by Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. – Here in the Betty Crocker Kitchen, Mark Addicks is cooking up some radical digital recipes for how we look at packaging for cereal, cake mix and yogurt.

Addicks is the chief marketing officer for food giant General Mills, home of Cheerios, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Jolly Green Giant and fictional home cook Betty Crocker herself. And he has QR codes, apps, augmented reality and all the other things smartphones can do in his digital pantry.

“There’s never been a time like this,” says Addicks, a 23-year veteran of the company. “Because of the digital technology that resides in people’s hands … we can now deliver content that engages and enhances the experience. Before, we had to rely on a 30-second TV ad.”

Addicks is trying to reinvent food packaging, especially cereal, by using digital technology. He’s working on concepts that he hopes will be out by the summer and won’t reveal much, citing General Mills’ rivalry with other food companies, most notably Kellogg’s.

But Addicks — who met recently with Google, Facebook, Apple and other Silicon Valley companies — is dishing them together here in the kitchen, where he hopes to update the marketing concept of offering a surprise inside the cereal box. Instead, kids could point a smartphone at the box and “see visual surprises.”

He’s looking at QR (quick response) codes to do this — those little square boxes that appear now in so many ads and, when scanned with a smartphone’s camera, take consumers directly to a website. But he’s also looking beyond the code to apps. He’s already got apps for Betty Crocker and Yoplait Yogurt and is exploring apps for cereal brands. “You point to a logo and things start to appear,” he says. “Maybe some functional content will pop up on a cake-mix box, or you might see entertainment and games coming from a cereal box. What I’m hoping for is pure entertainment.”

continues at Food giant spoons up a cereal box redo – USATODAY.com.

Based upon the enormous amount of positive feedback we receive from the companies and people we interview at industry events, it sparked the idea that we can apply the same concept to give all of you the same exposure, even if we don’t meet face to face.  All you need to do is record a 2 minute or less video and send it to us to post on our YouTube Channel! Don’t worry if you don’t have “professional” equipment – you can easily record something from your webcam, handheld or smartphone like I do. What you say is what counts!

Here are the parameters of what needs to be included in your video – and only videos submitted that follow them will be posted. Feel free to have FUN and be creative of course, but most important be yourselves!

Job Seekers: Name, location (mention if you are willing to relocate), type of work you are looking for and a brief description of your experience. You will need to provide an email address to be contacted by potential employers that will be posted with your video, or a link to your website if you have one. 

Companies/Organizations/Freelancers: Your name, company name, brief description of the company and services you provide. You will need to provide a link to your company website that will be posted with your video. You may also supply an email address, but it isn’t mandatory. Freelancers if you don’t have a website then an email address would be required.

All 2 minute or less videos should be sent via YouSendIt or any other free (or paid) service you choose for larger file sending to info@printmediacentr.com. Once received it will be reviewed and if all is well posted in the appropriate category on our YouTube Channel – and PROMOTED by us! If there is any issue we will contact you, and if at any point you would like the video taken down just let us know!

Please note – PrintMediaCentr isn’t endorsing you as a job candidate, or your company, products and services – we are simply sharing the information you provide with bigger circles who will then then hopefully share it with theirs and you never know what could happen! This has potential to catch on pretty fast – and as with any new thing the sooner you get in on it the more exposure you will get. So why are you still reading this – someone has to be first!

We look forward to meeting all of you – good luck and happy video making

Patrick Welch Named Keynote Speaker at Xplor’s 2012 Conference and Vendor Forum

Lutz, FL —January 31, 2012—Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced that Patrick Welch, noted motivationalspeaker, sales and marketing trainer, as well as business turn-around specialist, will keynote Xplor’s 2012 Conference and Vendor Forum, March 27-29 at the TradeWinds Island Grand Hotel and Conference Center, a 4-Star, 585 room resort destination in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. Welch’s keynote address will take place Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 10:30 AM. Attendees can register at: http://bit.ly/xKp5wV.

Tweet this: Patrick Welch Named Keynote Speaker at Xplor’s 2012 Conference and Vendor Forum: #xplor12: http://bit.ly/xKp5wV.

Patrick Welch is a noted motivational speaker, sales and marketing trainer and business turn-around specialist has a 40-plus year history of impacting people and companies through his uncommon but common sense approach that he presents live as well as in training programs offered to corporations large and small alike. He has been a remediation teacher, head of sales and marketing for both hospitality and direct mail corporations and President of the world-famous Players Club. Patrick has appeared on the “Today Show”, among others and is a published author, father and grandfather. He has adapted methods, which were originally formulated to motivate and instruct young adults in his first career as a schoolteacher. These common-sense techniques helped his students to view things differently, problem-solve and apply higher level thinking skills to everyday life situations. Now they are helping salespeople all across the country to become more effective and profitable.

