Reader's Digest and Kodak jointly conducted large-scale testing of direct digital printing of variable data. Test results show that personalized direct mail can increase the response rate by 72%.
Reader's Digest is one of the most famous magazines in the world. The German version of Reader's Digest reaches 50 million direct mailings a year, making it one of the largest direct mail programs in the country. For this magazine with 50 editions, 21 languages ​​and millions of readers, there is an urgent need for solutions that can increase the direct mail response rate. At this point, they thought of digital printing.
The readers of German version of Reader's Digest selected Kodak to work hand-in-hand with Kodak Versamark's high-speed continuous inkjet technology to produce “Reader Digest†direct mail with variable data, and tracked the results.
The test is mainly intended to test the effect of the use of personalized images and texts on the direct mail response rate. In addition, the cost-effectiveness of variable data direct mail will also be analyzed.
According to Kodak, Reader's Digest selected a number of special audiences for the test. These audiences are non-active subscribers and hope to inspire them to continue to subscribe to the magazine through this test.
Reader's Digest has established a dedicated team for this project. Reader's Digest invited the University of Stuttgart's School of Print Media to design a solution; Types' prepress specialists conducted detailed planning on the copying and printing process; and Printsoft provided the design and production software Newleaf; in addition, Rotomail, Milan, Italy used 10,000 seals. The VX500016 head printing system prints direct mail letters, while LS Dialog Marketing Company monitors the entire printing and binding process.
According to Kodak, Rotomail specializes in marketing communications, and its equipment is configured to meet marketing requirements.
The team designed 3 sets of programs and a set of direct mailing evaluation criteria to judge the entire project.
The program includes a standard Reader's Digest e-mail template. Mail1, a bestseller printed on Reader's Digest, does not involve any variable data elements other than the reader's name and address. Mail 2 prints different content according to different audiences and prepares 8 versions in total. E-mail 3 only promotes one product, but according to the age, gender and interest of the audience, personalized text and images are available in 25 versions.
Klaus Kicherer, Production Manager for Reader's Digest in German, explained: “Our reader database is huge and we need to find new ways to better communicate our message to our audience.â€
"One of the challenges is how much of a personalized content is effective, and to what extent it will have the opposite effect." He continued, "In addition, specific to the content, to determine which elements need to be personalized Very difficult. We don't have any experience in this area. We don't know how the audience will react. Will the audience think we understand too many of them and feel threatened?"
"So, to some extent, we only rely on 'rationality' and rely on our years of experience in the direct mail industry to judge the trade-offs," added Ulrich Forschner, German director of marketing for Reader's Digest. "This is us. We are very excited about the unknown areas.â€
"We feel that the personalization settings of direct mail were too narrow. These settings are usually determined by the availability of technology, not by the effectiveness of marketing."
Therefore, one of the challenges is whether marketers are fully aware of variable data and how they are applied.
Of course, a reliable user database and detailed customer background knowledge are also very important, but not all data are useful data, and the data after interpretation is useful data.
"The creation of the plan will bring new challenges to the entire project." Kodak said.
It is reported that Printsoft's Newleaf software can design complex documents, suitable for highly segmented, highly personalized marketing use.
However, if large amounts of data are to be used in conjunction with large, high-quality, full-color images, adjustments must be made to the overall process.
Hermann Fautz, the branch director of LS Dialog Marketing, stated: "If the design is more complicated, it requires a lot of images, which will consume a lot of ink."
This will make the paper wet and the size of the direct mail is rather special, which makes the post-press department face a lot of challenges.
“We brought a special cutting machine from our parent company GHPB amberg and can cut any size at the digital register mark. The application of flexible technology allows us to print ultra-complex designs.†Types Prepress Jens Seidel, director of department management, said, "Our mission in this project is to use Printsoft's Newlead technology to create a complete program based on creative design."
"This project is extremely large, the processing data is greatly increased, and we have to deal with a large number of color images." He added, "But all the participating teams are very flexible and actively cooperate and think of new ways to solve these problems. After all, we You can't forget that this is a test project. One of the purposes is to find the problem and then find a solution to the problem."
Despite many obstacles, three sets of 20,000 direct mails were successfully sent to different non-active subscribers.
Kodak commented that the results were unexpected and very satisfactory.
Klaus Kicherer stated: "Given the particularity of the target audience and the technical problems encountered, we hope that with digital printing, the response rate of direct mail will be 40% higher than that of traditional offset direct mail."
"However, we were surprised to find that the cumulative response rate increased by 70%." He continued, "The effect of the first direct mail and the last two copies is completely different."
Direct mailings that added special images and text based on the age and sex of the audience increased by 10% over the second.
"Astonishingly, the response rate of the second type of direct mail with eight versions was 62% higher than the first type, which made us very excited." Robert Koeckeis, Marketing Director of EAMER Kodak Graphic Group, said, "We are very happy The project has achieved great success not only because of the great response rate provided, but also because each member of the participating project has gained experience, which will help these companies make positive improvements in future projects."
He explained: “One of the main objectives of the project is to verify that Kodak Versamark's continuous inkjet technology is effective, and the results show that for applications that require variable data printing, require low-cost printing, and require high-quality production of 2000 pages per minute. , Kodak 10000 continuous inkjet technology is undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice."
Ulrich Forschner concluded: "This technology will increase production costs by 80%, which may be an obstacle for market managers who want to use this technology."
However, significant effects balance the impact of price.
"The cumulative increase in response rate of 72% makes the investment in this technology worthwhile. Market managers can consider applying this technology." He added, "Digital printing technology is not intended to replace traditional offset printing, but it is necessary to fully tap market demand. At the time, it is undoubtedly an ideal technology.We will continue to develop personalized and low-volume direct mail technologies.The cooperation of these teams on this project was exceptionally successful, and timely output of high-quality printing products.We will strengthen cooperation in the future, Make direct mail more creative and more effective.â€