A Pot of Point of Sale Gold

Point of sale window display

What’s the point of point-of-sale advertising? As the term “point-of-sale” implies, it’s to drive more sales. In the beer market, there are a number of ways to do that, whether it’s focusing on pricing, special promotions or branding.

For Tennyson Lacasio, print shop manager for Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., it’s all about driving sales with displays that make potential customers stop, look, think and buy.

The project pictured here for Landry’s Liquors did exactly that as part of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day promotion for beers brewed by Diageo: Guinness Draught, Guinness Extra Stout and Smithwick’s Ale.

“Those three front windows face the main road, so you can’t help but notice the display. There were people stopping by just to look at the sign, which brought Landry’s more business for those brands,” says Lacasio. “They kept the display up through July 4 because it was getting so much attention and the owner said the sales of those brands went up. It was definitely an impact display and high-quality advertising for the store itself.”

The display was created in three panels for each of the front windows, printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, applied to Coroplast and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt laminate.

“We didn’t have to wrap the laminate around the edges of the Coroplast since the panels are placed inside the window and there’s no danger of moisture getting in between the laminate and the print. The matte is popular because it cuts down on the glare so you don’t lose the image from different perspectives,” explains Lacasio.

Lacasio adds that this is one of the most intricate designs he’s created, especially when it came to finding and working with all the different varieties of leprechauns from which to choose.

“I found that there were two basic types of leprechauns: cartoon and scary. We obviously went with the cartoon style. From there, I had to find those that matched from a compositional style and then properly crop and size them so they fit with the overall design,” explains Lacasio.

Promoting More than Beverages for Dew Downtown Flagstaff

They say everyone loves a parade, but be that as it may, Nackard Companies used a recent Christmas light parade in Flagstaff, Ariz., to promote the city’s upcoming Dew Downtown Flagstaff.Dew Downtown Flagstaff is an annual freeride ski and snowboard competition that plows through San Francisco Street, Flagstaff’s main drag. The course is strewn with urban obstacles – cars, tires, rails and barrels – which competitors navigate to the finish line, winners awarded with medals made by Nackard Companies with LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene applied to metal.

Medals aren’t the only thing Nackard Companies and the beverage distributor’s P.O.P. shop manager Steve Lalio will make for Dew Downtown Flagstaff. Besides hundreds of signs for the event, Lalio also plans to wrap one of the 55-gallon barrels being used as an obstacle so it looks like a Mountain Dew can.

“They’ll put the barrel in the ground and put snow on top of it, so when the skier comes – they’re jumping over cars, tires, handrails and other urban obstacles along the way – this will be one of the obstacles they hit,” says Lalio, who adds that the event, which takes place Feb. 9-10, is open to skiers and snowboarders and practically all ages.

To make the event bigger and better each year, luring more sponsors and crowds to Flagstaff, the promotions are being ramped up. One of those promotional opportunities the Nackard Companies was involved with was the Christmas light parade. Nackard Companies decorated the Dew Downtown Flagstaff “float” with banners along the side, a Coroplast skier finishing a ramp ride and a large logo with the basic facts about the event.

Lalio printed everything on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene. The prints weren’t laminated, except for the big logo circle since that particular piece will circulate around town at street corners and businesses to continually promote the event in town. The extra time out in the weather and the repeated handling necessitated the addition of the LexJet 5 Mil Luster Standard Low Melt laminate.

For more information about Dew Downtown Flagstaff, go to www.dewdowntownflagstaff.com/, and to read about last year’s event and what Nackard produced for it, click here.

Better Together: 20% off Quick-Change Banner Stand and Blockout Inkjet Fabric

Banner stands and inkjet fabricStarting today and ending on Dec. 31, save 20 percent on both the Expand M2 retractable banner stand and LexJet Poly Select Blockout Fabric when you purchase them together.

These two new products are the perfect combination for all kinds of displays, including point-of-purchase, trade show graphics, backdrop graphics, presentations, and more.

The Expand M2 retractable banner stand, which comes with a lifetime warranty, allows you to change out graphics quickly and easily without tools in less than a minute. It accommodates a 33 7/16″ width and the telescoping pole is adjustable from 63″ to 88 5/8″ high.

LexJet Poly Select Blockout Fabric is a 14-mil bright-white polyester fabric with a blockout layer that provides 100 percent opacity. Compatible with aqueous and latex inks, the fabric lays flat, minimizing edge curl and making it easy to work with in production.

The water-resistant coating provides exceptional imaging quality with a wide color gamut and higher ink saturation for rich, brilliant, eye-catching color.

This promotion is not available online, so contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538 to take advantage of this limited-time offer.

A Successful Formula for Bold and Beautiful Inkjet Printed Wall Murals

Printing wall murals

Formula Boats, based in Decatur, Ind., is proud of its product, as well it should be. The company’s high-octane boats are sporty and stylish, facts which are replicated in its promotions and presentations.

Formula Boats’ latest creation, the Formula 350 CBR, is the centerpiece of a new wall mural that adorns the lobby of its headquarters in Decatur. Taken from a July photo shoot in the Bahamas, the wall mural wows visitors and passersby alike.

