You don’t stay in business for more than five decades by following the status quo. Continued success requires growth, and growth demands innovation. For Design Distributors, this means working to stay on the cutting edge of mail technology and consistently achieve new performance levels for customers and partners.
In this introductory video, Design Distributors President Adam Avrick provides an overview of the full-service direct marketing company’s 55-year commitment to keeping abreast of the industry’s ever-evolving technologies and utilizing state-of-the-art equipment to execute effective and efficient direct mail products and services that drive success for its clients.
“I think to remain relevant today, you have to be watching technology,” he explains amid the hum of printers and other equipment populating Design Distributors’ 70,000-square-foot production facility in Deer Park, NY. “You can’t be afraid of technology. You have to embrace it. You have to look at it and say: ‘What can I do with this?’”
The past half-century has certainly brought more than its fair share of advancements. Starting with inkjet printers in the 1980s and digital printers in the ’90s, the HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD—Design Distributors’ latest acquisition, and perhaps the most innovative printer on the market today—embodies 30 years of progress and development.
Improved performance via personalization is a huge driver of success for today’s marketing campaigns, and the HP T240 delivers, in spades—customizing at scale, with throughputs of up to 500 feet per minute.
Avrick shares his earliest memories of HP while walking through Design Distributor’s sprawling facility and inspecting multiple machines, as employees work on projects in various stages of completion, and colorful products are printed, organized, and whizz by via conveyor belts in an ever-moving, choreographed assembly line.
“My first interaction with HP was at a Graph Expo show when I was in college, and I was hooked,” he says. “I saw this as the future of direct mail advertising.”
“I felt that, based upon the quality, the speeds, and what the cost of the equipment was, it was finally in the right place for me to get involved,” continues Avrick.
Smiling while pointing to the gigantic HP T240 behind him, he shares: “When we put this baby in, there was a buzz and an excitement, because everybody knew this was something special.”
“The more you personalize a piece, the better your response,” explains Avrick. “When you add color, it blows it off the charts with your response rate. And that’s what we’re doing today.”
Such capabilities contrast sharply with those of the toner printing systems that have historically been the standard for high-volume campaigns. In fact, the HP T-240 system runs over 300% faster than current laser technology and will greatly reduce your cycle time and get your mail in home quicker.
The new, vastly superior rates are possible even with advanced personalization. Boasting a resolution of 2400 nozzles per square inch, and Mac and PC compatibility, the HP T240 can change variables on the fly, without a drop in speed or quality. Research shows that three personalization variables can increase response rates more than 100%.
The T240 is a groundbreaking advancement, yet only one step in Design Distributors’ commitment to continual progress, explains Avrick.
“The PageWide press allows us to vary color in an efficient manner, for larger quantities than I could ever imagine on a toner system,” he continues. “I know we have exceeded our expectation of the quality and quantity of pieces going through this machine, and the amount of pages throughout has seen an increase of 300%.”
“We’re planning on keeping this piece of equipment for awhile, and the ability to upgrade it is huge for us,” says Avrick, who’s always one to keep an eye out for future improvements, even with the latest technology at his fingertips.
After all, if there’s one lesson he’s learned from being in business all these years, it’s to constantly look forward.