We are thrilled to announce the winners of the XMPie Excellence Awards! This year, we received a selection of outstanding submissions that truly highlight the innovative and creative ways our users are leveraging XMPie solutions to drive impactful campaigns. After careful consideration, our panel of judges has selected the following winners:
Winner Best Omnichannel Campaign: Cookbook Christmas Campaign by Pel Hughes
Pel Hughes’ winning campaign began with a personalized double-gate fold card featuring a PURL, followed by two engaging email touches. The highlight was a unique cookbook with employee-contributed recipes, each with a variable printed cover, creating a memorable and personalized gift for customers. To gather these recipes, Pel Hughes also sent an email to employees with a PURL, fostering a sense of community and involvement.
Overall, the campaign’s excellence lay in its sophisticated automation and true omnichannel experience. Automated processes ensured efficient and accurate personalization at scale. Unlike a simple multichannel approach, this campaign seamlessly integrated direct mail, email marketing, and personalized gifts into a cohesive strategy, creating a unified and engaging customer journey. By enhancing customer engagement, incorporating employee contributions, and demonstrating technical prowess, Pel Hughes’ campaign set a new standard for excellence and innovation, making it a deserving winner of the XMPie Excellence Award.
Pel Hughes is a seasoned print and direct marketing company based in New Orleans, Louisiana. With over 70 years of experience, they specialize in commercial printing, direct mail, and brand management, delivering innovative marketing solutions to clients across the United States.
Winner Best Data-Driven Print & VDP Print Campaign: Cruise Voyage Personalization by Sandy Alexander
Sandy Alexander’s award-winning campaign for a global cruise ship company aimed to reduce cancellations, enhance the guest experience, and boost sales of cruise enhancements.
Customization was key. Each of the seven ships featured in the campaign offered unique amenities and itineraries ranging from 7 to 217 days, including hotel stays, onboard activities, and destination excursions. Handling hundreds of bookings per itinerary, the campaign meticulously managed detailed passenger and activity data. Guests received a personalized welcome letter, a comprehensive Cruise Vacation Guide (comprising an intro letter, the “Your Voyage” book, and the “Your World” catalog), and personalized luggage tags.
The campaign led to exceptional customer engagement, increased bookings for enhancements, and a significant reduction in voyage cancellations. Technical highlights included automated tables and flow for itineraries and catalogs, innovative manual workarounds for page visibility calculations, SQL-embedded style references in design software, and a custom internal web app to streamline customer service functions. The process involved ingesting customer data, triggering pre-generated and personalized elements, and final assembly using specialized software.
This sophisticated, well-organized, data-driven campaign successfully enhanced the guest experience, reduced cancellations, and boosted sales of cruise enhancements. Its exceptional innovation, technical precision, and seamless integration of personalized elements made it a standout achievement worthy of industry recognition.
Sandy Alexander is a graphic communications and marketing services company offering everything from commercial printing to direct marketing and even visual effects. Known for their innovative solutions, they help brands in various industries like retail, automotive, and healthcare stand out and connect with their audiences.
Recognition of Excellence (Data-Driven Print and VDP Category): Car Owner Welcome Kit by Jarvis Press
This Jarvis Press campaign received an honorable mention for several reasons. The innovative use of XMPie-powered personalization and Hot-Submit allowed for high variability in the printed Car Owner Welcome Kit, meeting the client’s needs perfectly.
A standout feature was its customized workflow that included a 2D barcode system for 1-to-1 match validation which ensured accuracy and efficiency throughout the process. This campaign also included an integration with Google Sheets for real-time reporting added transparency, letting the client monitor progress from any device.
The client’s satisfaction was evident as the innovative workflow and real-time reporting capabilities, and campaign success led to more projects and long-term business growth. The campaign ran for almost two years, showing sustained excellence and adaptability, especially when the client revamped the kit’s creatives.
Overall, the blend of technological innovation, meticulous workflow design, and exceptional client service made this campaign a standout, earning it a well-deserved honorable mention.
Jarvis Press, part of the RR Donnelley family, is a Dallas-based commercial printing company specializing in a variety of printing and marketing services, using cutting-edge digital technology to manage complex projects with tight deadlines.
Recognition of Excellence (Data-Driven Print and VDP Category): Health Insurance Benefits by Direct Mail Systems (DMS)
The campaign from Direct Mail Systems (DMS) was a highly personalized direct mail initiative that required intricate data management and variable content integration. Until XMPie was used the process was labor-intensive, involving manual copying and pasting of various benefit texts from Excel spreadsheets.
The campaign excelled in managing a vast array of variable texts, graphic icons, and multiple layers tailored for different counties and languages. This level of personalization ensured that each mail piece was uniquely crafted for the recipient. By leveraging XMPie’s capabilities, Direct Mail Systems seamlessly integrated complex rules for text and graphic placement. This automation significantly reduced the time and effort previously required, allowing for a more efficient workflow. The end result was a meticulously personalized mail piece that resonated with customers, demonstrating the power of data-driven print and variable data printing (VDP).
This campaign’s success highlights the transformative impact of advanced data management and automation tools in creating highly personalized and effective direct mail solutions, earning it an XMPie honorary mention.
DMS is a marketing services provider, renowned for its comprehensive solutions that cater to businesses, non-profit organizations and political campaigns. Established in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida, DMS has evolved from a specialized direct mail company to a full-scale marketing powerhouse, adept at navigating the complex landscapes of modern marketing challenges and opportunities.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners! Your creativity and dedication to excellence are truly inspiring. Each of these campaigns exemplifies the power of personalized communication and the remarkable results that can be achieved with XMPie solutions.
New XMPie Quarterly Recognition Program
We are now turning this initiative into an ongoing recognition program, so keep sending in your campaigns! We’ll be awarding recognition awards every quarter. Stay tuned for more opportunities to showcase your work and gain the recognition you deserve.
Thank you to everyone who participated and shared their amazing work with us. We look forward to seeing even more innovative campaigns in the future!