Grüezi, Mr. Mustermann

Digital printing At a customer event
Gissler Druck informed together with the suppliers AlphaPicture and
Xerox about the possibilities of image personalization.If this page had been produced in digital printing, I would have you, dear reader,
dear reader, directly and personally address in this article
can. In this context, the possibilities of individual address are nothing
News. The mailing sector in particular has been relying for some time on the
personal address. Daily flutter examples of such, mostly
still subsequently imprinted, but increasingly complete
of personalized printed matter in the form of mailings as well as in the form of
of personalized brochures or sophisticated sweepstakes in
our mailboxes or on our desks.

The personal approach should help to attract the attention of the
recipient, should ideally arouse interest in the
products or offers presented. But since it is known that only
seconds decide whether a mailing is to be viewed or not.
is taken or ends up in the circular file, advertisers must contact
The company is always coming up with new ideas for addressing the public.

Translate texts into image motifs
In order to convince existing or potential customers of their services, the
Gissler Druck AG in Allschwil, Switzerland, has also made a convincing
two-stage mailing focused on personalization - more precisely on
state-of-the-art image personalization technology. And around this topic revolved
also a customer event designed for advertisers and marketers, the
Gissler Druck organized together with partners in mid-June and for
which the mailings advertised. Owner Peter Gissler then also speaks
of a good response: "Of the 177 mailed,
image personalized invitations, slightly more than 20 percent responded,
9 percent said yes." Gissler attributed the high response
Finally, the company also reverted to image-personalized mailings.

"Today's generation is growing in a digital and visual world
Gerhard Märtterer, Managing Director of a
Communications agency in Stuttgart and founder of the brand
AlphaPicture. "It is therefore becoming more and more difficult to work with simple
text personalizations to attract attention," knows Märtterer, who
was the guest speaker for most of the "compact seminar". He
also expressed his conviction that means such as the
Image personalization the "hit rate in 1:1 marketing" significantly
can be improved. Probably also out of self-interest, because his company
has developed solutions that turn data and images
Generate image personalizations.

Simplified explained, with the instruments order list as well as
a text database and an image database plus the use of a database created by
software developed by AlphaPicture, image-personalized
JPEG files are generated. In addition, a complete character set
created; in this context, Märtterer also speaks of
"Literacy. The documents together with the integrated JPEG images
Finally, with a variable data printing dominating the
printing system can be output.

Digital printers who wish to use this service can choose from
existing compositions or even get your own from AlphaPicture.
Create image-text compositions. There are no limits to the imagination.
limits: Mr. or Mrs. Mustermann can choose their names from a
collection of wispy clouds, to read it as a carving in the sand.
Discover message on a dream beach or graffiti message
decipher on the Berlin Wall.

Also for publishers
The fact that image personalization also goes down well with readers of trade journals
Patrick Riesch, business manager at Xerox, explained at the
Example of the publication "Publisher". The trade magazine had not
significantly thanks to image personalization of the cover.
can increase. Digital printing even allows for individual
Occupancy of advertising pages integrated on the cover. Rosy
times therefore obviously for the "individualizers" in the advertising and
Communications industry.

Three terms
At
Personalization is generally understood to be the simple,
text-based and direct approach. In addition to the print-based
integrated address, the recipient is usually greeted personally
or integrate the address immediately as a reply.
At the
Image personalization is the address or even just the name
integrated into an image. A letter/character is thereby a reference to the
Image coordinated picture element.
If advertising materials tailored to the recipient are created, then
one moves in the area of
Individualization. The advertising material or
Documents here are usually generated for specific target groups.

Step by step to image personalization
To create a personalized advertising medium or image-personalized
print, the agency first creates a template. From this
Sample document must indicate which elements on the document are
to be personalized, individualized or image personalized.
Depending on the concept, in addition to the usual information (salutation, name and
address) also customer profiles required for individualization
(Information about interests, age, gender, etc.).

With image personalization and 3D software (at AlphaPicture are
both functions combined in one software) are finally
image data generated in JPEG format. The program generates the deceptively
shadow casts, masks off parts of the image depending on the subject, or
automatically adjusts the font size to the specified format.
In order to output the images in the digital printing system, the
Layout document with the data sets and the generated image data
be merged. To do this, the digital print service provider needs the
corresponding software.

In the digital printing process (not every system supports this
options), the printed matter can now be single-sided or double-sided.
personalized/individualized output. For printers that
do not (want to) use their own personalization software, provides
AlphaPicture also outputs complete PDF documents in which all the
dynamic text and image elements are already included.
AlphaPicture calls this "Just Plug and Print." Image personalizations
can also be used for websites, for example to
Example to greet registered users personally.

AlphaPicture
Behind the image personalization discussed in the article is the
South German communications agency i-clue with its technology
AlphaPicture (alphapicture.ch).
The company charges on a staggered basis according to the number of images; plus
a basic fee. On its website www.letterjames.ch, the
company also offers image personalization for the B-to-C segment. There
the possibilities of image personalization can be used in
low resolution can be tested.

Jürgen Franck