Raising Print 2014

Personalised programme with raised print.

Raising Print 2014 held in July in HP's UK Head Office promised to inspire and inform attendees to push the boundaries of print with digital technology. Covering new print and ink technology, personlisation, the age old digital vs print debate and how to use print to add value, the conference suite was full of inspiring new ideas and we all left laden down with samples. The highlight was the clever way HP had worked with Print Solutions Magazine to provide tailored examples of new print, digital and finishing techniques that were personalised to us, our journey and interests.

Personalised die-cutting

The motto for Raising Print was, "The only limitation is your imagination". Julia Cole, UK&I Marketing Manager - HP explained that there were no limits to the future of print, beyond our imaginations and the vision of our clients. By blending the power of physical print with the relevance of online, using integrated, just in time, GEO-specific, customised or emotional print you can significantly increase the effectiveness of your retail marketing campaigns. 

Eye-catching print options

A great example of this concept is Coca Cola's 2013 'Share a Coke' campaign which was rolled out across across Europe to great success. Encouraging teenagers to search for their name and share a coke with their friends, was an ambitious concept that proved more popular than anyone had anticipated. In Germany alone Coca Cola consumption in teenagers had reduced by 52%, with teenagers stating that Coca-Cola was no longer relevant to their lives. Coke rolled out the campaign in four months, with over 800 million personalised labels across thirty-two counties. The most popular one hundred and fifty names in each country were selected in fifteen languages and five different alphabets. Cans and bottles were available in stores, cafes, online and from Coke roadshow events. All labels were printed on HP presses and Coke challenged HP to retain colour consistency across all three product and the thin label film. 

White ink examples

The 2013 campaign was innovative, social and digital, increasing weekly traffic by 106,000 in Germany alone, which was an increase of 1787%. The campaign created 18.3 million media impressions, won a Cannes Lion award and #mycoke was the top trend on Facebook. Consumption in the target market increased by 59%, 10,000 personalised bottles were ordered online per day, equating to 1.2 million personalised bottles over the duration of the campaign in Germany.

Susan Wright, Editorial Director - Earth Island Publishing spoke about the future of digital print, predicting shorter runs, shorter lead-times and the growth of variable data printing. Susan stated that digital print will be dominant by 2015 because of its interaction with online and built in tracking for clear ROI. Print businesses need to work on their online provision as print buyers are searching and ordering online more frequently. At the SPS Group we provide a store ordering facility through our Mauve retail marketing solution, that allows head office to track stock levels and ordering patterns for a more intelligent buying process.

locr personalised maps

Paul Manning, Managing Director - Rapidity Communications presented an engaging update on the new materials and ink technologies available in conjunction with HP. We were shown raised print, clear inks, textured effects, white ink and spot colours in applications tailored to our clients. Creating in-store theatre has never been so accessible or effective and we are bursting with new ideas for your retail marketing campaigns. 

Thomas Schnetter, Business Development - locr GmbH UK demonstrated their personalised maps that can be applied to printed direct mail easily for GEO-specific targeted marketing campaigns. We would recommend the concept for store openings or for targeting new or lapsed customers in specific locations. locr saves hours of individualised map art-working and works with variable data for quick and simple campaigns. 

Speciality substrates

Ian Sullivan, CEO - Paperhat Consorcio spoke about using the print and social media relationship to add value to marketing campaigns and provide accurate measurement. QR codes or augmented reality apps on printed retail marketing can not only provide clear calls to actions but also real-time measurement of campaign success or the customer's journey through your media. This link provides the key to much more responsive and informed retail marketing campaigns. Ian also suggested that printed marketing should utilise key social media topics or stories, for example blog posts or links to interactive content. 

Raising Print was a a slick and inspiring event that presented a range of tailored ideas and facilitated vital conversations between print professionals. HP and Print Solutions created a platform that encouraged us all to consider incorporating new elements to strengthen our service offering and push the boundaries of print technology. This event wasn't prescriptive as are so many conferences, but instead challenged us to shape the future of print with new ideas and embrace the possibilities of digital and print collaboration.

Top tips from Marketing Week Live 2014:

1. The only limit to print in retail marketing is your vision. Challenge us as your supplier to provide innovative and cost-effective in-store theatre. 
2. Think beyond traditional ink by using raised print, white inks or spot gloss.
3. Consider how personalised maps can be used to engage with your target market with clear calls to action.
4. Streamline your print buying process by utilising a solution like Mauve, which provides store ordering facilities and comprehensive reporting facilities to Head Office, such as stock tracking, most and least ordered items, and store ordering levels.
5. Link social media to your printed retail marketing for responsive real-time ROI tracking.

As experts in Retail Marketing and with the Clockworx Design Agency dedicated to app, digital marketing and 3D design, send us your brief today to find out what unique solutions we can offer to solve your challenge.

