IPMA Report: Stickers and Samples Drive In-plant Marketing Success
The 2025 In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference electrified Spokane, Washington, drawing more than 125 managers for four dynamic days packed with game-changing insights, powerful networking, and well-deserved recognition. Attendees returned home inspired and armed with fresh strategies to elevate their operations.
Jennifer Honeycutt (left) of Alliance Defending Freedom describes her in-plant's marketing efforts during the panel discussion.
One of the most valuable sessions focused on marketing and featured three in-plant managers who shared their most successful marketing efforts (along with a few duds). Elisha Kasinskas, of Distinctive Chameleon Marketing, moderated the panel discussion, which featured:
- Christina McDonald (Seminole County Public Schools)
- Jennifer Honeycutt (Alliance Defending Freedom)
- Jeff Todd (Oregon State University)
Both McDonald and Todd noted that stickers have been a great marketing tool for their in-plants.
“They’re a huge hit,” said McDonald. “Very little cost.”
Christina McDonald talks about her in-plant's next steps for marketing. | Photo courtesy Sam Lauersdorf Photography
OSU’s in-plant started giving them away with other jobs a few years ago and soon customers began ordering them in droves. Today the in-plant prints about 750,000 stickers a year, Todd said, and they’ve been an excellent promotional tool.
McDonald’s in-plant holds drawings with rewards of $50 worth of services to keep customers interested. She also runs a dual-purpose promotion where customers can save money by having jobs printed on “surprise me” stock, which also lets the shop use up its extra sheets.
Honeycutt’s in-plant has attracted customers by producing videos demonstrating how to submit jobs through its digital storefront. The shop also marketed the capabilities of its new equipment by designing and producing a Christmas card that showcased its embellishment capabilities. (The card went on to win an In-Print Gold award as well as Best of Division.)
Jeff Todd discusses OSU's marketing efforts. | Photo courtesy Sam Lauersdorf Photography
OSU markets its in-plant by giving shop tours to clients and staging the shop with those clients’ materials on the equipment during their visit. The in-plant makes sure the cutter is in operation during tours since everyone loves to stop and watch it in action. The Konica Minolta KM1 inkjet press is operated with the hood open, so customers can see inside it.
When it comes to printed marketing, Todd said, the shop stopped printing marketing brochures and instead shows samples that demonstrate its capabilities.
“Our goal is that our marketing materials should blow people away,” he said.
IPMA 2025 attendees at a session.
As for marketing efforts that failed, both Todd and McDonald had the same answer: wrapping paper. No one bought any, they said. McDonald also said that treat boxes filled with candy were both expensive and ineffective as a marketing tool. Honeycutt noted that the paper resource guide her shop produced didn’t work well as a promotion.
All three managers intend to continue their marketing efforts, with more videos, drawings, and samples showing off their capabilities. Todd encouraged in-plants to create custom samples for visitors to give them ideas – just don’t show samples of items you don’t really want to produce, he cautioned.
The IPMA 2025 conference was filled with useful sessions like this. We’ll bring you more session highlights in the days ahead.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
