Opportunity Knocks

Irresistible forces of market convergence—primarily driven by the still-growing availability of ever-more affordable digital printing and production systems—have delivered an interesting quandary to sign-making businesses. Some would characterise it as an identity crisis and others as an opportunity, as their customers now often cast them in the role of printers.

Customers, some argue, do not know, care or have any interest in finding out what badge you may wear if you are doing something which, to them, is just ‘printing’. They simply want a place to stop and buy. To them, if it looks vaguely like a piece of print, then it is a piece of print, and you either want the work, or you don’t.

Seen through the sign-maker’s rose-tinted ‘opportunity’ lens, this is an enviable situation to find yourself in. It means that a sign-maker is only distinguished from their once distant competing cousins by the nature of the applications to which they each choose to apply their equipment. If that means producing something that would have once taken a well-equipped screen print shop to output, then so be it. If you are supplying print that would have at one time been produced photographically, then bring it on. If you are suddenly looking more like an interior decorator or designer than the sign-maker you set out to be, enjoy it—the margins can be pretty healthy.

In the midst of all this coffee-coloured and highly generalised output you could be producing, there are some real close-to-home gems that sit wobbling on the cusp of specialisations. These are less contested than the shell-cratered positions the more popular wide-format printing applications occupy. So while there is still an element of customers having to be bought with lower margin in say, routine livery work or sign-panels, a move just a little to the left puts you in calmer waters where returns may be higher, needs much more evident, and repeat-business often more assured. How about, then, spending some time developing a market for promotional signs and graphics?

Promotional signs and graphics fully excise your sign-making skills. They are usually needed in tightly ‘on-grid’ compliance with customers’ corporate identities. You know how to do that. You do it all the time when you are making the defining essence of corporate identity—signs. Promotional signs and graphics often represent so-called ‘identity continuations’ making them part of the cohesive whole which grounds the brand or business they are nailed to.

Customers are not inclined to change a light-bulb that is working—so why change a good, reliable print supplier that you need on a regular basis?

Promotional signs and graphics usually fall into one of two very clearly identified silos, both of which you know how to service. On the one hand, there is the planned stuff—“It is needed in six months’ time and here is the design you have to work with”. The other is something with a screaming urgency behind it, such as something that was forgotten, or is needed to burn down a big inventory, or announce an event that has just sprung up. You can work either way—because you always have.

You have also probably always been in the promotional signing market but do not actually know you are. It is worth getting to understand the value of this position though as there is a fertile market out there and it is growing. And here is why.

Big spenders

Every pound that is spent in the cause of promoting products, is competing for the sum total of things that the same pound could be buying to achieve the desired outcome. So, a poster on a window that is imploring you to ‘go large’ with that burger you suddenly get an urge to buy, is only on the window because it managed to grab a share of the budget pointed at that particular promotion.

Suppose for a moment that a printed poster is going to win on the basis that it will sell more burgers than, say, a big Twitter or Facebook blast. It may just be there because, for relative pence in spend terms, it delivers pounds’ worth of bang to all the big-stuff that is going on in broadcast advertising and elsewhere in the mix. Promotional signing extracts thousands of pounds’ worth more impact from the huge sums spent in other parts of the marketing mix.


The number of places you can deploy printed signs to achieve the above effect is huge. You are not constrained by formats. You can print one-offs if needs be, practically any size and shape you can conceive. You are not constrained by your personal footprint in the world. This opportunity is seamless in its scaling. It works for small and large businesses. You are not constrained by the size of the market. And behind every sheet of glass in your high street is something that needs promoting outside the shop so as to extend the shop’s reach. But how many shops, and other businesses for that matter, are actively engaged in such promotion?

As a venue for promotional signs and graphics, windows are among the best and most plentiful spaces to dominate. Plastering graphics all over windows has consequences for the shop’s interior though that many will not tolerate, such as obstructing the view out. Despite its near ubiquity in the world of vehicle advertising, see-through graphics or one-way vision graphics are still news to many would-be customers. Try demonstrating the effect to a potential customer or two and prepare yourself for a surprise when you get the reaction.

