How to Turn a Standard Promotion into a Powerful Interactive Piece

blog-endless-fold

The average consumer is exposed to hundreds of marketing messages each day in one form or another.

From radio commercials during the morning commute to the banner ads we see online, advertising clutter has created a big challenge for brands competing for our attention in an increasingly noisy world.

To rise above the noise level, many companies are transforming traditional advertising platforms into something new and exciting––perking interest with intriguing new takes on things we’re all familiar with.

One example of this “new spin on an old story” is the endless folding card––an interactive postcard revealing four separate designs when folded in sequence. Flipping through it creates a mesmerizing effect and a perfect opportunity to craft an interesting visual story for a product.

InfiniteFoldAnimation 

Pretty cool, huh? 

The story behind this particular piece underscores a big reason why cheaper is never better when looking for a design team and printer that can deliver such a complex piece the way you want it.

Ensuring quality and accuracy from day one

The endless folding postcard was an engineering “win” for printers who had struggled to die cut, score, fold, and glue each component into place to make it work smoothly.

After seeing successful products make their way into the market, we were excited when Mueller Sports Medicine approached us to produce such a piece that could “unpack” a new line training kits to customers visually.

According to Mueller’s Packing and Promotional Manager Ryan Motl, when less-expensive overseas printers failed to fully grasp the intricacies required to make it work, Mueller turned to our team who could work more closely with their designers and marketers to make their vision come to life.

“We wanted to produce a unique printed piece that could both showcase all the accessories of our new Hero line trainers kits and give the customer an experience they would want to share with other people. After trying multiple sources all over the globe we contacted Suttle-Straus, who was able to create the infinite fold insert quickly and to the quality standards we were trying to achieve.”

The power of a few strategic folds and cuts

If this is your first introduction to interactive promotional pieces like the endless fold card, you might be asking an important question:

Why aren’t more brands using promo pieces like this?

It’s a simple question with an even similar answer: It takes work.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the companies we have worked with in the past, it’s that everyone is looking for fresh ideas and different ways to break out of the norm. If you’re in search of innovative ways to reach consumers, our message is simple:

New, fresh and fun isn’t always easy, but it’s totally achievable when you partner with a printer that knows what it’s doing.

Interactive promotional pieces like this require design expertise, planning, and most of all, a strong vision of the final product. Perhaps one of biggest challenges with these kinds of projects is refining your ideas to fit the unique canvas a piece like this offers.

How to design an endless fold postcard of your own

To help you through this crucial first step, we’ve provided a simplified design template, and broken the planning and production process into the four broad steps.

We realize this requires way more from a design team than the typical project. As such, these templates are only meant to help you plan and visualize a rough concept of an endless fold piece that can then be refined and fine-tuned with the help of our expert design and printing teams.

Step 1:

Side 1 of the template produces the first and fourth view.  To create first view, align edge A and edge A.  To create the fourth view align edge D and edge D.

With-Dieline

Step 2:

Side two of the template produces the second and third views.  Align edge B with edge B to produce the second view, and align edge C and edge C to produce the third view.

With-Dieline2

 

Confused yet? That’s okay––we’re here to help. 

If you can’t make heads or tails of the templates or just need some extra help fitting your designs into the layout, we’d be happy to help you create and print an infinite fold piece of your own no matter where you are in the process. 

Contact us

About the author

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Chrissy Knaak

Chrissy Knaak

As the former Marketing Director at Suttle-Straus, Chrissy oversaw all marketing projects, including website initiatives, print campaigns, conferences, and market research.
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Topics: Direct Mail, Design, Print

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