Printing News March 2021

MARCH 2021

12 Printing Outlook 2021 14 Bridging Strategy to Execution

16 IT Integrations with Your Customer’s ERP

WhatTheyThink.com PrintingNews.com

BEYOND THE

BOTTLE There are opportunities and challenges in pharmaceutical packaging.

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VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY ─ Time To Ask Serious Questions Of The USPS

RATES RISE, QUALITY LOWERS

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David Pilcher Contributor David Pilcher, is owner and VP of Sales and Marketing at family-owned print business: Freeport Press.

It is a nationallyrecognized leader in the print production of high-quality niche publications and catalogs.

Freeport Press has been in continuous operation at our centrally-located facility in New Philadelphia, Ohio, since 1880.

f you’re a commercial mailer of flats and periodicals, brace yourself. Customers are facing an unexpected and steep increase in USPS mailing rates sometime this summer — even while service standards remain miserably low.

The first indication that something was seriously wrong with operations at the USPS came last July, when newly appointed PG Louis DeJoy changed trucking regulations. On-time mail deliveries plummeted. It was so bad that a Washington D.C. District Court judge ruled they must reverse the changes in October and file daily paperwork with their progress.

Then came the election, and the massive challenge of timely delivery of mail-in votes.

Finally, we wrapped up the year with a disastrous holiday mailing season, and stories of missing or delayed Christmas gifts continued well into this year.

Now, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) tells us to expect an additional rate increase this summer of anywhere between 5.5% for first-class and up to 7.5% for marketing flats and periodicals.

The news is part of the PRC’s Annual Report FY 2020, released to the President and Congress. At 62 pages, the report is dense and covers required PRC review of the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA) that took four years to put together.

The bottom line? The USPS has been given new rate-setting authority, and they plan to take full advantage of this. Future rate increases will be allowed to be based on Consumer Price Index changes, density issues, retirement funding rate, plus 2% for non-compensatory classes.

What does this mean for USPS customers?

From the 2020 Annual Compliance Report (ACR) the USPS estimates the density factor

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to be 4.5% and the retirement authority to be 1.062%. If the PRC agrees with these figures when they publish the ACD (Annual Compliance Determination report) in March or April, the USPS may announce a rate increase with 90 days’ notice.

This means the postage payer may see a postage increase in summer 2021 of up to 5.56%. For underwater products such as marketing mail flats and periodicals, the possible rate increase may be up to 7.56% due to the 2% allowed for non-compensatory.

This increase would be on top of the Jan. 24, 2021, rate increase of approximately 1.45% on periodicals, 1% on letters and 3.5% on marketing mail flats and CR.

We must act now.

Several mailing associations, including the ACMA, have filed with the PRC to request a stay order. There’s no expectation that the PRC will grant it, but any Read More… denials of stay will be Find article at appealed in court.

PrintingNews.

We encourage you to com/21148746 become involved with industry associations that are working to turn this decision around. Efforts need to be focused on litigation, government relations, public relations and grass roots campaigns to educate the general public and mailing consumer about the immense impact this could have on a vital industry that makes up over 7% of the GDP. The USPS cannot be allowed to operate with impunity, especially given its performance this past year. Simply put, too much of our economy and our way of life depends on standards of delivery. And raising rates provides absolutely no guarantee that service will improve.

Make your voice heard and make a stand for accountability at the USPS. ●

WhatTheyThink - Printing News | March 2021

2/16/21 4:18 PM

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10013323

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VP, GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com 772-579-7360 PRODUCTION EDITOR & MANAGER Amy Hahn amy@whattheythink.com EDITOR Jessica Taylor jessica@whattheythink.com

CON MARCH 2021

MANAGING EDITOR Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com SENIOR EDITOR Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com

Cover Story

BEYOND THE BOTTLE

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Paul Zimmerman paul@whattheythink.com 973-727-1376

There are opportunities and challenges in pharmaceutical packaging.

By David Zwang

PRESIDENT Eric Vessels eric@whattheythink.com 740-417-3333

- PAGE -

PRINTING NEWS

COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Christine Erna Lisa Magnuson Elizabeth Gooding Debbie McKeegan Preston Herrin Jennifer Matt Wayne Lynn Pat McGrew

Frank Romano Heidi Tolliver-Walker Mark Vruno David Zwang

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WhatTheyThink (ISSN 2642-3189) (USPS 500-850) Volume 44, Number 4 is published nine times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October, November/December by WTT Media, Inc., at 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WhatTheyThink, 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Annual subscription prices in the U.S.A $95; Canada $125 USD; all other countries $150 USD. Printed in the USA. Copyright © 2021 WTT Media, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission. WTT Media Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of causation. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not those of the publishers, unless indicated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, or of any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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SECURITY IS THE BEST MEDICINE

The importance of information and data security in pharmaceutical packaging

By David Zwang

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BRIDGING STRATEGY TO EXECUTION

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THE TIES THAT BIND

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DIVERSIFY YOUR BUCKETS

22 26 28

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How to implement the three C’s.

By Preston Herrin Integrate IT with your customers’ ERP.

By Jennifer Matt Analyzing customer segmentation in your print business

By Jennifer Matt COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS

Double down during the “Qualify Stage” and watch your close ratios skyrocket.

By Lisa Magnuson FMCS, OR WHERE’S THE TOILET PAPER?

By David Zwang VIRTUAL EVENTS: THE PROS AND CONS

2020 and a good part of 2021 will be seen as the time of virtual events.

By Cary Sherburne

WhatTheyThink - Printing News | March 2021

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NTENTS WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

24 36 40 42 46 50 56

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA FOR STILL CREEK PRESS

Founded more than 30 years ago as a business forms printer, Vancouver’s Still Creek Press has evolved over the years

By Richard Romano

COLUMNS

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MAKE IT MOVE

New challenges for dynamic digital signage

By Richard Romano

PRINTING OUTLOOK 2021

Executive Summary

By Richard Romano DIRECT MAIL

Direct Mail Retargeting goes Mainstream

By Heidi Tolliver-Walker

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BECOME A SUCCESSFUL LEADER

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EXECUTIVE Q&A

Printed signage helps us to navigate safely through the COVID-19 world.

By Mark Vruno

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POSHMARK

2021: THE IN-BETWEEN STAGE

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STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR BUSINESS

VAX POPULI

Pre- and post-COVID trends drive changes in wide-format print software.

By Richard Romano

Looking Closer at Leadership

By Wayne Lynn

Durst Expands its Virtual Demo Capabilities

By Cary Sherburne

FINDING OUR WAY

ISA Quarterly Economic Report looks at the Top 10 Economic Trends for 2021 and their impact on the sign industry.

By Richard Romano

Upcycling Fast Fashion

By Cary Sherburne

Keep Strong while Moving Forward

By A.J. Titus, Signarama President

THE EVOLUTION OF PRINTING AND INDUSTRY 4.0

The next normal will blend virtualand in-person events.

By Cary Sherburne SUSTAINABILITY AND ECO-FRIENDLY TEXTILES

Developments that will define the next decade for the textile and printing industry

By Debbie McKeegan

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DEPARTMENTS

4 Voice Of The Industry 34 Watch List: Video

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64 Classifieds/Supplier Directory

FOLLOW US twitter: @PrintingNews; @WideFormatSign; @whattheythink facebook: Printing News; wideformatsignage; @whattheythink linkedin: Printing News; linkedin.com/groups/1780044; whattheythink youtube: PrintingNews.com

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LABELS & PACKAGING ─ Pharmaceutical Packaging

BEYOND THE

BOTTLE

There are opportunities and challenges in pharmaceutical packaging.

By David Zwang

L

ike many other industries, pharmaceuticals is going through a transition, and as we have seen before, industries in transition offer opportunities for those who are willing to learn and engage.

Why would a print services or packaging provider find this of interest? In 2020 the pharma packaging market was valued at USD 73.49 billion and is estimated to reach a value of USD 118.01 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.24%, during the forecast period of 2021-2026. The North American pharma packaging growth during the period of 2020-2025 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.3%, according to Mordor Intelligence.

What is driving the growth?

There are many factors, including shifting consumer behavior, rising disposable income, increased focus on health, increased life expectancy and growth in emerging markets.

StartUS Insights looked at the top 10 Pharma Industry trends, and while most of these center around the introduction of real-time data and AI, combined, the effects will drive the overall growth of pharma packaging and in shorter runs, which mirrors general CPG drivers and shifts.

Drug “compounding,” or combining ingredients to make personalized medicine, which at one point in history was the role of the pharmacist, has become a small part of a pharmacist’s practice over the years, since most medicines today are produced by pharmaceutical companies in standard dosages and drug delivery forms. This concept is seeing a comeback, but in new forms. An article in Nature, describes a briefcase-sized drug factory that can

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manufacture specifically tailored biotherapeutic drugs to address the needs of the individual, on demand. However, realistically this will undoubtedly address a small 1:1 market and have little effect on packaging growth, rather than the mass customized markets that are evolving as consumer behavior is shifting. Furthermore, the increase in online distribution like that of Amazon Pharmacy, will help support that market shift. Overthe-counter pharma as well as HBA (health and beauty aids) products are also playing a big part in the growth of pharma packaging, as are the increase in Cannabis products as previously covered.

Mass customized packaging Pharma packaging includes primary, secondary and tertiary packaging solutions that provide identification, protection and reliability of the enclosed drug. Primary packaging can include blisters, bottles, caps and closures, labels, pouches, strip packs, jars, etc. Substrate variants of plastics and polymers such as polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene and polystyrene are widely used for manufacturing various pharmaceutical packaging products. Secondary packaging includes paperboard boxes, instruction and safety documentation, and even temperaturecontrolled packaging with unique substrate characteristics. Tertiary packaging, which is used for packaging multiple or sets of products, is primarily

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corrugated and shrink wrap. Of course, labels can be found in all three tiers.

Is the technology available?

This is all being done today with analog and even some digital printing technology, but primarily in larger quantities since that has been the historic need. With the transition, the need for shorter runs is increasing, and digital print technologies will play a more important role. Targeted marketing can bring added value and margins, so shorter runs with a tremendous amount of versioning is becoming more prevalent, especially in over-the-counter products. The old one- or twocolor boxes are starting to move to more graphically rich design, as is the case with many other consumer products.

Compatibility of inks and substrates, pre-treating media, ink component migration and barrier lamination are all possible requirements based on the specifics of the packaging and product. Tear resistance for child safety is another feature that is increasingly important, and sustainable packaging solutions are becoming an important focus of many pharma companies, just as it is with CPGs. While the bulk of pharma packaging today is being done with offset and flexo printing technologies, as the runs get shorter and turn around quicker, digital print will play a more significant role. Currently the majority of digital printing for pharma packaging is being produced by electrophotographic printing, primarily using Indigo and Xeikon technologies. Additionally, we are seeing an increase in folding cartons as the sheet size and media handling have increased in solutions from Xerox, Ricoh and recently Canon. However, we are starting to see inkjet solutions enter the market as well, as they address the media and ink compatibility issues. There have been a number of new introductions from Memjet OEMs, adoption and expansion of Prosper and Ultrastream solutions from

Kodak, and folding carton production from the Fujifilm J Press to name a few.

Of course, packaging is more than just printing, it also includes finishing/converting. Digital embellishment technologies like that of MGI, Scodix and others are being used for increasing brand identity and marketing value. Digital die cutting solutions from Highcon for short run folding carton and corrugated applications, and SEI for those as well as flexible and other types of packaging are also facilitating these new demands.

Tangible opportunities are there for converters and PSPs. The market is growing and will continue to for the foreseeable future. The growth is across a wide variety of products and will be driven by increasingly short run and quick-turn products. In addition, lack of in-house packaging capabilities, expertise and budget conRead More… straint issues are faced by small Find article at pharmaceutical companies in the PrintingNews. com/21148736 industry. Packaging service providers are recognized as an effective approach to address such issues of the small companies owing to the low-cost service offering.

The equipment to support this is already available, in some cases even in your facility, and any production obstacles are being address by the press, ink and substrate manufacturers, since they want to capture the benefits as well.

Track and Trace is a given.

The production and distribution of pharmaceuticals is very regulated and requires an understanding of those regulations as well as a tight coordination with others in the chain of custody. If you are interested in pharma packaging opportunities, the following article on Information and Security can give you some important background. ●

David Zwang specializes in process analysis, and strategic development of firms involved in publishing and packaging across the globe.

Contact him at david@zwang.com.

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LABELS & PACKAGING ─ Pharmaceutical Packaging Compliance

SECURITY IS THE

BEST MEDICINE The importance of information and data security in pharmaceutical packaging

By David Zwang

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harmaceutical packaging compliance, including safety and supply chain visibility, is an area that demands secure packaging and label identification.

Many new compliance regulations are designed to verify the authenticity and origin of raw materials and ingredients, and to effectively, quickly and accurately track and trace the products as they move across a global supply chain of manufacturers, packagers, distributors and retail outlets both online and in-person. These identification requirements provide the regulators and, more importantly, the manufacturers the tools needed to understand where problems may lie, remove the offending product from the supply chain and quickly notify the consumer to mitigate risk and negative effects.

Chain of Custody The Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress on Nov. 27,

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2013. It requires that there is an ability to track and trace all products in the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain. Critical steps are outlined in the DSCSA to build an electronic, “interoperable” system by Nov. 27, 2023, and improve detection and removal of counterfeit and potentially harmful products from the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain. According to the law, as of July 1, 2015, dispensers were required to comply with the new regulations. Compliance with the regulations means maintaining what is known as the 3Ts: transaction information (TI), transaction history (TH) and transaction statement (TS). These records must be maintained for six years. All manufacturers, distributors and dispensers of prescription drugs in the supply chain in the U.S. market are required to comply, and other countries are implementing similar programs.

Recent tangible efforts and results, such as in controlled substance monitoring, have shown that these systems work. The federal government

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increasingly is holding the pharmaceutical industry responsible for monitoring the supply chain for the illegal and out-of-pattern ordering of Schedule II drugs (opioids) and is penalizing distributors and manufacturers as seen recently in the Purdue Pharma and McKinsey settlement.

Another area of recent interest where it is working is with cold chain monitoring, or ensuring the temperature integrity of pharmaceuticals across the supply chain according to the FDA, USP-NF, EU GDP and WHO guidelines and regulations. Cold chain shipments are increasing as has recently been highlighted related to improper handling of the COVID vaccines.

This act also prepares the market for a greater focus on mass customization and personalized medicines, since the legacy one-size-fits-all drug production and distribution methods are starting to show their limits. Ultimately that means even more need for identification and security in packaging.

Blockchain Tracking and managing all of this information requires significant amounts of secure data. One of the newest and seemingly most desirable ways to accomplish this is through the use of blockchain technologies. While many may think of blockchain in the context of bitcoins, blockchain technology at its core is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records the provenance of a digital asset.

Shahram Ebadollahi, vice president of innovations and chief science officer at IBM Watson Health, “sees blockchain especially well suited for the pharmacy supply chain, since DSCSA regulation requires an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace prescription drugs distributed in the United States.” The industry seems to agree and is moving in that direction.

track and trace application. For track and trace you would need to introduce the variable data into the printing process. Including variable data in print is nothing new, since it has been used in transactional printing for decades, and the software systems exist. This can be accomplished either by digitally imprinting the printed packaging either in line with supplementary inkjet printheads or directly with a digital press, depending on the run lengths and cost considerations.

