Newell Brands could significantly decrease printing costs, switching from print to digital catalogs

Newell Brands chose Flipsnack to drive the digital transformation for their catalogs. See how they introduced online catalogs in some markets and decreased printing costs by several thousands of Euro since making the switch. Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including:

In late 2019, Newell Brands - a leading global consumer goods company, with around 100 worldwide known brands - realized it needed a more efficient way to manage catalogs for their Outdoor brands in EMEA.

Lars Herzog, Head of Digital & Online Marketing, EMEA region at Newell Brands found Flipsnack when he was looking online for a digital catalog solution. The company considered it was the right time to re-evaluate the print-led strategy for their catalogs. For the past decades, printed catalogs were the most important communication tool between all Newell brands, the regional markets, and the end consumer.

Dealing with the entire EMEA region meant being involved in the tedious process of producing and shipping printed catalogs all over countries from this region. While shipping catalogs from Germany to the UK or France was less of an issue, sending catalogs to retailers from India or South Africa, made things a bit more complicated.

Lars was looking for a PDF to flipbook software, a tool capable of converting a PDF into an easy to share online catalog. Flipsnack met Newell Brands’ initial requirements—a PDF to flipbook conversion software to switch from print to digital catalogs—but they could not have anticipated how Flipsnack is so much more than this. Once Lars started testing the tool, he was pleasantly surprised by all the interactive features he can use, like hyperlinks and videos.

Newell Brands started using Flipsnack in one market, and after seeing how easy the implementation was and how well it was received, more markets soon followed. Even if they’re still printing catalogs in certain markets for customers who are still very much attached to print, the majority of clients love interactive catalogs and prefer them to printed ones.

For Lars, who is managing an entire region, it was highly important to also give each marketing manager an easy-to-use tool that works well for both parties involved. The best solution for their needs was to create a custom folder for each country and add all necessary assets in there. Because branding is highly important at Newell Brands, the fact that Lars could add assets that they’re using everywhere else, on their website, e-commerce shops, and other communication channels, was a good selling point. This way, it was also easy for vendors to have all digital materials at their disposal in their Flipsnack accounts.

In the future, Newell Brands would like to extend its relationship with Flipsnack and use it further to automate the production workflow for digital catalogs. At the moment, they’re using the PDF upload option, but it would be a great timesaver to be able to create online interactive product catalogs through automation and also share them. All within the same platform.