By Cassandra Balentine
Part three of three
From addressing solutions through to finishing, a variety of solutions are designed for efficient and effective direct mail. Here we present a few of them.
BCC Software/BlueCrest
BCC Software and its parent company BlueCrest are industry leaders in providing equipment, software, and services that enable the creation, tracking, and delivery of tens of billions of pieces of mail each year. With BCC Software’s expansive data services, mailers can ensure each address is complete, correct, and current for timely delivery. BCC also offers suppression services such as deceased suppression to also help remove both undeliverable and ineffective mailpieces.
BlueCrest provides advanced hardware technology such as inline card attach technology that qualifies for substantial USPS promotional discounts. They also provide some of the most advanced parcel sortation technology, as well.
Canon Solutions America
Canon’s Production inkjet technology fits this space well because it can handle the high-volume, quick turnaround requirements of direct mail along with adding value through personalization.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to be utilized in a positive way that drives accuracy in the ability to analyze large amounts of consumer information and apply that to personalized and relevant content, ultimately increasing purchasing rates.
The Canon ProStream 3000 series of web-fed inkjet presses is designed specifically for premium direct mail and is helping many direct mail providers serve their customers in this space. This press supports Direct Mail printers who seek superior print quality at rated speed, helping to support ultimate performance.
The ProStream offers the high resolution, exceptional image sharpness, and consistent color output you expect, along with trust that your mail pieces will hold up to the rigors of the mail stream.
“Output does not require coating to travel safely through the mail stream. By eliminating the coating process from your production run, you can print, postal presort, and be out the door,” says Lisa Weese, senior director, marketing, Canon Solutions America, Production Print Solutions.
An enhanced drying system helps increase heavyweight stock throughput speeds.
Canon can run at 426 feet per minute or 101,047 6×9-inch, 9pt. postal reply cards per hour. Prints on a wide range of standard offset coated, uncoated, and inkjet-optimized papers up to 300 GSM. The new ink set just announced for ProStream 3000 provides more robustness and improved color gamut. The ink set also allows for additional embellishment options including foil, varnish, UV coating, lamination, etc., which help customers take advantage of USPS promotions.
DirectMail2.0
DirectMail2.0 offers a suite of 14 technologies that track and show attribution to mail, leverage and deploy direct mail retargeting campaigns, integrate QR codes and call & text tracking technology in addition to layering omnichannel campaigns to repeat the mail piece impression to drive an average of 23 to 46 percent lift for pennies per mail piece. It also provides a full reporting dashboard for clients to utilize the data from their direct mail campaigns to continuously improve them with each drop. Marketing technology firm DirectMail2.0 is known for enhancing direct mail campaigns through omnichannel marketing and the integration of digital platforms. Partnering with printers, direct mail service providers, and agencies, DM20 provides white-label add-on services that bring direct mail into the 21st century with a suite of 14 integrations; all of which can be bundled together as needed to optimize performance and return. The company is also finalizing preparations to enter AI with DM20.ai, an industry-first predictive analytics platform built to improve omni-channel marketing results through machine learning. Since being founded in 2016, DM20 has run 1B pieces of mail through its platform with over 40,000 digitally integrated direct mail campaigns.
HP
When it comes to the printed portion of the direct marketing campaign, the ability to work across multiple formats becomes critical. Different industries have different requirements, and even within the same industry—like insurance—campaigns will require different formats. Acquisition may be done with a tri-fold self-mailer, while retention may be done via a letter package. Ecommerce companies are beginning to discover the power of mail by sending postcards—sometimes overnight—after a customer visited their website and left something in their digital shopping cart. Flexibility in substrates—from cost-saving lighter papers for letters to thicker postcards for attention—is critical.
“As runs decrease—many direct mail printers are finding ways to digitally combine and batch work from multiple customers to achieve SLAs that were unheard of before—days, even hours for what used to take a week. That’s the power that digital presses like the HP PageWide series bring to the solution: short run, highly personalized printing at scale,” says Marc Johnson, senior global market development manager, HP PageWide.
Kyocera
The Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c is a game-changer for direct mail organizations. Renowned for its exceptional reliability, cost-effectiveness, and versatility, this cutting-edge system empowers operators to achieve consistent quality no matter what they are printing. What’s more, the simplicity of the device enables operators to easily personalize devices as well as manage multiple presses at once.
Furthermore, these innovative systems boast low power consumption and do not need complex HVAC systems for installation; simply plug and play. Their capability to seamlessly integrate, both the shell and variable data printing processes, on a single platform, significantly reduces turnaround times and overall costs, making the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c indispensable in the modern direct mail landscape.
Landa
Landa’s S11P Nanographic printing press carries a huge benefit for direct mail providers. Combining high capacity of 11,200 41-inch impressions per hour, at the highest print quality, unmatched color space, and media versatility on a digital platform for full variable data printing. These capabilities mean that mailers do not have to compromise on speed, quality, or visual differentiation—and of course keep costs in check.
Monadnock Paper Mills
Astrolite PC 100 Velvet C2S supports advanced digital printing and finishing techniques and is the only two-sided coated PC100 product on the market. It is ideal for producing vibrant, high-quality personalized mail pieces that are both tactile and visually engaging. This paper supports sustainable printing practices and ensures that direct mail pieces are compatible with the latest digital enhancements, making it an excellent choice for dynamic and environmentally conscious direct mail campaigns.
Sustainable papers, such as those produced using recycled or alternative fibers like eucalyptus, hemp, or post-consumer waste (PCW), reduce the environmental impact of direct mail campaigns. Astrolite PC 100 Velvet C2S, for example, is crafted from 100 percent PCW and is one of the only coated PC100 products on the market. It supports sustainable printing practices and advanced digital printing and finishing techniques.