Currently, holograms are Read More… being used for basic identification Find article at of counterfeit, although techPrintingNews. com/21148737 nologies like RFID and NFC are better suited to identify pharma products as well as capture chain-of-custody information. These solutions have already started to find their way into the product supply chain. These technologies currently require the application of a premanufactured tag to the label or package. While these technologies have proven to work, there is an additional cost in excess of $.01 per tag, in the case of holographic tags, not including the application associated with their inclusion on a label or package. It’s much higher for RFID and NFC, which can add as little as $.10 and up per tag depending on the tag, volume and application costs. In the future, we will see the use of a post print electronic embellishment technology.

Caution is an imperative Working with sensitive information is not new for PSPs, but the risks of improper handling or data collection in pharma products can potentially have more serious consequences than sending the insurance form or bank statement to a consumer. As a result, do your due diligence with your customer and the regulations, and of course test and verify. ●

Tools and Methods So how do you, as a print service provider or converter, ensure that you are compliant? Ultimately it is up to your customer within the context of DSCSA which information you need to supply and how you will integrate your process information with theirs.

The use of variable data is a requirement in any

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Holograms are being used for basic identification of counterfeit pharma products.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Executive Summary

PRINTING OUTLOOK 2021

By Richard Romano

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n October and November 2020, WhatTheyThink’s Business Outlook Survey asked print business executives and owners about their 2020 business conditions, business challenges, biggest perceived opportunities and investment plans. We also asked about respondents’ opinions of virtual events, as well as their 2020 hiring plans. The results of this survey—and much much more—are included in WhatTheyThink’s “Printing Outlook 2021” special report. Here are some of the top-level findings from that report.

Revenues

to rebound in 2021, although not completely. ● 11% of respondents expect revenues to increase by 25% or more in 2021 vs. 2020. ● 29% expect 2021 revenues to increase between Read More…

10% and 25%.

Find article at ● 27% expect revenues to PrintingNews. com/21148881 increase between 5% and 10%. ● 11% expect revenues to decrease in 2021 over 2020.

Overall, printing establishments expect a +9.1% change in revenues in 2021.

Jobs/Orders ● 2 3% of print businesses said jobs for 2020 had decreased more than 25% compared to 2019. ● 26% said jobs declined between 10% and 25%. ● 11% said jobs declined between 6% and 10%. ● 7% said jobs decreased between 1% and 5%. ● 13% said the number of jobs had Figure 1. In terms of your 2020 revenues at this Figure 2. How do you expect your 2021 revstayed basically the same, and for location only, how do they compare to 2019? enues at this location to compare to 2020?

21%, jobs increased in 2020 com● 28% of print businesses said that revenues for pared to 2019.

2020 had decreased more than 25% compared We calculated an average change in jobs of to 2019.

-10.8% from 2019 to 2020. ● 26% said revenues had declined between 10% Shops are anticipating a return of volume but, again, and 25%. not at a level that will make up for jobs lost in 2020. ● 12% said revenues declined between 6% and 10%. ● 11% of respondents expect jobs/orders to ● 4% said revenues had decreased between 1% increase by 25% or more in 2021. and 5%. ● 32% expect jobs to increase between 10% ● 10% said revenues had stayed basically and 25%. the same and a happy 12% said revenues ● 22% expect jobs to increase between 6% and increased in 2020 compared to 2019.

10%.

We calculated an average change in revenues ● 15% expect jobs to increase between 1% and of -12.6% from 2019 to 2020, compared to +4.1% 5%. from 2018 to 2019. ● 10% expect jobs to stay about the same, and The general expectation is that business is going 12% expect jobs to decrease in 2021.

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The average expected change in jobs/orders is +9.0%.

Profitability ● 25% of respondents said profits decreased 25% or more from 2019. ● 16% said profits had decreased between 10% and 25%. ● 9% said profits had decreased Figure 7. In the next 12 months, which of the following will be your biggest business challenges? between 6% and 10%. ● 11% said profits had decreased between 1% and 5%. and an all-time high for this challenge. ● 16% said profits had remained about the ● At number five was “pricing,” selected by 29%, same, although 23% said that profits had unchanged from last year, although it was the increased over 2019. number-one challenge last year.

The average change in profits was -9.6%.

Business Opportunities ● 14% of respondents expect profits to increase ● The number-one business opportunity from this 25% or more in 2021. survey was “improving economic conditions,” ● 19% expect profits to increase between 10% selected by 50% of respondents, the highest this and 25%. opportunity has charted in many years. ● 22% expect profits to increase between 6% ● Number two was “national recovery from and 10%.

COVID-19,” selected by 48% of respondents. ● 17% expect profits to increase between 1% ● Number three, way down at 30% (a threeand 5%. year-low), was last year’s number one: “cus● 16% expect profits to stay about the same, tomers outsourcing more work to us.” and 11% expect profits to decrease in 2021. ● Number four was “hiring new salespeople” at The average expected change in profits is +8.0% 21%, up from 15% last year. from 2020 to 2021.

Top Business Challenges ● The number-one challenge in this survey was “regaining business lost due to COVID,” selected by 55% of respondents. ● Number two was “keeping my employees safe from COVID,” selected by 40%. ● Number three was “national economic conditions,” selected by 36%, up from 22% in last year’s survey. ● Number four was “increasing plant productivity,” selected by 30%, way up from 18% last year

Figure 8. In the next 12 months, which of the following represent your best new business opportunities?

Continued on page 66

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MANAGEMENT ─ Assured Execution

BRIDGING STRATEGY TO EXECUTION How to implement the three C’s.

By Preston Herrin

I

mperfection in strategic planning and execution is common. Implementing simple fixes to generate desired outcomes is surprisingly uncommon.

Studies have shown that as many as 90% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution. These are epic failure rates that, but for a plan to bridge strategy to tactical execution, could instead be sustainable successes. Why then do leadership teams continue to endure poor execution?

Admitting that there is a problem is a good first step, followed by a decision to do something about it.

However, the start is what stops most people.

My experience with strategic planning and execution within medium and large organizations echoes the poor execution performance statistics.

Early in my executive career I began to discover signs indicative of meager execution. Here are a few (of many) common warning signs that strategy execution is lacking.

1. T he team is reactive rather than proactive. very task and idea becomes a priority, and 2. E few come to fruition.

3. M anagement arbitrarily sends out tasks to the team to keep them busy. anagers cannot articulate where the 4. M company will be in a year.

5. T he team will chase any and every opportunity to gain the revenue. erformance measurements, beyond revenue 6. P and profitability, are scarce.

Leadership is often united in the need for, development of, and investment in a solid strategic plan.

However, in reality, there is an imbalance favoring the strategic planning process, while little effort is invested to ensure that execution protocols, alignment and tracking are in place to measure performance.

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To bridge a well-formulated strategy to effective execution, proactively answer “why, what and how?” questions by following these three “C’s.”

Constancy to Purpose Tying strategy to the company vision and mission will answer the critical question of “why” the team comes to work every day to perform. The people that comprise your team and company desire a sense of belonging to something special. Every motion of the organization should be aligned with your purpose for being there and the aspirations of what you want to achieve. Correlating company ethos to strategic plans of action, and doing so consistently, will solidify a clear company identity in the hearts and minds of the team.

This constancy to purpose will act as a valuable strategic guardrail to ensure that plans are within the scope of corporate strategy and vision. It also creates a “true-north” for the team that clarifies performance expectations and reinforces why the team invests their time and energy into the company.

Stay focused on and constant to the company’s purpose for being. The team members will notice and be grateful for the clarity.

Cascade Objectives Transparently Distilling strategy into actionable steps to define “what” the team will be executing is where many plans come apart. Quite literally, this is the crucial effort that builds the information bridge to the team upon whom leadership is relying to execute the strategy. The use of spreadsheets for this practice is clunky, outdated, time-consuming and errorprone. A burgeoning segment of the software industry has designed unique, simple and affordable tools that transparently connect strategy to

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functional objectives and cascades these action plans to departments and individuals. Robust visuals, coupled with transparent dashboard displays track and report progress and make SaaS solutions a must to simplify this essential process.

Mid-course corrections are inevitable in the agile organization. Whether large or small corrections, digital SaaS tools easily adapt to strategic refinement. Any mid-course correction can be easily introduced and then nested within functional objectives and action plans delivering immediate roll-up reporting to management. With the adoption of digital solutions, what took days to update can be accomplished with great accuracy within minutes.

Cultivate Accountability & Alignment Adopting digital solutions that are transparent in the execution of objectives creates the opportunity for establishing “how” the team will explicitly and implicitly be held accountable. Explicit in that departments are able to see how others are performing and how the cross-functional results are dependent upon each other. Implicit in that success breeds success and therefore stokes a company-wide sense of accomplishment. Allow all departments and individuals to achieve early wins.

These wins will fan the flames of performance and perpetuate future successes.

Adjacent to accountability, establishing alignment with high-profile recognition, compensation, performance reviews and celebrations will reinforce that achieving objectives is a cultural imperative of the organization. Alignment will anchor the crucial bridging effort while attracting and retaining performance-oriented talent.

Once the three “C’s” have been implemented,

Read More…

leadership takes on three primary Find article at roles: impediment remover, PrintingNews. encourager and refiner. As the com/21148738 teams execute on their objectives, the agile leadership team will be able to identify laggards and quickly react to remove obstacles, shore-up resources, change personnel, approve additional budget or altogether pivot direction.

Encourage people, teams and departments through regular progress updates and impromptu recognitions while moving quickly to refine plans as situations and environments change. Team members will recognize leadership’s agile responses to change and begin to emulate those actions within the business, effectively ending the status quo in the organization.

The practical outworking of the three “C’s” is the creation of an execution engine within the organi-

zation where functional agility becomes a forcemultiplier for sustained success.

In fact, assured execution will drive more sophisticated strategies and propel growth trajectories to new heights. Leadership should no longer accept lackluster execution but rather employ these surprisingly uncommon tactics to effectively bridge strategy to execution. ●

Preston Herrin is a strategy, growth, and performance consultant. He has served in c-level and senior leadership roles at fast-growth companies like 4over LLC, Café Press, and Drummond. In his 30-year career Preston’s roles span strategy, business development and executive management providing e-commerce, software, logistics and service solutions for all vertical markets such as Manufacturing, Finance, Healthcare, Nonprofits and more.

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Customer Integrations

TIES

THE

BIND

THAT

Integrate IT with your customers’ ERP.

By Jennifer Matt

W

e are working on many integrations for printers that allow some level of automation with their customers.

The most popular project we get is the “coupling” of a customer’s ERP system and the printer’s ERP/Print MIS system. This entails some level of integration between the customer’s ERP system and the printer’s, typically inbound order entry and outbound status.

When I encourage printers to develop self-service web-to-print/order entry solutions, one of the first things many printers say is that their customers

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have their own ERP systems and don’t want to do the duplicate work of entering orders twice. Customer integrations is the solution to reducing the ordering effort of your customers and the labor of your customer service team. Yes, it increases the effort of your IT team, but it is well worth it.

I love customer integrations.

You should too.

My love isn’t for the project coordination required to get it right, the testing required across multiple organizations, or the fact that you have to monitor upgrades for both systems. None of that

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makes me love them. What makes me love the customer integration project is that I know the printer is spending their hard-earned profit embedding themselves into their most important customers.

If your customer’s only connection to you is email, you are as easy to replace as changing an email address. I know what you’re saying: “But we have great customer service. Our customers love our sales team—they have known each other for years.”

It’s not enough.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to learn this by losing a top customer that may take years to recover.

Customer convenience is a huge part of customer loyalty. You can have the nicest sales representatives in the world and still have a print business that is a pain in the butt to do business with. We’re currently working on a project for a labels and packaging printer that is proactively asking us to integrate with all their top customers’ ERP systems. They evaluated their customer base and determined the top target customers by order volumes, order frequency and average number of order line items. When your customer orders hundreds of line items several times a week, email is a horrible solution. Our integration approach is to allow the customer to continue to do what they do in their ERP and then “flex” the integration to be able to consume the output for direct input into the printer’s Print MIS. We often have to do this without asking much of the customer’s IT department (that is always backlogged and never has time to do development for vendors). Most customers are creating the purchase order in their ERP and then committing it to a PDF for email submission. Most ERP systems can just as easily commit that purchase order to a data feed format rather than a PDF format. We can then work with the output to consume it into the Print MIS. My colleague, Chris Reisz-Hason, always

used the term “loosely coupled” to describe two systems in communication with each other. I describe it as creating a bridge between your IT infrastructures. This relationship cannot be replaced without some effort. Once your customer experiences this ease of ordering, it becomes their new normal. When those competitive sales calls come in, the reality hits. If they change vendors, they have to do the work again to integrate.

Integrating with your customer’s technology is very strategic.

This is why not all your sales team will “get it.”

I’ve heard sales people say it just slows down the sale. “We just want the customer to start ordering from us immediately. Why delay the revenue?”

You need to step in and be the strategic leader if your sales team reacts like this. Every print business would benefit from more customers who are deeply embedded with them. It’s delayed return on investment, which we all know some sales folks don’t like.

A printer we worked with in 2018 reached out to me recently. Their largest customer was acquired by a much larger company. They were really concerned about their staying power. Their primary relationship in the company was not retained during the merger.

Read More…

Luckily, in 2018, we had done Find article at an integration into their ERP. PrintingNews. com/21148739 When the new team assessed the vendors, the first group they moved into the “maintain status quo” category was all the vendors who had integrations. Now the printer has gotten additional business from the acquiring company (instead of being replaced because the labels and packaging vendor from the larger company had no integration). This is a great story of how strategic moves like integrating with your customers’ systems pay off in the long term. ●

Jennifer Matt writes, speaks, and consults with printers worldwide who realize their ability to leverage software is critical to their success in the Information Age.

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Customer Segmentation

DIVERSIFY YOUR

BUCKETS

Analyzing customer segmentation in your print business

By Jennifer Matt

W

hat do you print?

That’s not the same as: What print manufacturing processes does your business have? The first thing I want to understand about your print business is the communication product you manufacture and its job in the marketplace.

If you print election ballots, they provide a key part of the execution of a democratic government. If you print restaurant menus, they enable restaurant customers to make their meal decisions. If you print parking passes, you enable folks to safely park in restricted areas.

You get the idea.

I prefer to start at the “job level” because the threat of a shift to digital alternatives is one of the first things I Read More… assess when I Find article at try to underPrintingNews. com/21148740 stand a print business. Is your current print work at risk of being replaced with digital alternatives? This is a fact of life in the market we live in—and COVID-19 just accelerated a lot

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of “jobs” from analog to digital that I thought would hang on for much longer.

The job a printed piece does leads us to the customer who requested it, and that leads us to customer segmentation. Understanding the segments of your current customer base is really important.

In 2020, COVID-19 crushed some market sectors—like retail and restaurants—and exploded other sectors—like labels and packaging. I’ve spoken with some printers whose businesses dropped by 30% because an entire sector of their business went dormant, but luckily they had the other 70% to carry them through. Turns out, diversity is always a good idea, in employees, in customers, in stock market portfolios, and of course in nature. Diversity hedges you against complete failure. Do you know if you have a diverse portfolio of customers? This is where customer segmentation comes into play.

Your next step is not to go purchase a Salesforce license.

This isn’t a technology problem (yet) and most people who jump into thinking an investment in a CRM is the answer often fail

to solve the most fundamental challenges of not understanding their basic market segmentation as soon as possible. We have a tendency to overcomplicate and aim for perfection only to fail to make simple, actionable progress. You have a set of customers—let’s say anyone who has transacted with your company in the last 24 months. Then you have patterns within this group of customers. Customer segmentation is about finding the patterns. Define market segments. Don’t overcomplicate this by trying to use terms or definitions that aren’t familiar to your team. Group your current customers into market segments that make sense to you, like pharma, higher ed, technology, travel & leisure, etc.

