Emphasis On One-To-One Marketing With Customised, Long Run Printed Communications: Xeikon Digital Printing Systems Play Key Role In Successful Concept

Eede, The Netherlands – Online advertising channels notwithstanding, print is alive and on the rise. This is the conclusion drawn by Eversfrank Gruppe, one of the leading German media service providers, following its move to digital printing. The company currently operates two Xeikon digital printing systems – a 9800 and an 8600– at its Preetz site and already requires further digital printing capacity. Business is booming, based on a combination of digital and web offset printing for the production of catalogues, magazines, direct marketing and other commercial documents. 

“There is a trend to move back to printed direct mail shots that go straight to the letterbox,” explains Gerhard Märtterer, Director for One-to-One Marketing Services at Eversfrank. “They make a bigger impact than adverts in disposable media environments. Print is back, but not the way it was in Gutenberg’s day – there are new conditions to consider: The right messages must get through to the right people, at the right time, on a one-to-one basis. With our innovative programme enabled by our Xeikon digital presses, the inside pages of a magazine or catalogue are printed with traditional web offset, whilst the four cover pages are reserved for digital. This allows them to be highly personalised and customised for the individual recipient, making the communications relevant and more likely to be read and acted upon.” 

A clear decision for toner-based printing

One of the primary reasons Eversfrank decided on Xeikon’s toner-based printing process was that the print quality closely resembled offset – today’s high-speed inkjet systems cannot quite reach this level of quality yet. “The Xeikon presses fully meet our requirements in terms of colour consistency and saturation. Another unique selling proposition for us is the possibility to print on standard coated papers without the need for any pre-treatment,” says Joachim Glowalla, Managing Director at Eversfrank Preetz. Last but not least, Eversfrank places great emphasis on environmental sustainability. As one of Germany’s most environmentally friendly printers, working with 100% green power and planting more than 200,000 trees with Evers-ReForest in Northern Germany, the print room equipment needs to match up to the sustainability demands. Xeikon is able to meet this requirement thanks to its deinkability rating.

Customised magazines are a typical example of one-to-one printed communications produced by Eversfrank Preetz. For example, one of Germany’s largest car magazines is distributed to its subscriber base with personalised cover pages. This goes far beyond name and address, aiming for highly targeted communication with the customer based on the magazine’s knowledge of its subscribers: In this case, an invitation for a test drive from a car manufacturer at the three dealerships closest to the reader, with a map showing their exact location. It is also possible to present the reader with different car models depending on their location and habits. A tour operator provides another example: The traveller receives his personalised travel booklet containing all relevant travel information, including QR codes for train and airport information. This level of personalisation is possible partly thanks to CRM customer profiles and web-to-print portals hosted by Eversfrank, providing customised order forms for each industry sector. The jobs are printed within 24 hours on the Xeikon digital presses, finished near-line on customised converting equipment and shipped by Eversfrank Preetz.

Thanks to variable data printing solutions from Xeikon, every customer receives the most appropriate next best offers in a customised catalogue. The theme this demonstrates: Print is more relevant and achieves a better response than digital alternatives.

Faster speeds: Hopes for the future

“At the moment, we can live with the fact that, in terms of speed, digital printing does not even come close to web offset. But the demand and the opportunities for customisation of commercial print products are steadily increasing. We are excited to see Xeikon’s new Trillium generation of liquid toner digital presses at drupa 2016, which is said to offer significantly faster speeds and will likely enable us to transfer even more volume from offset as well as create new marketing opportunities for our customers”, Märtterer concludes.