Client Audit: Madame Tussauds

“Our print work is designed to be striking,” says Madame Tussauds PR manager Ben Lovett. “We are continually trying to move away from the stuffy image that goes with being a museum and our printed work reflects that.”

Lovett is responsible for organising most of the group’s printed material. He studied English Literature at Warwick University and has worked at Madame Tussauds for nearly two years.

Lovett currently sources all Tussauds print from print manager TPF Group. The firm produces items including ticket stubs, staff business cards, stationery guidebooks and ‘gate maps’. It also prints the museum’s new, smaller guidebook and map combination.

The museum also prints items internally. Beat magazine, a Heat magazine-style monthly, is among the in-house work produced. It also prints around 700 copies of a leaflet outlining the company’s commitment to green issues.

Lovett describes Madame Tussauds’ print budget as “sizeable”. The museum uses leaflets and coupons to communicate the majority of its promotional offers. It usually commissions around 10-15 promotional print runs a year, each for approximately 200,000 copies.

Reliability and speed are essential to Lovett when considering print firms.

“A lot of our work is organised at short notice, so these are key qualities for us,” he says. He added that balancing quality with price is also important.

Madame Tussauds is currently planning a campaign for a yet to be announced exhibit, due this January. “We are always keen to produce a memorable advertising campaign for our launches. Print will be at the forefront of this push,” says Lovett.

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MADAME TUSSAUDS FACTFILE
Turnover £205m worldwide (2006)
Print volume “sizeable”
Printing staff 5
Established 1761
Printer TPF
Printed items include tickets, business cards, guidebooks, maps, Beat magazine, leaflets, promotional material
Source: Madame Tussauds

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