Once you have put each of your customers into a segment bucket, group them by buckets and start thinking about what you print for them.

Again, you’ll find patterns.

Then pull some numbers from your Print MIS and put values to the buckets. This will give you a sense of the “weight” of each market segment. You Continued on page 61

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For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10004777

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MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY ─ Direct Mail

DIRECT MAIL

RETARGETING GOES

MAINSTREAM How its grown in the printers offering these services.

By Heidi Tolliver-Walker

D

irect mail retargeting is a fastgrowing market, with more printers offering it at much lower prices. What’s behind this growth?

Of all the types of martech stacks, the second fastest growing category is data, with 25.5% YOY growth. The first, with 35% YOY growth as of April 2020 — hold onto your seats — is print. Yes, print is the fastest growing martech stack, followed by data,

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according to Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, in a recent webinar, “Let’s Talk About Data: A Tutorial on the Value of Personalization,” hosted by Printing Impressions.

“It’s like we woke up one day and said, ‘We can use print with this,’” Miller said.

These two data points don’t have a direct connection to direct mail retargeting, but the combination of the two does help to explain why we’re seeing more and more of it. Direct mail retargeting is getting easier.

One of the providers of Read More… direct mail Find article at retargeting is PrintingNews. com/21148741 LSInc. It calls its direct mail retargeting service “Boomerang Direct,” generating direct mail pieces based on what consumers view on a customer’s website. Its pieces can be generated, in full compliance with privacy regulations, within hours. Even if the visitor does not provide their address, LSInc uses a proprietary workflow to match that visitor with their postal address.

Website visitors receive fully personalized postcards, with matched incentives, driving them back to the customer’s website or nearest retail location.

Customers include Harry & David, Talbot’s, Ashley HomeStore and Wells Fargo, among others.

Another provider of direct mail retargeting is SG360°. In the webinar, Melanie De Caprio, director of marketing at SG360°, discussed Go Inspire’s fascinating study “The Abandoned Cart Continued on page 61

Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, and author for more than 20 years. Her industry commentary can be found in national printing publications, blogs, and marketing publications.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Become A Successful Leader

LOOKING CLOSER AT

LEADERSHIP

How to use tradeoffs, compromise and paradox to become a successful leader.

By Wayne Lynn

A

s F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

The same is true with a leader running an organization. They must make decisions that can’t be delegated, set the course by defining vision, purpose and goals, all while managing and resolving stress.

All of these involve conflicting demands and tensions between possible choices. For clarity, tension in this discussion is the state created by trying to resolve the difference between what the current situation is and what the desired situation you want to achieve would be. There are three possible “lenses” at the disposal of the leader to deal with those conflicting demands and stress.

These lenses are tradeoffs, compromises and paradoxes.

Let’s look at each one within the context of decision-making.

Tradeoff The tradeoff lens uses a decision process of weighing the pros and cons of competing options.

The goal is to find an option that maximizes advantages and limits disadvantages. Finding the best option through tradeoffs is the tension reliever in this case. A good example of this approach is the allocation of capital and talent to your best opportunities. You’ll rarely have enough of each to take advantage of all your opportunities. The tradeoff approach helps to find your best options.

Continued on page 62

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MANAGEMENT ─ Customer Integrations

COFFEE IS FOR

CLOSERS Double down during the “Qualify Stage” and watch your close ratios skyrocket.

P

icture more contracts this year. Imagine fewer “stalls” or “stops” during your sales process. Visualize the impact of improved close ratios on your commissions. To make these dreams a reality, let’s talk about the “Qualify Stage.”

relationships, political issues, contract terms, current partnerships ● The prospect’s personality type and how you will customize your approach accordingly ● All the options they’ve considered to solve their problem.

The “Qualify Stage”

The Buyer’s Journey

The “Qualify Stage” is the process of clarifying the prospect’s needs and confirming all aspects of a mutual fit. Within the sales process, it follows the “Suspect” or “Interest” stage and comes right before the “Develop” or “Discover” stage.

A partial list of information to be learned during the “Qualify Stage” includes: ● Questions about fit ● Information about the prospect’s current state and desired state ● Insights into the prospect’s problems, needs and/or opportunities ● Confirmation from the prospect that they have a problem they are committed to solve ● The process and timeline of the buying team ● The people associated with the decision process such as stakeholders, decision influencers, decision makers, executive sponsor, and subject matter experts such as legal, procurement and IT ● Their driving motivation to solve the problem now ● Budget or budget range and the budget approval process ● Possible barriers such as existing

This stage can seem one-sided for a salesperson who is solely focused on what they need to learn to determine a fit and move forward. However, the buyer is going through their own journey as well.

What is the prospect doing, thinking and feeling?

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Doing • Researching options/competitors • Working to resolve their current pain points • Quantifying the cost to solve their problem • Deciding what resources are needed to solve their problem • Bringing stakeholders into the buying process

Thinking • Considering the risks associated with a change • Thinking about the costs vs. the benefit of solving their problem • Contemplating the steps in their buying journey

Feeling • Exposure from their issues • Guilt in making a change in providers • Fatigue about the buying process • Fear about making a bad decision • Excitement about solving their problem and gaining the benefits of a solution

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The most successful sales approach during the “Qualify Stage” is a blend of the salesperson’s need for information with empathy, understanding and alignment with the “Buyer’s Journey.”

Yellow/Red Flags ● Lack of understanding of the essential information needed ● Questions that don’t yield the information required to move forward, don’t get to the root cause of the prospect’s problem, don’t help the prospect define the implication of moving forward, or questions that only benefit the seller, not the prospect ● No pre-call planning to prepare for meetings with a clear understanding of the nuances ● Moving to the next stage too quickly without prospect validation and commitment that you have a solid basis to move forward

Prospect Questions/ Conversation Points ● Can you describe your goals and priorities for this project (upcoming RFP)? ● What’s the underlying drive to solve the problem? Have you tried to solve this problem in the past? If so, what was the outcome? Is your team committed to moving forward to solve this problem? ● Can you describe the implications of this business issue? ● How are decisions like this typically made in your organization? We have some sample business cases we can share. ● Can you tell me about your buying team?

Does the buying team have experience with this type of project?

If not, we may be able to provide X. ● Has the team gathered their initial criteria for this project? How did the team shape and define your requirements? Did you develop a rating or ranking system? ● What are the milestones and timelines that your buying team has established? Is the team committed to meet the timelines? How can we help you

meet your timelines? ● Has the funding been secured for this project?

Are there any financial implications, such as budget parameters, that your team must adhere to? Is the team seeking cost savings or process improvements leading to cost savings? If so, how will you measure? Do you anticipate Read More… any risks associated with Find article at funding? What other projects PrintingNews. com/21148735 might be competing for the same funds? ● What options is your team considering to solve this problem? How do you see the pros and cons of each option at this point? We have an analysis that might be timely, can we share with your buying team? ● Is maintaining the status quo or doing nothing an acceptable option for your team? ● Is your main objective to validate your current approach or make a change in partners? ● Does your team view changing providers as a risk in any way? What risks, if any, has the team identified? ● Can you tell me about your current provider relationship? What’s working well and what areas could be improved? ● Are there existing relationships or influences that could affect your decision process? ● Can you describe the outcomes your team is seeking? ● How can our team make this process easier for your team? In similar situations we’ve provided X, would this be helpful for your team as well?

Ring the Bell!

Salespeople will ring the bell more often when they do a thorough job during the “Qualify Stage.”

The result will be well worth your efforts. ●

Lisa Magnuson founded Top Line Sales in 2005. It has a proven track record of helping companies overcome the barriers to winning TOP Line Accounts. Learn more at www.toplinesales.com.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Still Creek Press

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA FOR

STILL CREEK PRESS Founded more than 30 years ago as a business forms printer, Vancouver’s Still Creek Press has evolved over the years.

By Richard Romano

T

he company may be called Still Creek Press, but for the company’s 30+-year history, it has been anything but still.

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Still Creek Press was founded by Len McClean to originally print business forms. Now run by his son Cameron, Still Creek Press has evolved over the decades and now offers—in addition to the original business forms—full digital printing and wide-format graphics, and even some packaging printing.

“We’ve had to adapt to offer different products just to keep in line with what’s in demand,” said Eric Benes, Still Creek Press’s sales representative and cousin of Cameron McClean. “So now we still do business forms and we’ve got sheetfed capabilities, a full digital department and a wide-format department.”

Still Creek Press began producing wide-format graphics about five years ago, and the company expanded its capabilities organically.

“We landed a few customers, and they were all interested in various types of wide format, and we started off by just jobbing it out to other companies nearby that we had relationships with,” Benes said.

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“Once it got to a certain point where it made sense, we decided to jump in and buy some equipment and allocate some space in our building to it. And it’s been growing since.”

The company has two Roland rollfed printers and a Flora flatbed.

“We can run a four by eight sheet [on the Flora] and as long as the surface is flat, we can print up to four inches,” he added.

A cutter that complements the Rolands and a laminator, round out Still Creek Press’s wide-format equipment roster.

Still Creek Press’ customer base is a healthy mix of chains, in particular restaurants, and an array of local businesses such as dentists.

“We have dental offices around us that reach out saying, ‘We need a banner for an event coming up,’ or sales reps contacting us for backdrops for Zoom meetings—that has been kind of big lately.”

With Vancouver’s substantial movie and television industry, the company has started pursuing some projects with studios.

“We have an ideal location,” Benes said, “just around the corner from one of the largest studios.”

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One recent project that the company tackled was a floor graphics project for the University of British Columbia (UBC), where students in the Opera program traditionally stage and perform a number of operas each year. That was put on hold when indoor entertainment venues across Canada had to close, but, undaunted, UBC Opera decided to put on several virtual events in late November. The students performed at the University’s venue, and the show was streamed live to audiences watching online.

Still Creek Press’ role in the project was to produce stage graphics that simulated a dirt road.

However, their involvement in the project came at the last minute after a lot of on-again-off-again decision-making regarding live events, and a realization that the traditional method of stage design would not be feasible.

“What they typically do is they lay fabric down across the stage and someone or a small team will actually paint the fabric,” Benes said. “Once it’s painted, they have the ability to roll it up and take it off the stage, because often they’ll have various productions coming in at the same time and they need to switch back and forth between them.”

Initially, the opera company had been given the go-ahead to stage an in-person production.

However, after tickets had been sold, the government announced that since the virus was getting worse again, in-person events were a no-go. So UBC Opera decided—at the 11th hour—to instead stage it as a virtual show.

“Because of this, they only had about a week to get the stage set up, and that wasn’t enough time to paint the fabric stage.”

Enter printed floor graphics.

“We were in that space a little bit with some of our other clients and they ended up getting referred to us,” Benes said. “They contacted us to see if we had any ideas as to how we could expedite it and get it done.”

Enter Still Creek Press’s Roland printers (SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640s) and Drytac SpotOn Floor 200 vinyl film. Over a marathon four day/night session one long weekend, Still Creek Press produced graphics covering an area of 70 x 90 feet.

“We needed [a floor vinyl] that was going to

apply easily with no fuss and that was going to come up easily,” Benes said. “I’ve used SpotOn quite a bit over the years and I knew it would do the job.”

Benes kept an eye on the installation, which went without a hitch.

“When you do these projects, there’s always something that comes up, but it went really well,” he said.

There was only one minor incident in which one panel had to be reprinted, but other than that, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

“That was the only thing over the entire course of the project, so I was pretty happy about that.”

Another project that Benes is especially proud of was a series of glass panels for the Parq Vancouver hotel.

“There’s a massive array of 15-foot-tall glass panels facing the exterior of the building, and we had to do a frosted pattern across them,” he said. “It was about a three-day install that went really well.”

Still Creek Press has kept evolving, but as with virtually everyone, the pandemic has put the kibosh on a lot of forward thinking and future planning and even looking at new application areas to branch into.

“Typically, our minds would be going a million miles a minute on different things and different ideas, but right now, in the current climate, everyone’s Read More… pretty locked down.”

Find article at Still, the company’s widePrintingNews. com/21148784 format capabilities cover the waterfront in terms of what the company is usually called on to produce.

“With the way wide-format works, typically people come to us with a problem and it’s kind of fun when you get to think of ideas and problemsolve, troubleshoot and see what’s going to work for them.”

Still Creek Press was also heavily into events, which are still on hold, save for “virtual” events like the opera project. Once the pandemic lets up, Benes says the company is looking forward to picking up where they left off.

“We had been working a lot with the movie industry lately, so we’d like to continue that up.” ●

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LABELS & PACKAGING ─ Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Consumer behavior has changed at an alarming rate and will continue to change, opening up new opportunities for new product innovation— and packaging.

FMCS, OR WHERE’S THE TOILET PAPER?

By David Zwang

N

ow that we are starting a new year, hopefully one that will see some global health and business stabilization, it is time to reflect on what we learned in 2020. For packaging, one of the lessons taught by 2020 was that responding quickly to changing market needs is critical.

For consumers, that immediacy was addressed through online purchasing in place of in store, but what if the product isn’t there to order? FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) manufacturers and/or brands were caught backfooted as they needed to shift their production from supplying the wholesale sizes and volumes of commercial users to consumer retail sizes and brands as a result of the limiting or closing of many of the commercial establishments.

From a purely practical standpoint, it isn’t as if there was a population explosion and that’s why

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your favorite product wasn’t available. Granted, some of the product shortages were a result of consumers squirreling away some product (think toilet paper), but the bulk of the problem was a result of shifting consumer behavior, according to Rodney McMullen chairman and CEO of Kroger, the second largest retailer in the U.S. In the case of food, consumers went from dining out, to purchasing frozen foods, to purchasing ingredients and making their own. Kroger recognized a 92% bump in revenues in Q1 2020 as a result of the consumer behavior shift. According to McMullen, the “basket sizes of customers were bigger, and Kroger saw three years’ worth of growth in two weeks.” This shift happened so fast, and the FMCGs and supporting supply chain were not ready.

According to McMullen, while the pandemic sped up an existing trend, “retail keeps getting faster and faster.” He does expect that the current growth rate

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will subside a bit as thing start to stabilize, but consumer behavior has changed and will continue to change. So, what needs be done to prepare for FMCS (Fast Moving Consumer Shifts)?

FMCG/brands need to move out of their comfort zone.

While the supply chain needs to reconfigure to handle the increased rate of change, it really does need to start with the FMCG and brands.

Historically, they have been very conservative in their thinking and, more importantly, how they do business. The product marketing groups spend an inordinate amount of time getting the product and packaging “just right” so that it has shelf appeal.

However, the procurement groups look at packaging as a commodity. This difference of focus ultimately creates constraints on speed to market for new products and shifts in demand. On the other hand, it has opened up opportunities for new brands and products.

New Methods to Support Online Behavior Amazon was probably the only retailer that was in a position to handle the immediacy of the consumer purchasing shifts, albeit with some brute force, according to many. Expansion of their dry goods processing wasn’t easy, but they already had a lot of the pieces in place, although they did need to expand their distribution network. Their Whole Foods grocery group wasn’t as prepared, but they have been working on expanding BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store) and delivery into their entire chain. And while they had all been thinking about it prior to the pandemic, other retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online, realized they too needed to prepare for the new consumer purchasing realities faster than they had initially planned.

