R and R Images currently uses Pageflex iWay as its web to print solution, and has purchased Pageflex Storefront to supplement Pageflex iWay technology. Having Pageflex Storefront will allow the company the opportunity to offer a wider variety of online storefront capabilities that will enable greater flexibility for their clients.

Says Rod Key, CEO of R and R Images “The market is moving very fast and Pageflex will fill the void of what we need for to best support our clients and their future goals. In addition to acquiring Pageflex Storefront, we added the API/punchout integration kits that allows us to offer specific personalized products to clients ecommerce sites. The addition of Pageflex is 100% in alignment with our core goals of streamlining the workflow and automating our production processes. We are growing in excess of 50% year over year and Pageflex is a fantastic solution to help us grow.”

Based in Arizona, USA, R and R Images was founded as a photography studio in 1986. The company embraced digital technology in the mid 1990’s, and has since gone on to offer a range of services, including: digital printing, personalized marketing, commercial photography, large-format output, and creative services, production, bindery, fulfillment and mailing.

About Pageflex
Pageflex pioneered the concepts of variable data and web-to-print storefronts, and has expanded to offer software for multi-channel campaign management, dynamic publishing, and back-end production automation. Pageflex solutions use the patented Pageflex variable publishing engine and Adobe® InDesign®

Pageflex enables companies across the globe to communicate their marketing messages more easily and effectively. The award-winning Pageflex product line sets the standard for excellence and innovation in targeted marketing and brand management. Pageflex offers the ability to personalize any form of communication in print, e-mail, or on the Web.

At R and R Images, we know that, print is still a very effective and important marketing medium …despite all the noise about it being “dead.” That’s why we wanted to put together a few cutting edge tips so that you can make your audience say “Wow” to your next printed campaign!

QR Codes and NFC

You may be familiar with QR Codes, but NFC, near-field communication, is going to be “the next big thing” in the upcoming years.  Similar to QR Codes, NFC codes can be printed on your marketing collateral so you can link your printed piece to a website or landing page of your choosing, through a mobile phone.  The difference is that, unlike QR Codes, NFC codes don’t have to be scanned.  If you have a phone with an NFC application on it, you can simply tap whatever it is that has an NFC code printed on it…and your phone will take you to the landing page!

One great example of how NFC-technology is being used right now is in a campaign called ‘iMobSMRT spaces’ that utilizes “smart posters” in the public transport stations of Singapore.  NokiaConnects.com explains, “…commuters will now be able to make transactions, exchange digital content, and even book a taxi by tapping their NFC-enabled smartphones on NFC tags. Commuting is suddenly a whole lot more interesting.”

This is a very new technology, but is something that should definitely be on your radar when it comes to the future of direct mail.  In the meantime, stick with QR codes, and make sure they are directing to mobile-optimized pages! 

Die-Cut Printers for Customized Shapes

It’s easy for printed marketing pieces to get lost in piles of brochures, papers, and mail, but customized shapes could be one way to make your collateral stand out.  With the use of die-cut printers, your printed collateral could be in customized shapes that are relevant to a specific campaign, topic, audience, interest, and more.

For instance, if you are a restaurant, make your printed piece be an image of a burger or pizza, with the shape cut to its size.  If you are in a sports-related industry, make your printed piece be an image of a baseball or football.  The same strategy can be applied to almost any industry vertical. 

DeliverMagazine.com shared a success story of one Florida-based company, whose owners claim that shaped mail can increase the response rate over “regular” direct mail by at least two to three times.  It also states, “New Postal regulations that allow for custom-shaped mail in sizes as large as 12″ x 15″ to be delivered to mailboxes without envelopes have resulted in the shaped mail craze.”

For a number of years now, R and R has offered laser die cutting for low quantity die cutting and production prototypes. We also recently added traditional die cutting to further raise the bar in variable data mailings.

A unique shape to your marketing material will definitely make your audience look twice!

Use the Information You Have

With the help of databases, we are able to store important pieces of information about our audiences.  If you are not utilizing this information for future campaigns, now is a great time to start!  Some great ways to take advantage of existing data you have are to utilize PURLs and previous orders.  PURLs help create a personalized marketing piece, so your audience can be addressed by name, and any other listed information about them on the collateral.  You can also use previous orders in order to help you develop campaigns around specific audiences within your database.  If there is a product that just received an update at your business, you can create a campaign for all past customers who purchased that product.  If a customer downloaded an eBook or brochure concerning a particular subject matter of your industry, you can use that information to position new, related material as a follow up campaign.

