Nov 13, 2012

RPI, Cheezburger and the Madison Park Group Announce Strategic Partnership to Extend Brand Experiences

RPI (Reischling Press, Inc.) (www.rpiprint.com), a leader in make-on-demand, private-label personalized photo books, greeting cards and stationery products for mass and specialty retailers; The Madison Park Group, a leading manufacturer and distributor in the specialty stationery and gift industry; and Cheezburger, one of the largest humor destination sites in the world and No. 28 on The Wall Street Journal’s annual list of the top 50 U.S. venture-backed companies; today announced a partnership to offer personalized ICanHasCheezburger cards in order to meet growing consumer demand in the online greeting card, pet humanization and mass customization categories.

Specifically, Cheezburger and The Madison Park Group will leverage RPI’s embedded storefront service to offer personalized greetings made by RPI, sold by The Madison Park Group and branded by Cheezburger and the consumer. Through its ease of integration, RPI’s storefront enables The Madison Park Group to offer the only place online where you can create and send custom-printed Cheezburger Memes featuring your own photos, such as invitations and Christmas cards, on demand.

“We’ve enjoyed our partnership with Cheezburger to bring its popular online content into the retail marketplace,” said Katherine Dikeakos, marketing manager for The Madison Park Group. “With the RPI personalization storefront, we’re excited to take this partnership to the next level and give fans another way to enjoy the Cheezburger brand, while adding their personal touch by customizing their own message and photos.”

According to the October 2011 Forrester Research, Inc., report titled: Brand Loyalty Isn’t Enough For Products Anymore, “brand loyalty has long been a critical pillar of product strategy, but its power is in relative decline. While brand still matters, it’s not sufficient in and of itself to position products in the market. Consequently, product strategists need to start thinking differently about brand loyalty, starting with the notion of total product experiences. Creative product strategists will build total product experience chains — product strategies built on links of brand, gaming, and product customization — to help reinvigorate loyalty.”

“In our digitally-dominated world, people crave a connection with tactile objects to accompany their virtual experiences. Personalized products fill that craving, extending the content experience into the physical world,” said Rick Bellamy, chief executive officer for RPI. “This partnership is a great example of how companies can further their existing brands, drive additional revenue and increase customer loyalty through personalized products.”

“Cheezburger has a mission of bringing five minutes of happiness to millions of people each day,” said Chris Wood, business development manager for Cheezburger. “Our relationship with The Madison Park Group and RPI allows us to extend that further by bringing our online brand experience to the offline world with a new line of customizable products.”

Bellamy added, “With RPI’s storefront, co-creation is made easy for consumers and gives brands a fast track to new revenue. Additionally, products can be shipped worldwide within three days.”

Cheezburger’s personalized print products are available just in time for the holiday season online at The Madison Park Group’s www.create.madpark.com. Additionally, if you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at Cheezburger, the company behind all the cat memes, visit www.bravotv.com/lolwork to catch clips of “LOLwork,” Bravo’s 30-minute doc-com that goes inside the office of ICanHasCheezburger.com. The show debuted on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 11 p.m., ET/PT.

To learn more about RPI’s personalization storefront, please visit: http://www.rpiprint.com/fulfillment/software/.

About RPI
RPI is a leading make-on-demand producer of private-label personalized photo books, greeting cards and stationery products for mass and specialty retailers. The company’s broad range of blue chip retail and online publishing customers rely on its consistent, reliable execution, creative design services and best-of-breed manufacturing for the rapid delivery of innovative products utilizing consumer-generated content. The privately held company is headquartered just outside of Seattle, Wash. with a Western European distribution center in Eindhoven, NL. For more information on how RPI is helping fuel the rapid growth of personalized products, please visit www.rpiprint.com.

About Cheezburger
Cheezburger runs more than 60 popular meme sites including I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Memebase, The Daily What, and Know Your Meme. Cheezburger is one of the largest humor destinations in the world and where millions of people come to enjoy their 5 minutes of happiness every day. Cheezburger counts a passionate fan base of more than 25 million people who contribute hundreds of thousands of pieces of content and remixes each month.

About The Madison Park Group
With its roots tracing back to 1977, The Madison Park Group established itself as one of the earliest specialty greeting card companies in the U.S. Over thirty years later, the company has expanded through strategic manufacturing and distribution arrangements within the industry. Today, The Madison Park Group has grown far beyond greeting cards with products including personal accessories, gifts and party goods. The company sells its wide-range of products to more than 6,000 retailers across the country and via distributors in other countries including Canada, England, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.