Kroger has already started to plan and prepare their own digital marketplace with third-party sellers (sound familiar?). They have also unveiled their own online grocery delivery service. The Kroger Ship direct-to-customer platform will extend its ship-to-home assortment beyond groceries to a range of other categories, including

natural and organic products, international food, specialty items, housewares and toys. They have partnered with e-commerce provider Mirakl to make this happen. This third-party seller model, like Amazon’s, creates new opportunities for the new and smaller brands who couldn’t get the “shelf space” in brick-and-mortar stores.

Not to be outdone, the Dutch-headquartered Ahold Delhaize, the leading global grocery retailer with over 6,500 stores in 11 countries, including nearly 2,000 in the U.S., with brands including Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford and Stop & Shop, have acquired FreshDirect. FreshDirect already has direct grocery delivery to selected markets in seven U.S. and plans to expand to double their U.S. delivery markets in 2021.

But the stores will need to change, too.

Currently, the way that brick-and-mortar stores like Whole Foods facilitate BOPIS and delivery is through the use of “in-store shoppers,” that act as proxy shoppers for those who ordered online.

They push carts through the aisles and use apps on their mobile device to select and bag the order for ultimate pickup or delivery. This very inefficient method competes with in-store consumers and adds overhead to the cost of the order.

The new hybrid model that is being kicked around by Amazon and others would have the consumer order online or when they get to the store, and if desired have the produce and fresh foods be able to be Read More… selected by the consumer, since Find article at that selection can be more subPrintingNews. com/21148783 jective, while the dry goods are being packed and even delivered using more automated methods like they currently do in their warehouses. This will get the consumer out of the store a lot faster, with the potential to reduce the store footprint and reduce the shelf space limitations, which will foster new product innovation.

And what about the packaging to support the new consumer behaviors? We will take a look at those new demands and some of the changes needed in Part 2. ●

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EVENTS ─ Virtual

VIRTUAL EVENTS: THE

AND

PROS CONS

2020 and a good part of 2021 will be seen as the time of virtual events.

By Cary Sherburne

E

vent organizers around the globe have been hard-hit by the pandemic, including both for-profit organizations and non-profits such as associations, both of which count on event revenue for their very survival. And there have been many different responses, ranging from full cancellations, to postponements, to conversion to virtual events to carry these groups through the pandemic.

Drupa, for example, was originally scheduled for June 2020 and postponed until spring of 2021. At the time, no one really thought this pandemic would last as long as it has. Finally, drupa cancelled the inperson event and is instead holding a “virtual drupa” April 20 - 23. The show is on course for an in-person event May 28 - June 7, 2024. Interpack suffered a similar fate: cancelled for 2021 and rescheduled to occur May 4 - 10, 2023.

Here in North America, major events such as PRINTING United and EFI Connect were re-envisioned as multi-day virtual events (PRINTING United Digital Experience and EFI Engage, respectively). Both plan in-person events—PRINTING United in Orlando with a planned exhibit space of 1.2 million square feet, Oct. 6 - 8, 2021. This

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may still be optimistic; it remains to be seen. EFI Connect will resume its in-person event in January 2022, at The Wynn in Las Vegas—let’s all hope we have this virus well under control by then!

During its virtual event, PRINTING United delivered more than 7,800 hours of video content, all of which was made available through Jan. 31, 2021.

When we spoke to organizers in November, they reported more than 8,200 attendees from 108 countries, with more expected to view the archives at their convenience.

Xplor International shifted to a multi-day virtual event, and, as an association, is grateful to its sponsors for their continued support in helping them weather the pandemic. And the Flexo Labels Advantage Group (FLAG) did so, as well.

TexProcess/TechTextil postponed its in-person event to August 2021, which also may be a bit optimistic. But in the interim, the organization has been offering a series of webinars at the rate of two to three per month in lieu of a single virtual event to both keep themselves top of mind and get important and timely information out to its constituents. Event organizers reported that response to the webinars has been better than anticipated, and

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more than 65% of attendees chose to view them live, rather than later from the archive.

PRINTING United/AATCC held its December Digital Textile Printing Conference virtually over two days in December 2020, and plans an in-person event for December 2021. AATCC has also been offering a number of virtual sessions during this period, including presenting research relevant to the pandemic, like development in antimicrobial fabric treatment and data with respect to effectiveness of various types of masks.

One company, whose business it is to provide trade show booths and other exhibit materials, took time during the early days of the pandemic to use its expertise to make its workplace safer, including a “check-in” kiosk that did temperature checks, monitored who was coming and going, and had a hand sanitizer dispenser and PPE available. The company then turned those items into products that companies can use in their facilities as we continue to weather this pandemic storm, creating a new revenue stream that will likely continue into the future, and replacing at least some of the lost revenue due to cancelled in-person events.

These are just a few examples of how the pandemic has affected the events industry. But what do the various constituents think about virtual events? We personally talked to several, and we also included a few questions in our “WhatTheyThink Fall 2020 Business Outlook Survey.”

Let’s take a look at the survey results first. The survey was conducted in November and December, and of course, there have been many changes since then, including a new administration aggressively working to control the virus, two approved vaccines and more on the horizon, and a downward trend in some of the

metrics that we hope will continue. But with that in mind, here are the responses we received.

First, we wondered how comfortable people would feel attending events currently planned for later in 2021, and post-COVID in general. About onethird of respondents indicated they would attend without hesitation while another third said they would prefer to wait until there is a vaccine—it would be interesting to speak to that group in a month or so to see how they are feeling as the vaccines continue to roll out. Seventeen percent indicated they would prefer not to attend events until the virus is eradicated. Again, this would be a good group to follow up with, since many health professionals indicate we may never totally eradicate it, but have a lot of hope about the ability to bring it under control, and, hopefully, reduce the severity of symptoms that a vaccinated person might experience if they do happen to contract some new strain of the virus.

Then we wondered how much of our audience actually attended or planned to attend virtual events; almost half attended at least some and another 18% had future plans to attend, leaving 35% with no interest in virtual events.

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EVENTS ─ Virtual

These findings are part of the WhatTheyThink Printing Outlook 2021 report which will be available later this week in our eStore.

Finally, for those that attended virtual events, what did they think of them? The vast majority said they were inferior to or no substitute for inperson events.

The conversations we had with various constituents lined up well with these larger survey results.

Events like EFI Engage may be a bit of an exception, both because of the scheduling that enabled international access to certain sessions at a convenient time, as well as some sessions offered in other languages, and also because attendees most likely spent most of their time in a smaller number of sessions that were specific to the products they owned or were considering purchasing. Thus, their sessions were likely spread out conveniently over eight days and did not require continuous participation throughout. Some sessions were available

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as streaming content to be viewed later, including keynotes, that could be viewed at a convenient time. Since we are in the middle of EFI Engage as I write this, we have not had an opportunity to speak to any of the stakeholders to verify that assumption. But events like this—user groups specifically—enable a broader audience to attend. In the old days, a company might send 10 to 15 people to an event like EFI Connect or Graph Expo. But over time, that was reduced to one or two people in order to keep costs in line. With the virtual event, since there were no travel costs, more team members could attend the educational sessions.

We spoke with several sponsors/exhibitors, who agreed that if they could provide content during a virtual event as well as have a virtual presence, there was value. But if they could not provide content, there was little value. Especially for the consultants we spoke with, but really for everyone, a huge value of an in-person event is the ability to wander the halls and aisles, discover new things, catch up with old friends, and make new ones. In most cases, they were less than happy with the virtual exhibit halls—and likely there is much to learn about how to do those effectively. A couple of event organizers noted that exhibitors complained about lack of interactivity with the audience, but digging deeper, those were the ones that most likely were not doing any promotion ahead of time, as they would have done to have a successful

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in-person event.

One outstanding example of a successful virtual event was FLAG—although it is a small group with just over 100 member companies, about 60% of its members participated. And feedback from exhibitors was also very positive. The way the virtual booths were structured was convenient and flexible. For example, it was easy for an attendee to schedule a meeting, and if no one was available to “staff” the booth, the chat function went away. This meant that sponsors didn’t have to have someone monitoring the booth all the time or attendees waiting vainly for a response to a chat request. It also alerted both sponsor and visitor that someone was actually in the booth, which many of the others did not. Content could be anything from video to brochures and white papers. And for sponsors, the booths were easy to populate.

APTech had already abandoned its large in-person event—Graph Expo/Print—and was planning smaller regional events, a plan they will continue to follow once it becomes possible again. Meanwhile, the organization will anchor its virtual events around specific topics that are focused and more likely to keep attendees engaged.

One equipment vendor we spoke with was doing a number of internal and external virtual meetings on a daily basis, including webinars, and found those useful, but concluded that virtual exhibitions simply do not work, mostly due to the lack of interaction among people, at least for the events he participated in.

In addition, we already had a trend toward vendors holding dedicated customer events, mostly in addition to trade shows—EFI Connect, Canon thINK, Ricoh Interact and many more. It will be interesting to see whether these smaller, more focused events—once we are back to in-person mode—will take share from larger trade shows, or whether vendors/exhibitors will still continue to do both at the same rate. I’m sure this is a conversation event organizers are having with their exhibitors.

For those planning in-person events later this year, and even into early 2022, most indicated they expect to see either mask mandates or at least a lot of people wearing masks. At the same time,

convention venues have been busy upgrading ventilation, changing signage and taking other steps to make the facilities safer.

Even FLAG, which had very positive feedback from both sponsors and members, admitted that virtual events won’t replace in-person events once travel gets back to normal. A key element of its in-person event—and many others that I have attended—includes a visit to a nearby business, university or other important location where on-theground information is available—something difficult to duplicate in a virtual event.

For now, it seems, we will be limited to virtual events at least through most of the summer if not most of the year. What I have seen, though, is a lot of learning taking place in terms of the best way to conduct these events, and I believe in the future we will see more hybrid events—in-person events but with a virtual component that can include either folks who can’t or don’t want to travel. In-person will always be superior, but there will continue to be significant value in Read More… virtual events, as well. And most Find article at event organizers agreed that prePrintingNews. com/21148743 senting content in three- to fourhour chunks was more effective than full-day virtual events in order to keep people engaged. One example of this that I thought went very well was the PRINTING United/AATCC Digital Textile Conference, which had two to three hours of content in the morning and afternoon with a two-hour lunch break that made it feel much more like you were sitting in the conference room at the event and less guilty if you stepped away for a couple hours.

The bottom line is people want the education these events provide—in-person or virtual—but in the end, they would also like to take advantage of the natural networking that occurs at in-person events. As we get further into 2021 and see the global impact vaccines and other measures have, perhaps we will be able to get back to in-person events. Personally, I think it will be some time before these can be conducted at the scale we are used to, but we’ll see how it goes. At least we have the virtual options to keep us informed and engaged as we weather this unfortunate pandemic. ●

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EXECUTIVE Q&A ─ Durst

DURST EXPANDS ITS

VIRTUAL DEMO CAPABILITIES This month’s Executive Q&A features Christoph Gamper, CEO of Durst, and Christian Harder, the company’s vice president of sales.

By Cary Sherburne

Printing News: Christoph, though I am sure our readers are all familiar with Durst, let’s start with a brief overview of the company.

Christoph Gamper: We are a nearly 80-yearold family-owned company located in the heart of Europe in Brixen, Italy in the middle of the mountains. Today we have a little more than 700 employees in three production locations and about 20 distributors and subsidiaries worldwide.

We are all about digital printing, in signage, fabric, labels & packaging, corrugated board printing, and 2D and 3D ceramic tile. We are specialists in digital production; wherever Christoph Gamper, inkjet goes and we see a market for CEO ourselves, that’s where we go; and we try to be number one or number two in each space where we compete.

PN: How is the business divided up between the primary areas where you compete?

CG: The large format business is a little less than half of our sales revenue, and our sales revenue worldwide last year was about $300 million. Within the large format business, we have signage, soft signage and industrial textiles. The latter doesn’t play a large role for us.

PN: And what about packaging and corrugated?

CG: Those are areas where we have been growing very fast, and we have been investing a lot, especially in labels. We also did a lot of research into corrugated printing with water-based inks, and installations as well. So these markets are very good for us.

PN: In your new headquarters, you have a Customer Experience Center. I wonder what customers would see

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if they visit, and in the current time, do you have virtual demos available?

CG: We’re in here now. I’m speaking to you from our bar, where we have a barista and real Italian coffee. We have our UVC-R Air Disinfection System running, an innovative solution for reducing the viral load in indoor environments. We put our expertise in the laboratories, in production, in UV technology, in flow simulations and in the safety guidelines together, to bring a piece of quality of life back to the new normality, with this Air Disinfection System. It combines both air exchange and UV irradiation in one system, effectively reducing infectious aerosols, viruses and germs in indoor environments. It’s made our work environment safer, and we also market this product as well. But yes, we are still here, and we are also doing virtual demos.

Christian Harder: Before the pandemic, we welcomed many customers from around the world into our Customer Experience Center.

We have a wide range of our products here for customers to experience, including digital printers for all of the different market segments we support, including the new P5 350 HS platform and our label printers. Now with the pandemic, things have completely Christian Harder, changed. We have implemented a VP of Sales virtual platform for demos during this time; and much to our surprise, they were very much welcomed and well-received by our customers. Before all of this, we really didn’t believe that a virtual demonstration of a printer of the investment scale we are talking about would work out, but indeed they have. We also have a virtual showroom

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on our website where customers can configure printers to meet their needs.

PN: And when you announced your new P5 350 high speed printer, you did that with a virtual event, right?

CG: During the pandemic, we’ve had a couple of virtual product launches, including that one, because it was the only way we could get it done. So far, we are very happy with how it has gone. People are making buying decisions based on these virtual demos. We are looking forward to being able to get back to in-person demos in our center, but even then, we believe perhaps 50% will still want to do them virtually.

PN: You’ve also introduced new elements to your smart factory approach, including Automat, carrying the Pixels to Output theme forward?

CG: Yes, this is important because efficiency is not a question of fast printing. Efficiency is a question of the best workflow you can get. We’ve always had it in mind to do a nice suite of software and hardware that binds it all together and gives you an efficient workflow so at the end of the day, the customer can save time and produce more efficiently.

It has paid off in many ways, especially during the pandemic when you cannot have the print shop full of people. Automat is just a different automation piece we have added.

PN: During this time, looking at your customer base, which segments have managed to carry on despite the pandemic, and how have some of them shifted their businesses during the pandemic?

CG: Labels & Packaging has done very well, even during the pandemic. What definitely has been basically killed is soft signage for trade shows, outdoor signage and so on. I would say compared to 2019, before the pandemic, we have seen perhaps 22% less in the customer base. But some customers have gone different ways to add to the business.

CH: We have some great examples where some of our customers were able to diversify, perhaps into labels or the packaging industry, so they did not suffer as much. We have both single-pass solutions and multi-pass solutions that they were able to leverage during this time.

CG: A lot of it comes down to the applications.

If you have a very solid application with a complete

value chain, you are able to stay in the business. If you are just doing printing for the sake of printing, it was way more difficult. Especially online printers with a good front end, labels was a good opportunity, because labels business might have been a side business, but it gained in importance. Just think about craft breweries as an example. Some of these online printers really understood that you could connect the printer to a web site and to a cutter, and go with it. Our job is to show how they can innovate, and that helped them keep up production and keep people employed.

PN: Anything else you would like Read More… to share with our audience?

Find article at CG: I have just one message to PrintingNews. com/21148734 the printing community. We will come back and come back strong, the whole community. It may be Q3 or Q4, but I see light at the end of the tunnel. We are ramping up a full portfolio to meet those needs.