His keynote “The 9 Skills You Need To Be The Best At Anything You Try — In Business Or Life!” will provide attendees with the 9 activities to be better organized, become a more effective communicator, delegate more effectively, and return the enjoyment and passion for what you do. “We’re honored to have Pat Welch join us at this year’s conference and vendor forum,” said Skip Henk, EDP, President and CEO of Xplor International. “I have spent time with Pat, and he is remarkable. I am confident our attendees will find his talk motivational, engaging and relevant to the problems they face in business. .”

In addition to his keynote address, Patrick Welch will also provide a special session for vendor forum exhibitors and conference sponsors titled “Getting You In Any Door,” scheduled for Tuesday, March 27 at 1:15 PM.

While exhibits are now sold out, vendors interested in becoming an event sponsor should contact Xplor’s Director of Sales, Deborah Green at 770-444-3845 or via email at deborahgreen1@earthlink.net.

About Xplor International

Xplor International is a worldwide, not-for-profit professional association that consists of thousands of users and suppliers of the products and services that create, modify and deliver customized information using a wide variety of document technologies. The association provides educational products and programs for its members and the industry at large through conferences, meetings and annual events. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XplorInternational

Twitter: @Xplor_Int http://twitter.com/Xplor_int

MediaContacts:

Mark Bonacorso
Media Ink.
520-825-0217
markb@mediaink.biz

Skip Henk

Xplor International

(813) 929-8104

skip@xplor.org

By Dieter Bohn

In the wake of Apple’s announcement of iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and the latest version of iTunes U, I’d like to take a moment to step back and look at the technology they all look to replace: paper. There’s not much of a question that from a business and from an educational standpoint, the textbook industry is ripe for disruption. The high prices of books, the inordinately strong influence of large buyer blocks like the Texas Board of Education, and even simpler issues like how much a paper textbook weighs all speak to a need to rethink how we distribute and interact with academic texts. I look forward to these disruptions and hope they make education easier and more broadly distributed.

Before we get too far along in this discussion, I want to lay my cards out on the table. I am not against ebooks — I believe that their mass use is not only inevitable but will change the ways that we think and learn. I am, however, deeply concerned about ebooks when compared to paper as a technology. Make no mistake, paper is a technology just as much as an LCD screen is, and as a technology it has several important advantages over e-readers that I am loathe to see disappear.

It’s only within the past few years that our gadgets have advanced to the the point where it’s even reasonable to consider devices like the iPad and other e-readers as viable replacements for the traditional paper book. As fast as technology moves, it’s important to remember that previous changes in reading technology took literally centuries to spread. This current change is happening much more rapidly, and we need to think just as rapidly about its repercussions.

So while much of the coverage of yesterday’s announcement focuses on the exciting new ways that e-readers enable students to interact with texts, we should also be sure to give paper books their due. This isn’t a Luddite rant about how gadgets are destroying our inherent humanity and it’s not an ode to the wonderful smell and feel of an old book: it’s a clear-eyed look at how well paper technology has served us for millennia and how we need to be careful in our headlong rush to replace it.

Continues at:  Sorry iBooks, paper books still win on specs | The Verge.

Sony Pictures upcoming “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” still uses molding clay and traditional stop-motion animation to bring its wide-eyed characters to life, but creator Aardman Animations happily embraced a strange new technology to make those figures speak: 3D printers.

A 3D printer is much like an ordinary one, but it works in a third dimension, depositing a substance that eventually builds up, layer by layer, into an object — a ball, a model airplane, or an animated critter.

“We built about 8,000 mouths,” key animator Ian Whitlock said, explaining how he brought the various characters to life in an unusually short time. “For the Pirate Captain model, we made 257 separate mouths. For someone like Charles Darwin, we probably had about 130 mouths.”

A 3D printer connects to a computer and receives a file that describes an object in three dimensions, explained Rich Brown, senior editor at cnet.com. “It works much like a 2D printer,” he said. “The layers build up in liquid form. The material solidifies as it prints out each layer, and the end result is a 3D object in real life.”

The 3D printing of all those different mouths helped speed up the animation process, allowing for more details and characters in the film.“ We’d still be shooting now if we had to sculpt all of these mouths,” Whitlock said. “Even with 3D printing, you can easily spend two to three months on a character. I probably did five or six characters in the space of 10 months.”

