For years, the challenge for marketers has been collecting, managing and using consumer data effectively to drive more intelligent and powerful marketing programs. These days the challenge is not collecting the data. The challenge is filtering the data to find the key information to support a client’s strategy, and implementing its use in an efficient, creative and effective way.  

In parallel with the abundance of available data is the development and investment in digital print technology. This enables economical, short run print jobs, in full color, rich in variable content and unique data.  As a result, print has evolved, and remains an important and integral part of a direct marketing, messaging and customer relations strategy. 

SG360° recognize the importance of unique customer data. Delivering the right message to the right consumer is essential, and they work closely with their clients to understand and deliver the right message for the maximum return.  To implement and manage this efficiently within their production process, they identified the necessity for a partner that could provide a comprehensive range of print integrity and inspection solutions. Reading the data is one thing, but the subsequent data processing, tracking and control functionality is a critical aspect of the finishing process.

SG360° invested significantly in printing and finishing technology and a key element of this is the use of DISCOVERY from Lake Image. 

Initial installations were driven by the demands of an exacting client.  Plastic gift cards needed to be attached to a carrier at speed, to very tight placement tolerances, while being matched and tracked using OCR data. These cards were then collated and batched, before being wrapped. Discovery Multiscan from Lake Image provided all control for the data match and placement measurement and drove the batching and labelling processes, providing audit traceability for each card being produced. 

Kirby Ashby, Senior Vice President and General Manager explained, " it was a highly complex job but the Discovery system from Lake Image enabled us to automate the entire process and hit the tight time pressures we were under. Production started within 30 days of us shaking hands with the client on the deal, and Lake Image were able to hit that deadline with multiple installations and supported us through the start up. The process was so successful the client increased the job from 28 million pieces to 60 million and is now looking to run again in in the next few months. We were very happy with our return on investment!"

Since the initial implementation further systems have been added to Kirby’s fleet of mailers, enabling a read and print capability with reporting and control. Adding capability to his production facility is critical, enabling his team to be creative when meeting their client’s requirements. They are now producing very high value, extremely complex mailings for a range of Fortune 100 clients, all featuring extensive use of variable data.

Kirby is clear that the direct mail industry has changed significantly and to be successful it is crucial that their entire product is data driven. "Our focus is excellence; we need to be exceptional at delivering our clients message, and exceptional at delivering it to the right consumer at precisely the right time. Lake Image enables us to do this.”