Do you have any idea what they were referring to? Hands up who thought it was the new Indigos, the Inkjet Web Press or its latex printing technology for wide-format. Sorry, but you’re cold, very cold. The acquisition of Exstream? No, it wasn’t that either.

You could be forgiven for not knowing, as the news received scant coverage in any print title. They were, in fact, commenting on the firm’s strategic relationship with advertising and marketing services firm Omnicom to develop a digital print supply chain that will streamline the creation, management and printing of marketing campaign materials.

HP has managed to get into bed with one of the big six global advertising holding companies to look at how they use print. The scope is huge, covering direct mail, packaging, marketing collateral, point-of-sale and print ads, billboards and building wraps. That’s pretty much anything a brand might want to put an inky mark on to promote itself. The aims are not just to promote personalisation, but also includes the management and production of print with the aim to cut time to market, cut costs and improve marketing, all the while providing data that shows how effective it is in meeting those aims. It’s both print management and promoting the power of print. After years of pushing at the doors of agencies and brand owners, the door has swung open and the power of print has been welcomed with open arms at the highest level.

We believe transitioning to a digital print supply chain will significantly enhance our operations by enabling us to print more responsibly, reduce our environmental impact and lower costs, says Omnicon Group president and chief executive John Wren.

It’s also about the value that personalised print can bring through improved effectiveness of marketing spending. My HP insider says that for years it, and other print vendors, have been struggling to get to agencies and marketers to show how print drives sales.

The big change is that Omnicom is now starting to look at print that way and recognises the benefit to its business clients. HP is rolling out an educational campaign to staff in 180 Omnicom offices worldwide, including working with local print firms that run HP kit to promote the benefits of technology such as web-to-print and variable data. By the time this is published, the two firms will have begun talks about the first pilot projects.

If those projects are successful then the impact on print could be huge: other brands and agencies will soon be clamouring to take advantage too, spurring the demand for digital and especially personalised pages. Of course HP and Omnicom will both be hoping the clamouring is for their version.

For printers, it presents a new twist on selecting a supplier that goes far beyond selecting kit to considering which supplier has the best strategic relationship for opening doors.

Barney Cox is executive editor, Print Group Haymarket