These tactics are strategies that will make your audiences feel like you know who they are, and what their needs and wants are.

We hope you have found this informative and helpful! Please let us know if there is anything else you would like more information on…or if you would like our team to help you execute your next direct mail campaign!

A recent article from Deliver Magazine states that coupons delivered through direct mail are actually more effective when it comes to retaining business and reaching potential customers than coupons delivered through digital channels.

“We hear from so many local retailers that the daily deal sites are creating heavy traffic but no one is returning and becoming loyal to the local business running the deal,” says Brian Mattingly, director of franchising for Welcomemat Services. “These deal-driven consumers are not loyal to any business and will respond only to the next best deal.” (Deliver Magazine).

Although digital marketing channels make it easy to promote to the masses, this does not mean that the traditional marketing channels are suddenly useless.  In an effort to encourage local businesses to continue using promotional direct mail campaigns, the United States Postal Service has developed the Every Door Direct Mail Program^TM (EDDM).   Deliver Magazine explains that this program “allows businesses to reach addresses in a designated area — such as a neighborhood, a ZIP Code™ location or a Postal route — without having a list of names and addresses. Instead, the business uses an online tool to designate the delivery area, and the program generates a list.”

Deliver Magazine’s article went on to highlight two businesses that have used EDDM. One of the featured businesses experienced a 12% increase in business due to sending out coupons with EDDM, and both businesses describe the program as “highly effective” and say that the ROI has been “phenomenal” (Deliver Magazine).

If you are still not convinced that you should keep direct mail in your marketing toolbox, take a look at this infographic from PrintMediaCentr.com. It highlights how the print industry still drives billions of dollars in sales and revenue, and how it is adopting environmentally-friendly practices in every way possible.  Some share-worthy statistics we saw are:

• 70% of today’s ads and direct mail are printed on recycled paper
• Direct mail brings in 78% of non-profit donations
• Handing out 2,000 business cards will give you an average of 2.5% increase in business
• U.S. Print Industry profits were up every quarter in 2010 and 2011

And, of course, we’ll highlight the fun fact that if the amount of business cards printed every year is stacked; it would reach to the moon and back!

How’s that for the strength of an industry?

Let us know if we can help you with your next direct mail campaign, contact us today!

A general overview of Hogshead’s concept is for marketers to blend two of the seven triggers of fascination with each other, in order to create a strong interest within a target audience.

These seven triggers are:

Power- Command your category
Prestige- Increase respect
Mystique- Arouse curiosity
Passion- Attract with emotion
Alarm- Create urgency and need
Rebellion- Change the game
Trust- Build loyalty

The key to using these triggers effectively though is to know what your audience’s triggers are, because they will reveal their unique strengths. 

Drew was also happy to learn that some of R and R Images’ printed pieces featured in the new HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press Video!

The R and R Images team took plenty of photos at Dscoop7 as well, be sure to take a look at comment on them!

Photo credit: Nomadic Agency

The American Advertising Federation ADDY® Awards is the world’s largest and most prestigious advertising competition, bringing together ad agencies from all over the country, recognizing creative excellence in all the arenas of advertising.

R and R Images is extremely pleased to be acknowledged for its achievement  in the Arizona ADDY category of Sales Promotion and will hopefully see more Addy Awards in the future.

2011 wasn’t the only time we have won a National Gold ADDY® Award.  Take a look back at our 2009 award, when Tonic Photo Studios, a division of R and R Images, scored a Gold Addy for one for its remarkable photo illustration series.

It features three full days of networking opportunities and educational sessions, including focusing on for the first time:

• Brand strategy for your customers, so you can speak to the creative or marketing directors at a company and meet their spectrum of marketing needs
• Tools to help you interact with creative professionals and other print influencers to grow digital print
• Major technological advances for drupa from HP and Partners that are releasing their newest products and services

The team is looking forward to the marketing and business development tracks. R and R’s sales and marketing team will focus their attention on learning about the latest marketing trends and techniques, while R and R’s operations and online managers will focus on learning about new workflow solutions and technology.  Additionally, Rod Key, R and R Images’ Founder and CEO, will be delivering two presentations during the conference.

