HP Indigo digital presses helped Digital Printing & Imaging Inc. (DPI) earn new business through a web-to-print t-shirt design application for an innovative customer loyalty campaign.

The Kennesaw, Ga.-based print service provider developed the solution for a Fortune 500 client that was seeking a creative brand marketing program. DPI’s web-to-print platform enabled consumers to create custom t-shirts designs, which were then produced on its HP Indigo 7000 and 5000 presses, applied to t-shirts and shipped for free to consumers.

“Most people like creating things themselves, and our client wanted a great ‘feel-good’ item consumers would associate with its brand, without actually using its own design or logo,” said Susan Moore, DPI’s president. “Our HP Indigo presses andHP SmartStream print server were key to making this a successful brand loyalty program because we could process and print orders quickly.”

DPI used photo-product managed server solutions from PixFizz to transfer designs to its HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server, and printed the designs on HP Indigo-certified Tecniprint 4.0 by Neenah t-shirt transfer media. The campaign ran for three months and produced more than 60,000 orders.

Digital print as a bridge to online marketing revenues
The consistent, high-quality HP Indigo production operation allowed DPI to focus on developing complementary, web-based service offerings. As part of the campaign, DPI created a branded, online portal interface for consumers and captured opt-in contact permissions from them. The campaign provided DPI’s client with greater online brand exposure than it could get with normal internet advertising; on average, visitors spent more than nine minutes on the site creating their designs.

“Putting ink on paper is the easiest part of our business because we have HP Indigo technology,” said Moore. “Now, we are selling ‘electronic products’ – generating good revenues to develop and manage custom portals for campaigns where print is part of the overall offering.”

Early adopter of innovative digital printing applications
DPI installed Indigo digital press technology when it was first introduced in 1993. Specializing in versioned or personalized printing for national clients with franchise or dealer networks, the 20-year old company also has a track record of developing innovative business-to-consumer offerings. In 2008, DPI used HP Indigo digital presses to print hundreds of thousands of personalized youth baseball cardsas a promotion for a leading ice-cream brand. In 2010, it launched a custom fan card offering for the National Football League’s youth-oriented web site, NFLRush.com.

“Today’s graphic communications industry is not about printing more, it is about getting more benefit from what is printed,” said Jan Riecher, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business – Americas, HP. “HP technology helps customers like DPI increase the value of the products and services they offer.”     

More information about HP Indigo digital presses is available atwww.hp.com/go/indigo, through the HP Graphic Arts YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts and through the HP Graphic Arts Twitter Feed at www.twitter.com/hpgraphicarts.