Editor's Picks

Mar 1, 2006 12:00 AM, By Katherine O'Brien

The best of InRegister from: Funnel Inc., Webcrafters, Digital Printing Council, Publishers Press and Kustom Group.

The Best of InRegister™

It’s a good thing (Unless you are Donald Trump)
Martha Stewart has worked for The Publishers Press (Louisville, KY) (www.pubpress.com) for 27 years. The former Martha Pruitt married Mike Stewart in 1988 and has heard all the wisecracks concerning the other Martha Stewart. You know, “It’s a good thing,” and “Hey, Martha, cute ankle bracelet!”

Martha recently appeared in a series of ads featuring Publishers Press’ employees with similarly famous names. The point: These employees aren’t celebrities, but customers will get red-carpet treatment.

After the ads ran in Folio, B-to-B and Media Business magazines, the account services rep was invited to appear on Martha Stewart’s talk show featuring a gaggle of people with the famous Martha moniker. She declined. “Lots of people like it in the limelight,” explained the Kentuckian. “But I’m not one of those people.” How refreshing! As for me, I’m thinking of changing my name to OprahWinfrey...

If they asked me, I could write a book...
Funnel Inc. (Madison, WI) (www.funnelinc.com) creates info graphics that clarify the complex. I like the company’s humorous self-promotional postcard, which explains exactly how popcorn pops.

Lin Wilson, Funnel’s creative director and cofounder, told me a more ambitious project. Webcrafters (www.webcrafters-inc.com), also located in Madison, asked Funnel to help its customers visualize the book manufacturing process from start to finish. The result is a 30-inch poster, bound into a multi-page brochure. The poster is perforated so it can be torn out for display or for education, training or marketing purposes.

Wilson designed, illustrated and wrote the copy with the help of designer Chris Maddox and writer Steve Coss. The Funnel team worked with Webcrafters’ Christopher Frautschi, marketing director, and Lisa Wendorff, assistant marketing director, to gather all the technical details. Frautschi and Wendorff led extensive tours through every Webcrafters department. The Funnel team spent weeks speaking with various employees throughout the whole plant.

Rather than simply focusing on the press, the poster shows exactly how a platesetter works as well as every postpress option from casemaking to spiral binding. The final piece offers a comprehensive yet concise overview of the book printing process, a truly dazzling accomplishment. More importantly, the final piece will help Webcrafters’ customers understand the services they are buying!

Skip Kiefer Sutherland, get this ‘24’
Are you eyeing new digital markets? PIA/GATF’s Digital Printing Council (DPC) (www.gain.net) can help. The association has launched Marketing for Digital: “M4D.” With the support of Adobe, Canon, HP, Kodak and Xerox, this research initiative highlights the information printers need to develop new business within 24 vertical segments.

The 24 segments, said to represent 80 percent of all print buying in the United States, include advertising agencies, health care, retail trade, gambling and wagering, the automotive industry, utilities, hospitality and tourism, financial services, real estate, insurance, professional services, food services, manufacturing, education, publishing, pharmaceutical, and other miscellaneous categories.

Part one includes eight reports as well as an interactive and searchable CD-ROM.

Wednesday is InRegister™ day
AMERICAN PRINTER’s InRegister™ newsletter is published on alternating Wednesdays. For a free subscription, click here. Want to comment on something in this issue? Drop us a line at kobrien@primediabusiness.com. We look forward to hearing from you!