The annual Xerox competition asks entrants to submit their most impressive ‘Beyond CMYK’ applications for consideration in any of seven categories.
Just before Christmas, digital printer DCS London was awarded the top prize in the Marketing Collateral: Client’s Applications category for a training booklet for cosmetics brand Clarins printed on its Xerox Iridesse.
Canary Wharf-based DCS was among 60 businesses to submit work, with eight winners and ten honourable mentions selected across the board from countries including the US, Canada, the Netherlands, France, and Slovakia.
Mark Aris, who heads up automation and technology at DCS, told Printweek: “Every year, when Clarins do their new product launch, they give training to 1,500 of their employees across the UK on how to use the product, and the background behind it etc.
“They produce a training booklet or manual that goes with all this training but they wanted to make it a little bit different this year, so we worked with them on it.
“We built this training manual with QR codes that led to certain games, tests and quizzes around the products themselves. We also created a scoreboard for them so that everything was tracked – it was just adding a bit of a fun element to it.”
Alongside the 1,500 printed training workbooks about the new product – a gold bottle, DCS also provided Clarins branded silk eye masks and gift bags for each of the employees.
“The Iridesse worked perfectly because of the metallic golds and silvers [that can be produced on it]. We worked with the design team on that to come up with a creative that really utilised those metallics,” said Aris.
“It was fantastic news when we won and Clarins were really chuffed as well. It was just a really lovely product to work on all round as there’s all these different elements to it.”
DCS London managing director Barry Page described the global award win as “an absolutely tremendous achievement”.
“As a business we’re over the moon, it’s really a great leap forward and I’m very happy and proud not only for Mark, but for all the staff here and it shows what we can do as a small SME,” he told Printweek.
“This is a great achievement and Clarins were very happy with what we did for them, we’re talking to them now about other marketing opportunities.”
Former DG3 managing director Page acquired DCS London in June 2020 alongside business partner David Gibbons, who also owns KNP Litho in Bury St Edmunds. The sister companies act as disaster recovery sites for each other.
DCS had previously been a Canon house but soon after Page and Gibbons came in the business purchased the Iridesse and a Versant from Xerox, two Ricoh digital presses, and Epson wide-format kit. The company has 17 staff and a turnover of more than £2m.
Fellow UK print business, Dartford-based Michael Egan Associates, got an honourable mention in the Best of the Best Awards’ Marketing Collateral: Self Promotion category for a spiral bound booklet printed on an Iridesse using white, clear, gold, silver, mixed metallics, and fluorescent pink.
Other categories include packaging, publishing, direct mail, stationery, and signage.
The best overall entry was awarded to Slovakian firm Kanovits Print Atelier for a 2021 calendar that used clear, white, gold, silver, and mixed metallics.