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.spsgroup.co.uk

Marketing Week Live

Marketing Week Live 2014 held in June at London's Olympia, encompassing all aspects of marketing from digital, to print and retail marketing. MWL 2014 was intelligently split into five zones based on the core challenges marketers face; Convert, Engage, Experience, Personality and Understand and was hosted by key industry publication - Marketing Week. The range of keynote speakers and conferences available was impressive and covered customer insight, the power of digital, social and mobile, content marketing, integrating marketing channels and immersive brand experience. The addition of the MWL Leadership Programme provided a dedicated section of content directed at Marketing heads, chiefs and directors. This concept ensured that the event added value to all levels and the sessions were really popular.

Marketing Week Live Talks

 Omnichannel marketing is of growing importance in retail marketing. No longer a trend, developing a fully integrated retail marketing campaign that incorporates apps, digital, print, in-store events and direct mail is vital for the success of retail brands. Claude Nahon, President - MOOD International presented a retail focused look at 'The heart of the omnichannel brand strategy for a truly connected store'. Claude strongly believes that in-store marketing must provide a sense of theatre to capture attention and prove effective. Gamification is a great way to encourage your customers to interact with your brand on and offline. With this in mind we suggest you look at the potential to add gamification to loyalty schemes through use of a mobile app. For example vouchers can be added to the app for use at the checkout, by scanning certain POS units throughout the store, which not only drives in-store traffic to designated points, but also reinforces the chosen message. This could be extended to include exclusive recipes or competitions available by scanning set POS displays. The options are endless and with the growing popularity of augmented reality, interactive POS is a not to be missed opportunity.

Marketing Week Live Exhibition 2014

Julia Monro, Head of Social Media & PR - Pret A Manger shared six fundamentals for great social media management. Her two core themes were to look beyond selling and provide an 'entertainer' that can see the opportunity for engagement within a wide range of real-world events and situations and use the platforms to understand your customers. Julia advises that you keep social media management in-house, describing social media as the first point of call for your customers. We would advise linking POS to social media to increase traffic both in-store and online, by encouraging consumers to share pictures of their meal or DIY project, completed using a group of items available in store with offers. A further offer could be issued to each online contribution to encourage further in-store traffic and brand loyalty. Social media should always add value to your customer and providing access to new products prior to launch, or exclusive offers or expertise will ensure that customers keep following your chosen call to action. As a final note on social media, we would advise that you always answer feedback, good or bad and listen to sentiment levels as a guide for not only your marketing plan, but also to shape product development and operations. 

Gaz Battersby, Creative Director - Epiphany talked about the importance of great content marketing. Gaz stated that great content adds value to the reader and is available across multiple channels. With approximately 55% more traffic for blogging companies, the potential is clear. Great content goes beyond providing information or calls to action, great content can enhance your SEO and powers your social media channel through sharable and high quality copy. Retail brands could harness this marketing technique on their blogs by utilising celebrity or guest bloggers, for example celebrity chefs, respected designers, mixologists, builders, stylists or thought leaders in your sector. These figure-heads should not only talk about the benefit of your products and services, but also tips for new trends or insider knowledge that would interest your target audience. This will ensure that readers keep consuming your content and can be used to drive traffic in-store. 

M&M World - Immersive Retail Marketing

Marketing Week Live was packed full of valuable information, high quality exhibitors and engaging show features. We will definitely by visiting again next year. Our only critique would be that the retail marketing content and zone needed a little more focus as it was overshadowed by the other zones a little, but I am sure this will balance for next year.

Top tips from Marketing Week Live 2014:

1. Use omnichannel marketing to drive in-store traffic and improve brand loyalty by linking app, loyalty schemes, POS, direct marketing and social media.
2. Use social media to add value to your audience rather than as a showcase for your 'best side'.
3. Grow your blog content by including exclusive information from opinion leaders and respected experts.
4. Always respond to feedback on social media, they have cared enough to give you the opportunity to respond, use it to secure their relationship.
5. Use POS to drive social media traffic with interactive functionality and exclusive content, that can then in turn increase traffic in-store holistically. 

As experts in Retail Marketing and with the Clockworx Design Agency dedicated to app, digital marketing and 3D design, send us your brief today to find out what unique solutions we can offer to solve your challenge.

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.spsgroup.co.uk

TFM&A 2014 - A Review

TFM&A 2014 (Technology for Marketing & Advertising), held in February 2014 at Earls Court Two and also encompassed OA&A (Online Advertising & Affiliate Expo), IDMX (International Direct Marketing Expo) and P&ME (Publishing & Media Expo). The event focused on providing a strong seminar and keynote programme, with over 180 seminars across 12 stages and 10 keynote talks. Providing networking opportunities was also a priority for TFM&A organisers, which could take place in any one of the five Networking Bars and Lounges. Exhibitors crossed the full marketing and publishing spectrum and provided a platform for new technology and marketing trends to shine.

