sailed the world drinking beer because it was a beverage that would not spoil over long periods of time. During those trips, they searched for new flavors that would enrich their beer. The brewery created an HP Mosaic campaign with images of Captain IPA in various forms in different locations and with various fruits.

When asked about the success of this campaign, the brand said that they doubled their revenue. People raved about the campaign on social media, and the brand said that being able to play with such creative tools put them on the international map.

beer using it to create unique experiences and engagement with their customers. Nowadays, there is a trend to use VDP to create identities for products so they will be unique from the first day they are introduced on the shelves.

With more campaigns popping up every day, there is a race for more creative and edgy mass customization designs.

We are working on the next phase of mass customization that will drive these trends even further. This is the exciting part—digital printing has no limits, and with the power of VDP, even the sky is not the limit.

To view the entire Workflow Chef series and other relevant sponsored content from HP Indigo, visit https://whattheythink.com/ topic/hp-workflow-chef/. ●

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Where Are We Heading?

Mass customization is gaining momentum, and we see more and more brands like Dulwich Gin and Del Puerto

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9/23/21 9:18 AM

WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Living Walls

O

ver the past three to four years, there’s been a surge in the use of living walls, also known as plant walls or green walls. These modern applications cultivate a feeling of well-being in any space. While popular, most versions of these walls need care and maintenance, requiring real soils, air, light and water. Here are some of the types of these walls seen today.

Succulent Walls While succulents require less water than most plants, they still require some maintenance.

Overall, the succulent walls are a popular choice today, especially with decorative styles such as desert-boho. With the use of a variety of succulents, colorful wallscapes can be aesthetically pleasing installations.

Moss Wall

WALLS Great ideas for transforming spaces

By FASTSIGNS International, Inc. 44

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Moss walls are the next easiest to maintain as they don’t need air, soil and light. They can be misted regularly to keep them fresh, and they are both customizable and can be used in any shape or wall size. Moss creations can also be combined with sign fabrications for a contrasted look.

One of FASTSIGNS’ Living Walls vendor, TrueVert, who recently sponsored the FASTSIGNS®/SIGNWAVE annual Outside Sales Summit, creates large or small living walls and moss art panels. The TrueVert team uses a wide variety of plant

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material for their work including natural moss, stylized moss, preserved moss (the easiest type of moss to maintain) and fine art moss design that incorporates colors. In addition, their living walls can also include preserved plant material such as grasses, ferns, eucalyptus, branches, bark and air plants.

Artificial Wall This type of “living wall” fully eliminates all care and maintenance while achieving a similar look. With the artificial plants,

this type of wall is meant to be viewed from 5-10 feet away.

Dusting is required for preserving the look, and they are more affordable than succulent or moss walls.

What Are Some Reasons to Install a Living Wall?

They enhance a space.

As more and more people began working from home, they started to notice and pay attention to their backgrounds while on video calls with family, friends and co-workers. In most

cases, their backgrounds were boring, plain white walls, framed prints or the typical bookcase.

Changing up the background to a living wall freshened up the scene and transformed the otherwise dull background to something unique.

“I think there has always been some sort of draw for humans to be closer to nature,” said Brian Boehm, senior director of supply chain and technical services. “Everyone loves having plants and landscaping around their home, so offering a unique

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Living Walls

take on indoor living plants by hanging them from the wall, not only presents a fresh, new look for interior décor, it creates a calming sense of being one with nature while inside a space.”

Noise Control Living walls can even be used to control noise. For instance, large spaces that have issues with echoes and reverberations can be toned down with squares of living wall sections mounted sporadically on opposing surfaces.

larger scale. New hotels now have living walls that are 10-20 feet wide by 2-3 stories tall in their lobby. Airports incorporate them into their main thoroughfares and lounges. New car dealerships, malls, salons, restaurants and bars are all incorporating living walls in one way or another, especially to emphasize their logo, which is usually formed out of faux neon. Moss is sometimes used to create dimensional letters or incorporate into a branded piece behind a front desk space in an office.

Creative Branding Now that this trend has really taken off, many interior decorators and architects are using living walls in new build outs and renovations but on a much

Bring People Together These innovative walls are probably best known for being incredible backdrops for selfies.

Whether living walls include living plants, moss or succulents,

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all of them do one thing very well: they bring the outside in.

“I don’t see this trend going away anytime soon. Not only does it look great, but it can really transform a space. Large blank areas can easily be converted into visually pleasing areas,” Boehm said.

