Variable Data--Up Close and Personal
Developments in variable data are pushing on-demand print production to new levels of customization. What are the hot new technologies to see at the On-Demand Show? The answer, pun intended, varies.
BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO
Talk about getting a little too up close and personal: Bitstream's PageFlex, Agfa's Personalizer-X and BARCO Graphics' VIPLine variable data software solutions, VariScript from Varis and Indigo's Yours Truly, Scitex's Darwin and Xeikon's PrintStreamer, EFI's FreeForm and Xerox's DigiPath—all are striking, almost surreal, examples of the power of variable data in printing.
Talk about Big Brother.
Imagine getting a customized postcard from a travel agency. A picture of a man golfing—your favorite hobby. An action shot of a woman water-skiing—your wife's favorite pastime. A happy family image—mother, father and two children walking through the gates of Disney World. What's more, your name is on the postcard, which, by the way, features all of your favorite colors.
Not in the mood to think about vacationing? How about buying a new car, then? How would you feel about getting—direct to your door—glossy brochures featuring the latest perks decking out your favorite sports car. Again, the car is featured in your favorite color and the text is tailored specifically to you. Your first name is featured throughout the text, which even notes the correct number of miles between your house and your nearest auto dealer, which, by the way, is already sending out personalized postcards enticing you to take a test drive.
Buying a car not on your list of things to do this year? How about finally kicking that pack-a-day smoking habit? Wouldn't it be motivational to receive regular, personalized letters, brochures and booklets encouraging you to stick with your decision to give up smoking? Again, tailored to you, these frequent support mailings would arrive at your home, offering tips on continuing your quest to quit smoking, as well as healthy tips for a smoke-free life.
Variable data software now allows marketing directors and on-demand printers to deliver such customized content to mass markets. This is the age of Big Brother—and who would have thought it would turn a profit for select, entrepreneurial digital printers, to boot?
Bitstream's PageFlex movement is particularly intriguing. Bitstream, an Internet font company, is putting 110 percent of its enthusiasm into PageFlex—now PageFlex Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bitstream, whose exclusive mission is to develop, market and support on-demand publishing software and related technologies.
PageFlex, the product, allows for dynamic, custom publishing on a variety of devices, including IBM's InfoColor 70, as well as the Xerox DocuColor 40, DocuColor 70 and DocuColor 100. Earlier this year, Bitstream entered into a joint development with Scitex for a new printer driver that produces Scitex VPS directly from PageFlex for output to the SX3000T, which drives the Xerox devices.
What is PageFlex? PageFlex is a one-to-one marketing tool integrated with MediaBank asset management technology, which generates customized pages on-demand. PageFlex is based on the principle of separating a document's content from its form. Content refers to the subject information, such as text, images and graphics. Form refers to the document's design, including elements such as layout, colors and fonts.
PageFlex creates a variety of customized documents with highly designed layouts—positioning variable text around designated images with great flexibility. PageFlex uses customer profile information about a particular reader, consumer or designated recipient to control the selection of digital content on the page, including logos, imagery, illustrations and graphics. The software uses intelligent, flexible templates to automatically assemble a personalized page, with content fitting into final layout parameters to produce an on-demand printed output.
"With PageFlex, you can implement one-to-one marketing programs that target a particular market segment or individual," reports Paul Trevithick, president of Bitstream. "The combination of PageFlex and digital presses allows companies to begin a dialog with their customer audience, treating each audience member as an individual."
When it was announced late last year, Bitstream's PageFlex version 1.0 one-to-one marketing tool was integrated with Inso's MediaBank asset management solution and IBM's InfoColor 70, which generates customized pages on-demand.
A client/server application that enables the design and production of customized and/or personalized documents, such as brochures, direct mail and catalogs, version 1.0 of PageFlex supports the dynamic generation of PostScript for output on the IBM InfoColor 70 digital press. At the On Demand show this month, IBM will run live customer demonstrations at its booth, illustrating the variable data printing capabilities of the InfoColor 70.
"We will continue to see expanded variable content capabilities, from software as well as printing partners—all of which will illustrate the many applications for customized content," reports Bob Cooper, director of marketing for IBM's color production printer lines, including the InfoColor 70 and InfoPrint Color 100. Cooper is intensely supportive of variable data's movement to the Internet, allowing for Web management and digital asset management solutions to integrate with variable content trends in both design and print.
"Variable data trends will alter the way companies think about delivering print, think about communicating with their customers—think about the very way they do business," Cooper emphasizes. "The Web will be an integral part of this new thinking, with digital printing supplementing the Web to a high and vastly strategic degree."
DigitalVIP, a Web-based software product from Oldsmar, FL-based on-demand printer Digital Works, and marketed by Digital Marketing of Minneapolis, allows commercial printers and their customers to design and produce customized materials, such as brochures, postcards and various direct mail pieces.
A commercial printer utilizing Digital VIP would have a customized Internet site housing its customers' databases. The end users could then manipulate customer and prospect information in the database in nearly any way required at any time, then create and order batches of personalized printed materials from the commercial printer. Print jobs could be completely specified on the Internet site, since Digital VIP runs under Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Presently, Digital VIP is capable of customizing content for use on Xerox DocuColor 40 and DocuColor 70 printers.