The film’s animators broke down the mouth shapes of the characters by listening to an actor’s dialogue. “That would be broken down onto a ‘dope sheet,’ which is a phonetic breakdown,” Whitlock said. “When the directors were happy with the way the mouths looked, then the files would be sent off to a rapid prototype machine, which would then physically print the mouths out.

“When the mouths are printed out, they’re sort of a flesh color. It’s the same technology used to create hearing aides. They have about 14 different skin tones … once it’s done, we sand it and paint it.”

Whitlock said “The Pirates!” is the first animated film to widely embrace 3D printing, although the 2009 film “Coraline” used a similar technique on a smaller scale.

Continues at:  Tech And The Movies: 3D Printing Brings New Angle To Animation | Fox News.

A fun Sunday project with my daughter on brand logos. Follow me @ladddesign

Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization established to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper, today launched its U.S. website, www.twosides.us. The site, filled with facts from well-known, credible sources, provides an easily accessible resource for anyone who wants trustworthy information about the environmental impacts of paper-based communication.

“Print and paper have a great environmental story to tell, but that story often gets lost among misleading claims, misconceptions and one-sided communications,” says Two Sides President Phil Riebel. “On the Two Sides website, we present information from a wide range of authoritative sources – organizations like the World Resources Institute, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Forest Service and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development – to dispel the myths and help people better understand the true sustainability of print and paper.”

In addition to a “Myths and Facts” section, the website offers a host of other resources, including reports, case studies and news on the sustainability of print and paper, a question and answer page where website visitors can submit relevant questions, and links to networking opportunities like the Two Sides blog and social network pages. The site also provides information on how to join Two Sides and offers additional members-only benefits. To date, over 50 U.S. companies have joined Two Sides.

Continues: Two Sides Launches U.S. Website.

So speaking of cool stuff… DOCUMOBI! – An app that allows for anything printed with an image, from any point in time, on any substrate, to be made interactive – was the topic and as the presentation moved along I was manning the chat and trying to answer as many questions I could. Some very good points were raised, as well as some concerns, but since the majority of questions were about pricing and licensing, it seems the sheer awesomeness of this tech was conveyed very well by our presenter Peter Lancaster, Co-Founder and COO of Documobi.

It’s obvious PMC and I support this tech, amongst many others, and have done our best to get this information to you, so I’m not attempting to “sell” you on it. I am going to recap what we learned, try and address some of the concerns that were raised as best I can, and hopefully when you make up your own mind, we are on the same page! Bottom line, if it’s good for Print and Marketing, it’s good for all of us…

So let’s actually start there…

Documobi wasnt adopted by print, it was created FOR Print and that alone gives it some unique space in the marketing tech world. As well, since the tech works without a marker, it allows you to go back into your sample closets, and portfolios, and agency pitch books, and warehoused materials, and the 600 biz cards you have left from last year, and give them an interactive rebirth.

With materials you are currently working on, you can still print even if you digital material isn’t ready since again a printed marker isn’t needed. When you have it, you just do a few clicks on the Documobi site and direct the images anywhere you want them to go, and change where they go anytime you want, as much as you want.

An image used in a campaign, or a logo for example, will go to that same directed content no matter what it is printed on (or embroidered, and even etched in some instances) how it was printed, and again when it was created. In the webinar Peter used the Coca Cola logo as an example (not affiliated with Documobi) since they are the largest brand in the world and it’s easy to picture how many places, and substrates, and times throughout your life, you have seen it, or will see from today on. The supermarket, the stadium, the corner store, the movie theater, your refrigerator, in ads, on displays, on posters, on promotions, on merchandise, on a delivery truck or uniform – doesn’t matter – it’s all connected and the interactive experience can all be managed, changed, updated and removed in a few clicks without having to do anything to the materials!

So lets try it… Get out your Android, iPhone or iPad and go to your app market. Search Documobi and download the free reader app – which is universal btw – ONE Creator App/ONE Reader App. Once installed, open it up and scan the cheeseburger, which is the “image” in this piece submitted by Christine Roy of RPI Printing when we did an open call for samples prior to the webinar. The content is a video created by Documobi to show what is possible once an image is scanned.

