Sumeet Virdi
Reading a storybook is so much more than just reading. It’s an imaginative world for the reader and serves as an escape into an alternate reality. Today, most children are growing up without the magical world of storybooks. While video plays a crucial role in modern day learning, it leaves very little to the imagination and tends to keep the creative muscles dormant. What if there was a way to reignite a child’s curiosity towards reading storybooks? Something that makes them personally invested in these stories. Sachin Katira, a pioneer of the personalized printing industry, using HP digital printing technology, has possibly found a way to make storybooks return to their must-read status.
The story of Zooboostory.com
Zooboostory.com, a personalized storybook printing venture, is an initiative by the enterprising father of two boys, Sachin Katira. Sachin is a successful entrepreneur and is known for being the founder and CEO of Zoomin.com. Since its inception in 2007, Zoomin.com has been a leading online customization platform for one of the best photo print solutions in Indian industry. With his in-depth knowledge of how digital printing works, he set out on a mission to reignite the spark that is personalized storytelling. In a conversation with him, we learn that personalized storytelling is a deep-rooted tactic (that has worked) for generations. He says, “My grandparents would always include my name as one of the characters of the story.” It was precisely this core insight that derived the eureka moment and fueled the launch of Zooboostory.com.
Over the past one year, children have grown accustomed to accessing educational and recreational content through online media. Sachin noticed that when his two boys were introduced to educational reading material or even storybooks, it felt like “schoolwork.” That’s when he decided to piggyback on his vast experience in printing and created Zooboostory.com. A platform that integrates a child’s name, personality, and physical features into the storybook. The simple insight of personalizing the storybook by “including the child’s name in the story” presented a whole new world of storytelling.
Making the most of a robust print infrastructure
Sachin Katira’s Zoomin.com is the leading player in personalized and customizable merchandising photo albums, coffee table books, and other exciting and innovative print-based merchandise. Sachin, in his quest to offer better customer experience, made the shift to HP Indigo technology to create photo-based print merchandise because a toner-based system just didn’t provide adequate results and quality due to technical and operational limitations.
He has stated that, “Tech is at the heart of our initiatives,” and it was no surprise that HP Indigo Digital Press, the most advanced and cutting-edge printing solution, became the base on which Zooboostory.com was launched. HP Indigo along with the Zooboostory team worked towards ensuring that prints popped with the right amount of colors, print quality, and media selection and brought illustrations to life. With the targeted readership being kids, the vivid blacks and contrasting shades made the vibrant color prints a Sight for sore eyes. “The CMYK set up that is based on special colors will bring every illustration to life” says Sachin.
Zooboostory.com today
A critical aspect of the launch was managing scale, which is where the HP Indigo press again surpassed expectations. After the customer enters the required details, the company’s backend system manages to create a print-ready file within minutes. In fact, to manage scale, the efficiency and features of HP Indigo, enabled the Zooboostory team to print about 700 finished books within an hour. What makes this a great achievement is this was achieved without compromising on the complexity and individual nature of each story. When asked how HP contributed to the turnaround time at Zooboostory.com, Sachin says, “The Indigo Press” uptime is fantastic and our relationship with HP has been great. In fact, right after lockdown when we needed HP’s support, though Public transport wasn’t running, we had an HP representative at our doorstep to help. In fact, owing to optimization and scaling of technology deployed, Zooboostory.com today has the capability to ship out finished personalized storybooks within 24 hours
What’s more, currently as a platform, it’s much more than a storybook printing service. They have a second target audience that they communicate with – creators and artists. Sachin tells us, that “We’re always on the lookout for great illustrators and storytellers who can craft stories.” The stories today are based on different milestones for children such as, birth of a sibling, importance of sharing and many morality-building tales. All stories must be crafted by delicately knitting nuances and lessons within. The need for great storytellers makes the platform a great hub for those with talents, as well as those seeking them.
Personalized storybooks – novelty or norm?
Scaling up any business that is built on personalization has always been a challenge. So, when asked if personalized storybooks will ever be a mass scale idea, Sachin replies, “It’s going to be the norm and it’ll also be the rekindling of the curiosity behind storybooks. When the child reads about him or herself in the story, intrigue is certain.” The organization plans on adding new titles every month, based on a careful screening process. Not only does this add variety to the story selection, but also opens a great publicity platform for artists to showcase their talents of art and storytelling.