CH: One thing good companies do is continue to invest, even in time of crisis, and we are in a crisis now. And we have been investing heavily, even before the pandemic. As Christoph said, we are optimistic, though we still have to go through the rest of this. But we’ll be here with the right portfolio, not only hardware solutions but software solutions, to have the right solutions for and with our customers.

EDITOR’S NOTE: To view to the full video interview, visit https://bit.ly/2ZsyyQt

Durst HQ Brixen, Italy

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Dynamic Digital Signage

MAKE IT New challenges for dynamic digital signage

By Richard Romano

T

he challenges of the last year may have slowed some progress in the expansion of dynamic digital signage (DDS), but it has, at the same time, opened up some new opportunities for DDS technologies—especially as they get cheaper and higher quality.

Pitch Perfecting When I first started covering DDS several years ago, the dominant screen technology was LCD— liquid crystal display—the kind of technology you find in computer monitors and in modern TV screens.

Recently, we have been seeing a shift to LED—lightemitting diodes—and it is poised to become the dominant technology for digital signage. The primary reason for this should be familiar to anyone from the

print world: higher-resolution screens, measured in what is called “pixel pitch.”

“There’s still a lot of refinement and development in the LED space, and it seems like there’s an ever-growing thirst for finer pixel pitch,” said Paul England, director of channel solutions of SNA Displays, a provider of LED displays.

Quick explainer: an LED display uses an array of three small bulbs (red, green and blue) grouped into a “cluster,” which is analogous to a pixel in the print world. The spacing between clusters is called the “pixel pitch” and is measured in millimeters. The finer (or smaller) the pitch, the higher the resolution and the sharper the images being displayed.

“From a technology standpoint, the big growth engine really is with tighter and tighter pitch options in the outdoor space,” said Jason Helton, executive vice president of SNA Displays.

“We’re starting to see a lot more 4, 5, 6 millimeter options, whereas a few years ago we were talking 10 millimeter and 8 millimeter was considered tight. Ten years ago, 12 millimeter was a great technology.

We installed the largest 8 millimeter [LED display] at 20 Times Square and that started to become the new trend. And now you’re starting to see 6 millimeter as the go-to technology in Times Square, as well.”

“We’re quickly seeing the transition from LCD over to LED because the pixel pitch is getting so small,” SNA Displays installed this large display on H&M’s flagship location at 151 West 42 St. in Times Square. It measures 19’8” high by 85” wide and employs a 10mm pixel pitch. (Image courtesy SNA Displays)

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said Wayne Rasor, director of digital and exterior technology for FASTSIGNS. “Almost every LCD manufacturer is offering LED signs, because they know where it’s going. I don’t know that LCD displays will completely go away, but they’re going to maybe move into only small form factors. Anything that’s 40 or 50 inches and above is all going to be LED eventually.”

Other improvements to LED displays are occurring on the back end of the display, such as greater processing power, ushering in a trend that should sound familiar.

“We’re seeing some growth in 10-bit color,” England said. “The requirements for higher-quality color are up there—and that’s processing, diodes and driver chips. People are expecting a higherquality color space, and they also want to be able to address a larger total gamut. So the move from good-enough color to accurate color is probably a major shift that we’ve seen a lot of traction in.”

“The consumers are becoming more intelligent about LED displays and LED display technology, and it’s a transition that takes time,” Helton said. “Now that we’re starting to really see the technology becoming more mainstream for indoor applications, there’s a lot more focus on proper setting of the gamma, proper setting of the color space, etc. With a lot of previous displays, it was slap it on the wall and walk away without having someone properly make all the settings. Having an end user that has the experience and intelligence to be able to come in and focus on all of the changes that they want to do on the content side to really get the best out of their display is pretty critical.”

The Move Indoors These improvements and others have also helped drive LED displays indoors.

“There’s a huge increase in narrow pixel pitch for interior displays to the point where interior LED displays are starting to take the place of what would have been projection systems,” said Vantage LED’s Deacon Wardlow, author, speaker and expert on digital signage. “You’re seeing more video walls in headquarters, in public spaces and common shared environments that you wouldn’t have seen before, and that’s partially because the technology

has come down in cost enough to be affordable. But it also adds a dynamic element to what otherwise would be a static environment.”

“Indoor has definitely become a growth area,” Helton said. “This type of technology in indoor has been booming for a long time in Asia, but the U.S. market has really taken off in the past three to five years. You’re starting to see more corporate lobby spaces, and executive briefing centers are starting to turn over at a rapid pace, thanks to the ease of putting these up.”

SNA Displays recently introduced a new line called ASPECT, all-in-one, plug-and-play LED display systems designed for indoor for meeting

The American Dream is a new “entertainment destination”— an evolution of the shopping mall—in East Rutherford, N.J., which features extensive interior LED DDS displays. (Image courtesy SNA Displays)

spaces like conference rooms, tradeshow booths and the like that function, said Helton, more or less like a large television.

“It can be put together in a day,” he said. “It can have a rolling base so you can move it around, but we’re essentially just making it simpler and easier to implement install these applications. LED technology has progressed to the point that we can treat it as a large TV in a lot of indoor applications.”

And then new LED DDS systems have played a role in the pandemic age, and COVID has helped resurrect some technologies that many in the industry had written off.

“I’d say [COVID] has changed the form factor and it’s actually brought to the forefront technologies that I think a lot of us thought were going to die,”

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Dynamic Digital Signage Rasor said. “One of the big things is trying to get people into your establishment, letting them know that you’re open, or what the new guidelines or policies are. How do you communicate that? Usually that’s with some sort of digital signage that is either outdoors or sits in your window and tries to pull people in. We’ve definitely seen a rise in outdoor LED boards as well as window LED signs.”

No Touch!

Until recently, the future of display was predicted to be all touchscreen-based. After the advent of smartphones and tablets, it was thought that touchscreens were the way that everyone was going to interact with technology. Post-pandemic, not anymore. So once you use your LED signage to draw customers in, what then?

“The trick is, how do we engage with them without contact?” Rasor said. “We were moving to a world where every screen was going to be interactive and a touchscreen, but no one wants to do that anymore. We’re not going to do it. So we’re finding other ways to actually interact and one of the big ones we’ve seen is the resurgence of QR codes.”

It’s taken a pandemic to make QR codes cool—but the important point is that the QR codes are displayed on some kind of signage, be it printed or electronic.

Transparency The decreasing pixel pitches of LED are helping a growing subset of DDS known as “transparent displays” that essentially replace a window with a see-through dynamic display. They are less

ostentatious and Las Vegasian than other digital displays and may help some municipalities that object to more traditional dynamic signage and electronic message centers.

“Especially with so many municipalities pushing harder against exterior outdoor digital signage, businesses want a way to stand out, but not in a negative, distracting way,” Wardlow said. “There are systems that are showing transparent displays that have levels of brightness that make it feasible for daytime use, too, which has been a challenge.”

Wardlow thinks transparent displays will become a major trend in late 2021–early 2022.

Applications Go Big According to SNA Displays, some of the major growth areas for LED displays have been in data center or remote monitoring type applications, but more consumer-facing applications have been hot areas, pre- and post-COVID. “A big one that has been taking off quickly is the growth of e-sports,” England said. “The pandemic of 2020 caused video gaming in general to grow quite rapidly, but also it highlighted the people who are already doing it at a very high level—even to things like the Rocket League World Championships that aired on regular ESPN. It’s much more common to see on television, watch championships or even have people participate in high schools, and universities and colleges are starting to have these sports teams, so we’re seeing growth there. The only way to make that a spectator sport is to have a great big video display. At the professional level, most of the major stick-and-ball sports teams are sponsoring e-sports teams.”

Despite retail’s woes—again, before and during the pandemic—SNA Displays has been seeing growth in brick-and-mortar retail.

“I think everyone is really eager to get back to physically going places to go shopping,” continued England, “and for Continued on page 63 Transparent displays integrate dynamic digital displays into windows and other see-through media. (Image courtesy Deacon Wardlow.)

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THE SMART CITY: HIGH-TECH UTOPIA OR PRIVACY NIGHTMARE? Dynamic digital signage has enabled the “smart city.”

The International Sign Association (ISA) and the Sign Research Foundation (SRF) recently released a white paper called “Smart Signage and Smart Cities: Regulating New Tech” that lays out some of the unique uses to which digital signage can be applied—and addresses some of the fears that the public and municipalities have had regarding these new technologies.

Alphabet’s (aka Google’s) smart city subsidiary, Sidewalk Labs, was going to use Toronto, Ont.’s waterfront as the poster child, as it were, for smart signage and the high-tech urban utopia. Among other elements, the project was going to feature smart signage, cameras and sensors to monitor traffic and street life.

“They wanted to implement wayfinding systems that had a data mining element and tracking capabilities,” said Deacon Wardlow, author, speaker and expert on digital signage, and co-author, with Dr. Don Jordan, of the SRF paper. “A sign that was on the side of the street that said ‘This Way to Belmont’ or whatever would tell you how many pedestrians were on the street at a given time, how much auto traffic was there. It would interact with the traffic signals so you could have freer flow of bicycles and auto vehicles.”

However, the integration of this technology into wayfinding signs created a public outcry about privacy rights.

“People started to ask, ‘Where’s all this data going? What are they doing with it?’”

As a result, the project was shut down in May 2020.

The smart city concept exists elsewhere, albeit at a much smaller scale, although much of it has yet to be implemented, and cities are struggling to come to terms with it.

“The municipalities are now challenged and tasked with creating code for technology that is kind of like Schrödinger’s cat, it exists and it doesn’t exist,” Wardlow said. “It’s there, but it’s not yet implemented, and in the places it is being implemented, it’s not being addressed.”

Hence the reason behind the SFP paper, to address—and allay—a lot of those concerns.

“Then also speak to how does a municipality that is looking at all these new technologies that are coming into the community, how do they both accept it and how do they create [sign] codes that’ll allow for it, but also allay the fears that people have?” Wardlow said. “I don’t think we’re seeing [smart city elements] as much because companies are hesitant to launch it.”

These technologies aren’t really as scary or “Orwellian” as they are often made out to be. The technology and the purposes behind it just need to be transparent, because they can offer substantial benefits to a community. Wardlow recommends that sign companies start investigating some of these technologies now—because they could represent very good opportunities in the near future. Obviously, COVID has halted a lot of this development—and municipalities don’t have the money right now to invest in major infrastructure projects—but once we recover, there is likely to be renewed interest in pursuing these projects.

“I would recommend looking at [the SRF paper], specifically about this technology,” Wardlow said. “If they’re a franchise, talk to the franchise organization. If they’re a sign shop, talk to the International Sign Association and, within their own industry, just talk to each other. ‘Are you aware of this stuff? What are you doing?’”

Wardlow sees a generational shift hastening the implementation of smart city technologies.

“You’re going to see it’s the younger and the smaller companies that are more apt to be the first integrators, because they’re not as averse to change or taking on a new challenge because they’re not this big entity. They’re smaller and more flexible.

“So when you do see the changes coming and these integrations happening, it’s going to be the smaller shops that are going to be the ones who are implementing it, and then the bigger ones eventually will see the value and pick it up as well.”

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Display Graphics

VAX POPULI

Now that COVID vaccinations are starting, what does that mean for display graphics?

By Richard Romano

T

he news that COVID-19 vaccinations have started in earnest may not immediately trigger the question, “What does that mean for display graphics?” but for those of us who have been following the emergence and fast evolution of signage and display graphics in the “Age of COVID,” it’s not an unreasonable question.

Signage has almost always been one of the most essential means of communicating important messages. This certainly was why wideformat shops early on in the pandemic were considered “essential services.” Health and safety messaging was the killer app for display graphics in 2020, and that is going to remain the case for the foreseeable future. And to that end, the Centers for Disease Control has a “Vaccination Communication Toolkit” at https://bit.ly/3pZSQwx with downloadable templates for posters, stickers and other materials.

As inoculations continue, businesses throughout the economy are going to mandate certain Read More… policies vis-à-vis Find article at vaccination. As winter turns to PrintingNews. com/21148782 spring and then to summer, we may see signs in public locations along the lines of ,“Proof of vaccination required to enter these premises.” We may see signs appear at airports reading, “Please have your ‘vaccine passport’ ready for inspection” as you approach the TSA security checkpoint. Sports venues, concert

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halls, arenas, convention centers, floating Petri dish cruise ships—all the places that are now closed, will need new signage and other display graphics that communicate whatever policies are in effect. The time is now to start working with these end-use customers on determining what their needs are going to be. Even if attendees or visitors to these locations don’t pay any attention to these signs (think about the oft-ignored one-way aisle signage in supermarkets, for example), these locations may need these materials for legal and liability purposes, if nothing else.

Temporarily Permanent?

It’s tempting, maybe even desirable, to see these signage applications—and by extension the public health policies underlying the need for them—as temporary, there are compelling reasons to think of them in a more permanent light. For one thing, the coronavirus is not going to disappear, even once we have everyone vaccinated. Not everyone is going to get vaccinated, either by choice or other reason. Then there are those for whom vaccinations are ineffective. This is a phenomenon that occurs with every vaccine, which is why historically, everyone who could be was urged to be vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella (amongst other things)—to confer the misunderstood but necessary “herd immunity”

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on those for whom vaccinations are ineffective.

Consequently, the virus will still dwell in certain parts of the population.

Then there are variants. OK, this is an article about signage not epidemiology, but as we have been seeing—at least as this article was being written in early February—there had been a number of variants of the COVID19 virus, some of which were far more contagious than the “classic” coronavirus. (As it turned out, my hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was one of the “ground zeroes” of one of the highly contagious strains.) As of this writing, it’s unclear how effective the currently available vaccines are against some of the newer virus variants. So this pandemic is far from over. (Students of history may recall that there was a second strain of the 1918 Spanish flu that led to a far deadlier second wave once everyone thought it was over. We should caution against dooming ourselves to repeat history.)

Then there are potential future pandemics. We may think that COVID-19 was a once-in-a-century phenomenon, but we have narrowly dodged some other recent potential pandemics—Ebola, H1N1, etc. (And some of us grew up in the age of HIV and AIDS.) Biologists have long warned that as we encroach on more and more of the hitherto unexplored natural world, we run the risk of unleashing unknown contagions for which we may be unprepared. This was the theme of the 1994 nonfiction bestseller “The Hot Zone,” by Richard Preston, a book which had a profound impact on how science thought about and prepared for pathogens. The ease of world travel has only exacerbated—as we have seen all too clearly—how quickly diseases can travel and invade new populations.

As a country, and as an industry, we should make it a point to learn from the past year about how we react to public health crises. Naturally, this starts (one would hope) at the highest levels of government (and not just the U.S.’s), but drilling down to the sign industry in particular, some important takeaways from the COVID crisis should be the following questions to ask should we find ourselves in this kind of national (or even international) emergency again:

● What kinds of printed—or even nonprinted— materials will my customers or other businesses, organizations, etc., need? ● What messages will need to be communicated and how will they need to communicate them? ● What other materials will our customers—and the community at large—need that we may be able to provide? ● Are we agile enough of a business to be able to “turn on a dime” and manufacture new, indemand products? If not, how do we become so?

And it’s not just pandemics we should be prepared for. How much new signage and other print material was needed after 9/11 to communicate new policies?

