Reynolds Tobacco Company needed material that would stand out for its retail-support program launch for its Winston Evo Flask line extension. John Halladay, MAC Papers, and Vernon Foster, Jostens, presented this important customer with some out-of-the-box HoloPRISM®, holographic paper created by PROMA Technologies. Both Halladay and Foster recognized the value of custom print to register holography as a way to help their customer differentiate its point of sale materials from the rest.

The first-of-its-kind undertaking used the proprietary iSCAN® system from ITW Holographics to create more than 80 holographic masters that contained more than 90 different holograms. The iSCAN system produces high speed, large format, custom holograms using ITW's computer-to-plate technology.

Once complete, the master goes through multiple postproduction phases such as developing and electroforming. Nickel shims are produced and embossing shims are created. This process must be completed before going into the plant to manufacture the paper. Then the embossing shim is wrapped around the embossing cylinder and through heat and pressure the holographic pattern is embossed into a coating on the paper. The paper is then run through a vacuum metalization chamber where it is metalized, a water based acrylic coating is applied and finished for sheeting.

Holographic masters were then copied to shims and sent to PROMA Technologies. The shims were inserted into PROMA's metallizer to produce HoloPRISM holographic paper. A top-coat of a universal print primer was applied and the HoloPRISM paper was re-moisturized using a closed-loop steam system. Rolls were trimmed to smaller widths and prepared for shipping.

The variety and scale of holograms measured from 2 x 2 in. to 30 x 46 in. and the broad range of materials needed to print such as paper, board and pressure sensitive stickers combined to make this the most diverse, single largest in scope holographic project ever delivered, says PROMA Technologies.

Reynold's Tobacco's vice president of marketing for Winston, Joe Michalek, says: "We are positioning Winston as the most modern, exciting brand in the category, and incorporating PROMA Technologies' HoloPRISM papers in our point-of-sale materials helps us communicate that. PROMA Technologies, along with all our suppliers on this project, have produced dynamic materials that allow us to break through the clutter at retail to compete for adult smoker's business."

PROMA Technologies, 800/343-6978, fax: 508/541-7777, www.promatechnologies.com

ITW Holographics, 800/430-9067, fax: 215/997-9005, www.itwholographics.com

MAC Papers, 336/605-9411, www.macpapers.com