Margie Dana

I’ll bet that print materials are a major factor in your firm’s marketing campaigns. These days, it’s a safe bet that some of those materials are produced on digital presses. It got me to thinking: Why not interview a printer about a project in which some or all components were printed digitally?

For today’s Print Tip, I interviewed a sales rep known up and down the East coast (and probably beyond), Joe Wagner, of the Whitmore Group in Baltimore, MD. Joe’s very active in AIGA Baltimore and the design community in Washington and Baltimore. He is currently Marketing Director for the Whitmore Group in Baltimore-Annapolis, MD (www.whitmore.com). He graciously agreed to be interviewed for this Tip.

1. Joe, please set the stage for us. Describe your customer’s objective and what materials you created for them.

Our customer is one of the top hospitals in the U.S., located in Washington, DC. As with most medical facilities, a portion of their income comes from fundraisers. The client was to host an event for approximately 800 people, and they needed to invite guests to a dinner/auction.

The materials created were an invitation package, a program book, “story cards” of young patients that would be displayed on each table (10 different cards with the child’s picture and a brief history), escort cards, and cards showing table #’s (digital and variable); table numbers and custom auction paddles (both digital and variable). The auction paddles were custom made with curved sticks.

2. Was this a case of “we’re the customer and here’s what we want,” or were they open to your suggestions?

They were definitely open to our suggestions on sizes, paper selections and the most economical way to produce each piece. The best part of this project was that everyone met well enough in advance to discuss where there would be “challenges.” In particular, our customer shared with us that there was going to be a last-minute rush of attendees – so the number of attendees couldn’t be confirmed until two days before the event. This made it clear that certain materials had to be produced digitally.

3. So not all of the campaign pieces were done digitally?

There was actually a combination of offset and digital – with variable components – and mailing as well. For the digital pieces, we used an HP 5000. The program and invitations were printed offset.

4. Were any other media, in addition to print, used for this campaign?

This customer did promote the event on local radio stations and in other publications, but I wasn’t involved in either.

5. In the client’s opinion, was this a successful marketing campaign?

Very much so. And because I had worked previously with Jen Kozak of J Kozak Creative on similar projects, it made the process quite simple. Jen’s very good as a team leader.

6. Any particular challenges you had to overcome?

Yes – ordering a special gold paper we knew had to be ordered from the mill six weeks in advance. Not knowing the actual numbers of or names of the attendees until the last minute was “interesting,” but we knew this going in to the project, and I feel we were well prepared. Having digital capabilities made it less complicated.

7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how complex was this campaign, with “1” being “a breeze”?

I’d give it a 6. The pieces all tied together nicely. Things you never see in the early stages of projects are things like the limited time slots you have for delivery – and doing so really early on a Saturday.

I want to thank Joe Wagner for sharing information on this project with us. Some photos of this campaign are linked to today’s Print Tip. (And he promised to send me a real sample kit in the mail. Hint, hint.)

You can contact Joe at . By all means, I suggest you follow him on Twitter. He’s .