formerly transpromotional.com

Excuses Excuses Excuses

10 07 2007

Here’s a list of excuses that different departments will have when asked about going transpromotional. When viewed from a departmental standpoint, each excuse is entirely valid. Actually, each is strong enough to kill the idea of a transpromotional statement.

We’ll look at reasonable and rational excuses from print programming, marketing and graphic design departments. After the list, I’ll advocate for breaking down silos and forming task forces that can find the most effective way to implement transpromotional documents in your organization.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Design

Outputlinks series on mistakes features Transpromo concepts

10 07 2007

The recent Outputlinks newsletter’s series “HVTO Mistakes …” does a great job of covering what I call “the greatest sin of omission in the industry” by featuring the mistake of not using customer data to the fullest.

There are millions of excuses for not using customer data on a statement. The article specifically calls out; resistance (departmental limitations) and design (available space and cost.)

Pat McGrew makes some excellent comments regarding unimportant content that often winds up on a statement. “…how much real estate you can open up by giving up the information about the transaction that the customer can’t use, and eliminating useless information.”

Again, this points to the importance of interdepartmental project teams. Each of the problems of going transpromotional are insurmountable if given to a single department. They are easily resolved if the right people are attacking the entire problem, instead of individual components.

Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

Please help approve Transpromotional on Wikipedia

9 07 2007

I put Transpromotional into the Wikipedia tonight, and I hope it’s relatively correct. Please visit and check. It’s easy to log in and make updates. The Wikipedia needs some good illustrations, photos and examples.

We need to get the Transpromotional message into the general business community, where C-level execs can understand the importance of a transpromotional strategy. We have to show that there’s money in breaking down organizational silos. People in the print room aren’t clamoring for more stuff to do in their already busy schedule. Marketing isn’t fighting to spend time talking to the print department. Task forces and multi-departmental project teams need to be created with C-level visibility.

This is a great way for print production to be let out of the organization’s dungeon. It might take some of marketing’s thunder, but it’ll benefit the bottom line of the business who implements the right transpromotional strategy.

Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Introduction, strategy

A horse of a different color: Transpromotional as “Googlizing Print?”

19 06 2007

Pete Basiliere’s lastest article on Outputlinks, entitled, “The Googlization of Print— Transactional Ads That Make Sense,” takes issue with the terms Transpromo and Transpromotional. I enjoyed the persepective in the article, but I do not agree that we have to dumb down terms to get acceptance. The departmental silos are the barriers, not the terminology.

Pete believes these terms (Transpromo and Transpromotional) are too print centric to garner appeal with the marketing professionals that can benfit from the concepts. . Instead, he proposes “the googlization of print” to convey bringing the Ad Sense concept to marketers.

That sounds a lot like “google eyes in print.” Googly eyes