Description: Exploring six popular consumer-engagement trends that are driving the wide-format business Keywords: omni-channel marketing, marketing, enriched retail experience, environmental sustainability, customization, brand activation events, interactivity, printing companies, wide-format printing, consumer engagement, consumer trends, retail trends, marketing trends, Victoria Gaitskell

1. PRINTACTION Wide Format Resource Guide 1
PLUS
Edmonton airport
sports dynamic
Lexus tower
wrap P.4
Six trends
driving the wide-
format business
P.12
New wide-format
technologies P.18
PRINTACTION
WIDE FORMAT RESOURCE GUIDE
DIGITAL SUPPLEMENT
Ontario team crowned
regional winner in global
wrap competition P.6
That’s
a wrap

2. PRINTACTION Wide Format Resource Guide
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W
hether it’s an event
poster, indoor or out-
door signage, vehicle
wrap, storefront decal,
tradeshow graphic,
wall mural or architectural drawing – to
name a few – we can find wide-format
printing all around us. Also known as
large-format printing, it is a print applica-
tion that remains a top marketing solution.
In this report, Simpson Print and PNH
CONSUMER TRENDS
Exploring six popular consumer-engagement
trends that are driving the wide-format business
By Victoria Gaitskell
The wide-format
experience

3. PRINTACTION Wide Format Resource Guide 13
In February 2018 the company installed
a new swissQprint Nyala 2 LED wide-for-
mat inkjet system and just 12 months later
in February 2019,a Nyala 3 to complement
its arsenal of screen printing presses, a 40-
inch Komori LS640 UV press, and digital
presses, including a six-colour HP Indigo.
The range of products currently coming off
the Nyalas includes displays, temporary
and permanent signage for retail environ-
ments, packaging, hoarding (temporary
fencing used on construction sites), and
custom installation work.
“For 50 years we were strictly a sheetfed
environment, so it is quite a dramatic shift
for us to be exploiting the new equipment’s
option of printing roll to roll,”Johanns says.
“In my opinion,brand owners will still want
to align themselveswith a traditional screen
printer for their evolving wide-format re-
quirements. Screen printing will remain a
viable production method for at least an-
other five to 10 years and is still more cost-
effective for quantities above 250 pieces.”
#2: Enriched retail experience
Johanns observes that new trends in retail-
ing are leading to shorter, higher-priced
runs more suited to digital wide-format
equipment. “In 2012 customers were com-
ing with a plethora of brick-and-mortar
stores and would place an order for 300 T-
stands and 300 banners or 1,500 kits sent
to 1,500 stores, but now retail is changing.
There is more customization and interest
in enhancing the retail experience for con-
sumers. Retailers are spending more
money on fewer locations, as major brands
like Lululemon and Under Armour enter
the pop-up space.”
Pop-up retail is the trend of temporary
sales establishments that emerge for a few
hours, days or weeks, creating a new touch-
point for brands to engage with customers.
This opportunity allows businesses to ex-
periment with short-term sales strategies
without having to invest in a permanent
location.
Johanns says the other feature that at-
tracted her to digital wide-format technol-
ogy is its ability to print on a virtually un-
limited number of substrates, including
plastics, metals, fabrics and composite
materials. Additionally, digital colour-
management systems enable 100-percent
matching of Pantones to meet the exacting
requirements of major brand owners, she
adds. Inks for digital wide-format applica-
tions have also improved substantially; Jo-
hanns says the most robust digital inks are
now better for outdoor applications be-
cause of their sun-fast properties. She ex-
plains Simpson Print is “very much a
coatings company,” so she was attracted to
the fact that special effects, such as deep
glitter, lenticular or raised UV, can be ac-
complished through prepress manipula-
tions on her swissQprint equipment.
#3: Environmental
sustainability
“From an ecology perspective, UV LED is
important because the process is highly ef-
ficient and generates half the energy foot-
print of screen printing, while still mimick-
ing the same high-quality ink saturation as
PNH Solutions
supplied thou-
sands of wall-
mounted Silicone
Edge (SEG) fabric
frames and
lightboxes for
Swatch stores
across North,
Central and South
America, from
2013 to 2015.
Solutions explain how printing companies
can leverage wide-format technologies to
keep pace with six top marketing trends.
#1: Omni-channel marketing
“Marketing is becoming increasingly com-
plex, and you must become fluent in omni-
channel marketing to be able to explain to
clients how they benefit from print,” Carla
Johanns, President at Simpson Print of
Bloomingdale, Ont., says. “Our company
understands that today’s brands are aiming
to attract shoppers to both their online and
physical retail environments. Recent studies
show consumers who shop both online and
in-store have a 30-percent higher lifetime
value than those who shop using only one
channel. This concept has prompted our
acquisitiondecisionsoverthelast12months.”
PHOTOS: PNH SOLUTIONS

