Reflections: Hunkeler Innovationdays 2011
By Oliver Langer, sales channel manager, Central Europe, and Viktor Schimanovich, Customer Solutions Specialist, XMPie, A Xerox Company
Viktor Schimanovich, left, and Oliver Langer, right.
The world of paper processing met for four days last week in Lucerne, Switzerland for the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2011. We had the privilege of joining Xerox Europe’s booth to showcase XMPie’s software solutions for high speed variable data printing (VDP), integrated cross-media publishing, high volume image personalization, personalized Web-to-print and marketing portals, and campaign tracking and analytics (and we got to use a cool touch screen to do so).
The week kicked off with the Xerox-co-sponsored DOXNET event on Monday night. This was an afternoon dedicated to interesting presentations about the newest trends and information around digital printing. Since DOXNET is a cross-sector professional association with more than 590 members from 180 companies and organizations, the turnout was great and so was the networking!
This was actually the first time that XMPie has had a presence at the Hunkeler event, which is more targeted for continuous feed and transpromo, but we believe it was a very successful event for us. We had great traffic at our stand and interest from many visitors, which shows their belief in our play in that market.
We gave a daily XMPie presentation at the Xerox Theater (in English and German), plus several other presentations from Xerox regarding direct mail with XMPie also helped to keep our stand busy with visitors wanting to see demos on our station. If you missed the show or the presentations, check out the Xerox Virtual Hunkeler Innovationdays at www.xerox.com/virtualhunkeler. And be sure to check out the Xerox Real Business magazine when you get there for great customer stories highlighting cross-media and high volume VDP applications.
If we get the opportunity, we hope to see you all at the next show. Not only did it bring in the best in solutions and innovations in the areas of paper processing and digital high-performance printing, but there was also great, free food!
Another Look at QR Codes – XMPie/PODi Campaign for AppForum 2011
By Larry Zusman, worldwide marketing manager, XMPie, A Xerox Company
We’ve talked about QR codes a couple different times on this blog already, but I’m sure this is just the beginning. The fact is they are everywhere! At PODi AppForum 2011, they “popped up” all over the place – in the general session with Tissot watches, showcase applications, and many PODi Best Practice Case Studies. In almost all cases, the codes accessed mobile sites that not only provided personalized content, but also further identified customer interests through survey questions.
Scan to view video on QR codes and XMPie.
XMPie, together with PODi, used QR codes to implement an exciting QR Code Challenge Contest for an Apple iPad – a new way to engage and interact with attendees. Contestants used their smart phones to access websites with the answers to some difficult questions from the latest Caslon research studies on 1:1 cross-media marketing.
Most interesting was the metrics on participation – over 30% of eligible attendees (sponsors were not allowed to play) participated in the contest, and close to 74% completed all the questions. Plus, approximately 20% accessed the XMPie online video describing how XMPie offers the unique advantage of data consistency in QR code campaigns. How do we know? The XMPie system allowed us to track every event and action for each person that participated, since they were entered into a database upon registration.
What’s next? Surely we will see QR codes on a wide variety of media, including direct mail, magazines, newspapers and catalogs. For service providers that know how to create and use them for campaigns, they offer new sources of revenue and profit. And for advertisers who need to get their message out and learn more about the psychographics of their target audience, these codes can unlock the key to finding out what customers think, feel, and more important, want to buy. Soon, mobile phones will do more, and most likely so will these amazing 2D barcodes that contain secret links to content created just for you.
How are you using QR codes? Have they helped improve your campaign response rates? Did you participate in the QR Code Challenge Contest at PODi AppForum 2011? What did you think? We want to know!