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LENTICULAR PRINTING HELPS LÖNNBERG CREATE NEW MARKET SEGMENTS

Wednesday 18. August 2010 - With changing market demands and a decline of printed marketing material in favour of electronic alternatives, printing companies are faced with finding or creating new opportunities for traditionally printed materials.

Over the years, and especially now with the appearance of many 3D movies, lenticular printing has proven to be an excellent solution in supporting marketing campaigns. Helsinki based Lönnberg Print & Promo, one of the most versatile printing companies in Finland, has recently started lenticular printing, and with success. Since then, the company has produced several jobs and their efforts have started to pay off.

The roots of Lönnberg Print & Promo date back to 1922, when Frans Georg Lönnberg started the printing company. Lönnberg was part of the Sanoma Group – the largest media group in the Nordics – but after a successful management buyout in 2005, Lönnberg became an independent, entrepreneurial company. Today, Lönnberg is a 115 people strong company with four distinct business units; PRINT with a focus on high quality sheet fed printing, PROMO focused on packaging and POS-materials, CALENDARS for publishing wall calendars and finally DIGITAL, the digital printing division. Lönnberg has been a market leader in high quality sheet fed marketing related print for several decades. However, with a decline in traditional printing, the company had been looking to enter new market segments for some time.

Great eye-catcher and value-add in marketing
Lenticular printing was one of the possible opportunities Lönnberg looked at, and in 2007 they started investigating this printing technology. Managing director Jarkko Viheriävaara explains: “We started looking at lenticular printing because we considered lenticular to be a great eye-catcher and value-add in marketing. Pretty soon after we started our lenticular efforts we got in touch with DPLenticular Ltd as we searched for material providers. Upon further investigation, we discovered that not only could they deliver the material, but they also offered good support in setting up the whole lenticular process; from artwork to prepress and printing and even finishing. However, our first startup job with lenticular wasn’t a proper breakthrough at that point. Lenticular printing is very different compared to traditional printing and requires more attention in order to achieve high quality results.”

Main challenge is to create the market
In 2009 Lönnberg set up a new team, and with help from DPLenticular, they took huge steps in terms of quality and productivity, according to Jarkko Viheriävaara. “The learning curve was quite long, but once we had a certain level of knowledge, the learning pace increased rapidly. Since the end of 2009, we have produced several lenticular jobs, for both domestic and international customers. Traditional sheet fed printing is a very domestic business, so lenticular has provided us a platform for going international as well.” For Lönnberg, being the only lenticular printer in Finland and one of the few in Northern Europe is an interesting position. “Our main challenge is to create the market”, says Jarkko Viheriävaara. “Most customers do not know the possibilities of lenticular, so we consider ourselves a bit like missionaries promoting this technology. Another challenge is that there have been some bad experiences in the market as the desired effects haven’t been realized as planned. Therefore, a tight collaboration between the customer and the printer is a must in lenticular.”

Lenticular printing has proven to be instrumental in developing new business opportunities for the company, concludes Jarkko Viheriävaara. “The results are above expectations, and the effect of lenticular print on a marketing campaign is enormous. Having mastered the printing skills now, we have actively started spreading the word about this innovative technology. However, I don’t think we could have done this without the help and great support of the DPLenticular team. In addition to the high quality material they supply, DPLenticular’s expertise in many production-related issues has helped us a great deal in getting the level of experience we have today.”

http://www.dplenticular.com
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