RESOURCES
RESOURCES
Rocket takes Print into the Future with XMPie
CASE STUDY
AT A GLANCE
By looking beyond print, increasing automation and offering a variety of higher value services, Rocket (previously known as Taylor Printing), a Canadian Marketing Service Provider, has grown into one of the largest providers in New Brunswick. In this case study, we look at the growth of Rocket and share a few of Rocket’s latest projects powered by the XMPie Platform.
"To set yourself apart in a commodity space like the print industry where you're traditionally competing on price, you need to offer higher-value to your clients. You also need to be alert, agile, and proactive at all times to prepare for market changes."
Scott Williams
CEO of Rocket
Taylor Printing Group was founded in Fredericton, Canada, and grew as a traditional print company, offering large format, packaging, digital printing, and more.
By carefully observing the industry, CEO Scott Williams understood that the company would need to adapt fast and diversify into new activities if it was going to survive the profound disruptions affecting the print industry. He felt the company was in danger of becoming pigeonholed as a print-only business and wanted to make strategic moves into the digital space to avoid that.
"It was a big undertaking and challenging at first for a team used to print-only, but XMPie had all the tools we needed to get up to speed."
Scott Williams, CEO of Rocket.
2005As well as diversifying the business, Williams looked at ways to automate processes, increase production efficiency for every job, and free his team from repetitive tasks. By implementing these improvements, his team could focus its efforts on higher impact initiatives to grow the business.
Taylor Printing Group purchased an XMPie platform configuration with StoreFlow for Web-to-Print and Circle with PersonalEffect TransMedia for automating communication campaigns.
StoreFlow is a complete, out-of-the-box eCommerce solution for receiving and processing orders received online. It includes all the tools necessary to get profitable Web-to-print sites up and running quickly, as well as a backend system that helps administrators efficiently manage the storefronts, product catalogs, production workflow, and order management.
Circle with PersonalEffect TransMedia automates the production of complete customer journeys across many channels – print and digital. With Circle, marketers can execute communication campaigns with thoughtful, data-driven, and relevant messaging that is triggered by individual actions and preferences and are automatically tailored to every single individual.
Williams hired new team members to run XMPie campaigns and drive sales. New services included:
- Data-Driven Direct Mail
- Data-Driven Email
- Personalized Packaging
- Multichannel Communications Campaigns
- eCommerce Storefronts
Taylor Printing Group acquired Bounty Print in Halifax and rebranded the merged companies as Rocket, offering commercial print fulfillment and a variety of personalized digital marketing services. Rocket's clients include countless business and government agencies across Canada.
"We purposefully didn't include the word Print in our new business name, and I believe that print-only businesses will be irrelevant in five years. Yes, we can provide the printing - and in fact we’re now fulfilling more print orders than ever before -, but that's not where we want to focus. Our spotlight is on our dedication to finding the best marketing solution for our clients."
Scott Williams, CEO of Rocket.
2019As a result of the widespread measures taken to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Canadian economy contracted. Unlike many Canadian companies, the impact of the pandemic was reduced since Rocket had already adapted its business and embraced the digital environment. It was in a solid position to stay nimble through the pandemic, pivot, and offer more in-demand services.
2021Circle and PersonalEffect TransMedia
With XMPie Omnichannel Software, Providers can get future-ready and transform from a Print-only Service Provider to a Marketing Service Provider.
With XMPie Omnichannel Software brands can:
- Fulfil print and digital communications
- from the same platform.
- Move away from linear brand-led scheduled communications and develop consumer-led conversations.
- Scale-up lights-out production.
- Achieve automation of customer journeys, not only at each touchpoint.
XMPie offers the only omnichannel communications solution bringing together a marketing automation workflow and individualized content.
PersonalEffect StoreFlow
PersonalEffect StoreFlow is an industry-leading Web-to-print system for selling print, advanced VDP services, and even omnichannel campaigns from a five-star eCommerce workflow.
Unlike competitive alternatives, StoreFlow is:
- Adobe-based with familiar user workflows for easier operations onboarding,
- Fully scalable so you can start anywhere, add power and functionality and protect your investment all along the way.
- Extendable and can be customized to any environment or business need.
Use either the off-the-shelf option or integrate XMPie’s advanced personalization capabilities into a third-party eCommerce solution.
"The best way to set yourself apart as a business is to identify your customers' pain points and solve their problems. To always demonstrate how you can give them more value as they navigate
through their market. "
Scott Williams
CEO of Rocket
Rocket Client Success Stories
Rocket integrated a memory book creation service into a web application for live streaming funeral services. With this integration, funeral attendees can create a book of photos and memories as a keepsake to remember their loved one without having to leave the live stream page. As XMPie is an open platform, its personalization technology can be easily integrated with the client’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) so assets and data could be shared between the system running the funeral services and StoreFlow for generating the memory book.
The press-ready customer-approved PDF (1-up, 2-up, 3-up, or 4-up based on the number of pages chosen by the customer) can be sitting in Rocket’s production system and ready to go in minutes.
Removing the manual production and customer management steps saves time, and Rocket can produce books within hours of the ceremony for any person who wishes to receive one. Other products will be added in the future.
Rocket used XMPie Circle to manage a marketing campaign for two local coffee shops that wanted to increase footfall but didn’t have the technology, time, or skillset to implement a high impact omnichannel campaign themselves. Rocket designed a fun print and digital promotion offering customers the chance to win a free cup of coffee. It generated and printed a unique QR code onto every coffee cup sleeve wrapped around the cafés’ hot drinks. For a chance to win, customers had to scan the personalized QR code once. Almost all the sleeves were scanned, and the customer data was given to the clients for future promotional use.
Rocket built B2B web-to-print sites for the clients of a Parking Management company. Each client, including universities and municipalities, can order their branded parking signs, aluminum panels, personalized permits, and other products from a tailor-made store. Even for the more complex personalized documents, the web-to-print storefronts make ordering print accessible and fast, saving the client time and money.
When the COVID pandemic hit, Rocket was quick to pivot the business to help contribute to the national effort and manufacture plastic shields for use in medical situations to protect the eyes of the person wearing it. These were available via Rocket’s B2C online print store to the public. At the height of the pandemic, Rocket was producing five to six thousand masks per day.
Rocket built an online print ordering site for its client, a financial institution. Each employee can log on to access and customize only the templates relevant to their branch. The process has streamlined the print buying experience, reduced print spending, reduced time taken to personalize documents, and avoided the problem of having to store obsolete material. A big plus for the bank has also been maintaining complete brand control while giving staff members the ability to tailor and create their own material.
StoreFlow streamlines the whole process and removes the middleman. Getting approval at the
point of purchase is also invaluable as it saves so much time and money. "
Olivia Parker
Cross-Media Personalization Manager at Rocket
Critical Success Factors
- Native to Adobe InDesign, XMPie users benefit from every design feature available and, as required by large enterprises and brands, can ensure strict brand compliance.
- XMPie is printer agnostic and universally compatible with any brand of printer.
- As an open software platform, XMPie can be integrated with other internal or third-party systems.
Lessons Learned
- Don't approach omnichannel marketing and web-to-print-based services like a traditional business. You can't take your current business model and simply open a new division. It takes more effort to convert a prospect to a paying client, so you need to be prepared and willing to adapt. Your staff will also require different skills.
- With StoreFlow, you take on a partner role rather than a simple vendor. You understand them, identify their pain points, and help solve their problems. It results in a much stickier and successful client relationship for the long term.