“Living walls truly bring any space to life, and I’ve

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enjoyed watching this trend unfold over the last few years,” said Catherine Monson, CEO at FASTSIGNS and chair of the International Franchise Association. “At FASTSIGNS, our franchisees provide their customers with signage, visual graphics and interior décor.

Living walls are an excellent example of the interior décor options our franchisees provide their customers.” ●

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Automotive Wrap Applications

MOVING

PICTURES Automotive wrap applications can involve more than cars.

By Richard Romano

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(Above) Dallas, Tex.’s SkinzWraps produced this on an Epson SureColor S80600.

(Images courtesy Epson) (Right) Shuttle bus wrap for the Dallas Museum of Art. (Image courtesy SkinzWraps.com)

O

ne of the most popular—and conspicuous—automotive print applications is vehicle wraps. In fact, vehicle wrap contests became popular events at major industry shows (back in the day…). Doing unusual wrap jobs has become many wrap businesses’ stocks in trade.

Imagine seeing the car on the previous page come

up behind you on the highway…But vehicle wrapping can involve more than cars. SkinzWraps also does SUVs, boats and buses.

Additionally, fleet graphics for trucks and vans have become essential parts of a company’s brand.

Brazilian business Fix Print used an EFI Pro 32r+ UV LED roll-to-roll printer to decorate 130 trucks for Ambev Brewery.

Brazilian business Fix Print used an EFI Pro 32r+ UV LED roll-to-roll printer to decorate 130 trucks for Ambev Brewery.

(Image courtesy EFI)

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Automotive Wrap Applications Read More…

1060Z overFind article at laminate PrintingNews. com/21155583 to increase brand visibility for Soper Companies.

Brand Graphic Solutions (BGS) in Plymouth, Pa., wrapped Mericle’s vans using an Epson Sure Color S80600 and Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS digital cast film with DOL 1060Z overlaminate.

Beyond land-based vehicles, boat wraps are a common application, but of course can

2 CT Media in Mesa, Ariz., printed fleet graphics for Yellowstone Landscape using a Canon Colorado 1650 printer and Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS digital cast film with DOL 1060Z (pickup truck) and Avery Dennison MPI 2105 Easy Apply RS film paired with

DOL 1060Z overlaminate (trailer).

Art City Wraps in Oshkosh, Wis., used a Mimaki UCJV 300-130 and Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS digital cast film with DOL

Images courtesy Avery Dennison

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Image courtesy Avery Dennison

Image courtesy Drytac

present challenges that car and truck wrapping can easily avoid.

The UK’s Globe Print used a Roland SolJet EJ-640 and Drytac’s Polar Grip film paired with Interlam Pro Emerytex overlaminate film to decorate this boat for Monkey Fist Adventures, which took part in an intense endurance challenge, which saw a team of four men row 3,200 miles non-stop

across the Atlantic Ocean for over 45 days.

I am always on the lookout for new and creative printing applications and projects, be they small or wide format.

Have you worked on something unique and of which you are proud? Feel free to share them with me at richard@whattheythink.com. ●

Richard Romano has been writing about the graphic communications industry for 20 years. He is an industry analyst and author or co-author of more than half a dozen books.

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TEXTILES ─ Vehicles

VEHICLE The role of textiles in today’s automobiles

VISIONS

Y

ou might be surprised at the volume and type of textiles being used in today’s vehicles – including woven, knitted and nonwovens. I, myself, have a Jeep, and I

By Cary Sherburne had to go look at it to see where fabric was used. Sure, we notice what seat covers are made of, but how many of you know whether your headliner is woven or nonwoven? And does it matter?

The truth is, I thought it looked woven – very tightly woven with fine thread – but Brad Kalil, director of market intelligence and economic insights A close look at a nonwoven fabric for the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, said today’s nonwovens can be made to look like woven fabric.

Nonwoven fabric could provide business opportunities – perhaps not so much in the mass manufacturing arena, but certainly in customization of vehicles, which is growing in popularity. We “wrap” cars for many reasons; why not customize interiors as well?

First, let’s start with defining

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nonwovens. In September of 2018, we interviewed Phil Mango, a consultant in nonwovens for Smithers. He explained there are two primary nonwoven categories: disposable and durable. Since that time, of course, we have become all too familiar with disposable nonwovens, whether in the form of masks, wipes or other items the pandemic has forced upon us. Back then, diapers – for adults and babies – were the largest category of disposable nonwovens. Medical applications ranked third, behind wipes. That ranking appears to be the same today.