We attended four seminars during the day and were really impressed with the diverse range of disciplines and topics covered. Tom Whitney - Pre-Sales and Marketing Manager Europe for Crimson Hexagon provided an unusual insight into social media data. For retail brands social media engagement is prevalent, but how many of you use this data in a qualitative capacity? Tom advised that in an age of the powerful customer, with opportunities for wide opinion broadcast, brands must listen to customer social media activity and take action based on the learning to readdress the power balance. 

Social media is the largest source of unsolicited customer opinion ever in existence and is growing rapidly every day. The potential to use this data for real time qualitative data is phenomenal. Our recommendations for retailers is certainly to go beyond monitoring brand social engagement and utilise this data for real-time brand sentiment measurement. By monitoring reviews, comments and mentions, brands can gain understanding of the brand sentiment regularly and in real-time. Using this data, marketing communication and activity can be adapted to best suit the campaign objective. This process is much faster than with more traditional primary research methodology and if used wisely can ensure you are always one-step ahead of the competition, with activity that matches the challenge posed by customer data. 

In the in the interest of providing you with the latest marketing trends first, we spent the day in the Future Trends Theatre, debating immersive experience and congratulating the 'Tech of the Future' winner which we cover in the next blog post. Julia Wolny - E-Marketing SIG Chair, Academy of Marketing chaired the Panel Debate, with Christian Nahas - CEO, Salesfusion, Gavin Talbot, Commercial Director, Oakley Mobile, Ben Staveley, Head of eCommerce, dotMailer and Charles Head, Account Director, Silverpop, which answered the question; 'How can brands use immersive technologies to create engaging, personalised and memorable experiences?' With the launch of Google Glasses rumoured to be as soon as April 2014, it is clear that immersive experiences will be a big Marketing trend in 2014. 

The panel defined immersive experience as; 'Any experience that stops your consumer from doing something else and gains their full attention'. A great example of this concept is Perrier's Golden Bottle competition, where customers had to act as one of the six game characters to search for the Golden Bottle - A ticket to their party. Human attention span has decreased to eight seconds in 2014, from twelve seconds in 2000, one second less than a goldfish. It has never been so difficult for brands and retailers to capture the fragmented attention span of customers. POS and retail marketing needs to grow and diversify if it is to stand above the cloud of noise shoppers face. POS needs to be interactive, with elements such as sound, lights, video and even more proactive personalisation through Augmented Reality to increase brand engagement and purchase behaviour. The use of apps or microsites with POS can promote repeat visitation and ultimately a purchase. 

The panel did offer a warning however; you must consider the full experience including sensory impairment. Exclusion can do your brand vast damage. Data loss is also an issue to be considered with POS placement. Follow the user's journey from POS to app, micro-site or your chosen call to action. Is it simple and clearly sign posted? Does it offer added value? Why would the make the effort to complete your suggested process? 

Augmented Reality is a subject we have spoken about extensively in the past. As one of the biggest Retail Marketing trends of 2013. Described as 'Adding to what you are already seeing', AR is a combination of branded digital content and the real world view. We have all seen AR 'selfie' cutouts and digital content built into print publications, but what are the new developments? 

Interpretive technology that understands context and personalisation is a key factor to the user experience. AR has the potential to edit our world, for example displaying your view of the environment as a medieval town, or remove real-world advertising posters and messages. This could be a real game changer for retail marketing. Harmony used AR to encourgage stand interaction, but building a fully AR integrated background, with games such as the Wheel of Death and the virtual Toy Car built in. 

TFM&A was a real conversation starter that prompted visitors to consider the future of marketing and the evolving technology in this field. Extremely well organised and well considered, the event encouraged visitors to learn, interact and network.

Top tips from Improve your TFM&A 2014:

1. Implement a qualitative strategy for the vast social media data available to your brand.
2. Consider the implications Google Glasses could have on your POS and retail marketing. 
3. Consider the immersive journey and purpose before implementation. 
4. AR is evolving and the potential for POS integration in innovative ways is vast.
5. With fragmented attention spans decreasing, consider the positioning and frequency of your message for maximum reach. 

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.thespsgroup.co.uk

#3Ddesign, #ar, #augmentedreality, #communication, #consumerbehaviour, #digitalmarketing, #experientialmarketing, #Google, #marketing, #personalisation, #POS, #print, #retail marketing, #social media, #thespsgroup

Meetdraw - The Art of New Business - A review

Held in Redweb’s Loading Bar and sponsored by Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, ‘The Art of New Business’ (@theartofnewbiz )Meetdraw (@meetdraw) event promised to inspire the art of great pitching and lead generation. With excellent networking opportunities and delicious White Russian cocktails, the event was lively and informative. There were four key speakers and a panel to discuss the new business process from initial contact to pitch. Topics included relationship management, the issue of free work before pitch and how to make your first touch point engaging.

