Just before Sign & Digital UK this year, GWL Colourlink resellers went on a mission to find the Oldest Printer in Town. The vibrant ‘wild west’ themed campaign set out to find the oldest wide format plan printer and the oldest wide format inkjet printer in the UK, with a third prize draw for everyone who entered. It wasn’t easy to determine them with over a thousand entries but several phone calls and site visits later and they’ve found the winners.
The Oldest PLAN PRINTER entry
The first category was for the oldest plan printer (24″+ wide) and the winner of this section is Richard Walker of John Watson & Carter, North Yorkshire. They have a fully operational curved glass light Diazo copier printer and ammonia wooden developing box circa 1950!! They purchased the system in 1955 from The Drawing Group Hull, which was known as Hull Drawing Materials Ltd back then and they still buy their printing services and equipment from company.
The Oldest INKJET PRINTER entry
The winner of the oldest wide format inkjet printer (36″+ wide) is Julian Slater from Slater Engineering Ltd, North Yorkshire and they have a working HP Designjet 200 purchased way back in 1991.
Prize Draw
The third lucky winner picked out of a hat from all the entries is Paul Owen of Maris Interiors, London SE1.
Graham Baulch, managing director of GWL Colourlink explains why they chose this theme for a marketing campaign; “When new model printers are launched we are inundated with facts and figures about them being quicker, faster, more colourful, accurate etc…and that is all true, but the one thing that we’ve discovered over the years is that most people just love their printers and as much as we’d like them to buy a new one, our main mission in this campaign was to applaud that loyalty. All our winners received a brand new iPad 2, which we thought was fitting as all HP Designjet printers now can be driven by Wifi and Cloud technology, highlighting just how far we have come with technology. It was a fun campaign and drew a lot of interest over the few months we ran it so we want to thank everyone for entering and making it such a success.”
[photo shows Julian Slater from Slater Engineering Ltd, North Yorkshire with his working HP Designjet 200 from 1991]