The advent of a vaccine doesn’t necessarily herald the end of the Age of COVID, but rather the start of a whole new age that will have its own sign, display graphics and print requirements. We need to start learning now what those requirements will be. ●

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Wayfinding Signage

FINDING OUR WAY

Printed signage helps us to navigate safely through the COVID-19 world.

By Mark Vruno

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or 24 months or so, Signco Chicago produced high volumes of directional, wayfinding signage -- for customers’ front doors, entryways, hallways and parking lots – on the HP Latex 570 printer it purchased in 2018. The messaging has changed, however, in the past year, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Signs now read, “Do Not Enter,” “Do Not Touch” or “Face Covering Required,” according to Sebastian Lorenzo, CEO of the 35-year-old company.

“We also saw a huge increase in the demand for Read More… adhesive-backed floor decals,” Find article at PrintingNews. he said. com/21148918 Lorenzo is not alone, of course. The surge in floor graphics for social-distancing purposes has taken the country (and world) by storm.

Last spring and summer, indoor floor and outdoor ground decals accounted for more than 40% of Signco’s print production, he

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estimates, all spaced six feet apart. Nearly everyone needed them – from schools to retail sites – and “the mad rush was on,” Lorenzo said. “Some people wanted 500 at time.”

As the pandemic continued, rolls of vinyl substrates became more and more difficult to obtain.

“Our inventory got depleted pretty quickly, and we got back-logged,” Lorenzo said.

But what was he to do? Like other print service providers, Signco was at the whim of its distributors and dealers, who were waiting on the media supplies to arrive on proverbially slow boats from Asia.

Supply-chain issues weren’t so severe for a FASTSIGNS franchisee in Upper Saddle River, N.J., 800 miles due east.

“It was a struggle, yes,” said owner Matt Galgano,

Mark Vruno, a Chicago-based business publishing professional, has reported on the global commercial print industry for more than 20 years.

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“but we had a plan in place to offset the disruption.”

Able to leverage robust buying power from FASTSIGNS corporate and its network of 700 franchised locations, Galgano’s team enjoyed what he calls a “healthy mix” of suppliers on local and national levels.

Marketing Safety During the pandemic, Galgano assumed ownership of the New Jersey FASTSIGNS franchise last July. With his facility situated some 20 miles from New York City, COVID forced the new owner to “hit the reset button” on his business, he said.

“Before [COVID], we typically didn’t call on hospitals, government agencies and other ‘essential’ businesses,” said Galgano, who worked at the franchise for nearly 10 years before buying it. But his sales needed a boost, and these institutions needed to communicate germ-prevention and overall health awareness.

Additionally, last June, his FASTSIGNS targeted educational institutions.

“Heading into the new school year, we knew the local districts needed signage to redirect student and faculty traffic in hallways,” he said. “So, we sent them samples of what we could do and offered on-site assessments, providing road maps for areas such as temperature checkpoints and sanitation stations.”

The strategy worked, and by summer’s end the franchise’s sales had catapulted back to normal volumes.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Wayfinding Signage “Now, everyone is a prospect, including local libraries, law-enforcement facilities and [Bergen] county municipalities,” Galgano said.

The PPE Revenue Stream In 2019 and early 2020, before anybody had heard of the Coronavirus, selling personal protective equipment (PPE) wasn’t even a fleeting thought for most print owners and operators who wanted to diversify. But that was then.

Early on during the pandemic, the supply-demand attraction made many sign shops take a hard look at PPE as a potential revenue stream.

“We have importing and fabrication capabilities, so it made sense for us,” Lorenzo said.

His firm now sells sanitizer, masks, latex gloves, face shields and sneeze guards.

Late last October, Signco moved to a new, 21,000-square-foot location in Melrose Park, Ill., tripling its size. So now

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they have plenty of space to store their new PPE inventory, which, Lorenzo said, “is profitable.”

“We’ve been selling sneeze guards for about six months now

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to the education and municipal vertical markets,” Galgano said. “We get wholesale pricing from them; the volume is there from our customer base.”

A single municipal government agency in New Jersey ordered more than 400 free-standing, 3x6’ Plexiglas guards from FASTSIGNS. Sneeze guards now account for some 20% of the firm’s total sales.

ER2 Imaging in Hanover Park, Ill., also is successfully selling PPE-related products: http://er2image. com/covidprotection and https://er2imagegroup. store.cyrious.com/ ●

AT THE POINT OF SALE Undoubtedly, the pandemic-related lockdowns and safety concerns have had a negative impact on “brick-and-mortar” shopping. The 2020 holiday season broke records for online and other non-store sales, which rose nearly 24%, according to the National Retail Federation. Nonetheless, point-of-sale signage still has its place, depending on geography and demographics.

“I strongly oppose the ‘retail apocalypse’ theory,” said Matt Galgano, owner of a FASTSIGNS franchisee in Upper Saddle River, N.J. Nearly one million people reside in Bergen County alone, and 10 miles away is Paramus, N,J., which “has more retail than Beverly Hills.” Before finding additional vertical markets to serve during COVID, Galgano estimated that some 80% of his shop’s revenues were generated from the retail industry.

“The concentration was too high,” he said, but the firm still maintains close relationships with developers and landlords.

“Retail is evolving, but it’s not dying,” Galgano said.

His FASTSIGNS saw a retail surge last autumn.

Retail Reinvented Granted, a given store may not need a 50,000-square-foot space anymore, Galgano said. And, rather than signing one- or two-year leases, “there’s a trend toward experimenting with pop-up stores – for periods of weeks – to test products and [to] test markets.”

If they work, concepts often get upgraded, requiring more signage. Either way, the investment in storefront window signage goes on.

That’s because there is an element of job security for point-of-sale (POS) sign printers in such major metro settings.

“The thing about the retail real-estate is, whether they succeed or need, developers and landlords need signage,” Galgano said “It’s cyclical, like a revolving box.”

When a store closes, they need window graphics “to provide ‘presence’ so it doesn’t look like a ghost town,” he said. Then, when a new store opens, inviting signs are required to drive foot traffic.

To produce all this output volume, the FASTSIGNS franchise has a roll-to-roll HP Latex 365 printer on its production floor along with two Epson SureColor models, two laminators and two plotters.

Galgano’s equipment wish list includes an HP L570 latex model, which he hopes to add some time in 2021, if business permits.

“Our graphic designers love the HP printers. My vision is to print [on] adhesive vinyl all the time,” he said, “because it has the highest margins.”

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ ISA Economic Update

2021: THE IN-BETWEEN STAGE

ISA Quarterly Economic Report looks at the Top 10 Economic Trends for 2021 and their impact on the sign industry.

O

n Jan. 26, the International Sign Association (ISA) hosted their quarterly economic webinar that wrapped up the year with a look at Q4 2020 and the state of the sign industry, as well as their general macroeconomic short and long view.

The webinar was based on the “ISA Sign Industry Quarterly Economic Report” (https:// www.signs.org/quarterlyreport)

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and was presented by Shane Norton and Tory Louis, director and senior consulting analyst, respectively, of IHS Markit, that produced the report. The report was sponsored by the National Association of Sign Supply Distributors (NASSD).

The session began by

providing some macroeconomic context with which you are probably already pretty familiar.

The macroeconomic assumptions underlying the sign industry forecast are: ● Real GDP grew 33.4% in the third quarter according to the BEA—“easily

Richard Romano has been writing about the graphic communications industry for 20 years. He is an industry analyst and author or co-author of more than half a dozen books.

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the sharpest rise on record but still leaving GDP 3.4% below its prior peak.” (The report and webinar came out before the BEA announced that real GDP increased at an annual rate of 4.0% in Q4 2020.) ● IHS Markit’s updated forecast reflects “two new conflicting assumptions: a higher winter peak in COVID-19 infections, offset by more fiscal stimulus than assumed last month. This shifted the pattern of GDP growth in 2021.” ● GDP transitions from recovery to expansion in the third quarter of 2021, and the economy regains full employment in early 2022.

The analysts are rightly worried about the surging virus, and as a result have time-shifted their recovery, even as vaccinations have begun.

“It will be through the first half of the year before we get meaningful inoculations,” Norton said.

Alleviating matters is government spending which helped support disposable income in 2020, and the new round will keep it going into 2021.

Figure 1. US economic growth by sector. (Source: IHS Markit)

Figure 2. Leisure & hospitality continued to account—by far—for the bulk of job losses in December. (Source: IHS Markit)

Figure 3. Real US construction growth by sector. (Source: IHS Markit)

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ ISA Economic Update

Figure 4. Top 10 economic predictions for 2021. (Source: IHS Markit)

Figure 5. Supply Side Printed/Constructed Signage Index, Q3 vs. Q4.

(Source: IHS Markit)

As always, they also broke down overall U.S. economic growth by sector (see Figure 1).

Figure 2 will be no surprise to anyone who has any connection to the leisure and hospitality sector, as it continues to be the hardest hit.

Important for the sign industry, commercial construction growth was down from 2019 and is expected to decline even more in 2021, with no real rebound occurring until 2022 (see Figure 3). Residential looks better in the near-term, but they are looking at a decline in 2022.

The Webinar also included the analysts’ Top 10 predictions for 2021 (see Figure 4). It will be likely in the second half of 2021 that enough of the population will have been inoculated for us to start the transition to a post-pandemic economy. They are also anticipating a shift, postCOVID, to environmental concerns on the part of policymakers and investors.

Sign Industry Outlook—Supply Side

Figure 6. Supply Side Electronic/Digital Signage Index Q3 vs. Q4. (Source: IHS Markit)

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As always, they divide the sign industry into print and electronic/digital. By “supply side,” they refer to the industries that supply components used in sign manufacturing, including wood, paper and printing,

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metals, plastics and other machinery manufacturing.

The IHS Markit Printed Signage Index is based on a given year’s comparison to the historical trend. According to a methodological footnote in the Quarterly Economic Report on which the webinar was based: “A value of ‘0’ represents an expectation of industry growth right in line with the historical trend. Positive values represent stronger than average growth. Negative values represent below average growth.

The QER figures were revised based on new historical data to provide a true comparison point for the new index values.”

Figures 5 and 6 look at the supply side indices for print and digital signage, respectively.

“Digital will outperform print on the supply side,” Louis said.

Figure 7. End Use Electronic/Digital Signage Index Q3 vs. Q4. (Source: IHS Markit)

End Use Markets IHS Markit then looked at the end use markets, which reflects the “demand” side of the supplyand-demand equation—these are industries/markets that buy signage, be it digital or static (that is, printed/constructed).

In terms of electronic/digital signage (see Figure 7), “More public spaces are purchasing digital signage to keep people informed about social distancing,” Louis said.

In the Q3 Economic Report/ Webinar, they were a bit bearish on static (aka print-based) signage for architecture, but in Q4 they have revised their expectations and see stronger growth in 2021, with perhaps a bit of a

Figure 8.

slowdown in 2022 (see Figure 8).

“Commercial construction spending, which accounts for approximately 40% of all structures spending, dropped an estimated 5.8% in 2020,” Louis said.

“Spending will see the largest negative effects in the forecast as people work from home, reduce travel and accelerate e-commerce activity.”

At the End of the Day Think of 2021 as a “transitional year”—from COVID to

post-COVID, since the virus shows no sign of disappearing (and different strains are appearing) and vaccinations have only Read More…

Find article at just begun in PrintingNews. earnest. So com/21148744 the first half— maybe more—of 2021 will be a slow slog out of the viral mire, and 2022 will see the rebirth of the economy, employment and the industry. ●

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TEXTILES ─ Industry 4.0

THE EVOLUTION OF

PRINTING AND

INDUSTRY The next normal will blend virtual and in-person events.

By Cary Sherburne

A

Read More…

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21148520

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s an industry, we have been talking for some time about the impact of Industry 4.0, a term coined in Germany to describe the fourth industry revolution – the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using modern, smart technology. This includes increased implementation of machine-to-machine communication and the Internet of Things (IoT) – the concept that pretty much everything can be connected to improve automation, communication, monitoring and even diagnosis and resolution of problems without human intervention.

These trends extend across the board in the broader printing industry as various segments make their way through an analog-to-digital transformation, some faster than others. The transformation in commercial print started in the 80s and 90s with CTP and the introduction of production digital printing, but has not progressed as quickly as the sign and display graphics market, which now sports some 60% of square footage

4.0

produced digitally. In textiles, the transformation is even slower, with 6% to 10% of printed fabrics produced digitally depending on who you speak with.

Analog technologies are definitely here to stay, and they will be for some time. Yet even there, Industry 4.0 plays a role as prepress and press technologies gain sophistication and automation. Especially during the pandemic, we are hearing stories of companies that are making large investments in technology without even seeing the product they are purchasing – or not in person, anyway. Smart vendors have been developing savvy remote demonstration capabilities over the last couple years, and the pandemic accelerated that. This remote, interconnected, Industry 4.0 approach is also playing out in the installation process, with technologies such as Smart Glasses and virtual/augmented reality being used to support installations remotely. One company we spoke to praised the way its vendor remotely supported installation of a complex product, noting that it incented more engagement on the part of internal technical

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staff, helping them better understand the equipment and better position the company for self-sufficiency as compared to the process where the vendor comes on site and pretty much does everything for them. Plus, taking travel out of the picture takes time and cost out of the process as well, making it more convenient for everyone.

The events business has also been heavily affected by the pandemic, and organizers are creatively conducting virtual events in place of the preferred inperson gatherings we all enjoyed before the pandemic struck. The good news is that vital information about trends, strategies and new products is available, much of it on demand. The bad news is too many people are “Zoomed out,” and these virtual events, which were kind of a novelty at the beginning of the pandemic, are beginning to wear a bit thin.

That being said, a couple of recent events I have participated in were particularly of interest. I’m not trying to list everything I’ve attended during the pandemic here, so apologies to the dozens of event organizers I’m not including in this particular article.

The first is a TechTextil/TexProcess webinar (full disclosure: I moderated this one), and the other is the recent EFI Engage virtual event being held in place of the company’s annual in-person EFI Connect users group. I chose these two because they both had great content, and they took totally different approaches.

But they also highlighted some of the industry changes that are being accelerated by the pandemic and facilitated by Industry 4.0.

In his EFI Engage keynote, Gaby Matsliach, SVP/GM of productivity software for EFI, summed it up this way: “We have seen varied customer response from a technology and business

process perspective; the way customers responded varied. Some took time during the downturn to invest in technology to come out of it stronger. Some delayed investment or existing projects either waiting to get a better view of the horizon or being so busy in keeping up with the demand while also keeping their teams safe and healthy. Some took advantage of government stimulus incentives to make technology purchases they had been unable to do before.”

Companies that took time during this period to build toward the future – whether it was new investments in equipment, employee training, deepclean maintenance that we never seem to have time for, and continuing to educate themselves and their staff on the ongoing innovation and developments that are occurring despite the pandemic, those are the companies that are mostly likely to still be with us in 2022 and beyond. Sitting on the sidelines and

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TEXTILES ─ Industry 4.0

We need more digital content in the workflow, more effort on the part of the industry at large to reduce its environmental footprint, and an increasing connection to consumers who want to know more about the companies they buy from and how and where their products are manufactured.

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waiting for it all to be over is a recipe for disaster.

Having had to cancel its in-person conference, TexProcess/TechTextil decided to do a series of educational webinars over a period of several months rather than a full-blown virtual event.

The idea here was both to keep pushing out the educational and technology information we need without the overload of sitting in front of a computer for days in a virtual event. The company does, however, plan to hold an in-person event in Raleigh, N.C., in August of 2021.

We’ll have to see how that goes, since the pandemic has so far run rampant in the U.S. (and other parts of the world), and it’s not clear where we will be by late summer, even with the several vaccines that are now or soon will be available.