Andy Edwards from @nine5three spoke enthusiastically about ‘Relationomics’. His talk made us think about consumer behaviour and about how our personality traits can be utilised when pursuing new business. Splitting the audience into four personality colours, it was interesting to see how our approach should be tailored depending on the colour of the client. I was Yellow, which means enthusiastic, persuasive and sensitive, but also frantic, self-centered and superficial. He suggested that instead of treating people how you would like to be treated, treat them how they would like to be treated. Build rapport, relationships, respect then the result is killer advice for contacting prospective clients!

(R x d) + (V x t) + A = Sale – A sale comes from deep relationships, that add value, are timely and have good attitude. Simple! To summarise Andy said, “The real currency in any organisation is not £, but it is relationships”.

Chris Head from @xopherhead talked about the use of comedy when pitching. The classic use of set up – punch to frame your point, give impact and drama. Far more memorable and impacting than just stating the point. The subtle use of comedy skills such as framing, context, misdirection and pacing, give pitches engagement. This vital for making your pitch memorable and successful. Duncan Cook from @3SIDEDCUBE discussed personalisation of contact with prospective clients. His anecdote about the personalised invitation, web questionnaire and app was inspiring! I would absolutely have followed the golden invitation, through the un-branded digital journey to find out what I was invited too and who had taken the time to understand me and my business. The results were clear, with an extremely impressive response rate and many pitch meetings in the pipeline. Duncan’s mantra is simple – be the best at one thing, not average at many.

Katie Streetwise and @randomapricot from @redweb pitch to win, believing that you should win no less than 80% of all pitches. If you do lose a pitch, in depth analysis is key to understanding why, gain feedback from the client and improve for the next pitch. Ensure your resource library is up to date, for easy strategy and collateral build for each prospective client. Show your workings and the creative journey rather than what you believe should be the end product. You don’t know enough about the client to give accurate end solutions at this stage, but a client can understand you process and how this way of working would complement them. Clients buy people, so asking them to view your team and office are important to set the scene for you as a business partner. Ensure your pitch is well prepared, know the room and key players to bring to your pitch, understand your audience and have key word on the slides, not the full pitch. Keep the conversation flowing after the pitch and challenge the brief to give the best result to client are all excellent tips from Redweb.

How many times have you been cold called by someone that has no idea about you or your business? Imagine a personalised point of contact that appeals to you as an individual, for example the supplier that contacted Jim from Jimmy’s Iced Coffee focused on their mutual love of surfing rather than ramming product in his face. He offered a surf meet, rather than a standard pitch meeting, and mention of his service offering was subtle and much further down the agenda. The result, the client agreed to meet for a surf and the start of a business relationship. The panel were bogged down with cold contacts, so much so that it impacted their ability to complete work. Do you want to be another irritation lost in the noise of cold contact? No? Well personalisation and research is essential!

Key advice from Cliff Van Wyk @bournemouthuni, Jim Cregan @jimmyicedcoffee and Jon Darch @farrowandball included not dominating the conversation with your agenda, don’t copy and paste and build the relationship first, the business can then follow. Don’t just accept any client if they are a bad fit for you organisation and strong creativity wins over in the end. The industry is so over populated with awards that clients never know which are worth noting and the impact of all awards is lost. Don’t shout about your noise, let word of mouth and your client portfolio shine through. Finally case studies are interesting, but aren’t the tipping point for a sale. Instead show that you understand your client and demonstrate strong working union.

Top tips from The Art of New Business are:

1. Understand you client as a business but also on an individual level. What is their context?
2. Personalise your touch points, use creativity and demonstrate your process to hook the client.
3. Focus on being great at one thing, be the best, be the experts and the awards, word of mouth recommendations and inbound enquiries will come organically.
4. Relationships come before business; nurture and prioritise them.
5. Research research research! Research the client, their business, the pitch and well everything!

This event was diverse and engaging. I picked up some great tips, insight from clients and research and perspectives I had not previously considered. The cocktails were delicious and the event had a great atmosphere with relevant speakers. My only negative was that as a newbie to the group, it was very difficult to network as everyone already knew each other, so thank you to those that came and chatted with me.

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.thespsgroup.co.uk

#pitch #TAONB #meetdraw #thespsgroup #retailmarketing #relationomics #setuppunch #touchpoint #redweb #jimmysicedcoffee #personalisation #3sidedcube #nine5three #whiterussian