We were selected as recipient of “The Golden Ink Knife Award”.
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Jon and ask him some questions about his printing firm, his background, his management style, and more. Jon’s a fascinating guy and very down to earth. For example, before joining the family printing business, Jon worked at a few other jobs, because he felt it was “important to work for a few other people before you work for yourself.” – Mike Stevens
View the interview and other nice things the fine people at mikestevens.com had to say:
December 2010 — Epsilon, a database marketing services provider, and the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council released the Q3 2010 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks.
The quarterly analysis is compiled from 5.4 billion emails sent by Epsilon in July, August and September 2010, across multiple industries and approximately 150 participating clients.
Highlights:
E-mail open rates have remained relatively flat for two years finishing the quarter at 22%. Six of the thirteen reported industries saw an increase in open rates over Q3 2009.
Click rates were up 0.2% to 5.4% in the quarter.
The average volume per client increased 10.2% from Q3 2009.
63.1% of emails delivered by Epsilon were categorized as Marketing messages.
E-mails categorized as service or transactional messages (e.g., purchase confirmations, account messages), had a higher performance, with open rates at 37.3%, according to the report.
Messages categorized as Editorial messages had the highest click rates (7.4%).
Industry Self Promotion – Simpsons Printing Green Brochure
Sales Promotion - Grizzly Creek Drink Menu
Collateral Material - Cornerstone Rescue Mission Annual Report
Golden West Annual Report
Simpsons Printing received 3 ADDY Awards for advertising creative excellence at the 2010 Black Hills Advertising Federation awards banquet. This year Simpsons Printing received one Gold ADDY Award and two Silver ADDY Awards.
The Gold ADDY Award for Industry Self-Promotion was designed as a self promotion for Simpsons Printing. The Silver ADDY Award for Sales Promotion was designed for Grizzly Creek restaurant to serve as drink menus. The second Silver ADDY Award was for Collateral Material and designed for The Cornerstone Rescue Mission as their Annual Report.
Simpsons Printing also received credit for a Gold ADDY Award presented to Golden West for their Annual Report.
The ADDYs are the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting over 50,000 entries every year in local ADDY competitions. The mission of the ADDY competition is to recognize and reward creative excellence in the art of advertising.
Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the local ADDY Awards is the first of a three-tiered, national competition. Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants vie for recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local winners compete against other winners in one of 14 District competitions. District winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the National ADDY Awards competition. Entry in your local ADDY competition is the first step toward winning a National ADDY.
A scoring process in which a panel of judges evaluates all creative dimensions of every entry effects selection of the most creative entry in each category. In each category, a GOLD ADDY is recognition of the highest level of creative excellence and is judged to be superior to all other entries in the competition. Entries that are also considered outstanding and worthy of recognition receive SILVER ADDYs.
This Christmas season the Simpsons Printing family participated in two programs in the community to help others in need. The first was the Cornerstone Mission Coats For Christmas drive to help fight poverty by Sharing The Gift of Warmth. If your interested in in more information or giving a hand check out the Cornerstone Mission or this blog.
The second opportunity for the Simpsons Printing family was in participation with the Salvation Army Angel Tree program. A lot of toys were donated this year that ranged from cars and trucks to dolls and art supplies. The Angel Giving Tree helps many children have a very happy and merry Christmas!
Many were awaiting the arrival of Gary Haven, Lisa Gustin, Andrew Busse and Eric Hansen, of Team South Dakota, Saturday night.
Hundreds of people watched and cheered as Team South Dakota, all from Rapid City rolled into Memorial Park on their mountain bikes and crossed the finish-line. The roar of the crowd signaled the completion of the Primal Quest Badlands 2009 endurance race.
This race is noted as the most challenging endurance race in the world. The course weaved its way through the Black Hills covering a distance of 600 miles. The teams took part in mountain biking, hiking, swimming, paddling, caving and rock climbing across South Dakota’s Black Hills and Badlands.
Team South Dakota became famous throughout the challenging week as locals became inspired by their efforts. A large group of bike riders ushered them into Rapid City for the final miles. Also, a caravan of cars followed in excitement as they descended down Moon Meadows and Sheridan Lake Road. Truly a special day in the Black Hills and Rapid City.
Simpsons Printing felt special need to show our appreciation to Team South Dakota by providing the finish-line poster for family members to hold while bringing in there team.
Thank you Gary, Lisa, Andrew and Eric for letting us be a part.
What exactly makes a “print quality” PDF? As it relates to print production and your printed piece, a quality PDF contains all of the necessary items to print a job successfully on press, giving you the best results possible. (more…)
Dan and Kathy Simpson, co-owners of Simpsons Printing, had quite the night on May 7, 2009. With over 140 members of the local advertising and print community in attendance, the Black Hills Advertising Federation presented its 2009 Black Hills Advertising Awards for creative excellence at the Ramkota Convention Center in Rapid City. The event serves to salute those who have made outstanding achievements locally in the realms of advertising and marketing in the past year. Dan and Kathy were the proud recipients of this year’s Silver Medal Award. This award is given to a member(s) of the community that has made remarkable contributions to advertising and has been active in furthering the industry’s standards. Recognized by the American Advertising Federation and the Black Hills Advertising Federation as the highest honor bestowed upon a practitioner by their peers, the Silver Medal Award is quite the acknowledgment indeed. Special note was also made of Simpsons’ dedication to the local community through continuing to provide quality work for numerous non-profit organizations and events. With over 40 years of pushing the envelope in the realms of printing quality and community compassion here at Simpsons, Dan and Kathy met this recognition with abundant joy and thanks.
In addition to this honor, the pre-press/creative design department at Simpsons was bestowed the Sales Promotion – Sales Kit Gold Award for their work on the IMPACT – Stewardship Campaign. Of all the entries submitted into competition, only 15 Gold winners and 25 Silver winners were presented. The Federation judged entries based on originality, composition, creativity and end result. Such an award serves as a testament to the ingenuity and professional caliber of our design department here at Simpsons. A big thank you goes out to all involved with this year’s Black Hills Advertising Awards for such a successful and memorable evening.
Watch the video below to experience how 40 plus years of dedication to the community has made a difference. (due to the length please give the video a few moments to start.
A lot has changed in the printing industry since the 1930′s.
An interesting note in this video is the reference to Dragon’s Blood. Although Dragon’s Blood has several different sources and several different uses, this consignment was to be used in photoengraving. Photoengraving is the act of taking a flat copper, zinc or magnesium plate, burning an image on it, and then etching the plate with chemicals to eat away the unwanted portions of the plate material. This would leave a raised area on the plate that would be inked and printed from.
Dragon’s Blood is acid resistant, and is used to reinforce the coating that the engraving plates have on them. This photo sensitive coating is exposed to a bright light, and any imperfections in the plate are touched up with Dragon’s Blood before they are etched.
Watch the video below to see what life was like for a printer during that time in history.
Dan Simpson owner of Simpsons Printing in Rapid City, South Dakota is interviewed by KNBN News Center 1 because of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2008 Region VIn Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business of the Year Award he received. Watch the video to see what aired on the nightly news program.
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Jon and ask him some questions about his printing firm, his background, his management style, and more. Jon’s a fascinating guy and very down to earth. For example, before joining the family printing business, Jon worked at a few other jobs, because he felt it was “important to work for a few other people before you work for yourself.” – Mike Stevens
Simpsons Printing felt special need to show our appreciation to Team South Dakota by providing the finish-line poster for family members to hold while bringing in there team.