The other way to look at the market is by industry segment. It should be noted that many of these trends, including such things as lightweighting, also apply to other segments of the transportation industry.

There are about 220 nonwoven companies with over 900 nonwoven lines in North America, and some automotive component manufacturers, such as Autoneum, have their own nonwoven manufacturing lines as well.

According to Kalil, when much of the textiles industry decamped from North America to seek lower cost locations, the nonwoven industry never left. In fact, many took over textile factories that were abandoned in the exodus.

In a 2020 post by Design Pool, Amy Frascella from Land Rover explained that Jaguar/Land Rover aims to be a thought leader, “setting the taste of our time,” and

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notes that the design team has equal power with the engineering team, which is likely fairly unique in the industry.

“Looking ahead, Amy Frascella sees sustainability underpinning everything they do now. This means looking at their entire ethos differently. As a company, they truly embrace the responsibility to be more sustainable and more responsible from the very first steps in the design and engineering process. They are committed to looking at material development, post industrial and consumer waste, as well as their own waste streams during manufacturing with an eye toward minimal impact on the environment.”

This includes things like considering alternatives to leather, which is not sustainable, that can offer the luxury the company is known for.

Nonwovens Constitute a Growing Percentage of Today’s Autos According to Kalil, nonwovens are lighter weight (important in helping improve gas mileage and performance of electric cars) and have better thermal and acoustic properties. Another reason is the fact that nonwoven lines are much faster than weaving lines.

Because of this, nonwovens are

This auto headliner and sunvisors are covered with nonwoven material

appearing in some surprising places.

New, especially higher-end cars, according to Kalil, often use nonwoven material in the wheel wells and as a liner on the underside of the vehicle. This is due to their acoustic properties – they make for a quieter car than the plastic or metal that has been used in the past. Tesla also impregnates material in the nonwoven wheel well liner to prevent ice build-up.

Other things would not be so surprising – like the filters, battery separators, carpets, speaker covers, liners for the glove box and console storage areas. In fact, Mango identified 36 different areas where nonwovens are used in automobiles. And that doesn’t include wheel wells and the undercarriage.

Woven and knitted fabrics are also used in vehicles, sometimes for seat covers and other times for accents in a variety of areas.

Manufacturing Nonwovens There are many different ways nonwovens are manufactured, and most of these processes can also use recycled

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TEXTILES ─ Vehicles

content, which is an environmental advantage. Web-forming processes include staple, melt-blown, spunlaid and needle-punched.

I found needle-punched to be particularly interesting in terms of the aesthetics of the material.

According to ScienceDirect.com, “Needle-punched nonwovens are feltlike and very flexible, having a fibrous network with distinctive pores, which makes them suitable for applications in filtration and drainage… needle marking caused by the punching effect of needles is frequently visible on the fabric surface.”

A variety of types of fibers can be used to create nonwovens, including recycled PET, rPET, etc. Both natural and manmade fibers, or a combination of the two, can be used, depending on the purpose of the nonwoven. One

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These seat covers are made of eco leather.

example of recycled materials being used in nonwovens for automotive is the use of carbon fiber materials that are manufactured for use in airplanes.

When the holes are punched out for windows, etc., as a plane is being manufactured, that waste material used to be thrown away. These days, it is often ground up, made into fiber and used for many purposes. One example is a carbon fiber sunroof on some Mercedes vehicles. Flax is a common sustainable fiber used in Europe, and some BMW models feature a flax-based nonwoven liner or holder for the sunroof. Hemp is another natural fiber source that is being investigated as well.

Automotive Recycling Increasing focus is being placed on sustainability in the automotive industry,

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and as we have already mentioned, some nonwoven materials used in autos are made from recycled content, or fibers from renewable resources. But what happens to a vehicle at end of life?

Just about 80% of a vehicle (by weight) is recycled, and the remaining 20% that can’t be recycled is termed “auto shredder residue (ASR),” which includes ferrous and nonferrous metal pieces, dirt, glass, fabric, paper, wood, rubber and plastic.

There are initiatives underway to deal with the ASR as well, including an Eastman Chemical project and a feasibility study being undertaken by PADNOS, a scrap recycling company.

Part of the issue with ASR is parts that are made of multiple materials that cannot easily be separated for recycling, carpet being a good example. These projects are looking for ways to do that, and at the same time, there is a movement within textiles to drive more use of mono-fiber materials that can more easily be recycled.

