Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Session 1: Defining Your TransPromo Opportunity!
TransPromo provides an opportunity to blend marketing messages or solicitations with those must-read transaction documents including statements, invoices, confirmations, benefits explanations, and other notifications to influence behavior and ultimately drive business volume. Marketers and print service providers need to focus on the breadth of TransPromo documents in today’s market and develop strategies to effectively leverage this communication medium. This session will focus on defining the opportunity for TransPromo relative to your business objectives. We will hear how various organizations have successfully built a business justification for their TransPromo initiatives.

Session 2: Innovative Software Tools
Without the help of innovative software solutions tasks like managing data, document creation and composition, production workflow, and campaign tracking would not be possible. This session will focus on the software tools available on the market today and generate discussion around the solutions you should be considering to effectively and efficiently implement and manage TransPromo communications.

Session 3: Overcoming the Data Challenge
Inadequate systems and data are among the key challenges for making TransPromo “real” for many enterprises. To overcome these data challenges, multiple constituencies within the organization must work together to link internal and external data sources to create a single view of their customers. This session will focus on how to overcome the data challenges in your organization and provide relevant promotional messages for your customers.

Session 4: Advances in Digital Technology
With the buzz surrounding TransPromo, print service providers need to know how print engine technology is being adapted to accommodate production. High-speed inkjet and toner devices, many of them web-fed, are providing the productivity and color quality levels necessary for TransPromo. Front-end systems are also being enhanced to support the data-intensive nature of this application. This session will explore the vendors and products related to this developing market area.

Session 5: Design to Command Attention
Converting transactional information into a powerful marketing tool requires the effective use of color, personalization, and relevant messaging. A TransPromo strategy requires richer content that adds interest to routine business documents and resonates with readers, including:

• Graphical representations of transactions

• Dynamic content and personalized messages

• Capturing attention with color

• Messaging and consistency to support branding

Good document design is imperative in commanding a high ROI. This session will focus on how to use color, images, charts, graphs, and text to create a successful TransPromo document.

Session 6: Taking Stock in High-speed Color Applications
High-speed printing via production inkjet devices is a relatively new application. Electrophotography and offset printing have been around in these production environments for long enough to enable paper manufacturers to meet substrate requirements. This session will discuss the advances in paper manufacturing technology that are designed to optimize results for process color printing in high-speed production inkjet environments.

Session 7: TransPromo… It Takes a Village
Unlike any other types of marketing initiatives, TransPromo applications require an entirely different level of internal and external organizational collaboration. Think about the disciplines that must come together to deliver an effective TransPromo campaign.

In embracing TransPromo you're positioning a promotional message next to essential transaction information. Data processors have been responsible for getting that transaction document out the door for a long time. Now they must work with marketing personnel to assess which promotion goes to which customer so they can instill loyalty or increase “share of wallet.” The creative team must ensure that the document is properly designed so the message “pops,” then the production department takes over. This session is designed to discuss the organizational dynamics required to successfully implement a TransPromo campaign.

Session 8: Advances in Finishing & Mailing Equipment
System vendors are working to improve the process of folding, slitting, cutting, and inserting documents into the mailstream. These advances in automated in-line finishing and mailing have enabled print service providers to compensate for the growth in TransPromo applications. This session will explore these developments and consider how they link into your production workflow.

Session 9: TransPromo Tomorrow: Strategies for Implementation
It’s time to make it happen. The challenge for many organizations is defining a comprehensive, yet realistic, implementation plan for their first TransPromo project. This session will tackle this challenge head-on. We'll highlight real-world examples as we explore key technological, organizational, and quality assurance steps that are crucial to any successful TransPromo implementation.

Session 10: The Inkjet Revolution
Print service providers need to know how print engine technology is being adapted to accommodate the production of TransPromo materials. At drupa we expect to see several new product announcements focused on high-speed inkjet devices. These devices are providing the revolutionary productivity and color quality levels necessary to create TransPromo applications. This session will explore the vendors and products related to this developing market area.

Session 11: Software and Strategies for Marketing Metrics
According to the CMO Council, the top priority for Chief Marketing Officers in 2008 is marketing metrics. Part of getting a TransPromo statement out the door is monitoring your campaign results and ensuring the success of future campaigns. Adding personalized URLs and marketing campaign management dashboards to the mix makes TransPromo an even better opportunity for marketers. This session will highlight the software tools and strategies that are needed to successfully track ROI.

