For those uninitiated or outside the commercial print industry, Drupa (derived from druck und papier, meaning print and paper respectively) may sound like any other trade show. The fact is, commercial printers of all types, from all around the world, pay close attention to what happens at this event every four years, as it completely sets the stage for the graphic arts industry and its wide range of applications.
As the largest printing technology exhibition in the world, Drupa has been site to some of the biggest and most exciting advancements over the last decade—from lettershop to variable data printing and everything in between.
…But Drupa’s global footprint (and yearly theme song) is not the only reason why it’s considered a big production. In concert with their annual trends report, 2016 showcased some marked changes in the print industry; those that are finally coming to fruition and others in infant stages and being fast-tracked to full adoption.
As direct marketers with an intimate understanding of print tech, we have dissected some of the biggest trends and newest advancements in this field and boiled down actionable insights for our marketing brethren.
One Word, Many Applications: Inkjet
By far the biggest macro topic from Drupa’s past was the proliferation of inkjet technology. Whereas 2012 explored the production of book, transactional, and direct mail applications, 2016 has focused strictly on inkjet’s application to a much broader array of commercial printing and packaging applications (textile, corrugated, etc.). This, coupled with the introduction of cut sheet vs. roll fed, has seen inkjet adoption across the board due to lower investment cost. Other 2016 trends include:
Marketing Insights
Building in cost efficiencies on the production side will continue to make physical, direct mail a more attractive option for marketers. Cost efficiencies, generally speaking, help keep upfront costs lower, which increases ROI across the board.
Digital On The Move
Drupa conventions are known for breaking ground on all things print related, digital printing being no exception. Now that the technology is solidified in the space, it’s interesting to see the next steps suppliers are taking to capitalize on efficiencies. This year, we witnessed everything from single-pass corrugated presses to finishing systems on display, showing just how far digital print manufacturing has come.
Interesting to note, there has also been a big push on the increasing intelligence factor within graphic arts, i.e. the inclusion of cameras and sensors in order to help automate and completely optimize the end-to-end nature of print. A great example: Pitney Bowes announced a new SaaS-based product designed to bridge the gap between the industrial Internet and the mail industry. This solutions suite, dubbed Clarity, will optimize data collected from sensors on production mail machines to support real-time predictive analytics and prescriptive maintenance, which can then be used to identify strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations on the fly.
Last, and most importantly, the very mindset among print leaders has changed dramatically at Drupa 2016; digital is now seen as complimentary technology to conventional rather than a replacement. Instead of vying for the top position, we are now seeing partnerships emerge on both sides of the digital and conventional 'table.' Case in point, the Gallus Labelfire 340 (featuring Fujifilm print heads) and the KBA VariJET 106 powered by Xerox, are products (and partners) offering a solution that deliver the best of both worlds.
Marketing InsIghts
As digital technology continues its march onward (with print not far behind), brands and agencies will be forced to adapt to the rapidly changing landscape, especially with regards to their infrastructure and data processes. While some might argue the big data bubble is coming to a head, these large swaths of internal data need to be synthesized into relevant insights, and formalized into an ongoing process. This calls for a re-focus on the quality of data management (and IT to an extent), as well as a true adoption of best practices across the board. On the agency side, marketers will have to invest more and more in providing solutions that are able to capitalize on relevant, and hyper-targeted messaging, for example, 4-color variable printing.
Quality Vs. Quantity: Why Choose?
One of the most glaring inefficiencies when speaking of digital inkjet is often the quality. Especially when compared to the rich textures of a traditional offset press, digital has consistently come in second place. However, Drupa 2016 saw many vendors and innovators setting sights on enhancing quality levels of inkjet (in particular, high speed) to make them more competitive with offset. This is now possible through leveraging a combination of pre primers, higher resolution heads and even smaller drop sizes/new ink formulation—some of the 5- to 7-color presses are now achieving up to 95% of Pantone colors. In this, Canon ImageStream, HP PageWide Web Press HD and Kodak Prosper, are all frontrunners in ensuring higher coverage applications on coated stocks.
Marketing Insights
The advancement of print quality is something direct marketers have been waiting for since the onset of digital. We will now be able to translate beautifully designed creative formats in the way they were meant to be consumed: high res and high quality. Because impactful creative campaigns outperform non-creative ones by 2 to 1 (Harvard Business Review, 2013), marketers can safely assume that highly visual and stunning creative has a greater chance of engagement and response...and will now be able to be rendered in much richer detail.
The Rise Of The Machine
Four Drupa's ago, we witnessed the first fully automated finishing systems—these systems leveraged data from the digital prepress to shorten make-ready times and reduce the possibility of errors. Fast forward 16 years later, and we are witnessing another truly unique time for automation—the inclusion of fully flexible, ‘rules based’ and modular approaches to workflow deployment (i.e. Xerox "FreeFlow" core, Kodak/Komori partnership, etc.), as well as the proliferation of "Industry 4.0" has been a recurring theme at Drupa 2016.
Industry 4.0, which is the marriage of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, has began permeating the graphic arts industry (the same way digital and inkjet before it), more specifically within the finishing arena.
While these new technologies must tow the line between flexibility and rigidity, under conditions of highly automated, large-scale production, Drupa 2016 saw the rise of a combination of digital and offset printed products. These products utilized smart automation and connectivity, maximum variability and flexibility of run sizes, content, and end-to-end touchless workflow in order to optimize the effect of automation on print production.
Marketing Insights
While they are arguably the most important of tasks, repetitive actions such as PDF inspection, file management, and imposition often increase costs within the production cycle. Once you eliminate redundancy, through workflow deployment and optimization, you build efficiencies and streamline these processes. The efficiencies, once again, decrease the upfront cost of direct mail manufacturing, making it a much more attractive option for direct marketers. Also, as workflow automation almost forces data to be central to any direct marketing campaign, this allows marketers to build out segments that can be completely capitalized on.
In Closing...
It has been a long journey at Drupa 2016 (on average it takes about 3-4 full days to see the exhibition in its entirety), and we are excited to have closed our 16th year in attendance. Now, with an up-to-date snapshot of the graphics arts industry and equipped with actionable insights, we hope to leverage new advancements in print to deliver even greater value for our clients.
