October 2003 -- Rochester, NY- As many companies continue to focus on high-value, personalized mailings to increase response rates, it is becoming critical that they insure the accuracy of each mailing. Cohber Press, a Rochester, NY based commercial print company, faced just that challenge as they took on a job for a well-known company in the entertainment industry. Personalized coupons, printed on a Heidelberg Nexpress 2100 are the focus of the customer mailing campaign. The coupons are of different values where the dollar amount varies based upon the specific spending habits of each targeted recipient. A customer “ID” code is also printed on the coupon, which is used as a look-up key to locate the recipient’s address in the client’s database. Each coupon is then inserted into inkjet, preprinted envelopes. There is the strong possibility of frequent mismatches if the pre-printed envelopes get out of synch with the personalized coupons. Errors are unacceptable to the customer. The challenge then, was to produce 100% verification in the assembly process. It became quickly apparent that labor-intensive hand operations would be unacceptable. Lost production time to manually sample production and to correct the mistakes would cause an extremely adverse impact on productivity, profitability and schedule commitments. The time sensitive personalized mailpieces require a rapid and accurate production turn-around. Facing this challenge, Cohber’s Mailing Manager, Dan Wawro, contacted their local distributor salesperson, Ohio Addressing Machines’ Tim Leciejewski, to help them find a solution. Tim then turned to Videk, a world leader in print verification and data integrity. Videk proposed the addition of a camera system to upgrade Cohber’s existing Phillipsburg envelope inserter. One camera reads the nine-digit ID code on the coupon. A database lookup is performed using the ID number to find the customer address. The second camera reads the address block directly on the envelope in which the coupon was inserted. The information from the lookup address is then compared to the address read by the second camera. If a mismatch is detected, the insertion process is immediately stopped. The automated system ensures the accuracy of the mailing by using a real time vision system to stop the production machinery. The automated Videk system eliminates the need to continually check the inserted product by hand. In addition, the prospect of a mismatch going undetected is now eliminated. As a result, Cohber has seen dramatic improvement to their production process. Pete Stoits, head inserter operator of Cohber stated, “This system has increased efficiency by at least 50% over blind machine insertion”. Delighted Customers Abound The customer was so delighted with the results of the pilot program, now all their locations are using these variable data coupons for direct mail marketing. Coupon redemption rates for this program ran 9 to 11 % higher than previous non-personalized campaigns as they were able to accurately target their customers based upon spending history. Dan Wawro, Mailing Manager of Cohber Press, said with a big smile on his face, “ This system is one solution that does exactly what it’s supposed to do”. Cohber Press has since received new orders for the rollout of this program. Tim Leciejewski of Ohio Addressing was also happy with the results of adding address verification saying, “ It’s great being a distributor for the leading manufacturer of vision systems. The resources Videk brings to the customer site and years of vision technical expertise are at the distributors’ fingertips. This truly allows the project to be fluid with the net result of our customer getting exactly the system needed to meet the demands of their client”. Ultimately, all parties won by adding address verification on to the process. The entertainment company’s direct mail campaign yielded a high response rate, Ohio Addressing satisfied a customer’s need, and Videk made a new installation, right in their backyard of Rochester, NY.