StampaTech Intelligent packaging innovation available free until December 31st

StampaSud S.P.A., Mottola (near Taranto), southeast Italy

Earlier this month, Italian printing company StampaSud   S. P. A. launched StampaTech, an intelligent packaging innovation that lets users access unlimited amounts of information from a product's label.  It can connect to data on everything from point of origin, current location, ingredients, quality and freshness indicators, instructions for use, shopping and social media sites, satisfaction surveys, and other marketing collateral.  Besides increasing consumer trust, it offers a huge potential to facilitate operations like delivery tracking, quality monitoring, supply analytics, mass recalls, counterfeit detection, sales, and marketing of food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and many types of consumer goods.

StampaSud's Commercial and R&D Director, Tony Calo, stated:  "We wanted something that allowed digital systems to work at 360 degrees on a platform of print that is in reality the basis of most communication.  There was currently nothing in the market that had the ability to do this, so we built one ourselves"

Mr. Calo is especially happy that StampaTech places print in what he believes is its primary role of leading digital communication; it is easy enough for every brander, agency, print buyer and manufacturer to use and afford; and that it works with all hand-held media.

He also notes that it offers more appeal and interactivity than NFC and QR codes (but can be incorporated with them as needed), plus it is more environmentally friendly, less expensive, and requires no post-printing finishing work in contrast to RFID or security tagging solutions.

Mr. Calo’s unorthodox marketing techniques for StampaTech have included a product launch during a 6-day gathering on Italy's Mediterranean coast of select international guests whom Calo met on social media (see http://vicg8.blogspot.ca/2013/08/back-to-future-first-international_14.html).

Sauce label employs StampaTech technology

In an upcoming issue of PrintAction I will be devoting an entire column to StampaTech, complete with working samples and case studies as the technology becomes more widespread and more examples become available.

Meanwhile, to launch the product onto the market, Mr. Calo has announced that his company will provide a free introductory package to all manufacturers and branders who register before 2014.  To receive further information, please visit www.smartlabitalia.com  and leave your details in order to be re-contacted.

Recent media coverage of StampaTech includes:

http://www.graphicdisplayworld.com/categories/labels-a-packaging/2359-stampasud-announce-possible-game-changing-printed-packaging-technology

http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/stampsud-launches-revolutionary-track-and-trace-development/

http://www.pr-inside.com/smartlab-launches-stampatech-a-revolutionary-new-intelligent-packing-innovation-r3800182.htm

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Packaging/Tech-enables-easy-access-to-intelligent-packaging

http://www.aipia.info/news_215_printer-creates-intelligent-packaging-system.php

http://whattheythink.com/news/65344-smartlab-launches-stampatech-revolutionary-new-intelligent-packing-innovation/

The English portion of StampaSud S.P.A.’s Website is available at: 
http://www.stampa-sud.it/website/en/

For font fanatics and fashionistas: Do-it-yourself newspaper-printed nails

Did you know: 

1. A commercially available kit from a mainstream cosmetics manufacturer costing about $15 lets you transfer the printed text of your choice onto your nails?

2. Beauty bloggers  and videographers have also uncovered a do-it-yourself (DIY) method to achieve the same fashionable effect using standard household manicure materials, printed newspaper scraps, and rubbing alcohol or vodka?

Absolutely true.  A nail tutorial by cutepolish on YouTube (picture above and link below) and numerous other on-line offerings show you how.
  

I’m no expert, but the DIY steps go something like this:

1. Paint your nails with 2 coats of any light-coloured nail polish and allow to dry.
2. One at a time, dip each nail for about 5 seconds in rubbing alcohol, vodka, or other clear, distilled spirits. 
3. Place a scrap of printed newspaper text, comic strips, etc., face down on the nail.  Press down gently on the paper for 15 seconds (but don’t wiggle it around or the text will smudge).
4. Slowly remove the newsprint.
5. Seal the printing thus transferred onto your nails with a clear topcoat.  

Please let me know what results you achieve with this procedure, if you try it, and whether or not the same technology works equally well for both fingers and toes.