See-through graphics are commonly referred to as Contra Vision. Contra Vision is, in fact, the very company that first commercialised see-through graphics. It is based in Bramhall near Manchester and its business is wholly focused on see-through graphics, materials, and technologies.

One of the material types that Contra Vision makes available is known as Contra Vision Sprint. This material is perfect for promotional signing as applied to windows and other trans-parent panels and has some very interesting properties.

The see-through graphics you can easily produce using Contra Vision Sprint look and perform like other you have seen, and seen through. Once printed, there is a design that is visible from one side of the applied panel, and from the other, with a clear view through to whatever is beyond. One of the great things about this material and about the graphics it helps you produce is that the results are then applied on the inside of the shop window or door, out of the reach of mischievous fingers the weather and anything else the street can throw at it.

Easier to print

To produce see-through graphics that work this way would, in the normal course of events, require a clear perforated material and a printer capable of printing suitably dense white and black layers to back up the CMYK image. With Contra Vision Sprint though, no such hardware is required and there’s no cumbersome, costly and error-prone post-print processes to worry about either. Just load up your Eco-Solvent printer with Contra Vision Sprint, and then print as normal—on the exposed adhesive side of the material.

Needless to say, the adhesive that features on Contra Vision Sprint is highly specialised. It is print receptive. Once it has been printed on, it remains in an adhesive state and can then be applied, repositioned, removed, and reapplied to windows time after time.

For promotional signing, this material and the graphics it yields, represent a very potent formula for business. See-through graphics as applied to shop windows and doors represent what amounts to an extension delivering additional reach and impact to point of sale materials. The end-user can easily apply see-though graphics made using Contra Vision Sprint them-selves, often removing clutter as they do so, as Helen Beresford-Jay, market development manager for Contra Vision explains: “Promotional signs and graphics often compete for space on windows and this can lead to a very cluttered look from the window’s reverse side. See-through graphics of course overcome this problem but traditionally had to be applied outside. Contra Vision Sprint, applied inside, displaces other print media and really tidies the space up. This brings enhanced focus on the promotion
too.”

Naturally, see-through graphics are not limited to shop windows as Beresford-Jay continues: “Probably the most dramatic and valuable space for promotional signing is glazed shop doors. Think of them as the focal point of purchase. When promotional see-through graphics are applied to such doors and in particular the automatic opening variety, the effect is huge. The results are too. We have participated in studies that have demonstrated as much as a 40 percent plus lift in sales of the product promoted during the time see-through entrance door graphics were in use.”

Don’t forget banners

Promotional signing also finds a vent in-store and out by using pull-up banners. Now widely used in the retail promotion sphere, pull-up banners are increasingly employed to muscle in on the space once owned by so-called ‘experiential events’ and it is now not at all uncommon to find someone—leaflets or product in hand—located nearby a pull-up banner or two.


Selling promotional signing based on pull-up banner systems is not a complex endeavour and there are plenty of products out there to satisfy the need. Materials that have the right combination of print quality and the greatly enhanced durability needed to endure the repeated winding and unwinding are around too but, for the sake of keeping the whole plot working well, it pays to go for quality.



According to Metamark’s Max Somper, roll up banner materials embody some technical properties not often discussed.

“Promotional signs work really hard for a living,” he says, adding: “They are heavily printed usually, and they have to endure the sort of usage patterns normally only encountered in a testing lab with repeated mechanical flexing. They have to resist curling, cracking and handling, and yet still look good. We’re pretty proud of our Metamark MD-RU500. It seems to survive and thrive in such situations.”

The material is as popular as the promotional signing applications to which it is pressed, according to Metamark. In response to repeated requests from the thousands who buy the material, the company also offers the stands needed to display it too in a variety of variations based on the same theme.



Although promotions themselves are transient, promotion is a permanent need in business. Systems, therefore, are needed to provide a permanent home for temporary or fast-changing messages. Such systems are supplied in-depth by specialists, such as Fairfield Displays and Lighting, and leave the would-user spoilt for choice and drowning in sources of creative inspiration as to where, when, and how to use them.

