Digital Ad Lab UK (DAL UK)

March 2010

Introduction to 2010 sponsors

Gio thanked censhare, London Graphics, lineup, Fujifilm and Kodak who are the sponsors for 2010.

GWG update

Andy talked about pdf-a, a new format focussed on archiving content in pdf format.  It is good for long term archiving of data and content, with no issue about software, version numbers etc the document was created in.  There is lots of discussion on how this fits with pdf-x and it maybe the format we all move to in the long term.

GWG is working with emedia 21 who are a group of US publishers looking at the area of job tickets.  The sub-committee needs people so if you would like to get involved or have any comments please email tom@specle.net

Big area if discussion at the moment is how you deal with ads that have multiple pages or those that multiple insertions in the same mag or different locations with different timescales.

The color sub-committee are currently trying to define spot colour definitions within the ICC.  They have written a strong letter to ISO telling them to get their act together on this.

The next GWG meeting will take place in Mainz Germany, on April 29 & 30 so it is likely we will have an update as to what was discussed at our Ipex meeting.

It has been agreed that DAL will continue its GWG membership for another year (cost 1000 euro) with Andy Psarianos as our representative. 

The Steering Committee will be approaching PPA and BPIF to see if we can work together on this and cover Andy’s travel costs.  If that isn’t taken up we will look at commercial or government funding as it is imperative that the UK market keep involved with the work of GWG, as they are making major decisions about the direction of the industry.

Standards & accreditation

John started this discussion by saying that people are starting to get confused about the definition of standards, specifications, characterisation, accreditation, guidelines etc.  It is very important to establish the vocabulary and ensure all parties are clear on exactly what each word means.

Should DAL be looking at a set of definitions?

DAL will also continue to work on its spreadsheet of existing standards and what they cover, this will be available at the May meeting.

Paul Sherfield talked about accreditation and the fact you have to have UCAS auditing.  They have recently produced 12647-2 guidelines for becoming accredited.  This proves you are printing to a standard and may become recognized as an official British Standard.

A question was raised as to whether accreditation would lead to more business - are the customers actually asking for accredited printers?

It was noted that how this area gets marketed is very important, as we don’t need any further confusion in the market!

lineup sponsor update

Our new sponsor gave us an overview of their offering.  Customer benefits from its revolutionary CRM, traffic management and booking systems have included:

    * 70% reduction in credit notes

    * Staff costs cut by 25% within 6 weeks of deployment

    * 20% increase in net late sales thanks to shorter lead times

More detail can be found at by clicking here.

Student mentor update
This project is currently on hold until the next academic year whilst LCC put the right processes in place to roll it out such as administration, risk assessment etc.

DAL is committed not to let this drop, as there are some good students out there.  We are discussing the possibility of a short programme where members of the steering committee go and talk to students about key disciplines/market sectors within the industry. 

All people that had put themselves forward to be mentors will remain on the list until this gets going again in September.

censhare sponsor update

The censhare team were unable to attend but asked us to introduce the IDEAlliance eMedia Professional Education Program, which they are sponsoring.  Promoting best practice IDEAlliance says this is a unique professional certification program designed for a new generation of cross-media professionals.  More information can be found by clicking here.

Any other business

Confirmation that next meeting will be at Ipex on 25th May, 11am-1pm.  Anyone wishing to attend needs to register for Ipex (http://www.cts-online.co.uk/shows/ipex10/info.htm) and more information on the meeting will follow shortly.