GO GREEN USING SELF-UPDATING MULTIMEDIA CDs

“When the ‘Two Greens’ Meet”:  How Green Technology should Benefit Your Business as well as the Environment - and what one Seattle start-up is doing to make that happen

 “If you are interested in using a greener method of marketing and communication in your business, this presentation is one you want to be sure to see. Imagine CDs offers green technology in a revolutionary solution that provides multimedia CDs that update themselves automatically each time they are used.” Theresa Poalucci, Journal Newspapers

A lot has been said about going green and its environmental urgency. For example, did you know that as Americans we discard 4 million tons of office paper every year -- enough to build a 12 foot high wall of paper from New York to California?   Think about that, and the role we each play with every printed catalog, directory and brochure we publish, while processing a few more anecdotal points about paper waste*:

► In prehistoric times, 60% of the earth's surface was covered by forests - today that amount has been reduced by 30% and is still shrinking.

► It takes 17 pulpwood market-sized trees to make a ton of paper, or one tree makes about 11,500 pages of 8.5 x 11 20-pound paper.

► Each one million pages of paper not printed saves 85 pulp trees.

► To produce one trillion pages of paper takes 8.5 million acres of trees, representing an area larger than the country of Belgium or the state of Maryland.

► It takes 390 gallons of oil to produce a ton of paper.

► That ton of paper, when disposed of, takes up nearly 8 cubic feet of public landfill space.

► That public landfill is approximately 36% waste paper products.

► 12% of all toxics released to our air and 8% of all toxics released to surface water is caused by the paper industry.

At one point or another we’ve probably all felt concerned about being “part of the problem”. Rest assured that none of the above is to induce guilt, but rather to point out the opportunities we have ahead of us as a responsible generation.   

Stephen R. Covey, recognized as one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans defines responsibility as “Response-ability;  because we have the ability to consciously choose how we respond to any situation” and that “accountability breeds response-ability”.

The goal of this white paper is to stimulate our collective accountability to be part of the solution, while sharing how this niche technology can significantly improve your company’s bottom line.

“Imagine CDs is a green technology company with a revolutionary communication and marketing solution” says Tolga Ural, Founder and CEO.  “Based on our success to-date with many individual businesses, destination marketing organizations, chambers of commerce, non-profit and charities, we offer an abundance of opportunity and value-generation, which we believe will revolutionize the communication and marketing industries forever.”  Ural, a former Microsoft Group Program Manager of eleven years, recalls “It was clear from the get go that we offered an attractive turn-key solution with great ROI.” 

Multimedia CDs which update themselves automatically each time they are used, real-time:  Imagine CDs’ patent pending technology, recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enables their multimedia CDs to seamlessly update themselves with customer's latest information each time they are used - including text, pictures, PDFs, video and more - to present users a fresh and enjoyable interactive experience each and every time. They can also include up to an hour of regular music when played in a car or home stereo to add additional entertainment value.

“Printed pieces are out-of-date practically from the moment you print them” says Amy Spain, Executive Director of Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. “While many companies still use and rely on printed pieces, we found that more and more of our event planners and packaged travel companies were gravitating to electronic media for their searches and planning purposes.  While at trade shows, we would present both CDs and printed guides and found that we brought back the printed guides and the CDs were gradually becoming the media of choice.”

 

Connect with your target audience with the perfect resource they will keep: A tangible marketing collateral piece in the consumer’s hand is proven to be more effective than any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) alone. The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 17 billion catalogs  were mailed in the U.S. last year, despite it being the digital era – which equates to about 56 for every American.  So why do marketing collateral pieces continue to thrive in the electronic age?  Because glossy promo items still entice people in a way that computer images don't. Collateral pieces, marketers agree, drive sales at web sites and retail stores, making them more important than ever.

Studies also show that consumers are tactile beings and respond accordingly. The swag collateral market industry – coffee mugs with your logo on them, pens with your company name, t-shirts, baseball caps, etc is a multi-billion dollar industry and growing. “All else being equal, it's better to give a physical, tangible promo item instead of just hoping that your audience will find your virtual information on the web” states Ural. “Push technology vs. pull technology”. Along with this advantage, these CDs also bear all the necessary website, email and phone information imprinted on them for PDA and mobile users, unifying form and function in a unique hybrid model which combines the benefits of a traditional print/swag marketing collateral piece with the power of the internet.

In line with the above, these self-updating multimedia CDs enjoy up to 95% retention rate and help establish and retain more new and repeat business, each time your target audience:

	Puts the CDs in their computers, and/or
	Visits your website, calls or emails you using the information printed on the CD covers and discs (via their phones, computer, PDAs), and/or
	Shares your directory CDs with their friends, colleagues and loved ones, who continue the cycle.

 

“The CD is like the key to the vault, opening selected, specific doors for current information” recaps Gordon Barnes, Program Chair of the Lynnwood Rotary Club.  “The technology is to directories and flyers what Amazon’s Kindle is for readers.  And, it conserves resources used in printing and delivering.”