The first session, “A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words,” will be held on Thursday, March 22nd, from 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM EST.  The session is described as follows:

Discover a commercial photographer’s experience with HP printing technologies from both a print quality and workflow perspective. View samples of the work and its application and output in HP media.

The second session, “Web-to-Print: The Road to Success”, will be held on Friday, March 23^rd, from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST. The session is described as  follows:

As the print communication industry continues to evolve, the role of a Web-to-print capability grows more important for maintaining and growing your business. Hear background information, scoping, implementation recommendations and customer case studies from three companies to assist you as you develop or refine your Web-to-print capability. This session is relevant for all Dscoop members regardless of size or maturity of your Web-to-print system or application.

Finally, on Friday, March 23rd, from 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM EST, R and R Images’ Drew Swankie will be delivering a presentation titled “End to End Photobooks.”  During this session, attendees will “Hear from software-as-a-solution (SAAS) providers and industry specialists who share strategy, case studies and tips on how to grow your business and streamline your workflows in the ever popular photo specialty market.“

For more information on the Dscoop7 Conference, you can visit their website at www.dscoop.org.

Last year, J Vineyards & Winery highlighted their 25^th anniversary by linking QR Codes to one-minute videos.  Each video was of their founder and president, Judy Jordan, explaining the features of each wine (QRCodePress.com).  The QR Codes were placed on each bottle, so consumers could easily learn a little more information about the product while enjoying it.  The videos gave the opportunity for J Vineyards & Winery to add a more humanizing touch to each of their products by allowing consumers to learn about the product directly from its founder.

Lion Nathan Wine Group used the same approach but added a bit more variety of information to their codes.  Instead of just a video, they added detailed reviews, tasting notes and production notes for their audience (QRCodePress.com).  This gave consumers a bit more background of what to expect from each bottle, which could be very helpful to newer audiences who may not be as familiar with their wine preferences as others are.  The Lion Nathan Wine Group also shared a video tour of their vineyards, which gave their audience an incentive to go visit the winery itself!

Breweries are also beginning to incorporate QR Codes in order to deliver more entertainment and value to their consumers.  One unique use comes from The Greene King brewery, which incorporated a “Proper Pint” contest they were hosting with a Rugby event (QRCodePress.com).   Part of the contest included a quiz, which participants were directed to through Greene King’s QR Codes.  Rather than just sending participants to a regular landing page about the brewery, Greene King Brewery strategically integrated a timely promotion in order to add opportunities for consumers to take part in.

These examples show that any type of business can take advantage of QR Codes.  Whether it is adding value to products, creating a more personal connection with your audience, or incorporating them with a promotion, QR Codes are able to be used for a wide variety of purposes!

We recently ran across articles titled Largest. QR Code. Ever. But Why? and Rooftop QR Codes Aim to Infiltrate Google Maps. It seems that creating huge QR codes which can only be fully seen from the air is the latest craze in QR code marketing. In the first story, a new social networking platform called Skanz painted a huge QR code as a publicity stunt. But the second article discusses a new service called Blue Marble which aims to use Google Earth and Google Maps as a marketing platform by installing huge QR codes on building rooftops.

While these sound like interesting gimmicks, we have to wonder about the effectiveness of rooftop QR code advertising. What do you think? Are these companies taking QR codes just a little too far?

Just think of the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards one can come up with in planning a game your clients and prospects can play at lunch or with family? Because only an idiot would spend their hard-earned pass-Go money on those lousy utilities, why not come up with something that actually pays? Hey…that’s Life?

Come up with some rules that present players with some Risk! Create a virtual Candyland of delight and joy with your logo all over the place. A great promotion is no Trivial Pursuit when it comes to something people will talk about for years. When it comes to word of mouth advertising, you’ll have a Monopoly in your industry.

So, give us a call and let R and R Images take a Mystery Date and turn it into a deadline and we’ll create a package that will have hours of fun…ours and yours!

The photo product printing side of our business experiences a large increase in volume during the fourth quarter of the year as customers order photo products as gifts. In order to cope with that increase and still maintain the other printing work we do, we need to hire 130 people for day, swing and night shift work. The jobs we’re looking to fill are:

• Digital press operators
• Cutter operators
• Bindery specialists
• Fulfillment/shipping specialists
• General laborers