Pretty cool huh? Let’s take it one more step – the data!  During the webinar, after we asked attendees to scan, Peter pulled up the Documobi site and went into this image file. In REAL TIME he showed how many people scanned, WHERE they scanned (he did it by GPS coordinates and then loaded those into Google maps and pulled up an attendees house – but it can be set up in many ways depending upon what your location needs are) and WHEN they scanned.  We didn’t ask for email addresses or any personal information, but of course that is possible to know WHO had scanned as well. If you set it up that way, the APP can follow up with an email or a text message, and there might be more options but those were the only ones we discussed.  As well, as you can see in the video, the content delivered can be tied into the where, when and who data – so in this instance if I scanned the cheeseburger and it’s lunchtime, the content could deliver the closest place I can find your clients or customers cheeseburger as well as a coupon for free fries or a drink!! All of this is can be personalized as well. How you apply the image/s and the delivered content for your business or for your clients is totally up to you! And don’t forget, you can go BACK to your already printed materials and use Documobi!

During the webinar, the chat area was buzzing with questions and comments and I did my best to keep up while Peter was presenting, but our participants were extremely active and interested – so it was hard! A few of the same questions were raised by many, and I’d like to take a stab and elaborating as best I can based upon when I learned about Documobi.

By far, the question asked most was “how are consumers/customers supposed to know the image is interactive without a marker?” It was probably asked most since that is a very important question! There are however many answers to it – and here are a few:

You could 100% use a marker if you so choose, but unlike a QR code, that marker can be ANYTHING you want and there are no size or contrast scanability requirements. Brands and companies for example can make their own! I made these to show you what I mean.

Now just having a marker or some indicator doesn’t mean people will get that the material is using iPR, as we certainly know from QR codes, so maybe for a bit you will want to include some info on downloading the app and scanning the image – up to you. The good news here is that the reader is UNIVERSAL – so there is only one choice. I believe with QR codes there are over 250 reader options and I also know from personal experience (let alone all the info out there) that all of them don’t work on all the codes. This is a self-contained process, so you create and read from the same system.

If you license Documobi, you also have many opportunities to communicate to your clients and customers through all of your channels and social media that EVERTHING is interactive and give them the info to download the reader. You can add a line on your materials and say something like “this ad is powered by iPR – visit our website for more info” and DRIVE traffic over there with something really cool. You can pre-empt the question for your current clients/customers by sending out a mailer announcing your Print has gone Digital – and providing an image for them to scan and reader info – and even tell them they can go back to ANY materials they have from you and they are interactive as well – but of course you have to apply iPR before you do that.  In any case, this is a huge opportunity to SHOW people what is possible and get them engaged with you as well as wanting to use the tech in their materials! The idea is that people can now interact with your BRAND or your BUSINESS, not a code, and how you let them know is a strategy as well as a unique marketing and sales opportunity! You will be amongst the first in the world to do this – so it’s really a great position for you and your company to present something like this, even if you clients or customers don’t use it.

To our surprise, the second most asked question was about pricing. We purposely didn’t include costs in the webinar because it wasn’t meant to be a sales pitch. The purpose was to introduce you to, and provide you information for, what we believe at PMC is an amazing technology for Print. Peter did such a great job that even after the webinar the follow-ups, calls, emails, and posts – even to PMC – were people wanting to buy it.  Because of that… and the awesome turnout and registration numbers, Documobi has provided us with a discount to share with you. The license costs $1995  – and you can save $300 using promo code PMC12 at checkout on documobi.com. There are other costs, so please contact info@documobi.com to discuss those; I am not their sales rep! Printers, Marketers, Ad Agencies, Designers – everyone who touches the creation and production of materials can apply this tech to their business, clients and customers. Oh, and Printers, this also works with Web 2 Print systems!

The third most asked question was in regard to creating the content after the scan. This is where the biggest issues have arisen with the whole scanning thing in general in my opinion. Documobi provides some pretty extensive tools to create mobile content and data capture, and has partnered with a company to create video as well. They have some links on their site and you can also use internal people or other companies out there to do your mobile content. Hopefully, what you create is value-added and optimized for mobile viewing, and you have careful thought behind it. If you need help with that part, there are literally 1000’s of people in my LinkedIn Group and who follow PMC that offer such marketing and consulting services. A great technology delivering poor content will just be a cool gimmick, and as professionals we all prefer results.

Speaking of marketing, another question raised by many was about the images themselves.  What is to stop me for example from applying Documobi to the Coca Cola logo and sending everyone who scans it to PMC? The short answer is nothing. However, there are safeguards in place. First and foremost, ONLY a license holder can apply iPR to an image. It is usually hackers, not professionals, who ‘jack” things like QR codes where you can just put a sticker over printed materials. If, someone did lose their mind and decide to hijack the Coke logo, it would be traced back to the license holder in a few seconds as soon as it was discovered, and then you would have the fun time of dealing with their attorneys. It also makes no sense that we as marketers would hijack logos since after all we want people to get our information.  But, something else came up during the webinar that I didn’t think of prior – what about stock images or images in the public domain – who can own those? And I still don’t know! I am going to need Peter to follow up on that one so I can follow up with you.

