The Printed Image logo

Archive for May, 2010

Arthur’s Day Wins Gold!

Monday, May 31st, 2010

It is exciting for TPI staff and myself when a client, in this case ADM and their client Diageo wants to do something totally different. When IIP put their thinking caps on and then combined with our corrugated engineers the in store theatre we produced together was dramatic. Arthurs Day was a huge success. The results in terms of sales lift followed that considerable investment and now it seems the awards have arrived.

The guys in IIP, the guys in Diageo and the guys in ADM deserve great credit for pushing the boundary of what is possible in store. We are happy to work with anyone who wants to see clever customer communication. We think the APMC Gold Star was well deserved and on behalf of TPI well done to all involved.

Colin Culliton

TPI Premiums: Promotional Company / Foreign Exchange Expert

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Given the huge amount of goods that Europe imports every day from the Far East the recent decline of the euro against the dollar from highs of $1.59 to as low as $1.22 last week has meant these goods are  now costing alot more money. If you were importing $20,000 worth of toys last October they would have cost €12,578, now the cost would be €16,393 -  a 30% increase!!!

Why is this?
The majority of factories in China will only quote and sell in Dollars. The reason? Because it eliminates any foreign exchange risk for the factory.
To keep their economy expanding by up to 7% per annum the Chinese Government pegs its currency the Yuan with the Dollar. It keeps it currency at a really low rate against the dollar. This means its biggest market, the American consumers, get really good value when importing Chinese goods. This huge demand means that the Chinese factories are kept really busy and the Chinese citizens in jobs. The Chinese Government are the worlds biggest buyers of the dollar in order to keep it strong against the Yuan. If the Dollar got weak it would mean that Americans may not buy as many imports from China and the Chinese economy could falter.

What does this mean for promotional purchases? And what solutions are there?
Re-orders will be more expensive. If in October 2009 you purchased 20,000 bags at €1.50, and if you were to re-order now they would cost you €1.95 each.
To keep clients up to date given the current volatility, ongoing project quotes are updated weekly based on currency market rates.
When you order with TPI Premiums by hedging and using your deposit to pay the factory a deposit we can guarantee the price of your order throughout the process. This means that if you order on January the first at €1.50 and the goods are delivered in the standard 12 to 16 week leadtime and even if the Euro has weakened there will be no extra cost to the client.

When you place your order with TPI Premiums you can have complete peace of mind that your budget is safe!!

Conor Callinan

The World Cup is over and Christmas is coming…

Monday, May 17th, 2010

The World Cup is over and Christmas is coming…in marketing and design terms anyway.  From thinking about confectionery for Easter promotions when returning from the Christmas holiday indulgence to dreaming up spooky Halloween graphics in spring. Or, as we approach the sweltering heat of summer (we hope!) our graphic and structural designers have to don their creative thinking caps to ponder snowy festive scenes for the Christmas period of point of sale activation.

In our design studio, some of our most creative thinking has to be completed pre-season and a few months ahead of any in-store activation. Throughout the year we supply some of the leading FMCG brands with in-store solutions, from full kits of point of sale distributed nationwide or exported to small quantity full size digital sample kits for the numerous sales and marketing conferences held by our clients.

Thinking ahead to the next big thing is not the only challenge for our designers, they also have to consider different retail channels and the objective of the retailer. For example, our structural designers worked on a number of World Cup 2010 campaigns in recent months where each retail channel required a different solution. From large in-store theatre for large supermarkets to smaller but equally outstanding pieces for the smaller convenience channel.

Innovation in-store is key to any successful campaign but so too is planning ahead. Because our graphic and structural designers work together with a holistic approach we can offer our clients better solutions in design, visualisation, refinement and production at any time of year making that planning process a little less daunting.

Remember only 222 shopping days to Christmas!

Garry

Freddie’s Back! …and so is Trajan

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Freddie is back donning his trademark fedora, red-and-green striped sweater, and four-bladed glove in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010. The typeface TRAJAN is also back in a new starring role (see our previous post……and the Oscar goes to…TRAJAN!). It seems TRAJAN is still in vogue movie poster designers, but it does look good on horror posters. I don’t think comic sans would have the same spooky effect.

Garry