Image Personalization
A Personal Touch for Better Response BY KURT K. WOLF Integrating names or messages into photographs using photographic techniques is a successful marketing approach. Four companies (including three German firms: Alphapicture, Directsmile and Directype) dominate the world market. Here, we provide an overview of the market.
Alphapicture Last September, Alphapicture and Directsmile, the two largest vendors of image personalization software, announced that they plan to work together in the future. But what exactly will “working together” mean and what effect will this have? For answers, we visited i-Clue in Waiblingen, Germany. In 2003, i-Clue Interactive introduced its image personalization program Alphapicture as a hosted, ASP (application service provider) application. Alphapicture offered a series of images with embedded text that users could replace with text of their own by means of a Web browser. White clouds in a blue sky could spell out a name or a short message, for example. Text in a beach scene could be created that looked like it had been written with a stick in wet sand or a message that looked like the work of a graffiti artist could be placed on a railroad bridge. The key to creating these images was the fact that Alphapicture could alter the text according to the contents of consecutive rows of an Excel table (each containing a different name or message) and create a new, print-ready JDF for each one. In this way, JPEG images could be produced for any number of names and could be printed consecutively by a digital printer.
holiday cards, as well as calendars. Xerox Europe reached an agreement with Märtterer under which Xerox iGen3 customers would get exclusive access to the software at an online portal (http://Xerox.Alphapicture.com),
Agencies learned that the response rate was up to 10 times higher when the mailing included color images that were relevant to the recipient. giving them a marketing advantage over all other digital printers. Not only could the printers market this unique service, but they could use the online access to generate Alphapicture output on very short notice. And they obtained it at lower cost via the portal because there were no installation costs involved. Xerox’s exclusivity was limited to the use of the portal, however. Alphapicture provided personalized images to all printers, regardless of what equipment they had.
Gerhard Märtterer (center) with iClue’s employees in front of their building.
Xerox Exclusive Gerhard Märtterer, founder and owner of i-Clue, also holds a degree in industrial engineering and has been involved in the advertising industry since 1978. He immediately recognized that digital printers were urgently seeking ways to make direct mail more interesting. By 2005, it had long been obvious that response rates rather than printing costs were the decisive factor in the success of mailings. And agencies learned that the response rate was up to 10 times higher when the mailing included color images that were relevant to the recipient. That’s why Märtterer demonstrated to Xerox Germany what’s possible using Alphapicture software. The Xerox managers quickly recognized that it could make an ideal marketing tool for many of their customers that printed personalized postcards and Volume 7, Number 1 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies • © 2006 Seybold Publications
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Image Personalization
Mailing pieces that address the recipient personally within the image get up to twice the response rate.
about 150 images. They only have to specify the type and number of prints and the size. They upload the variable text to the Alphapicture portal in the form of an Excel file and servers place the required text strings in copies of the specified image until all the images in the job are completed. The images are then embedded into print-ready PDFs and are made available for downloading, after which they can be printed on the iGen3. A monitoring program captures this fully automatic activity and generates a cumulative bill at the end of the month. The costs for this type of job can be calculated in advance using the portal, based on the number and size of the images. They are listed in printed brochures and can be downloaded at the Web site (www.Alphapicture.com). Märtterer said he is willing to let both his customers and his competitors know his prices.
Application Service Provider Because Märtterer declined to sell the software and only offered its use over the Internet, Xerox’s exclusive portal did not require a significant financial investment in software — for iGen3 users or for anyone else. Instead, they invested in the know-how they needed to work with Alphapicture over the Internet and in learning how to submit the right data. Since it typically took only an hour for a printer to understand how the portal worked, it wasn’t a big investment. The European iGen3 users — about 60 at this point — continue to have exclusive, passwordprotected access to the Alphapicture portal. They can choose the image they want to have personalized from
Image Production Anyone who knows Photoshop knows how to copy text into an image, either in its normal form or distorted. But Alphapicture offers something different. The fonts in Alphapicture are photographically created so that the clouds seem to have arranged themselves as the name of the observer, or that the name has really been carved into the sand with the point of a stick. This was the idea (and creative work) of Michael von Aichberger of the Köln-based digital media house Von Aichberger & Roenneke. Both of the owners of the company have degrees in photo
Market Overview: Image Personalization Program
Alphapicture
Directsmile
Directype
uImage
Aichberger & Roenneke
Directsmile
SDV--Die Medien AG
XMPie
iClue
Directsmile
Directype
Xerox
yes
in preparation
yes, PrintGenerator
no
[ASP only]
1990 – 6990 euros
4700 - 6700 euros
3000 euros (as add-on option for uCreate)
Number of ready-to-use images
150
260
180
-
Price per image
free
99-399 euros
225 euros
-
Image preparation available as a service?