There were many more questions not answered during the webinar, and you might even have a bunch just from reading this – so please get in touch with info@documobi.com, join the Documobi LinkedIn Group, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and visit their site as well!

From a PMC standpoint, we couldn’t have been happier with the response from the Print & Integrated Marketing community and we are so happy with the way everything turned out. Our mission is to provide you with information and resources, and with this webinar our mission was certainly accomplished.  I will have a link to the recorded version of the webinar soon to share, and hope you join our newsletter list as well as our social media channels to get updates on this product as well as all of our upcoming endeavors. If you want to share your products or information with our community, or work with us to host a webinar for you, please email me to discuss.

Thanks again to everyone for joining us, to Documobi, and especially to Skip Henk of Xplor International for stepping in and letting us use his webinar platform! Check out the Xplor Conference & Vendor Forum coming up in March in FL – and hope to see you there!

TOP PRINTING INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS UNITE IN SUPPORT OF VISION 3 SUMMIT 

Second Annual Executive Leadership Conference Backed by 20 Major Graphic Communications Vendors  

Reston, VA – Twenty of the printing industry’s foremost suppliers have signed on as sponsors for the upcoming Vision 3 Summit to be held February 19 – 22, 2012 at the Marco Island Marriot in Marco Island, FL. The second annual executive leadership conference, jointly presented by NPES, NAPL, and Printing Industries of America and this year themed “Focus Your Vision on Transformation and Growth,” will provide a compelling mix of top quality educational presentations, interactive forums and a variety of unique networking opportunities.

Aimed at owners and top executives in the graphic communications industry, the Vision 3 Summit will offer attendees a stimulating and comprehensive slate of sessions covering such diverse subjects as: industry trends, market research, e-technologies, the economy, sales force management, political issues, and the latest market intelligence. Presenters at the Vision 3 Summit are a dynamic cross-section of recognized industry experts, political pundits, researchers, educators, and executives with decades of industry experience and knowledge.

The growing roster of industry vendors who have rallied in support of the industry-wide 2012 Vision 3 Summit currently includes:

• Platinum Sponsors – FujiFilm, Goss International, Heidelberg, HP, KBA, Ricoh Production Printing, and Xerox.
• Gold Sponsors – AGFA, Canon, Konica Minolta, and manroland.
• Silver Sponsors – EFI, ipw, Kodak, Komori, LaserMax Roll, Oce, Standard, and Xeikon, and xpedx.

The Vision 3 Summit, valued as much for its ‘mega’ networking opportunities as its high caliber solutions-oriented presentations, brings together top executives from among the industry’s leading graphic communications organizations—service providers and vendors—in an environment that fosters open dialogue and straightforward discussion.Media sponsors also supporting this year’s Vision 3 Summit include: MyPrintResouce (Quick Printing, Printing News, Wide-Format Imaging), Output Links, Printing Impressions, and PrintMediaCentr.

For complete information about the Vision 3 Summit, to download the conference agenda, and to register, visit: www.vision3summit.org. Special discount registration rates apply until the January 20, 2012 early bird deadline.  For conference updates and news, follow the Vision 3 Summit community online at: Facebook.com/Vision3Summit; twitter.com/Vision3Summit; and, Youtube.com/Vision3Summit.

 About NAPL

Chartered in 1933, the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) is a not-for-profit business management association representing companies in the $100 billion graphic communications industry. NAPL’s comprehensive slate of business-building solutions provides company leaders with management tools that enable them to make informed business decisions in an ever-changing market environment.  For more information on NAPL or its affiliated association, NAQP visit: www.napl.org  or phone: 800/642-6275.

About NPES

NPES is a U.S. trade association representing more than 400 companies that manufacture and distribute equipment, software and supplies used across the workflow of printing, publishing and converting processes. NPES is a co-sponsor of PRINT and GRAPH EXPO—the largest and most comprehensive prepress, printing, converting, package printing, binding and finishing, mailing and fulfillment, and offset and digital equipment trade show and conference in the Americas. For complete information about the association, its programs and member companies visit: www.npes.org  or phone: 703/264-7200.

About Printing Industries of America

Printing Industries of America is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association, representing an industry with more than one million employees. It serves the interests of more than 10,000 member companies. Together with its nationwide affiliate network, Printing Industries of America delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency, and profitability of its members and the graphic communications industry through advocacy, education, research, and technical information.  For complete information about the association, its programs and member companies visit: www.printing.org or phone: 800/910-4283.