What can digital printers learn from the Amazon Kindle with Special Offers?

Written by Joel Basa, e-Marketing Manager at Xerox Corporation
I recently bought my wife an Amazon Kindle with Special Offers as a gift. She’s an avid reader and she absolutely loves it. After using the device a little myself, I must say it’s quite impressive. However, what intrigued me about the Kindle with Special Offers was not its eInk display and how it could potentially threaten digital printing volumes (we’ve heard that debate before), but rather how “Special Offers” and “Sponsored Screensavers” were built into the device. I see similarities between “Special Offers” and what we, in digital print, usually call Trans-Promo print applications. Would you agree?
The Kindle with “Special Offers” only has two differences between a normal Kindle: price($25 cheaper) and advertisements. The “Special Offers” on the Kindle are not at all annoying or “in the way.” The promotions only appear after the device goes to screensaver and never appears while actually reading. It also appears on the bottom of the home screen.
(FYI, I linked my Amazon account to the Kindle, not my wife’s Amazon account)
My biggest observation, many of the ads and offers intrigued me. They seem very targeted and personalized to me: and I take notice. I don’t know what “logic” Amazon has established to select what ads will appear but it seems to be tied to my buying habits of the past.
How about print applications that are coming off your presses? If you’re producing statements, bills and invoices, is there potential for you to transform them into high-value marketing tools to up-sell or cross-promote products and services for your customers? Studies show 80% of new business comes from existing customers, variable data can drive business and profits by adding trans-promo areas.
What are your thoughts on the Amazon Kindle with “Special Offers?” Anybody own one? I feel digital printers can learn from the ads and sponsored screensavers feature, what are your thoughts?