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Hewlett Packard Company - 5/18/2006
HP Becomes First to Print Postage Featuring Corporate Logos and Images
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 18, 2006 - HP today announced that it has become the first company to feature its
corporate logo and other corporate images on legal U.S. postage from Zazzle, ushering in a new era for the
United States Postal Service (USPS) and providing a fitting new branding opportunity for one of the world’s
most recognized brands. The postage is printed on HP Indigo presses owned by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Zazzle.
On May 16, the USPS expanded its year-old customized postage program to allow businesses the rights to place
their logos on U.S. postage. The decision reverses a Civil War-era law that prevented businesses from placing
advertising on any type of currency including postage. The 1872 Mail Fraud Statute was adopted to establish
the consolidated authority of the federal Post Office and to prevent schemes involving mailed materials.
HP’s first customized postage includes images of HP founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the HP garage
and the HP logo. "HP is a technology leader that embraces innovation and new ideas," said Gary Elliott, vice
president of Brand Marketing, HP. "We see this as an exciting opportunity for HP to extend its brand into a whole
new avenue."
Zazzle is one of only three companies approved to print postage with corporate logos. These companies all use
HP Indigo presses to create stamps with a unique bar code, a feature that is required and carefully mandated
by the USPS.
HP Indigo technology is part of the world’s largest portfolio of digital graphic arts technologies, a group of
high-quality offerings that also includes HP Designjet large-format printers and HP Scitex super-wide-format
and rigid-substrate printers. HP Indigo presses specifically enable the professional, high-volume production
of everything from marketing materials and publications to labels and specialty items with the quality of
traditional offset printing. The presses’ variable-data capabilities, which enable the production of barcodes
necessary for the USPS, are also commonly used to personalize printed materials for specific recipients a
technique that increases the usage and relevance of print.
HP Indigo presses are certified to print on the industry’s widest range of digital printing substrates. The first
corporate postage, featuring the HP garage, rolled off Zazzle’s HP Indigo printing presses yesterday.
www.hp.com
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