One company that is doing some work in that area is Borgstena, a subsidiary of the Dual Group, where Helen Scott is Head of Fabric Design for Borgstena Textiles NA LLC. “The challenge for us is to promote a product where the face and backing utilize the same polymer so that at the

Carbon fiber nonwovens an be used as inserts in other parts of the vehicle

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TEXTILES ─ Vehicles

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21155587

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end of the day, when it is taken out of the car, it can be recycled, broken back down into monomers and used again,” she said.

She added that acrylic back coating for woven fabric has been an industry norm in North America for decades, which makes the entire seat cover unable to be recycled. However, in Europe they use a bi-laminate of foam and scrim which, if they were of the same polymer, would make recycling achievable. The majority of auto manufacturers are now requesting recycled content in the fabrics they use,

Auto recycling recaptures a growing volume of material for reuse

especially for electric vehicles.

In a lot of this recycling effort, a significant amount of solvents are used, and projects are also underway to figure out how to recapture a greater percentage of those solvents for reuse.

For more information about nonwovens in general and their use in automotive and transportation, be sure to visit INDA.org and consider joining the association as well as attending its South Beach, Miami trade show next March. ●

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9/22/21 3:43 PM

BUSINESS TOPICS ─ Training A Customer

TRAIN YOUR CUSTOMERS An educated customer is your best customer.

A

s the pandemic changes the printbuying environment, it becomes more important for customers to understand the new technology and business practices that make buying printing easier.

Training a customer and establishing realistic expectations is easier than ever before. Customer behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You can influence their behavior with the information and training you provide your customer. The more a customer knows about the printing process, the higher their satisfaction and trust will be. The result is a better customer.

You already know what your customer needs to know. Your sales and customer service staff hear the common questions every day. They see the best practices customers forget or ignore. They know what behind-the-scenes information the customer would want to know to make the buying process effortless. The CSR and sales staff can give you the topics and material you need to get to your customers.

Turn the common customer questions and concerns into content. If you know the

common questions, you can prepare the answers before the customer asks them.

The first step will be to create scripts for the staff so they can quickly answer those common questions. Make Read More… sure the staff knows the answers Find article at and can explain the answers to PrintingNews. com/21155633 the customer. Nothing undermines a customer education program more than employees not knowing how to answer a question about something that has been covered. Common questions should have short, easy-to-understand explanations.

Use all the tools available to you to communicate with your audiences. The information can be printed in a brochure or distributed as an email. It can be put in a newsletter or edited to become a tweet. It could be added to a blog or used in a Continued on page 63 John Giles is a consultant for the printing industry who works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. Contact John at (954) 224-1942, john@cprint.com, or johng247@aol.com.

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TEXTILES ─ Direct-to-fabric digital machinery

NEW DEVELOPMENTS & PRODUCT LAUNCHES Direct-to-fabric digital machinery

I

n spite of the pandemic, research and development projects among the digital fabric printing machine manufacturers have continued apace and, during the first part of 2021, have resulted in a profusion of new and exciting products.

As we approach the autumn, here’s a quick refresh of this year’s emerging technologies.

January As the new year dawned, Mimaki was first out of the gate with their TS100-1600 printer. The TS100-1600 is designed to meet the market needs of the textile and apparel industry, and as an entry-level model with high performance and an affordable price, it can be used with confidence by a wide range of customers who are considering the introduction of digital printing. https://bit.ly/2XN1k10

February In February, HP announced a new portfolio of latex printers. The new HP Latex range consists of four devices: the HP Latex 700 and 800 and the HP Latex 700W and 800W, which offer white ink capability for the first time in this category. Meanwhile, updated printheads possessing more nozzles and producing speeds of up to 36 m2/hr (388 ft2/hr) allow the HP Latex 800 and 800W to offer 50% higher productivity levels compared to previous HP models. https://bit.ly/2XwsZ6a Also in February, Mimaki announced advanced print solutions for digital textile production with its update to its Tiger model. Available as a highquality direct-to-textile (reactive or direct sublimation) or sublimation transfer printing solution, the

58

new Tiger1800B MkIII has been developed with reliability and print accuracy at the forefront of the design process and features new software capabilities that help to increase productivity and reduce downtime. https://bit.ly/2XILRPF

March Then in March, swissQprint introduced three new digital print innovations to the market. The first was the “speed” model of the Karibu UV rollto-roll printer. The second was the option for automatic double-sided printing with Karibu. And third, neon inks for UV printing—an absolute world first. https://bit.ly/3CJV09J Also in March, Epson launched its roll-to-roll resin digital printer. The 64-inch SureColor R5070 and SureColor R5070L roll-to-roll signage printers with waterbased resin ink consistently provide professional-quality wallpapers, fabrics, uncoated papers and traditional signage at remarkable speeds. https://bit.ly/3tUBtjo And finally, also in March, the China-based Flora company introduced its TX2000p which uses linear induction motors to reach speeds of 600 m2/hr. https://bit.ly/2XAfBhn

April In April, Mutoh released its new double-head dye-sublimation printer, the XPJ1682WR-64.