PS:  Before applying, did any of you chicsters give any thought to font or content?  What were your selection criteria for choosing the text?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kcdt4_5Ncc

http://www.glamour.com/beauty/blogs/girls-in-the-beauty-department/2012/05/have-you-tried-the-diy-newspri.html

http://aprettypennyblog.com/2010/09/17/how-to-newsprint-manicure/

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/newsprint-manicure

http://www.benttreestudios.com/freebie-newsprint-manicure.html

Addendum on Friday 8 February 2013:

It turns out this post has generated some lively discussion on LinkedIn under the heading "Hey girls, has anyone ever tried a newspaper-print manicure?" at:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1969742&type=member&item=209254014&qid=0e61bd92-6fed-4458-88dd-b4c901394dbc&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmp_1969742

One reader suggested cutting your own strips of newsprint or magazines and applying them with a base and top coat like papier maché.  So I Googled “nail stickers” and discovered a thriving market--both for miniature decals that you stick in the middle of your nails as ornaments and full-coverage nail-shaped stickers that you apply like wallpaper and then trim away the excess—along exactly the same lines as the reader had suggested!  It seems that some ingenious printer out there had precisely the same idea. http://www.claires.com/store/goods/clearance/cat1260126/beauty/p34133/bling-nail-stickers/

Prompted by other comments, I also discovered that fashion bloggers and videographers are promoting a procedure they call “map nails”. Besides cartographers, perhaps this style of printing-inspired manicures would hold special appeal for travel buffs or people in transportation fields: 

http://treasuredress.blogspot.ca/2012/07/cute-diy-ideas-map-print-nails.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxyZWF_BNYo

Still another option is "music nails":  Someone has successfully applied snippets of sheet music for a violin intermezzo to her fingernails, but suggests the technique would work just as well with sheet music for your favourite song. http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/music-nails

Then there are cases of applying an individual letter of the alphabet to each fingernail to spell out words, using either hand-painted letters or nail stickers:
http://oneillgirls.com/blog/2013/01/28/manicure-monday-meow-with-bree-kleintop/
http://makeroomforcupcake.blogspot.ca/2013/02/valentinesmanicuresloveletters.htmlhttp://nailartgallery.nailsmag.com/photos/tag/27116/letters
http://www.dhgate.com/nail-stickers-golden-silver-letters-nail/p-ff8080813ada6c98013b167388fa3b23.html

Addendum Wednesday 13 February 2013:

Further new discoveries prompted by our LinkedIn discussion are a couple of on-line cases where graphic designers have used either rubbing alcohol or a product called rub-on transfer paper to apply miniature computer-printed images to their nails. I guess with a logo the tricks would be: (1) reversing the image so it wouldn’t turn out backwards, and (2) making sure it stays legible while shrinking it small enough to fit your pinkie. http://blog.modcloth.com/2012/07/18/nail-klub-get-geek-week-chic-with-diy-nail-transfers/

http://transientexpression.com/diy-cat-nail-decals/

It turned out that another commenter’s idea of putting letters of the alphabet on fingernails to spell out words isn't a terribly common practice for Internet manicurists--but I did find a few cases of either hand-painted or stick-on letters:

http://oneillgirls.com/blog/2013/01/28/manicure-monday-meow-with-bree-kleintop/

http://makeroomforcupcake.blogspot.ca/2013/02/valentines-manicures-love-letters.html

http://nailartgallery.nailsmag.com/photos/tag/27116/letters

http://www.dhgate.com/nail-stickers-golden-silver-letters-nail/p-ff8080813ada6c98013b167388fa3b23.html

Perhaps the coup de grâce is that--believe it or not--YouTube offers several tutorials on putting QR codes on your fingernails!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjnLsWC_8I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DjJrYVTiBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq8L5HPDgbs

However, the letters or designs in most of these last two sets of links are applied by nail artists who are patient, steady-handed, ambidextrous, and all-around skillful enough to paint the motifs on by hand.  I therefore get the impression it's not possible to scan the QR-code designs. 

So please let me know as soon as someone upgrades the technology to make them scanable.

Cross-media-marketing case studies

My October article for PrintAction details how Cats Media, a small Canadian business, grew and thrived by transforming itself from a traditional print and copy shop into a cross-media-marketing services provider.  I wrote the story because I perceived a frustrating scarcity of information on role models and action plans to help other printers make similar transitions in their business.

Now I’m glad to report that Jeffrey Steele has documented more such case studies in his December-1st article for MyPrintResource.com, “Grab Attention with Cross-Media Marketing”.  His article details the tactics of several U.S. print providers who are successfully expanding their services beyond printing into such other media as QR codes, augmented reality, and social media to bolster their customers' marketing campaigns.  The printers describe their best campaigns to date, the types of media they favour, how they sell customers on cross-media-marketing services, and—very importantly—how they track and report campaign results to clients.

Addendum dated 3 January 2013:
I see Joann Whitcher of MyPrintResource.com has reprised a similar topic in her December-31st article, "Implementing Cross Media Solutions: Are You Up to the Task?"

http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10821663/grab-attention-with-cross-media-marketing

https://www.box.com/shared/w27y2bcarpemhwl804vp
http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10844953/implementing-cross-media-solutions-are-you-up-to-the-task