Printing wall murals for promotions and advertising“You can also see the mural from the road; we’ve noticed a bunch of people pull in to our parking lot and point at it,” says Tonya Hamilton, director of communications for Formula Boats.

Hamilton also handles the company’s large-format promotional printing and says the application of the material to which she printed, LexJet Simple WallCal (6 Mil), was relatively easy. The only hiccup in the process was during the printing.

“Our printer had a problem printing the full 54-inch width. It kept moving over about 1/4″ to 1/16″ so that each panel was off a little bit, so we had to print patches to make sure everything corresponded and lined up perfectly,” explains Hamilton. “The actual installation was a piece of cake, though all those little splices made it more time-consuming. It was supposed to be only big six panels, but it ended up being six big panels and six smaller splices to get it lined up properly.”

Next time, adds Hamilton, she’ll leave an inch or so on each side for a 52″ print width, instead of printing edge to edge.

“We want to do it again, and our next big project is a vehicle wrap for a parade here in town,” says Hamilton. “Vic Porter, our company’s chairman, will pull one of the first boats he ever built in the parade.”

Hamilton also uses LexJet Poly Select fabrics for trade shows, point of purchase and dealer showrooms. Check back here for follow-up posts on the fabric applications and the vehicle wrap to find out more about these applications.

A Million and One Uses for Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric

Printing home decor with an inkjet printer

Okay. So the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. Still, print shops are finding various unorthodox ways of using Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric from LexJet.

Printing office and home decor with an inkjet printer
It looks real, but it's printed on Photo Tex and leads visitors to Spectra Imaging to find out more.

Brian Rogers, founder and CEO of Spectra Imaging in Louisville, Ky., recently took Photo Tex for a spin in his newly remodeled kitchen. A long-time user of the aqueous version of the material for commercial projects, Rogers started using the solvent version when he added solvent printers to the production mix this year.

“We love the solvent version because it’s more durable, and the color and saturation we get from it is superb,” says Rogers.

The idea to cover his kitchen walls with “slate” printed on Photo Tex was born of necessity and the intriguing faux environment he could create. Following the remodel, Rogers found that the kitchen would need to be re-painted. Instead of painting, Rogers decided to give the kitchen the custom wallpaper treatment with Photo Tex.

Printing corporate advertising
Spectra Imaging founder and CEO Brian Rogers says the graphics on these columns, printed on Photo Tex, were so seamless that passersby thought they were painted.

“We’ve done several bedrooms and a den with the same material and the applications have been remarkable,” says Rogers. “Photo Tex is very easy to work with and applying it is a breeze.”

As shown in the photos, Spectra Imaging has done a number of wall-oriented projects for its customers.

Spectra Imaging also features Photo Tex in its lobby and conference room. The larger-than-life images turn heads and lead to sales for similar applications.

Printing Branding Backgrounds for Beers

Wall murals and graphics for stores

The cooler wrap is tried and true for selling beer at the point of sale. It becomes even truer when you can translate it to any room in the house, so to speak, and create a branding background that gives your brand the highest visibility.

Printing wall murals for store signageTennyson Lacasio, sign shop manager at Colonial Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., took the inkjet printed cooler wrap to the next level with two recent projects at local liquor stores. Both projects were printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt.

Lacasio says he laminated the prints first (each project had anywhere from three to 12 printed panels) then applied the laminated pieces to Coroplast. This method helped hide the ridges that normally show through when you apply the print material directly to Coroplast before laminating.

“When you run print material through the laminator directly to Coroplast it bonds so closely that it shows the creases in the Coroplast. When I laminated the material first, it gave it a nice, fine, seamless finish,” says Lacasio.

Inkjet printed wall muralsAlso seamless was the paneling, particularly on the Blue Moon background display. Lacasio says this was mostly due to the fact that the wall he applied the panels to in the new building was perfectly square. Moreover, and most importantly, this 12′ x 19′ Blue Moon mural did its job rather effectively.

“You see it right off the bat when you walk into the store. The walls are light blue, which complements the graphic and draws your eye to the back of the store. The owner just wanted to do one brand, which allows you to focus on the strong points of the brand,” says Lacasio. “The image is not pixilated at all and it’s very impressive to stand right in front of it. After we installed it, people were walking out of the store with Blue Moon and they commented on the enticing feel of the image.”

As per usual Lacasio paid special attention to brand details in the designs, including such minutia as the types of glasses in which you serve the beers.

The other two wall murals – featuring Coors Light, Miller Lite and Leinenkugel’s – are on either side of a walk-in cooler door. The Coors Light mural, themed as an American fall, is 8′ x 13′. The Miller Lite/Leinenkugel’s mural, themed as a German Oktoberfest, is 8′ x 10′.

“Fortunately, they’re placing a minimal amount of cases at each display and replenishing them regularly so that you can see most of the display from just about anywhere in the store,” says Lacasio. “I had huge canvases to work from, which makes all the difference in wall branding graphics.”