A glance at the titles on the newsstand shows: the battle for readers is in full flow. The new jewelry collection stuck on the front of a magazine for young girls, trading cards sealed in plastic in a comic, a CD with the latest software on a computer magazine – this is how the reader is attracted from all sides with value-added benefits.

Thanks to Muller Martini selective binding saddle stitchers, printed products can best be matched to target groups.

Making the reader loyal to "his" or "her"magazine
But then again subscribers are also teased along with small, additional gimmicks. Special editorial inserts or posters are aimed at making readers loyal to "their" magazine. And the creative people wait in the wings with even more new ideas. This could take the form of addressing the reader personally or special production features, such as perforations or spot-laminating advertising supplements.

The demand for the most unique, individual products possible is not at odds with industrial manufacturing. The diverse options currently available in finishing sections are being developed even further. With up-to-date systems, options exist at virtually every stage of the finishing process for making products different – from the web press delivery to just short of the loading dock.

Creative ideas for gluing in
Before production can start, the idea with which the attractiveness of a printed product is to be improved must be born. In order to captivate the attention of readers, there is an increased desire from advertisers for elements in a magazine that stand out from the "carrier product" (a stitched or perfect bound soft cover periodical) in terms of shape, appearance or thickness

DVDs, CDs, merchandise samples, reply cards, stitched or folded inserts, stick-on notes and direct mail products are all suitable for gluing into printed products. These elements not only reinforce the advertising message decisively, but can also simultaneously support editorial concepts. So for example with small booklets containing short stories stuck onto a women`s magazine the readers are offered something extra in the summer months.

Glued-in products such as CDs increase the attractiveness of printed products and offer the reader value-added benefits.

Making advertising "tangible"
The classic sample of shampoo glued into a magazine is widely known. But nowadays ideas know virtually no boundaries. They attempt with the most varied forms of "tangible" advertising to attract the attention of the reader to their product. And advertising messages stand out even better if people can actually feel something with their fingers.

The tipping in of special publicity gifts, merchandise samples or small folded leaflets is quite easy with sample gluers on saddle stitchers or perfect binders from Muller Martini. They can be used at any feeder position and are capable of producing efficiently at high production output speeds.

Self-adhesive stick-on notes (Post-it®), on which advertising messages can beprominently placed, guarantee considerable added value. Whereas previously it was only possible to stick them on offline, stick-on notes can now also be applied to magazine signatures inline with an accessory specially developed for card gluers.

Know your customers!
Thanks to gluing in, inserting, film wrapping and addressing, special printed products can already be matched to specific reader groups. However, advertising specialists are always on the look-out for new ways of making personal contact with target groups.

Dialog with the consumer should always follow the most direct route possible – for example by assembling products selectively. Selective binding is possible at all times with an appropriately equipped saddle stitcher, such as the PrimaPlus SB from Muller Martini. In this case, every feeder can be individually controlled using a central Controller, therefore allowing many different signature combinations and stitching alternatives.

Increasing the added value of products
The objective here is to prevent reader distribution losses by addressing the readers personally. "Fully selective" is the most difficult method of individually assembling printed products. Based on databases with reader profiles, the personal addressing of titles, as well as reply cards or order cards, is possible without any problems.

Personalized messages within a printed product are also very popular, as they increase the reader's acceptance of that particular product. Addresses and personal messages are applied with commercially available inkjet systems. Thanks to this technology, finishers and their customers can rise above their competitors and increase the added value of their products even further.

Inserted and film wrapped
Even printed products that have already been saddle stitched or perfect bound can be further improved. With the Muller Martini Onyx inserting machine, it is possible to add inserts in different positions in a saddle stitched or perfect bound product or place it on the cover. An address sheet can be inserted in the product when it is still in the inserting machine.

Thanks to the new Pick and Place feeder, bulky products can be inserted easily and precisely – even at the end of the processing chain. In order that finished products reach the right recipient in good condition, products can finally be film wrapped and addressed in the "Rubin" film wrapping machine.

Flaps offer value-added benefits
An idea that is currently very much the trend: perfect bound brochures with gate-folded covers. Thanks to efficient inline-solutions and falling unit costs, they will also soon be accepted in the big run sector. Travel guides, paperback books and even annual reports are frequently produced with six- or eight-page covers. Important information can be presented clearly to the reader in this way.

With the new Frontero face trimmer you can cost-effectively produce unique products with gate-folded covers of the finest quality in a single operation.

The manufacture of brochures with gate-folded covers with flush or slightly protruding flaps previously necessitated two laborious production steps. In the first step, the production of the book block and face trimming took place, and in a second pass the cover was applied and the head and foot had to be trimmed. With the new Frontero face trimmer from Muller Martini, both these processes are combined and processing time is therefore shortened considerably. On perfect binding lines that are equipped with a gate-folding station, brochures with gate-folded covers can be produced inline in a single operation, cost-effectively and in the bestpossible quality.

Flaps are possible with cased-in books!
By the way, with the Diamant bookline, bookblocks can be cased-in with integral covers with flaps, so a full-flap book can be produced in-line and of top quality. If it is your goal to make outstanding products, the Diamant is the machine of choice.

Finishing also for small runs
Given the fact that target groups continue to further diversify, run lengths are getting smaller and smaller. But it should still be possible to finish even small runs. The big challenge here is being able to continue to produce cost-effectively, within an industrial framework. This is possible on the one hand with fast make-ready and changeover times thanks to Amrys, the Automatic Make Ready System from Muller Martini.

In addition, flexible extension options provide plenty of room for the efficient line use of add-on components. This means that even readers of printed products with small runs can also look forward to imaginative ideas.

Local advertising agencies
The developments in printing on web offset presses offer creative people more and more possibilities for implementing their ideas. However, the people in the creative studio must be aware in the first place of what is actually possible today.

Friedrich Kraut, Director of Druckerei Wafag in Zurich, came up with a particularly interesting idea so that his customers could become familiar with the advantages of the Concept web offset press from Muller Martini. He invited 38 advertising agencies to an individual viewing and showed them samples from the newly installed printing press (see also Panorama 1/04).

Wafag is now also printing complex products such as intelligent business forms and securities on its Concept. Thanks to the magnetic cylinder for special die-cutting, mailings are now also possible to undertake with more sophisticated die-cutting such as windows or coupons, not to mention perforations.

By using the appropriate processing unit, it is possible to score, cut holes and perforate longways and crossways on the Concept. Security elements can be added and special inks, such as scratch-off or metallic inks can be used. Full-surface laminating and spot laminating are also possible. This means there are no longer any limitations to the imaginative layout of multicolored advertising supplements.