A year on, and the debate has started to rage as to whether or not the organisers ultimately met their legacy aims. However, one unequivocal legacy of the event has benefited a surprising recipient – soft signage printers.
As one printer puts it "London was wrapped up in fabric" throughout the games, with other parts of the country feeling the ripple effect as Olympic-related flags and banners were erected on the nation’s streets.
Whereas a few years ago these items might have been produced on PVC or board, the Olympics showed event organisers and marketers a new way of producing high-impact signage. That new way was, more specifically, utilising the cost and environmental benefits of printing on dye-sublimation machines.
As a result, printers have been sprinting as fast as Usain Bolt to join the soft signage race. But to ensure they don’t jump the starter’s gun, what do they need to know about this market?
Although most industry experts agree that the Olympics was the catalyst for greater awareness of soft signage and a good flag-waving exercise for textiles, it’s a market that had already been enjoying strong growth in the lead-up to the games.
Phil McMullin, pro graphics sales manager at Epson UK, says that his former employer, Spandex, had been enjoying double-digit growth of textile material for flags and banners over the three to four years leading up to the Olympics.
Much of this growth has been driven, in particular, by retailers looking to fulfil their CSR ambitions by specifying print materials that can be recycled or have a high recyclable element to them.
As Mike Wozny, product manager at EFI points out: "Previously, if you wanted to go green, then you had to pay for it. Now they don’t have to pay for it. Now it might even save them money owing to high re-use, low shipping cost, ease of handling and ease of installation."
And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of soft signage printed on dye-sub machines.
"One of the key advantages is that the colour is so much more impactful using dye-sub," says McMullin. "Aesthetically, it’s much more interesting than using eco-solvent ink, which tends to get buried into the media and lose its pop. Dye-sub retains its visual pop, which is great for POS and important when you’re talking about corporate branding."
Another plus is the ease of storage and transportation, according to Jack Murphy, marketing manager at Bullseye Print and Awards in Slough. "Because it’s a really lightweight material, you can just scrunch it, which makes it really easy to store, whereas vinyl is a pain to store. With a vinyl banner, if it’s over a metre long as soon as you roll it up it creases on itself so it’s never going to be as good as it was the first time.With fabric, however, you can fold it up a hundred times and get it out again, and it’s just as good."
Tough player
Contrary to the name, soft signage is also incredibly tough. The inks used on the latest dye-sub machines hold up incredibly well when exposed to UV and rain. The material also fairs well in high winds, says Stuart Maclaren, managing director of Lincoln-based soft signage producer Your Print Partner. Maclaren has produced work for a wide range of clients, including a number of sporting event organisers, and says that textiles are increasingly replacing the traditional materials.
"A lot of events used to use PVC banners, but the health and safety world doesn’t like PVC because they pull the barriers over," he explains. "Most of the stuff we print is air mesh material that we use for crowd control banners, so the air flows through it at up to 40mph. It’s a lot sturdier than PVC, which will blow over in 5mph winds, so it works a lot better."
As attractive as the market might sound to printers who have not explored the benefits of this technology, gaining a foothold isn’t particularly easy. Nor is it cheap. For starters, you’re going to need lots of additional space, cautions Melanie Enser marketing manager at Colourgen.
"They’ll need to account for more room for equipment, because if they’re going down the dye-sub route they’ll need a new printer and heat press," says Enser. "They’ll also need to consider finishing equipment such as sewing machines, trimmers and welders, if they wish to do that in-house, although this service can be outsourced.
"Furthermore, they’d need some training, but that would be expected whatever new route a producer took. They’d also need to understand that the diversity of textiles on the market and experience would be required to determine which textiles are best for certain jobs or customers."
The outlay in terms of time and money are potentially considerable, but Duncan Jefferies, marketing manager at Mimaki dye-sub machine supplier Hybrid Services, says that many printers can dip their toe into the textile printing market with their existing kit.
"There are textiles with coatings that will take a print from a solvent machine or a latex printer or a UV printer, so people can use existing kit to get into that market without investing in new machines," says Jefferies. "But to compete with the people who are doing a serious job of it, there is a real benefit in investing in the proper kit."
The most basic outlay would include a new printer and heat press, with finishing outsourced to a local trade outfit.
"The key is making sure that you’re maximising the use of the kit you invest in, in terms of applications," says Jefferies. "For instance, the same printer that produced the flags outside the local golf club could have done the lightweight banners surrounding the first tee, produced commemorative mugs for the pro shop, done the lanyards and printed the flags that go into the holes, plus everything in between. To make sure you buy the right machine, it’s vital that you work with the right people who can hand-hold you and point you in the right direction."
This hand-holding process has been crucial to printers that have already successfully made the move into soft signage market, owing to the many challenges the process presents.
"This is nothing like they will be used to printing," says Maclaren. "PVC printing is so much easier compared to this type of printing. It needs more time and effort put into it and sometimes things go wrong, but if you stick with it, it’s worth it."
Difficult finish
The major hurdle for many printers is the finishing aspect. Bullseye’s Murphy says that the company completely underestimated how difficult finishing dye-sub printed soft signage was.
"Because we had got used to finishing banners we knew how to put things together, but when it comes to fabric, where you get into the world of sewing, it’s a totally different skillset," says Murphy. "The best piece of advice we could offer printers looking to break into this area is to really research your market to make
sure you’re getting the right printer. But also research the finishing equipment. Learn how to finish it and get the right equipment, or get a good contact that will finish it for you."
Equally as important as knowing how to print and finish soft signage is knowing how to sell it to clients. Although the legacy of Olympics signage seems to be driving marketers to outdoor soft signage quite naturally, EFI’s Wozny says that printers still need to take a business development approach to selling this new service offer.
"They’ve got to go to their customers and get them to buy into it," says Wozny. "The folk who are really seeing success and printing huge volumes are the ones who are driving it to their customers. They’re developing the business in their local market. They’re dropping off samples and saying ‘here’s one banner, give it a shot with test marketing’. They’re really proving to their customers how to reap the benefits of using this type of product."
For manufacturers of dye-sub presses, such as EFI, the soft signage sector has become a key part of their future strategy for growth, with lots of opportunities to grow sales of their hardware, says Wozny.
"If you look at it, there are 3,000 solvent, industrial, super-wide printers out there that are printing on vinyl. It’s not a one-for-one swap, but that’s a good measure of the potential."
For printers, the opportunities for growth are just as enticing, according to Hybrid’s Jefferies: "If you look at how we as a country brand up our outside spaces compared to southern Europe, the amount of soft signage is very small, but we’re starting to see more and there’s plenty of opportunity for even more in the future."