4. PRINTACTION Wide Format Resource Guide
16
screen,” Johanns says. “Environmental
sustainability is where you need to be now.
You need to show how much you care
about your green footprint. Brands are
telling us it’s important, and when players
like Carlsberg are eliminating beer six-
pack rings to tackle plastic pollution, you
need to be concerned as a vendor.”
In particular, it is the younger genera-
tions of consumers who have or are now
growing up in a scary world with a strug-
gling economy, and tend to prefer environ-
mentally or socially responsible businesses
that make the world a better place.
#4: Customization
PNH Solutions supplies wide-format print
and custom hardware for events, retail
stores, museum exhibits and tradeshows.
Its past jobs include scenic elements for
Toronto’s 2015 Pan American Games; the
2016 and 2017 Invictus Games; the 2016,
2017 and 2018 Toronto Honda Indy; the
2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show; and
the 2018 and 2019 Super Bowl.
The last two years have been especially
big years for PNH with the expansion of
both its Dorval, Que., and Concord, Ont.,
production facilities to serve bigger con-
tracts and more complex custom work.The
expansion included the introduction of
three new departments – metalwork, wood-
work and electrical – in its Dorval location.
“Our business is moving toward more
custom work. We want to fill the demand
for customers who want more unique dis-
plays that are different from what have
been done before,” Katherine Hudon,
PNH Solutions Marketing Coordinator,
says. “We’re not the cheapest. We’re well
aware of that, but we market our products
as high quality — not a single-use tent
frame with plastic parts that you can buy
cheaply. Our other value-added propos-
ition is that we can be a lot more flexible in
what we offer,and we are able to customize
products fully in-house.”
She adds that customized printed floor-
ing is a product that has boomed lately. “It
used to be popular to print on carpet, but
the disadvantages are that it is heavy to
transport and relatively hard to clean,so it’s
not the most practical thing — especially in
Canada where people come inside wearing
slushy boots in thewinter.Polymer flooring
has become really popular because it is
lightweight, cleans easily, and lasts for long
durations of time.For example,we covered
the floor of a big lounge in Montreal’s
Saputo Stadium with the branding of the
company that sponsored the lounge. The
flooring stood up to frequent cleaning and
“We want to fill the demand for
customers who want more unique
displays that are different from what
have been done before.”
the foot traffic of everyone attending games
twice a week for a full season and is still in
really good condition.”
#5: Brand activation events
Hudon says it is becoming increasingly
common for agencies to organize pop-up
brand activation events in shopping malls
and in other public areas as a way to attract
customers. “People say retail is in decline
because of online shopping, so brands are
trying to encourage customers with inter-
esting types of promotions and incentives
to come back into physical retail environ-
ments.”Accordingly,PNH’s projects in the
recent past have included booths for pop-
up brand activation events for Money Mart,
Polly Pocket, Pizza Pizza, McDonald’s,
Tropicana and Hyundai.
#6: Interactivity
Another goal of today’s approach to market-
ing is not just to place information in front
of consumers, but rather to inspire them or
provoke their thoughts and feelings to the
point that they will engage with or share the
brand’s content. The resulting two-way
communication is regarded as crucial for
building trust, genuine relationships, and
enhanced experiences that today’s consum-
ers are thought to be seeking.
“One booth we did last year was for a
video game company introducing a new
game in Las Vegas. The interior of the
booth had screens built into it that brought
visitors inside the booth to test the game.
The exhibit left a much stronger impres-
sion on people because they had that ex-
perience,” Hudon recounts.
She says 3D installations are also huge
for promoting interactive consumer experi-
ences. Last year for Cineplex, PNH built
two giant 3D pieces – a soda can and pop-
corn bag – that were installed in malls
across Ontario and used enthusiastically by
moviegoers as selfie props. Another of its
past successes for Emporio Armani in-
volved creating a huge 3D backdrop with
part of a car emerging from it. Consumers
could take photos with stylish brand am-
bassadors in front of the backdrop to share
on social media.
PNH Solutions supplied dye-
sublimated fabric banners for the stage
backdrops used in both the opening and
closing ceremonies of the 2016 Invictus
Games in Florida.