Epilog Laser Receives Bronze Quill Award from IABC Colorado

Epilog Laser, a leading producer of CO2 and fiber laser systems, has announced the company received a Bronze Quill Award from the Colorado chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in the Communications Management/Media Relations category for the launch of the Zing 16 Laser.

“When you’ve spent 20 years marketing almost exclusively to businesses, launching a product with a primary target market of home consumers looking to start a business, it can be daunting,” said Mike Dean, Epilog’s director of sales and marketing. “We needed to fully utilize influential technology media to inform the public of this new type of equipment. Thanks to an innovative campaign, we got their attention, and they helped create a strong buzz around the Zing 16.”

The Bronze Quill is an award of distinction for excellence among communication professionals throughout the state of Colorado. Receipt of a Bronze Quill award indicates the delivery of creative, value-driven communication unparalleled by colleagues in the field.

IABC judges commented that Epilog’s entry, entitled “Tech Press Helps Laser Manufacturer Create Big Buzz in Consumer Market” illustrated “great research on the target audience” and noted “the amount of work that went into creating buzz for this new product proved to be very effective.”

After the campaign was complete, Epilog’s website saw a surge of activity with unique visitors to the site jumping by 179% as they looked for more information on the Zing Laser. Additionally, video footage posted on YouTube has been viewed over 60,000 times by people wanting to learn more about this technology.

“We’re honored to have received a Bronze Quill Award,” said Dean. “We worked very hard to create a specific message for consumers and are thankful it has been so well-received.”

For more information on Epilog Laser, visit www.epiloglaser.com.

 

Gravograph To Join With Vision Numeric And Technifor Under Newly Formed Gravotech Inc.

In response to globalization and emerging economies, Gravograph, Vision numeric and Technifor are joining together under a new corporate identity, GravoTech Inc.

As a global leader in engraving technology, GravoTech, Inc. develops and delivers innovative products, software, and materials solutions. They will strengthen their position as one of the world’s leading suppliers of innovative, value-added products, services, and customer-focused solutions to the engraving and marking industries.

The GravoTech, Inc. brands serve retail, industrial, institutional and commercial customers, and offer a complete and worldwide solution including:

• Laser and rotary engraving systems
• Micro-percussion and laser marking systems
• Artistic CAD/CAM software solutions
• Engraving and marking consumables
• Onsite and remote training and services

Founded in 1938, the GravoTech, Inc. legacy has been an innovator in computerized engraving and marking equipment, materials and related services for retail, industrial and institutional applications for over 70 years. The company serves 16 countries through direct corporate offices and more than 30 additional countries through distributors.

GravoTech, Inc.’s United States headquarters is in Duluth, Georgia and is present in 50 countries around the world, operating through 22 subsidiaries, 800 employees and with more than 200 agents and distributors.

To learn more about Gravograph, visit online at www.gravograph.com.

 

Rowmark LLC Acquires Delmar Products Inc. Engravable Products Division

Rowmark LLC announces the acquisition of Delmar Products Inc.’s engravable products division. Delmar was established in 1965, and has been a supplier of laminated sheet materials to the awards, engraving and signage industry for 20 years.

“Delmar and Rowmark share the same business philosophy of providing quality products at an outstanding value,” said Rowmark President and CEO Duane Jebbett. “It is our intent that Delmar’s customers will continue to receive the high-quality products that they have come to expect. This acquisition will enhance the customer’s experience, by bringing a high level of manufacturing capabilities, product innovation, technology and service. Both companies understand that customers are the lifeblood of any organization, and we are mutually committed to doing our best to insure that every customer’s needs are satisfied during this transaction.”

Delmar Products Owner and President, John DiMugno adds, “Rowmark has extensive knowledge and experience in the engraving markets Delmar serves, which makes this a natural transition. I am excited, and know that our customers can expect to be well taken care of by the Rowmark team.”

Rowmark will consolidate the production of the Delmar brand with its own line of laminated sheet products for the awards, engraving and signage industry. These products will now be produced at Rowmark’s manufacturing and administrative headquarters in Findlay, Ohio. This state-of-the-art facility houses multiple extrusion lines, press and off-line hot stamping equipment, and access to shipping routes throughout the world.

 

R.S. Owens Receives Three PPAI Supplier Achievement Award Nominations

R.S. Owens was honored to be nominated for three 2010 Supplier Achievement Awards, including Best Catalog, Best Etched/Engraved Product, and Best Custom Product. Supplier Achievement Awards recognize superior achievement for outstanding craftsmanship, creativity, imprinting and service to distributors. Nominees are determined by the PPAI Awards Committee and are based on overall visual impression, quality and imprinting excellence.

“These are three great honors for us to receive,” says Larry Maloney, VP Marketing and Sales for R.S. Owens, “as they represent the range of service and capabilities we bring to distributor partners. We were particularly pleased to receive recognition on our catalog, which we have continuously improved by designing new layouts to accentuate the beauty and elegance of our awards and making it easier and more organized for distributors to sell our products. The submission which earned us a Custom Product nomination was a real “wow” award, perhaps our most unique custom award ever recognizing the winner of the Pepsi 500 Challenge. It stands over 3’ tall with a vibrant, suspended three-dimensional Pepsi logo and a built in DVD player to show highlights of the race or the awards ceremony. Finally, we pride ourselves on the full range of imprinting capabilities we offer, so it was gratifying to see our excellence in etching and engraving acknowledged. The etched plaque for Navistar includes 12 die-struck medallions inserted through a nickel-silver-plated brass plaque with finely registered etched copy.”

