Printer-friendly version
	Email this press release

Web-Enabled Brochure Makes Its Debut

(Lancaster, PA) Intelligencer Printing Company announced it completed the world's first commercially-produced, Web-enabled marketing piece utilizing digital watermarking technology - a corporate brochure printed for client Berk-Tek. Berk-Tek, who is making history as the first customer to order the digital watermarking service, is North America's leading manufacturer of high-performance copper and fiber optic cables. It is also a subsidiary of Alcatel Alsthom, the world's largest telecommunications company.

Before coming out with the new brochure, keeping marketing materials up to date had been a consistent challenge for Berk-Tek. Every day within the fast-paced telecommunications industry, products are being replaced by newer, improved versions. At Berk-Tek, product specs became outdated even as the latest literature was still hot off the press.

"For many years, this was a major problem," says Melynda Wagner, Marketing Communications Manager for Berk-Tek. "Knowing about my need, our Intell sales representative offered a solution - Web-enabling our printed materials using Digimarc's MediaBridge technology. It's the perfect answer to one of our most vexing problems."

Using the technology, a digital watermark exclusively registered to Berk-Tek was embedded into a photograph on the front cover of the brochure. When held up to a webcam installed with Digimarc MediaBridge software, the watermark immediately sends customers to a specific page on Berk-Tek's website. Eliminating the need to memorize or search endlessly for the exact URL, customers are instantly connected to the latest product information.

Intelligencer printed the full-color, eight-page brochure using its MAN Roland 700 offset sheetfed press. During the prepress stage, Intell utilized Digimarc MediaBridge software to create an imperceptible, random texture in the brochure artwork. The process, which takes only a half-hour, can be applied to any bitmapped file or rastered image and produces the "digital watermark" that Digimarc-enabled webcams interpret as digital code. After translating the instructions encoded in this watermark, the Digimarc MediaBridge software automatically launches the viewer's Internet browser, whisking the viewer directly to a specified URL.

Berk-Tek is thrilled with the technology - while continuous brochure reprints and mailings can be expensive, it will cost very little for the company to post updates on its website. What's more, the built-in flexibility of the Digimarc MediaBridge software allows Berk-Tek to change the URL linked to the brochure - anytime and as many times as the company chooses - even after the brochure has long since been printed and distributed.

"We're always excited to find new technologies we can pass on to clients," says Intell vice president Dean Baker. "The Digimarc MediaBridge technology allowed us to meet a real need our client had, and, at the same time, helps us reinforce their positioning as a technologically innovative company."

Founded in 1794, Intelligencer Printing Company is one of the oldest operating commercial printers in the U.S. With annual sales of over $40 million, the company is well known for its high-end color work and its progressive embrace of new technologies. Intell serves clients in all different sectors including retail, financial, pharmaceutical and high-tech. In addition to its sheetfed presses, Intell is renowned for its web presses and boasts Hexachrome printing capabilities, a state-of-the-art digital imaging department, as well as mailing, bindery and finishing operations. In August 2000, Intell became the nation's first commercial printer to license Digimarc MediaBridge's digital watermarking technology.