October 2016 - Printing Insights USA Blog ( News and Tips )

Business Yard Signs: They are all over the place!

– Did you just say “Yard Signs”?

Yes I did! I fact I’ve been looking and talking about yard signs a lot lately. You know, it’s the election cycle that brings lots of those in front of your face…. everywhere….. but they are there all the time!

Why are business yard signs used all year round?
For just one simple reason. Yard signs drive people into taking action. Like it or not, all of us look at them when they are out there.
Don’t get me wrong; when there are 10 of those at a corner promoting 10 different candidates… forget it. That’s too much clutter.
But when used wisely, yard sign can make your business feel it.

When I say “your business will feel the effect of yard signs” I mean that even when you put out a yard sign to promote a garage sale or something like that, what’s behind that, is in reality some sort of business transaction that you expect to happen…..

What is a Yard Sign?

Yard signs are also known as lawn signs, bandit signs, placards or road signs. These are small advertising signs that, are placed on the lawn so that people or vehicles circulating will see the advertising pieces.

picture showing dozens of yard signs and lawn signs — Dozens of yard signs and lawn signs saturating the message. Credit to the Tennessee Beacon Center

This year we’ve seen a tooonnnn of yard signs that express support for one or another of the political candidates running for office, judges running for benches and local representatives such as city councils.

picture of yard signs with creative messages and graphics — Business Yard Signs can be creative and unique.

What are Yard Signs made of?

Yard signs are made out a plastic material called coroplast,which is a plastic sheet that is hollow. Because of the constructive method, it is very strong. The plastic walls that links both faces of the board give to it an incredible mechanical resistance and strength.

The small pipes that are created in the sheet are usually called “flutes”. Since the yard signs are usually kept in place by inserting a metal H stake in the flutes, it is always important to understand if the sign that you need requires vertical or horizontal flutes

H metal stake to hold a coroplast yard sign — The metal stakes fit in the flutes on one end, and are pushed into the ground (usually by pushing with the foot) on the other end

picture showing a coroplast sheet explaining how it is made and why it is so strong — Whether a 4mm or a 10mm board, the structure remains the same and you can see how its built

How do yard signs get printed?

There are three methods that are the most popular or maybe four if you will consider hand writing.

Vinyl letters cut and adhered
Printing on vinyl film in a poster-size-large- format printer and laminating it to the coroplast
Directly printing on the coroplast on what’s called a “flat bed” printer.

Which are the Typical Sizes of Yard Signs?

The most popular sizes are 18″x24″ and 12″x18″

During the political periods, you can see larger signs made out of coroplast. In those examples, the sign company will build a custom wood structure and the coroplast will get stapled or screwed to it.

“Shapes or business yard signs”

These are usually rectangular, although they can be made in any custom shape, thanks to the use of sophisticated router cutters.

We look forward to hearing your comments!
Till next time!

Halloween Spirit with Creative Labels

Tic Tac, Tic Tac…..

The clock is ticking and we are just a few days away of Halloween, which probably means that most of you are putting together the best ideas and best decorations for Halloween.

Halloween celebration and the marketing related to the day are big here!

I don’t know how Halloween is celebrated within your community (In fact I would like to hear from you!), but my experience in this area, South Florida, is that children and their families have a ton of fun when planning for this day. Even those adults with adult children get ready.

Going to the candy store, buying candy containers and putting together a nice decoration of the homes and the yard are a part of a tradition here that cannot be skipped.

Even HOAs will “rule” on how to celebrate and create the safest conditions for the comunities as a whole.

If we were to talk about how businesses celebrate, that’s a whole category in itself. We’ve seen greeting cards, scary flyers, postcards and even surprise gifts as part of the celebration.

But what caught our attention were the labels! It used to be that printed labels would have regular shapes, such as either square or round. The fact that we can now provide them in any shape or size or color creates a wave of creativity that we had not seen!

Examples of creative labels for Halloween.

This is a great example of a creative label. In this case the creation is by Mark Chipkin and the size of the label is 2.25″x4″, which makes it ideal to be stuck on a chocolate bar, on the front of the plastic bag that you might be using to put the pack of candies together.

Here is another great example on how to make the Halloween night even more fan, and take an extra pleasure when getting the stuff together.

2″x2″ Halloween label

This other example Brianna wants to make her community so much more open and friendly, came up with this idea where she created so many Halloween related cliparts which were placed as part of the giveaways.
This is a great example of how to build community and have fun!

friendly halloween label — Make your community friendlier by getting to know each other

Share with us what is special about Halloween for you

Till next post!

Why Print Still Matters

Hi there everybody!
We are inaugurating this blog. We communicate the news here. The first post will try to explain why print still matters.

When we talk about business marketing platforms, we never can forget good old-fashioned print. Despite many business owners opt to replace paper advertisements with online media, social media marketing campaigns, and other innovative digital renditions, the best solution appears when we use a combination of print and digital advertising.

Print is their main selling tool:

Fact-filled catalogs for the bookshelf
Posters for the walls
Brochures for the racks
Photo-filled booklets for the students
Branded surveys and sign-in sheets
Forms, info sheets and marketing materials for the high school counselors.

The Advantages of Print Advertising

You know, when you read a book, the “book” object still has some magic. It is not the same thing to read it on a digital device. This analogy can be used to understand the actual power of an advertisment. Besides, digital media’s immense amount of accessibility leads to distractions such as popup and sidebar ads tailored specifically to your personal needs using your search history. Many people find these ads intrusive and irritating—almost an invasion of privacy.

Print advertisements not only enable your company to reach a non-digital audience, but they also give consumers a positive impression of your brand. Print is currently trendy in millennial circles, as are most “old school” practices.

Colorful, classy, clever, compelling print.

In fact, when students inevitably ask about campus life, the recruiters keep the focus tight. No mention of photos, Instagram or Pinterest. No pointing to videos on Periscope, Blab or YouTube. Nope. No digital distractions. Recruiters from several Universities tells that colorful brochures allow to create a direct message to the future students. “Take a few for your parents and friends” they say.