HP Extends the Power of Print

HEWLETT-PACKARD launched its $300 million worldwide marketing campaign in style. More than 700 guests joined 100 HP employees on the 52nd floor of 7 World Trade Center in New York recently to hear about “Print 2.0: Extending the Power of Print.”

Out of the massive wall-to-wall windows, attendees (in-plants, commercial printers, commercial businesses, even some Fortune 500 companies) could see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and more.

However, the main attraction was inside: HP’s “Experience Center,” which resembled a Hollywood set, complete with a faux bedroom, living room, home office, business office, retail store, winery and board room—all staged with real furniture, live actors and every HP product imaginable. Each room featured “presenters,” who explained the various capabilities, usages and benefits of each product or system of products. They performed demonstrations that brought HP’s Print 2.0 vision to life in the home, office, business and retail environments.

Before touring the Experience Center, guests attended the keynote speech given by Vyomesh “VJ” Joshi, HP’s executive vice president, imaging and printing group. He provided details about the Print 2.0 campaign and explained that—in the same way HP introduced and rode the ink-jet wave in the mid-80s—HP will be riding the newest wave: the Web.

Many New Partnerships

The keynote speech was also a forum for the announcement of many new (and/or expanded) HP business partnerships, including those with Yahoo, Snapfish (photo uploading via Wal-Mart and Walgreens), Microsoft, Disney Internet, Logoworks (via Office Depot), Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures and Transworld Entertainment, as well as singer Gwen Stefani, professional snowboarder/surfer Jake Burton and award-winning designer Paula Scher.

Throughout the two-day event, guests had ample opportunity to tour the faux rooms and interiors of the Experience Center, which included the sectors: Consumer, Small and Medium Business, Original HP Supplies, Corporate Enterprise/Public Sector, HP’s Halo Collaboration Studio (which featured live video conferencing between London and the HP event in New York) and, last but not least, Graphic Arts.

In the Graphic Arts sector, HP displayed and operated a range of digitial printing solutions, including several new products featured at the show. HP announced the debut of two new large-format printers, the Designjet T1100 MFP and Scitex X2. The Designjet T1100 MFP, an integrated multi-function solution with scan and copy functionality, is designed for shops that want to produce high-quality applications, including images and posters. The HP Scitex X2, a key transition technology in converting analog pages to digital in the large-format arena, combines existing HP Scitex piezoelectric technology with silicon-based MicroElectro-MechanicalSystems (MEMS) technology used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Also debuted: the HP Smart Labels and Packaging Solution, which leverages HP Indigo press technology and HP IT systems in a comprehensive, cost-effective application designed to help customers meet pharmaceutical ePedigree serialization requirements. Slated for availability in March 2008, the serialization technology is the first digital printing application to fully leverage the variable-data print capabilities of HP Indigo presses.

The Indigo took center stage in the Graphic Arts sector, demonstrating a variety of digital color printing solutions for emerging, fast-growth areas, such as books-on-demand, transpromotional and professional photo applications.

Print 2.0 highlighted HP Indigo as part of a new, emerging market for commerce in the form of transpromotional printing. This new application gives marketers the potential to outperform traditional direct mail response by combining data-driven, personalized marketing and promotional offers with must-read statement and billing documents. In conjunction with the event, HP announced its first full-scale customer application in this market—the production of 8 million monthly credit card transpromotional statements on six HP Indigo presses installed at direct-mail firm Oniya Shapira in Asseret, Israel.

The Print 2.0 kickoff also showcased the Indigo’s digital applications in the photography industry, where the near-silver halide quality of the press and HP’s liquid ElectroInk are establishing a high-end photo book market.

“From Postage Stamps to Building Wraps” was the theme of the Graphic Arts sector, and the variety of beautiful, digitally printed products lived up to the billing. With visually stunning stamps printed on an HP Indigo, creative building wraps produced on the new Scitex, and the new Designjet pumping out fine art posters and outdoor signs, there was certainly a lot of exciting things to see.IPG