The session I moderated took a look at the progress we have made – and the progress still to be made – in digital textile printing and other digital technologies that can streamline workflow in both analog and digital environments.

I was grateful for the knowledge and expertise shared by my panelists, who each have very different types of businesses. These included Kerry King, senior vice president of research and development at Spoonflower; Kristen Dettoni, founder of Design Pool and Domanda; and Jonathan Tio, CEO of Prima-Tex Industries.

Spoonflower was born as a digital company around the idea of creating a waterless, low-impact business, more than a dozen years ago, and continues to be a leader and innovator in the digital printing of textiles. Prima-Tex was the only company represented on the panel that has both analog and digital printing capability. Tio pointed out that each has its place, and likely will for some time to come, noting that digital printing is well

suited for sampling, capturing images with a wide range of shades and colors, and for highly engineered apparel. On the other hand, rotary printing is still the most economical and practical technology for designs with fewer colors or a high yardage quantity, in his experience.

Dettoni’s companies make professional designs available for licensing by designers, and she has also built a network of printing companies that can fulfill the designers’ manufacturing needs if they don’t have a printer of their own.

Most recently, she launched Domanda, a B2C version that makes professional designs available to the consumer community. Both feed off of the same general design database.

Even though their businesses are quite different, they all agreed that we need more digital content in the workflow, more effort on the part of the industry at large to reduce its environmental footprint, and an increasing connection to consumers who want to know more about the companies they buy from and how and where their products are manufactured.

EFI Engage also placed emphasis on Industry 4.0 and digital technologies over its eight-day virtual event. The overall interface of the event was one of the most engaging (no pun intended) of the events I have witnessed over the past several months, including a simulated 360-degree experience entering the conference center and its various components, including general sessions, breakouts, an exhibit hall/lab and, of course, a press room. Navigation was easy, and the event was laid out in such a way as to enable visitors to quickly identify and navigate to the sessions most important to them. In many ways, it simulated the experience one might have at an in-person event.

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One unique approach EFI took for the live breakout sessions was a recognition that there is more to the world than North America – this was truly a global event from a time and language perspective. Some sessions were on at 1:30 a.m. my time, but that was a convenient time in other parts of the world. Some sessions, like the keynotes, were available for replay; others were not. In a normal EFI Connect, there was usually a media track where EFI experts from each discipline provided updates to the press and analysts who attended the event. In the case of EFI Engage, these were pre-recorded and available throughout the event.

As I am writing this, only the first half of the event has been completed, so it will be interesting to see what the overall outcome will be as the event completes its second week. How did the exhibitors feel about the experience? How much user participation was there? Did EFI achieve the goals it set out to accomplish when it organized the event? The company does plan to go back to in-person Connect in January of 2022, and we are certainly hoping that can be done.

As we look back on 2020 and a large part of 2021, I’m sure we will all be glad to be able to get back to in-person events, but we will have learned a great deal about efficiencies that these virtual technologies can offer, such as remote demonstrations, installations and support reducing time and cost associated with travel in many cases; the ability to access the content later, at a time and place that is convenient for the viewer, and a means to have a more global reach, as demonstrated by EFI Engage.

In this “next normal,” things will be different. We’ll be able to get back together in person, although it

may look different than in the past. But we will likely still be taking advantage of Industry 4.0 and virtual technologies to create a work environment that, in hindsight, will look totally different. EFI’s Matsliach noted, for example, that before the pandemic, only 20% of those who could do their work remotely did so, and as I write this, he says it’s at about 70%.

That’s a dramatic change that’s likely to be with us for the long term. Either way, we will continue to see digital technologies play a larger role across the printing industry as a whole, leveraging Industry 4.0 concepts, and taking us to a place where convenience, productivity, sustainability and – we hope – profitability will be at all-time highs. ●

Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.

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TEXTILES ─ Poshmark

UPCYCLING

FAST FASHION

Does Poshmark’s overperforming portend a shift for the apparel industry?

By Cary Sherburne

I

n an article published by The Information following Poshmark’s “142% IPO Pop,” CEO Manish Chandra said the surge didn’t signal “irrational exuberance as much as appetite for companies that proved they can make it. I am 53 years old, so I’ve seen the dot-com market and I don’t think the current market is that. There’s real revenues and real sorts of businesses going public.”

As a side note, Petco also went public that day, with shares gaining about 83%. It’s CEO, Ron Coughlin, said, “Really smart investors believed in our strategy and people. It’s an exciting day for Petco.”

While I appreciate the exuberance of the respective CEOs, I am older than 53, and I most certainly remember the dot-com market. I also remember hearing the same kinds of exuberant remarks from CEOs who saw their companies crumble into the dust of history not too many months later. Let’s hope this time it truly is different.

First, what is Poshmark? According to Barron’s, “Poshmark operates a marketplace that lets consumers buy and sell new and used items like shoes, clothing and jewelry. The company had 4.5 million active sellers as of Sept. 30, offering more than 201 million secondhand and new items to 6.2 million active buyers. Poshmark charges a 20% fee for sales that are $15 or more.”

What’s interesting for me about Poshmark is how it fits into the whole sustainability movement

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within the textiles and apparel industry.

It’s no secret that the textiles and apparel industry is the world’s second largest polluter behind the petroleum/fossil fuels industry. Ironically, part of its pollution is caused by its use of petroleum products. Think about the polyester microfibers that have made their way into everything, from our water supply, to the food we eat, to our bodies themselves.

While the petroleum industry has been under fire for decades by environmentalists bemoaning its impact on Mother Earth, the textiles industry has largely escaped this kind of rebuke, perhaps because we all wear clothes and have fabric woven throughout our lives. And while it is easy to imagine reducing the use of fossil fuels, especially with solar, wind and electric cars coming more into the forefront, it’s hard to imagine abandoning textiles.

But unlike petroleum-based products, we don’t

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need to abandon textiles. There is much that can be done to improve the sustainability footprint of the industry, even for fabrics whose life began as dark pools of unrenewable oil far under the Earth’s surface (looking at you, polyester!).

Poshmark, and other services like it, make it easier to upcycle things from your closet that you haven’t worn in months and are not likely to use again. Simply discarding them adds to the landfill problem. And if they are in good condition, there is likely someone out there who is willing to buy things that you won’t use, and make use of them themselves. Upcycling is a form of recycling, really. It means taking a product you might otherwise discard and giving it a new use in life—such as passing it along to someone who will, in turn, give it a longer life.

But Poshmark is more than that. Here’s how the company describes itself on its website: “Poshmark is more than just a shopping destination, it’s a vibrant community powered by millions of sellers who not only sell their personal style, but also curate looks for their shoppers, creating one of the most connected shopping experiences in the world.”

Users simply download the Poshmark app, take a photo of the item they wish to sell, share the listing, and earn cash when the item is purchased. I’m sure you’ve seen their TV ads, as well as ads and stories in other venues. Buyers, on the other hand, can search through listings to find items they need at way below retail cost for new.

While this approach won’t solve all of the textile and apparel industry’s sustainability issues, it does go a long way toward tamping down the rabid consumerism represented by fast fashion and gives a second—or even third—life to perfectly good items that just are not useful in their current location.

Looking back at the dot.com era, it was those non-traditional startups that upended the commercial print market, even though many of them did not survive. It’s anyone’s guess if Poshmark and its like will do the same to conventional retail, but at least in the short term, it’s looking like a pretty good bet.

And the pandemic isn’t helping, with consumers less willing to go out shopping at the mall or in a retail store for fear of contracting the virus. That, at least, was not one of the dynamics driving the dot-com era.

One other thing to keep in mind: with a new U.S. administration placing emphasis once again on climate change, rejoining the Paris climate accord and supporting the development of clean energy (and the associated jobs), perhaps it will spur a great global emphasis on the oncoming climate disaster.

While initially the focus is on fossil fuels, the realization by global government and regulatory agencies that the textiles and apparel industry is contributing to climate change as well, is likely to not go unnoticed for long.

Within the industry, there is already a great deal of activity around improving its sustainability—things like reducing the amount of chemistry and energy used across the supply chain, looking for ways to make the supply chain more efficient, and leveraging digital technologies to limit the need for over-production, moving to a more on-demand or just-in-time model, to name a few. And those efforts should be applauded.

Fast Fashion is not sustainable.

But there is more we can do. Some of the changes will be driven by government regulation, some by brands that are finding inventory risk too great to bear and are moving to smaller lot sizes, but the majority, I believe, will be driven by us, by consumers who want to get out of the fast fashion loop and find ways to reduce their impact on Read More… the environment—while also saving Find article at money through purchasing through PrintingNews. businesses like Poshmark or earning com/21148787 money from selling things they don’t need anymore. Applications like Poshmark make that easier than ever before. I mean, we’ve been doing this through eBay for almost 30 years. Having an apparel-specific application like Poshmark to make it even easier can’t hurt the effort. ●

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TEXTILES ─ Sustainability & Eco-Friendly

AND

SUSTAINABILITY ECO-FRIENDLY

TEXTILES Developments that will define the next decade for the textile and printing industry

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n spite of the pandemic, or perhaps even accelerated by it, issues of sustainability have continued to dominate the psyche of the consumer. As the collective mindset has developed further, encouraged by the universal challenge of the COVID19 virus, increased importance has been attached to sustainable fabrics: how they are made, what innovations have occurred and what new regulations have arisen to monitor this progress. Navigating the current sustainable textile landscape is no easy task.

In 2020, we witnessed heightened activity in the development and launch of sustainable fabrics as the marketplace accelerated to meet the requirements of the consumer and increasingly the inevitable reality of the eventual application of legislation across the globe. Much of this activity has been seen at the product, materials science and technical levels, but pressure mounts for industry change from numerous NGOs. As we look forward to 2021, the enormous strides made by textiles on the sustainability agenda in 2020 have created an impetus for change that cannot be ignored. As the groundswell of public opinion has shifted irreversibly to embrace sustainability and all its aspects, so too, has the textile industry risen and doubled down to meet the many challenges that face it.

Looking back as we move forward into the next decade, and perhaps a decade of historic change within the textile industry, we recognize and round up some of the significant innovations, new product launches and campaigns by NGOs of the last year.

Eastman Naia and Dupont Biomaterials collaborate to launch a new sustainable fabric collection.

To meet a growing demand for sustainable fashion options, Eastman Naia and DuPont Biomaterials announced the launch of a fabric collection made with sustainable, biobased materials. The collaboration blends Naia from Eastman and DuPont Sorona fibers to create garments with exceptional stretch and recovery, luxurious drape and a smooth, soft hand feel.

Duvaltex Launches its new Clean Impact Textiles, the industry’s first recycled biodegradable textiles for commercial interiors.

This not only represents the first recycled

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biodegradable polyester textile for commercial interiors, but also a major step forward in establishing an advanced bi-circular economic model for textiles in which polyester fabric, at the end of its useful life, can flow through either a biological or technical cycle. This innovative technology allows Duvaltex to create high-performance fabrics that are long-wearing in commercial interiors, but that can biodegrade in landfills and wastewater conditions at a rate similar to that of natural fibers (tested under ASTM D5511). This is achieved through the addition of a biocatalyst in the yarn extrusion process that enables anaerobic digestion in landfill and wastewater treatment conditions.

Hyosung and Lenzing collaborate to launch the new sustainable “Home Everywhere” collection.

Nowadays, more consumers look for comfortable, versatile and sustainable apparel that can be worn for multiple occasions and last longer.

Riding on this trend, global fiber producers Lenzing and Hyosung have teamed up to develop a Home Everywhere collection of performance fabrics that feature their renowned fibers and yarns to offer consumers comfortable, sustainable and attractive loungewear and activewear.

Premier Digital Textiles announces their environmentally certified textile collection.

In tune with industry trends and demands, and in partnership with their longstanding connections amongst the world’s most prestigious mills, the textile specialists and fabric technologists within the Premier Digital team have created a substantial offering of fabric print bases that offer the manufacturer viable, sustainable alternatives to the world’s most popular woven and knitted textiles.

Certification is paramount, and as we move into an era of transparency within the global supply chain, sourcing confidence is essential. Premier Digital Textiles has worked tirelessly to provide accurate certification, and importantly, a collection with the provenance that the consumer now demands.

Recycled and sustainably sourced materials take center stage in the new H&M dress collection.

The majority of pieces in the collection has been made entirely from recycled

or sustainably sourced material, such as organic cotton, Tencel or recycled polyester and pieces in blends are made from at least 50% sustainably sourced materials.

Teijin Frontier’s new high-stretch SOLOTEX ECO-Hybrid Fiber is made with plant-derived and recycled materials.

SOLOTEX ECO-Hybrid represents a new line in Teijin Frontier’s polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) fiber SOLOTEX family. SOLOTEX ECOHybrid filament yarn and textile was introduced as a featured product for 2020 autumn/winter fashion apparel, offering many possibilities for enhanced sportwear, uniforms and more.

Esprit selects Earthcolors By Archroma for its newest “I am Sustainable” Capsule collection.

Esprit creates laid-back, high-quality essentials that reflect its core values of sustainability, equality and freedom of choice. The brand developed its first eco-conscious collection made of 100% organic cotton, back in the early 90s.

Spinnova—Bergans’ Circular & Reusable “Collection of Tomorrow” is awarded the Sustainability Achievement of 2020 by ISPO. Spinnova and Bergans of Norway has been awarded Sustainability Achievement of the Year 2020 for their Collection of Tomorrow by ISPO, the world’s largest trade fair for sporting goods and sportswear, as well as the by the Scandinavian Outdoor Award jury. The award-winning SpinnovaBergans collaboration called “Collection of Tomorrow” is a fully circular, subscription-based takeback and reuse concept that’s revolutionary in the apparel industry.

Toppan of Tokyo launches the sale of gamechanging recyclable event banners.

Toppan Printing, a global leader in communication, security, packaging, décor materials and electronics solutions launched sales of “ecocracy,” a recyclable fabric for banners and signage developed

Debbie McKeegan is the CEO of TexIntel.

As a multi-disciplinary creative and renowned digital print pioneer, she holds over 25 years’ experience within the Textile manufacturing industry.

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TEXTILES ─ Sustainability & Eco-Friendly by combining Toppan’s processing technologies with Dow’s plastics expertise. Ecocracy adds to Toppan’s line-up of increasingly eco-friendly solutions for a sustainable society by enabling banners and signage recovered after events have concluded to be re-pelletized as a recycled resin, which can then be blended with timber from wood waste to produce wood-plastic composite materials for such items as benches, floors and plant pots.

Huntsman’s ERIOPON E3-SAVE advances sustainable polyester production saving 130 million liters of water in one year.

As global interest in sustainable textile production continues to soar, mills that have adopted Huntsman Textile Effects’ all-in-one ERIOPON E3-SAVE textile auxiliary for polyester processing, which launched a year ago, have collectively saved more than 130 million liters of water.

Siegwerk’s UV/LED de-Inking technology receives APR recognition for Improving the recyclability of PET bottles.

With its AQUANTUM Alkali Strippable Primer and SICURA UV/LED ink technology, Siegwerk sets a new standard for the recycling of PET bottles. It significantly facilitates the deinking of UV/LEDprinted PET shrink sleeves, further improving the quality of recycled PET bottles, according to the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR).The technology has been accredited as the first UV/LED solution of its kind by APR, the national trade association of the U.S. plastics recycling industry, that meets its guidelines for the quality improvement of recycled PET bottles.