“We announced the nominations at a company wide meeting earlier this week, and everyone was excited to hear the news. This recognition reflects the hard work of many people throughout the company—customer service, fabrication, our imprinting departments, shipping—and every employee takes great pride in our work.”

R.S. Owens has been producing elegant awards and gifts for over 70 years. The company produces many of the world’s most well known awards, including the Oscar, the Emmy, the Clio and many other custom awards and gifts. Information on the company may be found at www.rsowens.com.

 

ASI Enhances ASI ContentBridge Platform

The Advertising Specialty Institute® has announced it has enhanced the ASI ContentBridge http://www.asicontentbridge.com/ platform that allows distributors to build highly customized websites, boost their online presence and improve their operations.

ASI ContentBridge provides distributors with direct access to all of ASI’s product and supplier data. The newest version makes implementing services faster and easier with an enhanced data stream. In addition to building custom sites, customers are currently using the service to integrate product data with order management systems, improve search engine optimization results and implement search engine marketing campaigns on sites like Google.

The Vernon Company (asi/351700) has been using ASI ContentBridge to import products from its top 500 suppliers and to dramatically improve its website.

“The value ASI brings to the table far exceeds all other possibilities out there,” said Dave Regan, vice president of sales for The Vernon Company. “By using ASI ContentBridge, we’ve improved the accuracy of our website, our orders and everything else involved with processing a sale.”

Regan also noted that his company chose ASI only after a careful review and evaluation of several other options. When the company reviewed product and image quality, the accuracy of the data and the costs involved, ASI was the clear-cut choice for the organization.

“Prior to using ASI ContentBridge, posting products to our website was a time-consuming, manual process. This meant we could feature a limited number of products, and there was more room for inconsistencies and errors,” said Regan. “Now, using ASI ContentBridge, we can showcase almost eight times the number of products we did previously, and our sales force imports data directly into an order template to complete sales faster.”

Jack Nadel International (asi/279600) has discovered the versatility of using the service.

“ASI ContentBridge has been great for our company,” said Craig Nadel, president of Jack Nadel International. “We have integrated it into our own website and also use it for company stores and for presentations for prospects. It has enabled us to add features beyond what we could do ourselves from our own IT efforts.”

The capabilities of ASI ContentBridge are providing larger distributors with an exclusive edge.

“Distributors using ASI ContentBridge are growing their business, improving their customer service and have fewer errors,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “We’re pleased with the installations we’ve completed, including The Vernon Company and Jack Nadel International, and results have provided a high return on investment for those companies that they can’t get anywhere else.”

ASI ContentBridge offers the same quality data that powers ESP Online™ and LogoMall websites and includes information such as pricing, set-up fees, product images and supplier ratings.

In addition to vital product information, all educational and editorial content produced by ASI is available in digital audio and video formats to allow distributors to have information at their fingertips about new products, sales strategies and important industry news. ASI invests over $1.3 million annually to create and deliver educational content.

When suppliers update their product and pricing information with ASI, it is automatically forwarded to distributors with ASI ContentBridge to feed their websites and business systems. In turn, the latest product data reaches distributors and end-buyers faster, increasing sales and saving administrative costs and time.

Data can either be streamed in real-time from ASI’s servers, or downloaded periodically over the Internet through a simple interface.

For more information, visit http://www.asicontentbridge.com/, or contact Dan O’Halloran, senior vice president of distributor services for ASI, at dohalloran@asicentral.com<mailto:dohalloran@asicentral.com>.

 

JDS Adds Sublimation Inks & Paper

JDS Industries Inc. announces the addition of sublimation inks and paper to its product line. All 12 JDS warehouse locations have the Sawgrass Technologies’ SubliJet lines of sublimation inks as well as TexPrint XP™ hybrid sublimation paper in stock and ready for same-day shipping. Sawgrass is the industry leader in inkjet sublimation inks, and TexPrint XP™ hybrid paper is the # 1 selling dye-sub paper in North America. What’s more, TexPrint XP™ hybrid paper is the only “hybrid” paper that can be used successfully for both hard and soft substrates. These quality sublimation supplies complement JDS’s already extensive line of sublimatable products that include ColorLine products by Rowmark; ceramic, stainless steel & PolySubTM mugs and DynasubTM & EZ-SubTM aluminum sheet stock, making JDS Industries, Inc. a one-stop sublimation supplier. Call 800-843-8853, fax 605-339-1467, email sales@jdsindustries.com or visit www.jdsindustries.com for more information.

 

Tip Of The Week: Into The Blender

The blend tool in CorelDraw is quite versatile, says Jim Sadler. It can provide a way of shading or coloring an object with a dimensional accuracy that would be difficult to do by simply applying gradient fill colors. It can create a transition of shapes from one object to another; for instance, from a circle to a square, and show every step in between, depending on how many steps are assigned the blend. It can be used to instantly create specified numbers of a shape and graduate those shapes in terms of size, spacing and color. Blended shapes can be applied to a path and can even be made to follow along a path drawn freehand.

You may have come across blended shapes by viewing some color vector clipart in wireframe mode and discovered what seems to be a hopeless tangle of paths. Trying to reduce that tangle to a single vector outline is enough to make you run the other way screaming. The fact is, because the blend tool is so powerful, it can be easy to get lost in its intricacies. Rather than try to explain up front those intricacies in detail, I’m going to attempt to demonstrate some simple yet very practical uses of the blend tool in hopes that you will begin to use it regularly, and from that become comfortable enough to explore the tool in greater depth. To read more, click here.