(A variable tip: If homemade, variable data solutions are preferred, consider products such as Bitstream's PageFlex, Digital VIP from Digital Works and Scitex's Darwin—all proven solutions for commercial printers looking to customize content for customers. If, however, customized, on-demand printing walks hand-in-hand with a particular digital press technology, look strongly at Agfa's Personalizer-X, designed for the Chromapress.
Agfa's Personalizer-X is a standard Quark XTension, which, for input, accepts plain ASCII files that almost any database can export. With increased functionality over the initial release of Personalizer, Personalizer-X integrates familiar tools—such as text reflow, centering, automatic offsetting from upper left, and fitting with or without the aspect ratio—into the Chromapress' variable data solution. Personalizer-X supports all QuarkXPress features, including all formatting comments, unlimited shapes for variable data fields and more.
Beyond the Chromapress, the digitally minded commercial printer should consider the variable data capabilities of Indigo's Yours Truly, Xeikon's work with BARCO's VIPline, as well as Xeikon's recent activities maximizing VariScript from Varis.
As new tricks and tools for content customization continue to proliferate the on-demand digital printing market, it seems the growing array of software and digital output devices designed to deliver variable content are creating a variable climate of their own for the commercial printer: customized opportunities.
Making the Right Impressions
Understanding the Marketing Value of Variable Data
Paul Trevithick, president of Bitstream, discusses the marketing significance of on-demand, variable data applications and the golden opportunities such technologies provide to printing operations aspiring to be full communications providers.
What if we could start printing pages that are virtually promised to make an impression on the reader? What if we could tailor a page so that it would absolutely appeal to a specific, targeted reader? This is the golden opportunity of variable data technology.
To deliver variable data, you must first attain a knowledge of what kind of person the reader is and how different kinds of people relate to all of the different potential messages. This involves maintaining a database profile of every reader, as well as a database of rules that capture the marketing knowledge of what kinds of messages (products, information, services, etc.) appeal to what kind of person. The key is to be able to pigeonhole a reader into a category and then talk to each category differently.
Second, you need the ability to create all of these different, tailored pages rapidly and the ability to print them. The necessary technology is now becoming available. You need a digital printing press, where every page can be completely different from the one before. To drive that press, there is now a new category of software called "On-Demand Publishing" software, which is able to instantly create—on-demand—a different page for every reader.
The point is to sell your customers what they really want, namely an effective communications medium. It's like that old story about selling. No one really wants to buy a drill, it's just that they have an urgent need to make holes. No one really ever wants to buy ink on paper; they just really want to communicate. And, although it doesn't work well, at least print is cheap, so they can afford to buy a lot. Now you can change all that. Sell them what they really want. Sell them a way to communicate effectively.
An on-demand publishing system including the software and presses that can achieve this new level of effectiveness is expensive to buy, as well as to run. The cost per page is often three or four times higher—and about 300 percent more effective!
The key is to realize that a small increase in revenues or customer retention generates enormous profits—far more than enough to pay for the increased printing costs. An increase of 5 percent to the top line from improved print marketing campaigns—in a company whose traditional printing bill is 1 percent of total expense and whose digital printing bill triples to 3 percent—will result in an increase in corporate profits of more than 30 percent.
The new on-demand software and equipment to publish one-to-one is exciting, but the real revolution involves rethinking what business you are in. The opportunity for the printing industry is to redefine itself as the print communications industry—and to charge for value received, not the cost of materials plus a markup. You need to care about what is being printed, in addition to how well or fast it is printed, because success now involves printing the right message for the right reader. By doing this, you can break the centuries-old pattern of ineffectiveness and create a truly golden future.
The Customization Process
Digital printing presses that use electronically imaged drums can provide a wide range of new printing possibilities—namely, customization. As a document is printed, certain images or text on a page can vary, while other elements on the same page can remain static. This is a singular advantage of true digital printing systems, as compared to digitally plated offset presses.
How does customization work?
Images or text that will vary are identified in the document using the page layout program in conjunction with software controls on the press. Variable elements are contained in a database, which is stored in memory. As the document prints, the press substitutes elements as it electronically re-images variable areas of the drum. The number and size of substituted images or text are constrained by memory and press limitations.
Simple black text customization has been common on form letters and other text-based advertising, but digital presses in recent years have offered greater customizing—and colorful—possibilities for variable data applications. Some terms to keep in mind relative to the customization process include the following:
Variable Images: Images usually in EPS or TIFF format that are stored in a database and substituted into the variable area.
Variable Text: Text is also stored in a database, then flowed into the variable areas. Though the line breaks may vary, all text substituted into the same variable area should, in most cases, be approximately the same length.
Unchanging Elements: Outside the designated areas for variable data printing are unchanged elements. Most of any designated, customized page will contain text and images that do not change. The greater the percentage of fixed elements, the faster the job will RIP in most, if not all, cases.
Technical information supplied by the Chromapress and Personalizer-X team of Agfa. Personalizer-X technologies allows the Chromapress to produce content designed specifically for an audience of one, maximizing the potential of customized content.