yes
yes
yes
-
Xerox
HP, Creo, KonicaMinolta, EFI, Alphapicture
Kodak, Creo, Xeikon
Xerox dealers
Developer Sales organization ASP model? Program purchase price
Channel partners
8
January 11, 2007 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies
Image Personalization engineering and they specialize in one-to-one imaging. It was their idea to integrate text into images in such a way that the observer doesn’t notice that the text has been added typographically.
“We are the Pope!” On the day after German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI, the popular German newspaper Bild-Zeitung displayed on its cover page the lead story: “We are the Pope!” After Bild-Zeitung had published its headline, a wag using the Letter james.com service created a photograph of a bridge bearing the graffiti: “We are the Pope!” This photo was published in a Webblog, where Bild-Zeitung
The fonts in Alphapicture are photographically created so that the clouds seem to have arranged themselves as the name of the DirectSmile President Christoph Schacht.
observer, or that the name has really been carved into the sand with the point of a stick.
been open to users of Xerox DocuColor 5000, 7000 and 8000 models.
obtained it and subsequently republished it with the caption “All of Germany thinks our headline is cool and is even spray-painting it on bridges and walls.” Although Märtterer, who owned the rights to the photo, could have asked for payment for its unauthorized publication, he instead decided to recruit Bild-Zeitung as a customer. Once the two photo engineers showed Märtterer their personalized photos and awakened his marketing instincts, the parties quickly reached an agreement. Von Aichberger & Roenneke would retain the rights to their images and would continue expanding the image bank. i-Clue would have worldwide sales rights, would develop and make available the necessary IT infrastructure, and would handle the advertising, the billing and the collection of receivables. While von Aichinger and four employees worked on programming additional images, a group of 15 i-Clue employees in Waiblingen put together the sales, marketing and production facilities.
Alphapicture for Everyone
Alphapicture for Xerox The popularity of Alphapicture’s personalized images led to impressive demand not just from the 60 iGen3 owners, but also from users of other machines. In response, Xerox and Märtterer decided to expand beyond iGen3 exclusivity within the Xerox family. Since Photokina last September, the portal has also
Alphapicture for Everyone Of course, digital printers with non-Xerox equipment can also get personalized images from Alphapicture. I-Clue advertisements in the trade press and in print
Although Märtterer, who owned the rights to the photo, could have asked for payment for its unauthorized publication, he instead decided to recruit Bild-Zeitung as a customer. brochures make it clear that the company will work with anyone, and the company even includes pricing information on the Internet (http://www.alphapicture.de /files/preislisten_D_bilder.pdf). Clients also can contact i-Clue by e-mail or telephone. After the client selects the desired image; specifies the size, resolution and cropping; supplies the variable text and address list; and sends them to i-Clue, i-Clue responds with an invoice requesting a bank transfer. Once payment has been received, i-Clue sends the image data (with watermarks removed) to the customer. So far, 190 customers are using
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Image Personalization who can read the characters and check them for accuracy.) Alphapicture’s Web site is available in German, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and (starting in mid-2007) Japanese.
LetterJames.com
Visitors to DirectSmile’s Web site can select an image and personalize it.
Alphapicture to produce personalized images on a more-or-less regular basis.
Alphapicture is a business-to-business organization. To promote the possibilities of image personalization, i-Clue decided early on to make its ASP server accessible at www.LetterJames.com. In addition, a cooperative relationship with Freenet has been in place (at http://freenet.letterjames.de) since last September. Anyone can personalize any of the 48 images available there and send them to friends and acquaintances as “e-cards.” Letterjames and its Freenet sibling have been growing so quickly that an average of 25,000 visitors now send personalized e-cards every day to every corner of the world. With an average of two e-cards per visitor, this adds up to 1.5 million e-cards per month, increasing the volume of visitor traffic at Freenet, which, in turn, helps Freenet sell its banner-ad space.
