Case study: personalize your conference

Unleash your imagination

Variable data printing (VDP) provides limitless opportunities to harness information in new ways, producing personalized print that is more relevant, more engaging and more effective than traditional mass communication. With this piece, our goal is to provide you with practical examples of what is possible and a snapshot of the underlying data that could power the personalization. Imagine these examples as components of a conference’s communications, whether marketing or the package of materials provided to attendees.

Substitution options

Text. Example A is an example of a direct substitution, with the value of the First field replacing the styled placeholder.

Characters within Text. With example B, each letter of the First field is treated like a variable, with a related table providing the image file names associated with each letter of the alphabet.

Rendered Text. Example C features image-editing effects such as a gradient and type-on-a-curve, can be rendered in Photoshop based on values from a field in your list. Images. Example D substitutes an image, in this case a flag, based on a lookup of the Country table.

Colours. Example E provides an example of using colour as a variable, with Marketing Track materials picking up the assigned red and Finance Track materials picking up the assigned green.

PDF Text/Image Blocks. In our conference example, PDF blocks or one or more pages could be selected based on the specific track participation of each of the attendees, which would be set-up as another field of the Track table below.

Maps & Directions. Example G is an example of one of our data services which generates maps and driving directions, personalized as part of the unique, digitally-printed piece generated for each individual on the list.

Data sources

Direction Substitution. A value from a record in your list replaces the placeholder, as in example A.

Relational Data. With example D, the flag image is identified via the Country field, which is defined in both the Contact and Country tables. The Country table might include any number of fields, allowing you to define those values once to ensure that all matching contacts retrieve exactly the same corresponding data. Example E provides a similar example, but with the lookup field representing a colour used in the layout.

Data Services. Example G is an example of a personalized map and driving directions data service. Data services provide customized output based on the address of each contact.

Entire experience

Print, Web, Email. You can combine any of the variable options with any of these data source strategies, and use the resulting blue print to generate personalized print, web or email communication.

Linked Communications. In example F, we include a link to a web page with a personalized URL. PURL technology provides the recipient with an easy-to-remember address and a personalized page of information.

Extending Personalization. By personalizing the conference’s direct mail, broadcast email and the linked web page, each contact enjoys a more engaging experience that is directly and uniquely relevant.