Color Ink Invites Customers and Prospects to a 'World of Pure Imagination'

On June 6, 2018, Color Ink's facility in Sussex, Wis., transformed into every child's dream ... a chocolate factory. Well not quite, but there was a bubbling chocolate fountain, cupcakes and candy galore, and Willy Wonka himself. To celebrate its newly installed MGI JETvarnish 3D, Color Ink hosted an open house for 350 customers, prospects, and of course friends and family. The event had a "Golden Ticket" theme and showcased Color Ink's wide range of capabilities.

The "Golden Ticket" was meant to showcase the embellishment capabilities of Color Ink's newly installed MGI JETvarnish 3D.

In late 2017, Color Ink purchased the JETvarnish 3D, Todd Meissner, president or Color Ink, explains. When the device was purchased, it was clear an open house would be necessary to showcase its capabilities to customers and prospects.

"We had a hard time wrapping our minds around the technology and understanding its fit in the marketplace when we first saw it," he says. "If it took us a while to wrap our minds around it, we knew that we had to go above and beyond to get our customers to understand it."

That's why six months after it was installed — in January 2018 — Color Ink hosted the open house to show customers and prospects the new device's capabilities. The "Golden Ticket" theme was born from the feeling the device has brought to the company, one of whimsy.

"We view it as somewhat magical," Meissner says.

The device enables spot raised UV coatings and digital foiling, but doesn't require any dies or makeready, something that gives the device it's "magical" feeling, Meissner explains.

Bringing in New Work

Throughout the facility, Color Ink showcased not only its embellishing capabilities, but it's wide-format printing capabilities and general ingenuity when it comes to printed products.

"We're just trying to tell the story that we're all about bringing a variety of visual solutions that could involve more than just ink on paper," Meissner says.

Since Color Ink's specialty is in-store retail, many of the props, including the "Wunder" trellis placed at the entrance of the facility, were printed on honeycomb paperboard to showcase the strength of Color Ink's printed products.

Color Ink even designed, printed and built a working slot machine made of wood, printed plexiglass and other materials that when pulled, initiated sounds, lights and a chocolate bar on every fifth pull.

Using social media and email marketing, Color Ink was able to attract prospective customers to the open house, which resulted in about six new customers, Meissner explains. One of those customers is a large casino who attended and found the embellishments the perfect fit for its printed loyalty program collateral.

Overall, the open house was a great success for Color Ink, Meissner says. The reaction from attendees was "overwhelmingly positive" because the open house not only brought in new customers, it highlighted offerings some current customers weren't previously aware of, which Meissner explains actually worked to expand some existing relationships with customers.

And although the open house was a wise business decision for Color Ink, there may have been one drawback.

"We all had to go to the dentist afterward," Meissner laughs, "knowing how much candy we had."