Alphapicture in Other Countries
Directsmile
To satisfy the strong interest from companies outside of Germany, Märtterer established relationships with various partners. Austria’s post office offers its customers a new “Digital Response Card,” which is a self-mailer with a personalized photo that advertisers can produce and mail. The French post office offers
Berlin-based Directsmile introduced its image personalization software at about the same time as Alphapicture. But instead of going the ASP route, company President Christoph Schacht decided to sell the software directly. At Directsmile’sWeb site, you can buy the software for a base price of 1,900 euros, plus a “click” charge for each personalized image. Or you can buy the “full” version (unlimited use with no clicks) for 6,990 euros. The latter choice requires an 18% (1,258 euro) annual fee for support. Whichever choice you make, you must start by learning how to configure images and text. (Note:
The French post office offers postcards with personalized images from Alphapicture, and for 1.99 or 2.99 euros, customers can supply their own image.
Letterjames and its Freenet sibling have been growing so quickly that
postcards with personalized images from Alphapicture, and for 1.99 or 2.99 euros, customers can supply their own image. Roger Gimbel has taken over marketing of Alphapicture in the U.S. In the U.K., it’s Positive Focus (London) and in Warsaw, Alphapicture has set up its own office (Alphapicture Poland). In mid-October, Märtterer traveled to Japan, where there is enormous demand for partnerships. Beginning in the middle of 2007, Alphapicture will offer Japanese and Chinese characters. (Fortunately, i-Clue has a Japanese employee 10
an average of 25,000 visitors now send personalized e-cards every day to every corner of the world. no knowledge of programming required!) You can create your own images for personalization, which means the quality of the images is determined by your ability, or you can choose from one of the 260
January 11, 2007 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies
Image Personalization prepared images on the Directsmile Web site. They cost between 99 and 399 euros, depending on the image, but typically about 199 euros. To show potential customers how easy image personalization is, Directsmile made the creative part of its program (Directsmile Designer) available for downloading free from its Web site. Customers can work with images, personalize them and store them locally for printing. But the number of high-
Last August, the company with the leading ASP model met the company with the leading software available for purchase. resolution images (that is, images suitable for printing) is limited to 30 per day. Associating the text with the image must also be done manually. For automatic processing of images using text from a database, you need to use one of the other software versions (Directsmile Creator Pro, Directsmile SE, or Directsmile Generator).
Alphapicture and Directsmile Last August, the company with the leading ASP model met the company with the leading software available for purchase. Christoph Schacht, of Directsmile reached an agreement with Gerhard Märtterer that said that i-Clue would develop an ASP portal for Directsmile and would run the servers for it. From the portal, printers or agencies can download Directsmile Designer and use it to create their own images for personalization. The user can then upload the images to the portal, together with the list of names and addresses for personalization. The portal servers then produce the personalized images in the form of a printready PDF, which the user retrieves. Alternatively, the user can pick an image from among those that Directsmile has prepared. Märtterer said this agreement lets Directsmile show customers how easy it is to create personalized images. Then they can purchase the full version, which is cheaper to run if the volume of production is large. i-Clue receives a share of the click-charge that the portal users pay as compensation for creating and supporting the server.
Adobe InDesign lets users with no programming background create personalized printed materials, opening up the production of personalized materials to all InDesign users — not just a handful of specialists. With the uProduce Engine, the documents could be output as print-ready files, as Web pages or as e-mail, or they could be sent to cell phones. Over the years the company moved to New York but remained privately held, with Jerusalem Venture Partners as the majority shareholder. The announcement last October that Xerox had purchased XMPie for $54 million caused a stir among
The German company Hipp commissioned SDV to send 124,500 birthday cards personalized with Directype to children on their first birthday.
This plug-in for Adobe InDesign lets users with no programming background create personalized printed materials, opening up the production of personalized materials to all InDesign users — not just a handful of specialists. the three German image-personalization vendors, since XMPie had developed a module called uImage for image personalization. According to Xerox Germany, the server-based software for direct-mail production has a list price of around 100,000 euros, and the optional add-on uImage module is available for about 3,000 euros. (It also requires either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.)