Dupont adds Ligasep degasification to water treatment solutions through exclusive partnership with Sun Chemical and DIC Corporation.

To better serve its diverse global customers, DuPont Water Solutions has entered into an exclusive global partnership with Sun Chemical and its parent company, the DIC Corporation, to bring membrane degasification modules to market. The degasification of liquids is becoming increasingly critical to several water treatment processes, including industrial demineralization, oil and gas production, microelectronics manufacturing, textile and pharmaceutical production, and drinking water treatment. The

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membrane degassing modules—branded Ligasep—are now part of DuPont’s leading portfolio of water purification and separation technologies, including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ion exchange resins.

Sustainable Greentex Print Sytem Trademarked

by Standfast & Barracks Standfast & Barracks has now trademarked its innovative direct-to-fabric Greentex pigment printed collection, Ecofast, which is sustainable and has the highest lightfastness in its class.

Jeanologia’s eco-efficient technologies reshape the denim industry.

Innovations in textile finishing improve the denim manufacturing process by reducing water consumption and environmental impact. The Jeanologia laser, G2 ozone and e-flow system offer design possibilities and garment finishes, while saving water, energy and chemicals, and eliminating waste and toxic emissions.

Tejidos Royo waterless denim dyeing process is adopted by Gap and Wrangler.

Aware of the need for change in the textile industry, Tejidos Royo, in collaboration with Gaston Systems Inc. and Indigo Mill Designs (IMD), has managed to modify the process of conventional indigo dyeing, creating a unique dyeing process capable of dyeing without water, minimizing significantly its environmental impact and obtaining a unique color in the market.

The European Commission adopts the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

The Strategy is the first step towards a zeropollution ambition for a toxic-free environment, announced in the European Green Deal. The Strategy will boost innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals and increase protection of human health and the environment against hazardous chemicals. This includes prohibiting the use of the most harmful chemicals in consumer products such as toys, childcare articles, cosmetics, detergents, food contact materials and textiles, unless proven essential for society, and ensuring that all chemicals are used more safely and sustainably.

Leading international chemical companies unite to accelerate sustainability for the textile industry.

Seven of the world’s leading chemical companies

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have come together to launch Sustainable Chemistry for the Textile Industry (SCTI). With a commitment to collaboration, innovation and transformational change, the new alliance aims to lead the textile and leather industries towards a more sustainable future.

UN officials call for action to preserve the natural world.

During the United Nations’ 75th General Assembly, streaming dialogues and interviews focused on the power of science, solutions and solidarity to transform our world. UN officials working to preserve the natural world are also urging “action now” ahead of the crucial biodiversity summit where world leaders are expected to declare their countries’ commitments to nature and a post-2020 biodiversity framework.

Leading NGOs unite as the Fashion Conveners to Accelerate Sustainable Transformation of the Apparel and Accessory Industry.

Apparel Impact Institute (Aii), Fashion for Good (FFG), Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), Fashion Makes Change (FMC), Responsible Business Coalition at Fordham University (RBC), Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), Textile Exchange, Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and ZDHC announced a new collaboration. The industry’s leading subject matter experts have united as the Fashion Conveners. Spurred by the vulnerabilities the global pandemic brought forward, the group recognizes the urgency to accelerate the transformational changes needed to reduce the environmental and social impacts across fashion. The Fashion Conveners will function as a global coalition, working individually and collectively to accelerate action through high-level partnerships, developing strategies and initiatives across the various sub-sectors of industry.

The Global Fashion Agenda & McKinsey Report says that the fashion industry will produce double the Paris Agreement emission levels by 2030.

A report from Global Fashion Agenda, working with McKinsey, says that if the fashion industry does not accelerate its response to climate change, by 2030 it will produce around twice the volume of emissions required to align with Paris Agreement

global warming pathways. From rising sea levels to extreme rainfall and more powerful heat waves, the consequences of climate change can no longer be ignored, either Read More… by society or the fashion indusFind article at PrintingNews. try, which will see many impacts com/21148786 on its operations in the years ahead. Contributing nearly 3% of the global GDP, fashion’s long-term success is wholly dependent on a healthy planet and people, the security of natural resources, and the safety, health and prosperity of its workforce and their communities.

World Wildife Fund and Google partner on a fashion sustainability platform.

A brand new, data-enriched, decision-making platform will help drive responsible sourcing decisions in the fashion industry. Google announced a partnership with WWF Sweden to help create an environmental data platform that will enable more responsible sourcing decisions in the fashion industry. This collaboration will bring together projects from each organization, drawing on the unique strengths of both. Now more than ever, the fashion industry is answering the call to sustainability.

Amazon launches its “Climate Pledge Friendly” labelling scheme as it ramps up its sustainability agenda.

The company has labelled more than 25,000 of its products as “Climate Pledge Friendly,” indicating that each of those products align with Amazon’s “Climate Pledge,” a commitment to having a netzero carbon footprint by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Messe Frankfurt and the U.N. will work together to promote sustainability in the textile Industry.

One hundred guests from the press, business, politics and associations met at the headquarters of the United Nations to learn how the Texpertise Network of Messe Frankfurt, the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) plan to collaborate in furthering the implementation of their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the fashion and textile industry.

All the content specified above can be read in full in our press room and eco-sustainability feeds at Texintel. ●

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MANAGEMENT ─ Stay Focused On Your Business & Your Overall Success

KEEP STRONG

MOVING FORWARD

WHILE

Signarama’s advice for the future

By A.J. Titus, Signarama President

I

don’t think anyone could have predicted the circumstances businesses faced in 2020. Even those who had survived the recession couldn’t be prepared for some of the unknowns that unfolded.

For the Signarama network, our franchisees have become stronger, smarter and more prepared, allowing them to adapt.

The attitude of our franchisees and corporate team has remained constant through the peaks and valleys of 2020. With the support of our over Read More…

700 locaFind article at PrintingNews. tions around com/21148792 the world, as well as generous support from our Vendor Partners, we were able to use this time as an opportunity to grow. We stayed focused on our business and our overall success, not letting failures or uncertainties get the best of us.

They grew product offerings through the sale of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) products. They grew their knowledge of our industry by being more in-tune with different substrates and materials. And they grew their skills through ongoing virtual training opportunities. Our corporate staff put on more than 30 webinars, covering a variety of topics from “How to Renegotiate Your Lease” to “Connecting Virtually with Your Customers.”

Our Strategic Vendor Partners Avery Dennison,

Using Downtime to Sharpen Skills During this time, essential stores were able to stay open and grow their business.

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GSG, Grimco, Glantz Orbus, Showdown Displays, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh and 3M to name a few, offered virtual demos, training and support on new equipment and products. They assisted with product demonstrations and helping our owners work on their supply chain to fulfil PPE needs at a rapid pace.

Work Smarter & Be More Flexible Challenging times made many of us take a step back to analyze our businesses. Our owners were consistent with their feedback from this year: sales were down but profits were up. With sales down, savvy owners took time to reassess their spending habits, removing unnecessary spends and non-essential luxuries. This allowed them to focus 100% of their spend on items that were needed for their business to succeed.

Sales Bounce Back It’s possible you’ve discovered that you’re able to get more done with one less pair of hands and more money in everyone’s pocket, or there’s a specific marketing tactic that has helped keep you connected with your customers. Whatever it might be, we all need to be proactive and get ahead of our customers’ needs. How can you help them bounce back or reopen for business? How can you help them accommodate their customers in a new way? ●

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DIVERSIFY YOUR BUCKETS Continued from page 18

have a basic marketing segmentation. Discuss this with your sales team. This simple exercise can initiate all kinds of good ideas and strategy adjustments. Individual sales representatives might not be aware of all the market segments you already do business with. You (as the owner) might not be aware of how dependent you are on a single market segment.

The last task should be done with some outside, non-biased assistance. Describe the “jobs” your printed products do in each market segment. Ask the

following questions: 1. Is there currently a digital alternative that could do the job your printed product is doing?

2. What are the advantages of the digital alternative?

(Pretend you’re in a high school debate and you have to debate the opposing view.)

3. How likely is your current business in this sector to be replaced by digital alternative(s)? When?

4. What are the advantages of the printed product? Is

your customer maximizing these advantages?

The results of this simple exercise can help you direct sales efforts to more “stable” market segments producing a more diverse customer segmentation.

I know what you’re saying: We’ll take any customers we can make money on! Yes, we all know that standard, but having the data can make the cold calling more strategic. It could also impact acquisitions or investments in equipment as you specialize and differentiate. ●

DIRECT MAIL RETARGETING GOES MAINSTREAM Continued from page 20

Reactivation Gap,” which found that the conversion rate of retargeted direct mail bests that of email retargeting by 113.5%. While the dollars per sale are roughly the same, De Caprio explained, direct mail’s 2X conversion rate means that the revenues from these campaigns are roughly double those of email only.

So for the right campaigns, get as many abandoned shopping cart conversions from email retargeting as you can, then follow up with direct mail retargeting for non-responders.

SG360° sends direct mail retargeting for Geico.

The insurance company uses direct mail retargeting to follow up with website visitors who request online quotes but don’t follow through. The retargeting postcards remind website visitors that their online quotes are still available, and highlight the contact information of their local agent to complete the process.

Modern Postcard is another provider of direct mail retargeting with Morern iO, with the ability to match 50% of website visitors to their postal addresses.

To show just how powerful this channel is, Modern Postcard posted a link to a profile of one of its customers, Blue Canoe. Blue Canoe offers a boutique product — organic, eco-friendly clothing made in the U.S. — and competes in the extremely competitive online women’s apparel market. Blue

Canoe’s customers are extremely loyal, but it’s capturing them in the first place that’s a challenge. All but the tiniest fraction (3%) of e-commerce traffic is anonymous and unconverted, making acquiring new customers a tough road. While many e-commerce companies use digital retargeting, nearly one-third (30%) of consumers use ad-blocking software. Even when they don’t, the majority have become expert at tuning out digital advertising.

Enter postcard retargeting.

Many printers think direct mail retargeting is too expensive for their customers. But the word from Blue Canoe’s CEO, Laurie Dunlap, shows that this is changing. Dunlap describes her cost per conversion as so low that the company is seeing 8x return on its ad spend overall.

“When I factor in lifetime value, it’s 19x return,” she said.

Dunlap also finds that 80% of customers are new, and because her customers tend to be loyal, those new customers have even greater value.

Put all this together and you see formerly niche direct mail retargeting emerging as a mainstream approach. The more case studies, articles and customer testimonials we read and hear, the more we see this market gathering steam. So get out the popcorn. This will be fun to watch. ●

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MANAGEMENT ─ Become A Successful Leader Continued from page 21

Compromise The compromise lens uses a decision process of seeking common ground. This is a blending process where a new option is sought by leveraging aspects of each opposing element. This approach is found often in the political and non-profit world and usually involves negotiation. When various constituents in the process are too polarized for effective negotiation, things tend to break down and nothing is decided. That means the tension is not only unrelieved but can often be accentuated. Using the compromise lens is rarely about finding the best option and more about finding an acceptable option.

Paradox The paradox lens uses a decision process that acknowledges that the world and, within it, leaders, teams and organizations are full of paradoxes. What is a paradox? A proposition or statement that appears to be contradictory, but when investigated or explained proves to be wellfounded or true. The interrelated elements of a paradox exist simultaneously and persist over time. Paradoxical forces not only oppose each other, but cooperate with each other. The earliest attempt to understand paradox grew out of the concepts of yin and yang from the Taoist tradition.

Yin and yang look at life and explain things as always having two opposite elements that are partially conflicting and partially complementary. The end result of the paradox decision process is a “both/and” solution that leverages both the synergies and

distinctions of opposing elements. The tension is relieved using the paradox lens when we understand how two seemingly irreconcilable ideas or actions are, in fact, compatible and synergistic.

The search for synergy is the organizing principle of Read More… the paradoxical approach to Find article at leadership, and is carried out PrintingNews. com/21148785 on three levels. The individual level for the leader is the quest for balanced versatility (synergy) builds the behavioral tendencies required to optimize leadership effectiveness. The team level is where the team seeks balanced versatility and, in doing so, becomes far more cohesive and effective. The organizational level is the quest to build the “both/and” mindset into decision making, and innovation forces the examination of both sides of contradictory and conflicting goals to find solutions that are synergistic in nature.

The future belongs to those of us who realize how much potential as humans we have and take the steps to actualize that potential through achieving paradoxical synergies. Having done that, we can lead our organizations to a “both/and” mentality capable of seeing through and around constraints and obstacles to a more creative and positive future. ● Wayne Lynn brings focus and discipline to the task of creating and sustaining success in today’s chaotic environment. He has guided organizations through a number of diverse market sectors including magazines, catalogs, inserts, direct mail, and general commercial printing.

ACCESS EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS, INDUSTRY DATA, AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE IMPORTANT TO INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES. Member benefits include: Unbiased, real-time Market Inteliigence, Industry, Economic and Trend Analysis, peer-to-peer communication, special reports, webinars and the largest database of industry products.

Join Now at https://whattheythink.com/join/

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Continued from page 38

the companies that have weathered the storm pretty well, they’re investing right now in their retail infrastructure to draw people back out into the stores.”

They had also been seeing growth—and creative growth—in out-of-home applications, although that has been somewhat tabled.

“For a long time, the standard was to put up digital billboards on the sides of highways, and what we’re starting to see is people trying to capture not only the vehicular traffic, but also the pedestrian traffic,” Helton said. “COVID, to some degree, put a little bit of a hold on these urban environments and mass amounts of people gathering in downtown urban environments. But one of the things that we’re really seeing is more architectural integration of the LED displays into existing building architecture vs. just slapping up a rectangle on a wall.”

As people start to venture out, large “spectaculars”—8,500+ square-foot displays like some of SNA Displays’ installations in Los Angeles and Times Square—have started to catch on.

“It’s just an entirely different approach from a signage project management and construction approach,” Helton said.

Opinions on the aesthetics of digital signage differ, but in many ways, these kinds of projects can help revitalize downtown areas, like some of SNA Displays’ projects in Downtown L.A., which include

massive displays that can run up to 41,000 square feet—and feature easily changeable content.

“When you look at changing landscapes of cities or changing cityscapes, we’ve had a really active role in redeRead More… fining some of these cities that Find article at maybe didn’t have as much PrintingNews. com/21148882 of a digital presence,” Helton said. “And I think Los Angeles now is, from a technology standpoint, on a par with New York. They are cutting-edge technology and it properly represents the whole point of digital and dynamic communication, which is that you can make immediate communication changes without having to take the vinyl down and reprint it.”

These projects are certainly eye-catching, and may be a little beyond what the average reader of this magazine may be looking at in terms of projects—but it certainly could be something to strive for. These kinds of LED DDS signage projects can be eminently effective at much smaller scales.

Ultimately, though, whether a small, retail display or a massive 20,000 square-foot outdoor installation, it’s all about the content and making sure you are taking full advantage of the fact that it is dynamic digital signage.

“I usually use the analogy of your phone,” Rasor said. “How many times do you look at your phone?

Between about 75 to 150 times a day. If the same thing was on that phone every time you looked at it, would you continue to do that? No. Well, it’s the same thing with digital sign. If it doesn’t change, your brain tunes it out and ignores it. If you walk by a display and it’s the same thing that was on it last week, or even yesterday, it’s white noise, and you’re not even looking at it.

“That’s just the way our minds work.” ● LED “Mega spectaculars” are helping revitalize downtown areas, especially entertainment districts and destinations, such as downtown L.A. (Image courtesy SNA Displays)

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