Sappi Fine Paper North America announces the launch of the Flo Channel: Off RegisterTM-- its online comedy video series developed with VSA Partners, aimed at the influential print community. The new video series features stories told by Second City Improv that demonstrate the trials and tribulations of what printers encounter daily, as they aim to please their demanding, edgy-black-glasses-wearing clients.
The first video of the Off Register series is "Luscious:"
http://www.youtube.com/user/OffRegister
"Luscious" is the kick-off to the video series and tells the story of designer, Kat, trying to get Sully, the printer, to understand and produce for her a color that is not just pink but "luscious." Each video ends with an invitation: "Share your own outrageous printing story for a future episode of Off Register." The series can be seen on Sappi Fine Paper North America's Web Site, YouTube, Vimeo, and FunnyorDie.com.
"Through our new Off Register video series, we are striving to illustrate to audiences how print can be integrated with digital to make a communications campaign have a more powerful impact," said Patti Groh, marketing director, Sappi Fine Paper North America. "True, the campaign lives online, but its heart and soul reside on the pressroom floor," said Jonathan Turitz, VSA Creative Director.
The videos are pushed out to the primary audience of printers and press operators as part of an ongoing dialogue with Sappi and the promotion of its top-selling economy paper, Flo. Most paper company promo efforts utilize only print collateral but Sappi believed it was necessary to break through the clutter with marketing that is multi-media based and engaging on many levels.
To demonstrate the potent digital/print relationship, Sappi Fine Paper North America's Off Register campaign also utilizes e-blasts to printers to link them to the videos and QR codes that appear on printed collateral for Flo paper, which take smartphone users directly to the videos--providing new ways for the target audience to interact with the series, as well as demonstrating how print is still a vital and dynamic medium when combined with digital media today.
The next video in the Off Register series, "Designer Disaster," will tell the story of a designer whose precious original art gets inadvertently destroyed. Both stories for the videos are based on submissions of actual events from printers and press operators.
Another campaign element of the Off Register marketing campaign is a commemorative Series "Press Kit" (to be released late March). The Press Kit will further showcase the qualities of Sappi Flo paper and invites printers to continue the conversation, by submitting stories of their own for future episodes of the Off Register series to be released throughout the year.