The XpertJet 1682WR printer was developed for

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high-quality graphics for transfer onto all possible types of polyestercoated or polyester-based rigids, gadgets and flexible materials.

Featuring a high level of print production efficiency, the XPJ-1682WR accommodates two gold-plated piezo variable-drop printheads producing stunning results in four-, six-, seven- or eightcolor ink setups. https://bit.ly/3nOilCD Also in April, Epson expanded its range in this printer category with the SC-F10000H, which offers the option of neon ink printing. The Epson SureColor SC-F10000H enables the use of two different ink sets: either CMYK + fluorescent pink and yellow or CMYK + LM + LC. https://bit.ly/3zpjUJt Later in April, Durst set a milestone in the field of sublimation printing with the launch of the P5 TEX iSUB. The abbreviation iSUB stands for “inline sublimation.” This eliminates individual work steps, resulting in a significant increase in quality and efficiency for the user. https://bit.ly/3zqEYiP

May In May, Canon’s new Colorado 1630 UV gel printer was launched. This industrial-grade printer offers companies active in the large-format market access to all of the proven advantages of UV gel technology at a lower investment, to help further expand business opportunities by addressing lower volumes in the market. https://bit.ly/3tW6bsp

June As June opened, Fujifilm launched its new Acuity Prime printer. This new flatbed is part of Fujifilm’s strategy to create “the new blueprint” for wide format by resetting expectations relating to price/ performance, versatility, value and ease-of-use. https://bit.ly/39rCea8 Also in June, EFI Reggiani upgraded its high-speed Bolt single-pass printer.

Hardware and software enhancements on the ultra-high-speed inkjet printer eliminate

single-pass imaging challenges with smoother solids, improved printing uniformity and more. https://bit.ly/2Z9R7fr EFI Reggiani then went on to launch its new entry-level Blaze printer at Shanghai in June. The EFI Reggiani Blaze printer is designed to give textile companies the opportunity to enter the digital textile printing market with a compact solution. https://bit.ly/3kq1YKr And as Q2 closed, Canon announced the launch of the new Arizona 135 GT UV flatbed printer. This smart technology investment offers sign makers, print service providers and offset and screen printers, among others, new ways to fulfill business opportunities. https://bit.ly/3AwNJJu

September Jumping ahead to September, it is worth noting that EFI Reggiani brought another new printer to market, the Reggiani HYPER. The company claims this is the fastest high quality scanning digital textile printer in the market. https://bit.ly/3AtKv9w Growth continues across the field, and as more companies look toward reshoring and simplifying their supply chains, machine sales are reported to be buoyant. It is Read More… worth noting that other product Find article at PrintingNews. launches in this segment were com/21155843 scheduled for the PRINTING United trade show, which was cancelled due to pandemic concerns. We assume companies, including Durst, Vanguard, HP and more, will go ahead with planned launches despite the cancellation of the show. Watch this space for more information.

Across the sector, progress was evident in all markets and with the prospect of face-to-face exhibitions as we enter 2022, the trade can look forward to an exciting and stimulating second half of the year. ●

Debbie McKeegan is the CEO of TexIntel.

As a multi-disciplinary creative and renowned digital print pioneer, she holds over 25 years’ experience within the Textile manufacturing industry.

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...

INDUSTRY NEWS ─ News Trending On Printingnews.com Mimaki Pushes the Creative Boundaries of Industrial Printing with the Launch of Four New UJF Series Printers

Canon U.S.A. Launches New White Papers Series Titled, “Enhancing the Print Customer Connection” As today’s communication buyers expect their print providers to offer smooth onboarding, easy order submission processes, frequent communications, effective job management, value-added services, and added security measures, it is imperative for them to understand the best practices and methods needed to strengthen this connection. In an effort to help define print buyer expectations and related print provider actions, Canon U.S.A., Inc., recently sponsored a study and white paper series titled, “Enhancing the Print Customer Connection”.