XMPie
uImage
In the middle of 2000, a group of software specialists left the Israeli firm Scitex and founded XMPie, a company focused on making personalization easier. In January 2001, XMPie received $3.5 million in startup capital from Jerusalem Venture Partners, an investment group. Shortly thereafter, XMPie brought its first program, uCreate, to market. This plug-in for
uImage works seamlessly with the Adobe’s Creative Suite. Variable text placeholders (that will later be replaced by names from an Excel file) can be added to images in Illustrator. All the graphical options, including distortion, remain available. In Photoshop CS2, uImage makes use of “smart objects” for image personalization. Photoshop’s graphic effects, such as “warping,” can be
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Image Personalization used (for superimposing and blending of faces into sheets of glass or sunglasses, for instance). Xerox Germany told us it doesn’t think that purchasing a product that competes with Alphapicture, with which Xerox has worked closely for years, is a problem. The portal that Alphapicture runs for Xerox provides a trouble-free and efficient way for Xerox customers to work with Alphapicture on an ASP basis (with no up-front investment). Ready-to-use images can be selected from the image gallery and personalized with data from customers. uImage, on the other hand, is just one option in a package. As a Photoshop plug-in, it does not offer readyto-use images, and the addition of personalization to each image must be done by someone who is an expert at image manipulation. Xerox will only offer uImage as part of a complete package, so it is unlikely to prevent most printers from using the Alphapicture portal.
Directype Dresden-based SDV (the name stands for “Sächsische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,” the Printing and Publishing Institute of Saxony) has long specialized in direct marketing and has developed six direct-marketing product lines. “DirectMail” consists of letters (with or without reply cards) that are printed by sheetfed or web offset, then personalized via laser printing. With “DirectCard,” personalized photo-postcards that emphasize the recipient’s name are mailed. The “DirectPad” product is a personalized mouse-pad with an original image, with the name of the recipient integrated. “DirectAd” and “DirectMagazine” are personalized ads and magazines that are assembled specifically according to the requirements of the recipient. Finally, “Directype” is an image-personalization program that SDV not only uses internally, but also sells around the world. The software offering consists of four program versions, each available for Windows, Mac and Linux: Directype Designer is the module that is used to create personalized images directly. Since the variable text must be typed in manually, this version is recommended as a stand-alone solution for small print-runs only, and it costs 700 euros (not including training and support). • Directype Producer creates a virtually unlimited number of personalized images, using any database and any image that has been prepared in Designer. It costs 4,000 euros (not including training and support). • Directype Producer CL is compatible with variable data printing and Web-to-print applications, and it costs 6,000 euros (not including training and support). It controls Producer via a command-line (CL) interface using scripts, and works completely automatically. Recently, a fourth version (Directype Designer LE) became available as a free downloadable 12
demonstration program, allowing interested parties to see how easy image personalization can be. The images created by this program are limited to 72 dpi and carry a watermark. About 180 different ready-to-use images in nine thematic groups are available to users for downloading from the Directype server for 225 euros each. With each additional image, the user gets an additional half-percent reduction (10% off on 20 images, for example). The purchased images can then be used as often as desired. Of course, purchasers of Directype’s software can prepare and personalize their own images or they can have Directype do this work. Directype charges 225 euros per image, plus an hourly charge for the designer’s time.
Sales Channels Directype software is sold by Kodak for Nexpress customers, by Creo for its Print On Demand solutions and by Xeikon for its customers. Additionally, a list of international dealers is available on Directype’s Web site. The price always includes training, either at SDV in Dresden or at the offices of regional or national dealers. In addition, Directype offers a 12-month service contract at the time of purchase, which covers upgrades and comprehensive support. In addition to selling the software, Directype offers three different services: • The “WebService” is a link to a Directype server from the Web site of a potential client. Visitors can use it to create their own image personalization jobs at 72 dpi resolution, and post these on their Web sites as samples. • The “WebGenerator” creates personalized images at 72 dpi for use in newsletters or e-mail. This is attractive to PR departments and e-marketing agencies. Users upload their mailing lists to Directype’s rendering server, select the image they want to use, and shortly thereafter they can retrieve the personalized images from the FTP server. • The “PrintGenerator” offers the same service, but delivers print-ready files at 300 dpi. Since these three services depend greatly on the scope of a job, price calculations can only be done on a jobby-job basis.
Conclusion The new image personalization from Alphapicture, Directsmile and Directype gives creative designers, advertising agencies and digital printers a powerful tool to increase the response rate from their direct mail campaigns. It is up to them to take the message to their customers and help them create personalized images that are attractive to the receiver, the print buyer and, ultimately, to the creator himself. It’s not only about money; it also convinces customers that printed publications can be a very TSR effective marketing tool.
January 11, 2007 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies
