Consumables
Performa 2S covers Italian telephone directories
Thursday 25. June 2009 - The high volume and penetration of telephone directories offers advertisers unbeatable opportunities. The directory covers are also a showcase for high-quality graphical board. In Italy, Performa 2S board from Stora Enso is used for the covers of 56 million Seat Pagine Gialle directories.
“Performa 2S is a relatively new product from Stora Enso. We believed in it and decided to launch it for the covers of our White Pages and Yellow Pages directories. The outcome of this project is highly satisfactory and we are pleased with the print results of the Performa 2S,” says Giacomo Casassa, Operations Director at Seat Pagine Gialle. “The board provides good contrast and gloss, with no mottling or opacity problems. Since the White Pages directories are also recognized by their white colour, whiteness of the board was one of our criteria.”
Flexible deliveries
Seat Pagine Gialle is a leading European multimedia directory publisher with paper, internet and enquiry services and subsidiaries in several European countries. On its home ground in Italy, the company publishes 103 regional White Pages editions and 202 regional Yellow Pages editions annually. This means that printing of the various editions continues virtually all year round. “Good logistics and flexible board deliveries are extremely important for us. Introduction of the new board quality in production also required good technical support and fast response from the supplier when needed,” Mr Casassa says.
“The quality was tested in a series of trials. Having such a close cooperation with the customer enables us to learn a lot and to develop our products to meet the most stringent demands,” says Renato Somekh, Sales Director at Stora Enso Italia.
The directory covers are offset printed by Ilte in Turin. The sheet sizes for the smaller editions differ from those used for the larger regional editions. Since the volumes are large, the board must run problem-free in the printing and converting processes. “The folding of covers requires good bending resistance and creasing properties. Thickness and stiffness of the board are also very important, especially as we use a low grammage,” Casassa adds.
Low-cost contacts for advertisers
Directories have maintained their position as a popular advertising media for all kinds of companies. Seat Pagine Gialle also offers advanced multimedia and web services and can serves as an excellent customer base for advertisers, reaching millions of people at a very low cost per contact. The printed White Pages and Yellow Pages editions are distributed to every home in the region. As per the Yellow Pages, there are also editions for households, as well as special directories distributed to every business outlet.
“Newspapers provide some competition in the local advertising market but there is no other service provider that can offer the same opportunities as we can. Italy has about 40% Internet penetration, mainly concentrated in the cities. The printed directory is still important in everyday use and reaches everybody, thus making the media attractive for any advertiser – both big brands and local businesses,” says Mr Casassa in conclusion.