Printware
Printware recently introduced its third iJetColor1175 Model Press concurrent with Drupa this year. The new model iJetColor1175C, now commercially available, is a more affordable console-based unit based on the best-selling iJetColor 1175 Pro and the easy-to-use benchtop iJetColor 1175 system providing more options for print, inplant and mail providers to profit with full-color envelopes.
The newest collaboration with HP incorporates HP Page-Wide Thermal inkjet technology, empowers the iJetColor1175C unit with fast, full-color, and easy-to-feed envelope printing with a lower capital investment. All three iJetColor inkjet envelope presses use water-safe, fade-resistant, pigment-based inks for a range of print applications.
The iJetColor1175C handles difficult to feed envelopes and prints full-bleed landscape orientation on #10 envelopes. Its unique feeding/alignment system is accurate, reliable, and provides easy transitions between envelope sizes, all with a single operator.
iJetColor Press systems come with a Profit Predictor, expert training, professional installation, 24/7 support, and a “no finger pointing” quality guarantee.
Quadient
The new Quadient Mach 9DS inkjet system is capable of full color, fully dynamic, secure, and personalized output. It integrates with segment-leading DS-700 iQ folder inserters to provide mailers with a single operator-driven inline solution that takes blank envelopes, inserts printed collateral, and prints full-color one-to-one personalized information and graphics on each piece. Combining multiple steps that used to require multiple machines and different processes and significantly more labor into a single workflow increases productivity exponentially for Quadient’s customers. With the Quadient DS-700 iQ and Mach 9DS, mailers are producing more mail pieces in less time with fewer resources, all while realizing exceptional cost savings on color printing.
Standard Finishing Systems
Hunkeler/Horizon Roll-to-Direct Mail solution goes from white paper roll or pre-printed web to finished product in a single pass, producing complex, variable data folded pieces at 600 feet per minute. The UW8 core-driven unwind module can handle web widths of up to 22.5 inches, and the WM8 web merger slits the web in half and merges left under right or right under left to enable east-west printing of 2-up forms delivered as a single stack. The CS8 Rotary Cross Cutter has individually driven slitters to allow the processing of multiple up forms, and edge trimmers and gutter cuts are available to remove marks or white areas. On the back-end, the system runs into a Horizon AFV-566SF Folder, a fully automated buckle/buckle folder that can perform precise, complex folds on a variety of paper weight ranges at speeds of up to 36,000 cycles per hour. The folder can slit, perforate, and score, or the Roll-to-Direct Mail system can be equipped with the Hunkeler DP8 Dynamic Perforator, which can perform dynamic perforating and punching from sheet to sheet for payment forms, tear-off coupons, mailings, security application, and more.
TEC Mailing
TEC Mailing’s cloud API is the only end to end cloud solution that’s compliant with USPS specifications for mailings. With TEC’s API architecture the sky’s the limit for automated lights out workflows and capable end-to-end processing including rules-based drop shipping and/or co-mingle data preparation.
“We’re helping our clients build completely ‘lights out’ environments where the first touch point is the traying of mail with the last step tying in an attribution model so the return on investment can be calculated. Putting all these pieces together fundamentally changes the business model, allowing print providers to build recurring revenue by putting their clients on a monthly budget similar to Google Ad words,” says Scott Eganhouse, VP, business development, TEC Mailing Solutions LLC.
TEC Mailing revolutionized the concept of rate shopping each mail piece for 5-digit direct presentment or bin schemed for the co-mingle provider of choice in single job, this strategy has saved a single client several million dollars in postage a year versus using a top tier legacy mail solution. While it’s best used by ganging production runs the strategy is effective when there’s a mix of 5 digit, ADC, and Mixed ADC mail.
USPS
The Postal Service’s technological innovations are significantly enhancing the ease and efficacy of direct mail through options like Informed Delivery and Informed Visibility.
Informed Delivery is utilized by over 60 million consumers who receive daily emails with images of their incoming mail. Remarkably, 60 percent of these consumers engage with these emails every day. Marketers can leverage this service to gain a free digital impression by adding a Call to Action (CTA) to their mailpiece images. This CTA can direct consumers to the marketer’s website or another digital platform, effectively bridging physical mail with online engagement.
Informed Visibility is invaluable for marketers coordinating omni-channel campaigns. It provides near real-time updates on the delivery status of mailpieces, allowing marketers to perfectly time their digital campaigns to coincide with the mail delivery. Additionally, it helps in scheduling staff to handle potential increases in orders following mail deliveries, optimizing both marketing impact and operational efficiency.
Xeikon
The SX20000 is the second duplex press to enter the market, based on Xeikon’s SIRIUS dry toner technology. It presents an excellent value proposition for printers looking for a cost-effective machine that will give them superior image quality, perfect registration front to back, and exceptional color quality control. With a high level of application flexibility, this versatile press suits printers who specialize in high-quality books and direct mail, retail signage, security print, and general commercial print applications.
Xerox
Xerox Iridesse Production Press, Xerox Versant Presses, and Xerox PrimeLink digital printers can print specialty colors—beyond four-color printing—to create embellishments and provide an opportunity for value-added production techniques.
Xerox FreeFlow Core provides simple and advanced workflow automation tools to reduce prepress time by automating tasks—such as job imposition and digital embellishments.
Xerox Baltoro HF Inkjet Press delivers high-speed, low-cost application opportunities on a range of offset coated media.
Xerox has several finishing partners that provide inline finishing solutions to reduce time and labor to create finished output.
XMPie software provides a complete set of capabilities to integrate print and digital services to deliver fully integrated campaign management including creating the piece and campaign as well as analytics and reporting.
Aiding in Mail
A variety of tools support the next-generation of mail with everything from variable data to interactivity, automation, embellishment, tracking, and everything in between.
Jul2024, DPS Magazine
