Customisable printed products at the Vitamin P stand

The question of variation in print products — through personalisation, individualisation or customisation — has long since shifted from “whether” to “how” — at both a conceptual and technical level. There are several arguments in favour of variability within products: they attract attention and can evoke emotion. Through their variability, they can demonstrate greater relevance in terms of content and also respond better to the recipients’ needs in terms of design. And last but not least: providing information tailored to specific needs can help achieve sustainability goals. At the Print Digital Convention, Vitamin P is showcasing variations of customisable print products across three offerings. For WirbelWild, the application is not limited to marketing.

What are the purposes of variable products?

Attention and emotionality

Prints such as names or other information with which consumers or recipients can identify are eye-catching and immediately grab attention. They create a personal connection and give the impression of a unique or exclusive product that stands out from an impersonal mass-produced item. The emotional bond created encourages people to treat themselves or others. Side effect: It is not uncommon for people to share their delight in the personalised product publicly, thereby generating additional attention for the products.

Hyper-personalisation also offers the opportunity to tailor the design more closely to the recipients’ preferences and needs — for example, by offering different colour options or customised imagery.

Relevance and accessibility

The hyper-personalisation of product content — whether through intelligent curation of content by combining selection criteria or by enriching data through integration with external data sources via interfaces — gives individual products greater relevance in terms of content. The savings are not made on relevant information, but on that which is distributed indiscriminately. It is also conceivable to provide content via AI, provided that content quality is ensured.

Alternative language versions or a larger, high-contrast layout are also options offered by hyper-personalisation. These adapt products in a way that fully supports accessibility.

Material efficiency and sustainability

Publishing just the right amount of information is beneficial, not least for reasons of sustainability. Those who publish sustainably publish as much as necessary, as little as possible. Where curating information reduces the product volume, less material and energy are used and less waste is generated. For even though the recovery and recycling rate in the printing industry is excellent, in terms of sustainability, “reduce” comes before .

What makes these variants possible?

Technical fundamentals

In recent years, a wide range of software solutions has emerged for the production of highly customised print products. WirbelWild relies on its proprietary software system, ManyPrint Solutions, for complete customisation. This efficient production method came about with the introduction of digital printing, the quality of which has increasingly approached that of offset printing in recent years and is now in no way inferior to it in terms of print quality. Even custom finishing or further processing is now feasible. Networked workflows now enable trigger-controlled full automation.

Data-based and data-driven variance

At WirbelWild, we focus on two types of variance:

Data-driven variance

In data-driven variation, users or recipients make a targeted selection from existing content or content types. It is used, for example, in the automated compilation of calendar data, where individuals can decide what information a calendar should contain — public holidays, school holidays, moon phases or star signs. The design configuration — from the size of the calendar to the colour scheme of individual elements — can also be customised in this way. Technically comparable scenarios involve content being curated on a one-to-one basis according to specific criteria, such as compiling a travel brochure listing all accommodation that allows pets, those with a swimming pool, or those accessible by public transport.

Data-driven variance

In contrast, there is data-driven variation. Here, it is not the users or recipients who make the decisions, but data — such as data on individuals or groups of people, location data or weather data, often in combination — that leads to different information being published in each case. This involves the use of interfaces. Components of data-driven print products may include route information in the form of maps and descriptions, recommendations based on previous decisions or the weather, as well as personalised images. Last but not least, the format of the publication can also be determined by data; a print product can then establish a link to other channels and formats via personalised URLs or QR codes — so-called PURLs and PQRs — such as a filled digital shopping basket, a video with personalised content, or the retrieval of route information via a map app.

Hybrid

The possibilities offered by data-based and data-driven variance can be combined.

Varieties of customisable print products available from Vitamin P at the PDC

With the options available within Team P, printed products can be turned into unique items in three different ways.

Web2Print by Obility

The stickers and magnets produced live at the PDC were prepared in advance with placeholders, so that names can be added in three places on each sheet of both versions. The customisation is carried out via an Obility Web2Print shop. A WYSIWYG editor displays the finished product, including the added names, before it is sent to the printing process.

VDP by Fiery

The mailing produced at the Vitamin P stand is created using variable data printing (VDP). Each mailing contains personalised elements — both text and images. The personalised content in VDP is based on database entries.

Hyper-personalisation with ManyPrint Solutions from WirbelWild

Personalisation takes place in real time using WirbelWild’s ManyPrint Solutions layout automation software. A fully automated workflow has been set up for digital creation and production, triggered by the data accessed via the exhibition badge.

Data input

The team brochure presented by Team P is personalised in various places. The data for the brochure is accessed via the QR code on the trade fair badges. At the start — on the front cover and in the foreword — the name and the location provided in the PDC registration are used. Towards the end of the brochure, in the WirbelWild team introduction as well as on the final content page, interfaces for personalisation are used. One of the interfaces queries the weather at the specified location and makes a fictional purchase recommendation; depending on the first letter of the first name, ManyPrint Solutions also integrates a fictional personalised quote, which is generated using a word database in the background.

Data output

Within a few seconds, the print-ready file is ready and is transferred fully automatically to production via interfaces, first to Obility and then via Impressed. To this end, Obility has a framework agreement in place that covers the configuration of the brochure; Impressed handles, amongst other things, the imposition of the brochure.

Production

Once the pre-press work has been completed by Impressed, the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c production printer takes over: it prints the pages at high speed onto two different types of paper for the cover and the content, and folds and staples the brochure in-house, meaning no further machines are required.

Curious to know what happens to your data?

For PDC, we’ve only implemented a small, very simple customisation project. Why not arrange a meeting so you can tell us about your idea and we can show you some of the other, more complex projects we’ve already completed?