Elegant solutions

On the basis that promotional signing has to turn heads and get noticed, illumination is a popular theme. Getting light behind printed graphics is a technical art best left to experts in the field. Thankfully, solutions that simplify the need from the point of view of the producer exist. A great example is Fairfield’s LED Light Pocket. Billed as a new way to illuminate posters and promotional signing, the Light Pocket system is elegant and very effective.



Being LED-based, the system introduces light into and behind graphics for a tiny fraction of the cost that indirect means such as traditional spot-lighting would demand. The resulting illuminated promotion benefits from even lighting and a flattering colour temperature too. The light source is discrete, compact, and comparatively cool-running so all the attention is on the promotion rather that the system displaying it. Some might argue that it is a shame because the Light Pocket system is attractive to put it mildly.

End-users apparently love the system too. Prints are said to be very easy to change and the system needs no real maintenance beyond basic cleaning. It is popular with estate agents but with the growing need for rapid-turn high impact promotion surging, Light Pocket is going to displace cumber-some light boxes far and wide. Available in a range of sizes with specials requiring nothing more than a conversation with Fairfield, Light Pocket is a great system to know about when you are out there selling promotional signing.

First to last

As if to make the point that durable print can find its way into a sector of the market normally reserved for promotional print on materials notably lacking durability such as paper, Blackpool-based Links Signs and Graphics recently installed a promotional print at a local billboard site. Printed on Metamark MD3, the poster promotes a stage show and needs to last the duration of the show’s run in Blackpool. Paper would not have gone the distance, but Links Signs and Graphics’ work certainly has and will even outlast the event it so capably and creatively promotes.

‘Promotional grade’ is a descriptor that sits uncomfortably these days. It used to be reserved for those materials whose lack of overall quality and even basic levels of durability consigned them to applications or uses where price was everything. That is all changing, and it is changing fast.

There is a widely held expectation these days that quality needs to prevail over the need for short-term performance and a price point reflecting the value register. Filling that space in the market has become a mission that many are now determined to complete. So, if the prospect of selling something that is not only oozing catwalk-quality colour print but that has only got to promote an event lasting a week sounds a bit alien, take heart. You can get quality in so-called promotional grade materials and just as well; your customers are going to be asking for it.

One material that expressly aims to serve the need is Metamark MD-FL440. This material is said to actually yield MD-class results from all the modern ink species that can be printed and yet is priced to support the need for short-term promotional signing and event promotion.

“Don’t ask exactly how it works just be glad it does,” says Metamark’s Max Somper.

Banners, of course, form a backbone of promotional signing and historically this has been because the material represented the only available option for covering large areas and delivering big bang impact at a price everyone could live with. Today, banners are prized for the way they hang or drape and are less called upon to offer what might be regarded a ‘bottom drawer’ promotional signing.

O Factoid: High profile advertisers and users of promotional graphics sometimes use eye-tracking technology to measure the effectiveness of advertising graphics and their locations. O

Despite perhaps being a sign-maker by definition and having regarded promotional signing opportunities as being too close to point-of-sale and too far from home, it is possible to participate in this arena. You can grow your business using readily available materials and supporting systems expressly designed for the purpose of producing promotional signs.



Though materials and systems are important, skills are equally critical and so is the need for production hard-ware. Today’s typically equipped sign manufacturer has everything needed except perhaps the ready and available market.

Getting in a position to sell promotional signing is as much about re-tasking what you have as it is about creating anything new or ground-breaking. For the sake of bringing a spotlight on the capability in your website, maybe putting out the occasional Tweet, or even chatting to potential customers in a shopping centre, a whole new opportunity awaits. And not to forget, the market is less discriminating in the field of print than at any time in its long history. Pick up a promotional signing order and who knows what else you might attract from the same business. After all, isn’t an-one who asks for a sign really just saying, “Help me promote my business?”


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