Session 12: Future Technologies for Driving TransPromo
Many of today’s marketing professionals are focused on increasing cross-media integration within their TransPromo documents. The objective is to integrate online media with transaction documents to enable a cohesive and unified marketing tool. At the same time however, fully executing these CMI programs is often elusive. Technologies like text messaging; short message codes and pURLs are seen as promising.  High-density bar coding technologies are also emerging and these will enable recipients to interact via QR (Quick Response) codes that are readable by cell phones and simple PC cams. Recipients need only point their camera at the QR symbol and they are connected to a QR-encoded Web page without implementing promotional codes, they just point and shoot. This session will explore techniques for making the transaction document an integral part of a multi-channel integrated campaign.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

General Session: Research in the World of TransPromo
This session will highlight critical findings from InfoTrends recently completed research in the TransPromo market. InfoTrends study entitled "Trans Meets Promo...Is It More than Market Hype?" will identify the success factors; unmet customer requirements; purchase plans; and other items that will drive vendors’ and service providers’ product, service, marketing, and sales activities. InfoTrends will be joined by students from Pittsburgh State University (PSU) who will present recent research results on the use of color in web-based transpromotional documents. PSU, sponsored by the EDSF, surveyed graphic communications service providers to understand the perception of the use of color in the design and development of transpromo documents. This general session provides attendees with a one-stop shop for the latest in TransPromo research.

Session 13: White Space Marketing…Generating Revenue with Statements
Managing white space is just the beginning.  How are you going to sell it? How do you price it? What are your advertisement guidelines? What metrics will you use to track the success of the advertisers’ investments? How can a transaction document turn into a source of profits? This session will discuss how to package an attractive offer for advertisers.

Session 14: The Outsourcing Equation
Organizations that are considering a move to digital color and TransPromo, know that the process can be daunting and quite expensive. From new composition tools to production digital color devices, the barrier to entry can be significant in terms of capital costs and personnel. In cases like this outsourcing may be a good option. In this session we will discuss the costs associated with implementing a color strategy and the potential advantages of moving to an outsourced model for production. There are also inherent advantages to outsourcing when considering the rapid pace of technological change in the high-volume transactional output industry.

Session 15: Building the Right Skills
The journey toward TransPromo involves commitment not only to technology and workflow, but also to staffing. A range of skill-sets are important, including color management, data analytics, print operations, and direct marketing campaign management. This session will discuss the skill sets necessary for successful TransPromo implementation.

Session 16: New Opportunities in Foreign Markets
The staggering economic growth of developing countries presents a significant opportunity for TransPromo. This session will provide you with an opportunity to learn about these emerging markets. You'll hear from a transactional printer based in Brazil, one of the BRIC economies that is expected to be among the most dominant by 2050. You'll also hear from a Colombia-based transactional printer and learn how the company has successfully redefined itself to take advantage of TransPromo.

Session 17: Steps to Success: You Know Why… Let's Learn How!
There’s a lot of buzz surrounding TransPromo, but there's very little information available on how to actually execute a TransPromo strategy. Rather than discussing how to design for superior results or how to measure what those results are, this session will discuss how to successfully develop and implement a TransPromo campaign.
This session will explore the ways in which TransPromo is influencing marketing success in a variety of industries. You will hear from users about their successful and failed attempts to implement TransPromo from the perspective of both the document owner and print service provider. This session will illuminate new requirements for everything from content creation to document composition to printing and mailing, as well as recommend strategies to help you develop efficient and effective TransPromo campaigns.

Session 18: Getting Customers to the Cash Register
Private-label credit cards are a key profit center for the retail industry. This session highlights a leading retail consumer finance company that decided to offer full-color statements to its merchants to differentiate itself as a service bureau. Some department stores are sending over three million TransPromo color statements each month with a primary objective of getting customers to come into their stores and leave with full shopping bags, and paying for their merchandise using branded credit cards. This case study will show how the client and merchants worked together, and with their outsourced print vendor, DST Output, to leverage statements. It will discuss how the involved parties developed organizational commitment to create, maintain and manage relevant campaigns; consider the lessons they learned; highlight their future plans; and evaluate how they measure success.