Magnetic business cards, or advertising magnets as they are also known allow businesses to market themselves and advertise in another new way. Although they can generally be stored in a card wallet like traditional cards, they are designed to stick onto a metal surface, thereby displaying your business details for all to see. Fridge magnets seem to stick around forever, even after the novelty has worn off. Most offices will have a refrigerator or metal surface to be able to display one so is a good marketing gimmick. In times when traditional marketing and advertising is falling on deaf ears it pays to be imaginative with ideas. Trying something different or a little unconventional can be a good way of publicizing something, as long as it’s done right.
These cards are designed the way any other card is and given to the printer via a digital file. For most designs the printer will use an offset printer to apply the design to the card. Instead of using thick paper, or art board as is usual, these designs are applied to a magnetic sheet. This is a sheet of thin steel with a magnet on one side and a thin veneer of vinyl on the other. It comes in large sheets which are imprinted and then cut to size. They come in varying thicknesses depending on requirements but start at 15mm thick and go up to 30mm. Deciding on thickness is a choice between size, weight and cost versus longevity.
The vinyl coating allows the ink to bind to the surface to take the imprint, and special solvent inks are used to provide a more durable and fade resistant finish. Ink needs a key to be able to bind to a surface. The steel/magnetic sheet is too smooth and the molecules too close together for the ink to be able to penetrate. By adding the vinyl coating, which has purposely loose packed molecules, the ink can stick without adding any more bulk or weight to the surface.
The ink is added to the plate as usual for offset printing and the sheet is fed into the press. The imprint is passed to the rubber blanket which is in turn pressed against the sheet, vinyl side to the ink.
Once printed, the sheet then has a coating of UV laminate to further protect the finish and allow the card to be cleaned without damaging it. Once dried the sheets are cut into shape, trimmed and rounded off to create a soft edged finish. Then they are ready for use.
Magnetic business cards aren’t that new, or that clever. They do offer something a little different, a variation of a theme that can be enough to get a business the attention it needs. While the market is as challenging and as competitive as it is now, it pays to explore every avenue open to you in order to get publicity and promotion.
Filed under: News
Trackback Uri