Taken from the insights of over 200 communication buyers and 250 commercial print and in-plant print providers, this study focuses on the keen understanding of the communication buyers’ experience, and how their preferences align with what services print providers can offer.

The white paper series can be found here: www.printingnews. com/21155527

Mimaki USA announced the launch of four new UJF Series printers. These new direct-to-object inkjet printers are designed for high-quality output, improved productivity and efficient production. Sales are scheduled to start in October 2021.

The new printers include the UJF-7151 plus II, and three new UJF-MkII e Series models, offering unrivaled printing quality and stability. They feature an array of new capabilities designed to deliver significant quality and performance benefits, enabling users to explore new applications and increase productivity.

The UJF-7151 plus II model incorporates 8 print heads, two more than the previous model, enabling configurations that suit any application. It includes 8 ink slots, which can be configured for a four color setup or up to eight inks including light color inks (Light Cyan and Light Magenta), white, clear, and primer. www.printingnews.com/21155576

EFI Reggiani Launches the Fastest High-Quality Scanning Digital Textile Printer in the Market EFI is launching its third new digital textile printer of 2021, delivering the world’s highest real production throughput for a scanning digital textile printer. The EFI Reggiani HYPER is a scanning printer available in 1.8-metre, 2.4-metre or 3.4-metre widths. With an up to eight-colour configuration, the EFI Reggiani HYPER prints at up to 13 linear metres per minute in two-pass production mode, making it the fastest textile scanning printer on the market. The new printer is suitable for high-quality production on knitted or woven fabrics and is designed with smart technology that enables it to be integrated into Industry 4.0 projects. www.printingnews.com/21155577

AAG Announces the New AXYZ METALWORKER and WARDJet M-Series for Optimal Metal Cutting AAG Tailored Cutting Solutions is excited to announce the all-new AXYZ METALWORKER and WARDJet M-Series to their line-up of powerful CNC machines. These high-performance cutting systems deliver results while pushing the boundaries of creativity and manufacturing excellence.

METALWORKER is a router designed with an elegant user interface and robust construction, breaking through tradition with high-end finishes achievable at top cutting speeds. It comes loaded with standard high-performance features optimized to cut Aluminum, Copper, Zinc, Metal Composites, Mild Steels and Stainless Composite. A rigid frame coupled to a stress relieved gantry reduces tool motor vibrations and provides fantastic edge quality The M-Series waterjet is a high-speed high acceleration large format solution for large and multiple sheet production. It allows for multiple head configurations on a single gantry. With the ability to park heads outside of the cutting zone, you won’t sacrifice the full cutting envelope to a single head. www.printingnews.com/21155694

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9/22/21 3:39 PM

Print with Confidence with the New Xaar Irix Printhead

Roland DGA Announces Launch of New VersaUV LEC2 S-Series UV Flatbed Printers

Xaar has launched its latest printhead – the Xaar Irix – designed to ensure accurate, reliable and easy printing for coding and marking, product printing, functional fluids and 3D printing applications.

Building on the successful Xaar 128, the Xaar Irix is the latest printhead to come from the ImagineX platform, which sets the roadmap for Xaar’s bulk inkjet innovations and printhead developments.

The new Xaar Irix printhead provides highly accurate delivery of ink drops, with the combination of individually lasered nozzles and Xaar’s AcuDrp technology helping to calibrate each nozzle and provide excellent drop placement. Uniform drop velocity and volume are also delivered, giving improved image quality at longer print distances and helping provide benefits such as high code recognition for coding and marking applications.

Roland DGA has announced the launch of its new VersaUV LEC2 S-Series printers, advanced UV flatbeds uniquely designed to maximize direct-to-object printing.

Available in two flatbed sizes (64-inch and 30 inch widths), the LEC2 S-Series printers offer print providers and manufacturers the best of both worlds – direct to product customization, plus direct printing on flexible and rigid materials that allows for an extensive range of merchandising, packaging, sign, and display application opportunities. The LEC2 S-Series printers are ideal for users seeking an on-demand customization printing solution that complements their current capabilities for increased productivity and profitability. They combine superb imaging with outstanding versatility and production, allowing users to quickly turn around traditional print jobs and customize a vast array of products and merchandise with vibrant, detailed graphics.

www.printingnews.com/21155743

Industry Leaders Share Insight into Selecting and Implementing a Print MIS, Sponsored by Sabre Limited

www.printingnews.com/21155796

New WhatTheyThink White Paper Goes “Beyond the White Paper Print Engine” to Look Beyond the Print Engine: at Wide-Format Printer Productivity What Is Productivity?

