One edition, many ad messages

You may be reading the same page of The Sunday Times as the person next to you at a cafe this weekend, but both of you may see different versions of the advertisement on the same page.

Previously, the printing press had to be stopped and printing plates changed for a different advertising message to be printed on a page in the same issue of a Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) newspaper.

But a new print technology launched by SPH yesterday now allows changeable information on the same ad without the need to change a plate or stop the press, SPH said in a release yesterday.

Called SPH Variable Print, it will offer advertisers more options and interactive opportunities.

Beer company Carlsberg, for example, is partnering The New Paper (TNP) to offer an in-paper promotion over the next two weekends to reward TNP readers with an all-expenses-paid trip for two and a pair of tickets to a semi-final match at the European football championships at the Stade de Lyon in France, on July 6.

The promotional advertisement will feature four teams - England, France, Germany and Spain - over the next two weekends. Carlsberg will be able to feature all four different teams in the same issue on the same day through the use of SPH Variable Print.The system accepts a wide range of message forms, from numbers, text, images, icons, illustrations, barcodes and QR codes. Advertisers can present customised messages in black or red ink for now.

Ms Elsie Chua, executive vice-president, head of SPH's marketing division, said: "We are thrilled to be the first in South-east Asia to introduce and offer Variable Print - a state-of- the-art imprinting system that is able to provide personalisation and targeted messaging, benefiting both our advertisers and readers."

Samuel Mak

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 13, 2016, with the headline One edition, many ad messages. Subscribe