Here are some excerpts from Imagine CDs’ website:

“Q: What should Going Green do for YOUR Marketing?
First let’s start with what it should not do: It should not slow your business down, increase expenses, waste time, or cost market share. It should not interfere with or hamper your ongoing sales and marketing efforts. And it should never make you regret or wonder if you’d be doing better had you just kept the status quo.

GOING GREEN SHOULD:

INCREASE MARKETING EFFICIENCY and business flow, foster new and repeat clientele, bookings, RSVPs, calls, emails and website visits: 

      Add new channels of communication while providing a higher quality service and product to clients – Our CDs enjoy over a 95% retention rate!

      Enjoy unlimited updates with the ability to edit any portion of your publications, anytime, with your latest multimedia information – Present clients a fresh and enjoyable experience each time they use them; text, pictures, PDFs, video and more!

      Maximize your control on your publications while minimizing dependence on contractors - Have full say as to when and how often you publish your promotional message!

      Keep your audience constantly engaged with a self-updating tangible resource they will read, listen to, watch, easily carry and always keep!  Give them a useful resource guide combined with the gift of music!  

REDUCE COSTS without cutting corners or sacrificing value: 

      Decrease and/or eliminate traditional printing and mailing expenses associated with bulky directories, guides, catalogs, and other large repeat print projects – For the cost of mailing one printed piece, produce and send two or more multimedia CDs instead!

      Avoid incurring production and postage costs related to year-over-year obsolescence and re-publications – Simply update your information virtually without any re-production or postage!

      Produce and distribute more/multiple marketing pieces for the price of one – How much would you save by having all of your marketing pieces accessible on the same CD?

      Add unlimited pages of content and ad space without increasing your costs. Stop worrying about page number, size and weight constraints – One CD can contain more than 60,000 pages of information!

SAVE TIME, improve and streamline information flow with your clientele: 

      Eliminate time loss – have your updates reach your target audience instantly, as opposed to going through laborious print cycles each time  – Make an update at 2:00pm and have it  be visible through thousands of already produced and distributed CDs instantly when they’re viewed across the country at 2:01pm!

      Stop worrying about print cycles and production deadlines – No more having to wait until the next issue or next year!

      Instantly add new information when you want, search/edit/update your content anytime, remove/block at will – Add/edit your promotional content on future CDs, as well as having your updates retroactively appear on all existing CDs already in the channel in the hands of consumers!

SAVE TREES, reduce your carbon footprint and enhance your printing with a new alternative medium, completely biodegradable and up to 100% paper recyclable. Your target audience will appreciate, keep, and respond much easier and more so compared to paper – And they can always print it themselves or request a hardcopy if they really want!

TRACK RESULTS with insightful and detailed tracking information. Monitor how many people react and make decisions (website visits, emails, phone calls, electronic purchases, RSVPs) owing to your marketing and communications – Ever wondered if and how many people were contacting you or giving you business because of your paper brochures? Now you no longer have to! You can’t click on a hyperlink printed on paper but you can when viewing the same content on our CDs.

 

'What can we do to help?'  is a great appreciated question we frequently receive during presentations, seminars and tradeshows.  Our goal is to raise awareness, attract new business, consumers, media and investors alike - any help in these areas will be greatly appreciated. We are looking for:

      Qualified client referrals for whom we can make a positive difference: Chambers of commerce, tourism bureaus, destination marketing organizations, educational institutions, membership associations, individual businesses, musicians, non-profits and charities.

      Positive media exposure and speaking engagements: articles, interviews, TV, social media - anything to help spread the word about our technology’s positive exposure and reach.

      Angel investors and strategic partners to help grow our business to its next stages.

Thank You!
The ImagineCDs Team”

         email: info@ImagineCDs.com
         toll-free/fax: (800) 605-1782
        CAPTIVATE YOUR AUDIENCE

 

With well over 300 businesses currently appearing across their various multimedia CDs, Imagine CDs is reaching a growing number of companies and consumers alike.

Their latest multimedia CD project produced for The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce www.SeattleChamberDirectory.com acts as a self-updating business and membership directory which empowers their members to add and update their ads anytime throughout the year,  helping increase their visibility, target new customers and drive traffic to their business - all while going green.

 

“Given the right, sensible opportunity, businesses will go green,” affirms Ural, “especially when it’s not just environmentally, but also financially rewarding – i.e. when the ‘two greens’ meet.”

____________________________

How did you like this article? Do you know someone who may benefit from it?  Please let us know!
For more information visit www.imaginecds.com, email info@imaginecds.com or call (800) 605-1782

(* facts gleaned from:  Ecoweb's Factoids, The EarthWorks Group's "The Recycler's Handbook",  The National Office Paper Recycling Project's "Office Paper Recycling Guide",  American Forest and Paper Association,  Lisa Shea's Research, Environmental Defense Paper Calculator, U.S. EPA)

Related Articles:
Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Ball:  In Digital Era, Marketers Still Prefer a Paper Trail - Glossy Printed Catalogs, Low on Recycled Content and Often Discarded by Consumers, Continue to Deliver for Retailers.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125565110691488935.html

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