Wide-format and display graphics providers are constantly challenged by the need to get jobs on and off press as quickly as possible, and are always on the lookout for ways of speeding up the process. The speed of the printer itself is the most conspicuous—and highly touted by equipment manufacturers—factor, but other steps in the process can impede overall productivity. When it comes to flatbed wide-format printing, board loading in particular can be a major bottleneck.

A new WhatTheyThink white paper sponsored by Canon Solutions America—Beyond the Print Engine: What Is Productivity?—looks at the various aspects of flatbed wide-format productivity, specifically focusing on board loading. Automation options, such as robotics, have started to appear, but one approach— Canon’s FLOW technology—provides a unique strategy for boosting flatbed printer board loading.

Download the white paper here:

Sponsored by

Entitled 5 Keys to a Successful Print ERP/MIS Implementation, the white paper is based on interviews with four leading print providers operating in different market segments as well as secondary research conducted

by WhatTheyThink. Sabre Limited has been a certified PrintVis Print MIS Reseller in North America since 2017.

Companies interviewed included Canada Ticket, a producer of custom tags and labels for parking, transit, skiing, and reserved seating for theaters and sports venues; ePac, a network of 20 plants with 17 of them in North America producing flexible packaging on demand; Hemlock Printers, a diversified firm that offers offset, digital and wide format printing as well as distribution and fulfillment; and Modern Litho, a well-known commercial and publications printer located in Jefferson City, Missouri. All four companies have selected PrintVis as their Print MIS. To download a free copy of the white paper, 5 Keys to a Successful Print ERP/MIS Implementation, visit www.printingnews.com/21155848

www.printingnews.com/21155849

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY ─ AR Continued from page 39

features, the ability to visualize products in-home, and the ability to manipulate products to view them from all angles, both interior and exterior.

2. AR is already used for retail shopping.

As noted, AR already has a solid presence in the world of retail, and nearly all (94%) of AR-enabled shoppers say they will continue to use AR this way.

This is an indication that marketers are doing a decent job of rolling out AR experiences that users actually want to keep using.

Be sure to register for the Webinar, “Interactive Print in the Real World: What’s Really Working,” featuring Heidi Tolliver-Walker, Will Gee of Balti Virtual, and Tracy Archuleta of image8creations.

Visit https://whattheythink.com/webinars/243/

sales. It’s no wonder that products incorporating elements of AR are 94% more likely to convert to sales, according to Harvard Business Review.

4. AR reduces returns.

According to AR Insider, AR-guided purchases lead to a 25% decrease in returns. This is due, in part, to the ability of shoppers to more accurately visualize products before they buy them. This is reinforced by Deloitte data which found that 56% of shoppers agree that AR gives them more confidence about product quality. Thus, the authors of the report call returns “a $550 billion problem, which AR can help fix.” AR continues to show itself as a highly practical tool, as well as a flashy one.

AR continues to show itself as a highly practical tool, as well as a flashy one.

5. AR delivers higher conversion.

3. AR gets more attention.

AR delivers almost 2x the visual attention as non-AR equivalents, and people who frequently use AR with their family and friends are 50% more likely to pay attention to a brand. Get the eyeballs, get the

62

Here is more data, both from Deloitte Digital and from elsewhere around the industry that rounds out the reasons that AR has become a force in the world of retail. ● Brands are 41% more likely to be considered if they have a branded AR experience.

(Deloitte Digital) ● Retailer Houzz is seeing a 19% spike in engagement among customers using AR. (Houzz) ● Product visualization using AR can boost conversion by 40%. (AIthority) ● AR conversion rates on Instagram are 80% higher than the standard 3% conversion rate without AR. (Statista/Millennial Marketing) ● Forty-eight percent of shoppers are already using AR or are willing to use AR for shopping in the near future. (Nielsen) So…to quote myself in the lunch-and-learn, “If you’re waiting for AR to get here, you’re too late.

That horse has already ridden.”

AR is a force to be reckoned with, and it’s one that you should consider. ●

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TRAIN YOUR CUSTOMERS Continued from page 57

printed mailing. It can be presented in a webinar.

It could be posted on a website. Printers should be active in social media such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Don’t forget to put the information on your website so customers can easily find it.

Disseminate information on a regular schedule. Keeping a schedule lets people know what to expect from you. It builds a consistent experience for your audience. You should plan for what communications you have with customers for the next 90 days or longer. If it isn’t scheduled, then it probably won’t get done. If broadcasting important information to your audience becomes a habit, they will start looking for it. You’ll start to gain trust after they receive several educational communications.

