Mother’s Day won’t wait. It doesn’t matter what may happen – no excuse is good enough if you forget to do something special for mom. When more than 100,000 people across North America uploaded their photos and hand-written Mother’s Day wishes to their moms, they were trusting mobile app company Inkly and Hudson to take their personal photos and hand-written message, process it, print their unique card, and deliver it on time. They trusted us to deliver. And we did.
Screen shot of the Inkly mobile app.
For an exciting Mother’s Day promotion, people were able to use the Inkly mobile app to create a personalized Mother’s Day card, using personal photos and even hand-written messages. Those digital files arrived at Hudson Printing where each order was fulfilled and mailed to moms across North America. The promotion launched May 2, 2017 – less than two weeks before the Mother’s Day holiday on Sunday, May 14. It was originally estimated that about 30,000-40,000 people would use the Inkly app to create unique Mother’s Day cards.
This is the card I created for my mother using the Inkly app. It was printed, folded, and mailed to Mom in Denver from the Hudson plant.
During the promotion, Inkly received 100,000+ individual orders. Hudson Printing downloaded all the data, including high-resolution photos, hand-written personal notes, and addresses of mother’s across the continent – and ensured every single card was printed, cut, folded, sealed, and mailed in time to meet the immovable Mother’s Day deadline.
“From planning and processes to our pre-press software and IT backend, to our digital printing presses and direct mail systems – our people delivered. We were happy to receive and fulfill an order of this magnitude, where each card was unique with personal Mother’s Day notes, and photos,” said Paul Hudson, CEO of Hudson Printing. “It felt great to flex our digital printing muscle. Especially when the stakes were so high.”
Hudson’s Investment into Digital Printing Showcases Large Scale Personalized Printing
Inkly has been working with us for some time and knew that we could handle a job of this scale. Our digital printing infrastructure and capabilities have proven to be a great fit for Inkly to fulfill individual customer orders of personalized greeting cards and postcards.
Years of strategic investments into our digital printing infrastructure is paying off. Our Hudson Digital business unit (fully managed by Hudson Printing) represents best-in-breed IT infrastructure, pre-press, and print operational software (including HP’s PrintOS with Site Flow) state-of-the-art HP Indigo Digital Presses (including an HP Indigo 10000 digital press that was used for the Mother’s Day promotion) finishing, and mailing technologies.
To rapidly manage 100,000 individually unique print orders from submission to shipment required all of Hudson’s unique internal systems and digital printing technologies. We have in place automated systems for order submission, prepress, and shop floor management, which enables us to rapidly receive, print, and ship 100,000+ personalized Mother’s Day cards and deliver on time.
Reaching People in a Meaningful Way Using Personalized Print
The popularity of this promotion reveals the value people place on printed items they can touch and feel. The impact of a Facebook message or text – even with a carefully selected emoji—just doesn’t deliver the same experience. With a card or letter, the recipient knows that the sender had to invest extra thought and care to make them feel special. Nothing beats the thrill of receiving a card or letter addressed just to you. Especially for Mom!
Inkly understands the importance of a personalized printed message in a digital age. With the Inkly app users can use their mobile device to send loved ones personalized greeting cards or postcards with their own photos and hand-written message.
It serves as an exciting example of how to leverage technology and print to make stronger impressions, and have higher impact.
Lee Hawkins, Inkly Co-founder said it well:
“We are big believers in the written word, which is why we established the app. Inkly Cards allows people to use the technology they already know and love, to send a card with a personal touch. There’s nothing like receiving a handwritten card in the post.”
Together, Inkly and Hudson Printing were able to blend the convenience of mobile technology with the beautiful, tactile, enduring qualities of print to help thousands of mothers feel loved on their special day.
More than just a demonstration of Hudson’s ability to handle a project like this, the human impact is something that drives us each day. Best stated from Hudson Owner and CEO Paul Hudson:
“Hudson’s ability to receive, process, print and mail more than 100,000 mothers a personalized Mother’s Day card directly from their loved one is meaningful. We value our role in being able to help connect people all over the world to their mothers through technology, process and people.” – Paul Hudson, Hudson Printing CEO and Owner.