Once you start, you want to make sure you have a system in place that won’t stop.

Capture contact information. You and your staff must capture names, addresses and email addresses of customers and contacts. Email addresses are just as important as telephone numbers. A good selling activity is to telephone

6WDWHPHQW RI 2ZQHUVKLS 0DQDJHPHQW DQG &LUFXODWLRQ

everyone on your mailing list and ask the customer to verify the information you have so you know you are sending to the right place. Everyone on your staff who deals with customers must have access to your customer relationship management (CRM) software. The place to start is your current mailing list. Do you have all the information you need about the customer? If not, pick up the phone and call them to fill in the blanks.

Use video to explain complex information to the customer. A video recording can demonstrate how to perform a task or spotlight a new service. You can use also link videos to your websites and in your emails. Create a YouTube channel with two-to-fourminute videos that teach your customer everything they need to know about buying printing. Let the customers know the videos are there.

Printers can train customers to be better customers. An educated customer is a happy customer who has a higher expectation and appreciates the products and services you deliver. An investment in customer education can add value to your service and help you keep and grow customers. ●

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9/22/21 3:37 PM

JOHNSON’S WORLD ─ Bad Data

BAD DATA NEEDS A SCRUB Clean up your data before it takes you to the cleaners.

K

elley Holmes, publisher of Printing News, recently posted on LinkedIn: “Does anyone know who does the printing and marketing for United Healthcare? I’d like to share that their digital campaign data needs to be fixed since clearly my name is not Milton.”

Holmes received a message from a representative of one of our nation’s largest healthcare insurers reading, “Milton, is it time for you to enroll in Medicare?”

I can state with confidence that Ms. Holmes is certainly not a Milton. Although none of us are as young as we used to be, I’m also reasonably certain that she is a number of years away from Medicare eligibility.

Bam! Bad data strikes again. I’ve written stories with titles such as “Big Data Needs A Bath,” filled with egregious examples of incorrect data both in print and in digital media. That should be the end of it, but the bad examples just keep on coming. So here goes…

I don’t know Steve Palmer, nor do I know his company, TRUMPFMEDICALSYSTEMSINC. (All caps and no spacing are the first thing that should have been cleansed from raw data.) I do know that my email somehow became mingled with his data record in some rogue database, as I’ve been receiving daily emailed offers pre-approving me for hundreds of thousands of dollars of credit, no questions asked. What could go wrong?

Email is rife with bad data. There are no hard costs to email, so who cares if your mailing list is 50% bad? Of course, it does make the sender look stupid, and even worse, look like spam.

A recent mailer arrived from a local plumber addressed to my son. Not the son who lives with me and sometimes calls tradesmen for repairs. No, this mailer was addressed to my son who has never lived at this address.

He left the nest and left the state before I

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moved to my current address. That was 25 years ago. How his name became linked to an address in a town in which he’s never lived is beyond me.

Harmless, I suppose, although once again it makes the mailer look foolish.

But wait, there’s more.

Read More…

The same data glitch hapFind article at pened to Penelope. She PrintingNews. com/21155631 received a catalog from a hardware company at her new home in a new community. The catalog was addressed to her husband. Her late husband, whose untimely death happened years before she moved to her current address. She was not amused. She was angry.

The hardware company spent a small fortune to print and mail catalogs only to create ill will.

Penelope’s husband may have passed away, but bad data is very much alive, pernicious to the point of immortality.

Bad data is an inevitable byproduct of the information age. The sheer volume of data collected is part of the problem, but it is the way it is managed that really causes glitches. Fact is, an awful lot of data is simply collected, but never managed or “cleansed” at all.

Customization and personalization are proven to gain a reader’s attention. Just make sure that the attention is the good kind - leading to responses, purchases or donations - not the ill-will, poor publicity and lawsuits that result when dirty data is used.

There are tremendous opportunities for those who are willing to develop expertise in data cleansing. Today’s data needs its mouth washed out with soap! ●

Steve Johnson is a successful print owner and digital pioneer. Each month in Johnson’s World, he offers up his take on the day-to-day world of graphic communications.

WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage | October 2021

9/22/21 3:35 PM

INSIGHT YOU NEED. ANALYSIS YOU TRUST.

Your comprehensive source for emerging trends in our evolving industry.

08 The New Reality: VR, QR, AR, and Interactive Print Merge the Digital and the Physical

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