American Inhouse Design Awards Honors Bitstream Direct Mail Campaign Created Using Pageflex Design Software

Cambridge, MA — July 25, 2006 — Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS, www.bitstream.com) announced today that it has been selected as a winner in the 2006 American Inhouse Design Awards from Graphic Design USA, a national magazine for design professionals. The annual awards recognize the creative work of in-house designers. The winning direct mail piece was designed by Bitstream Creative Director Victoria Kapsambelis in Pageflex Studio, a layout and design application, and produced using Pageflex technology, a Bitstream product line for document customization and cross-media campaigns.

The direct mail piece was developed to increase attendance and participation at an industry conference and event. It was sent to 3,000 customers, prospects and partners, and included a highly-customized invitation, a lead-generating raffle, and a personalized URL directing prospects to respond to the mailing at a dynamically-generated Web microsite. Bitstream achieved a 48% response rate from the campaign.

“I use Pageflex Studio to design all of Bitstream’s marketing collateral, direct mail, and packaging; both variable and static pieces. It enables me to be creative both with the graphic design and the depth to which I can customize documents for each recipient,” explains Kapsambelis.

The award-winning campaign is a prime example of creative customization. Information was captured from prospects and customers to learn “fun facts” about them, including their favorite color, their favorite activity, and favorite animal.  Using Pageflex Studio, Kapsambelis associated these fun facts with specific variable content that would appear in the layout. The individual direct mail pieces were then dynamically produced by Pageflex software. Each recipient received an invitation that was customized to include text and graphics that represented his or her personal “favorites,” a whimsical graphic of a blue dog, for example. 

The eye-catching direct mail piece was splashed throughout with vivid colors, creatively cropped photos, and dynamic angles that gave the piece a fun, energetic feel. Kapsambelis carried out the same design theme on the personalized Web microsites.

Says Anna Chagnon, Bitstream CEO, “This campaign beautifully demonstrates what can be accomplished when you combine great design with Pageflex technology – an award winning campaign that was visually stunning, conveyed a customized message to each prospect, and most importantly, produced results.”

Winning entries are eligible to be reproduced in Graphic Design USA’s Inhouse Design Awards Annual, which will be published this month. The publication will be seen by more than 100,000 design professionals at advertising agencies, graphic design firms, and corporate inhouse design departments.

Graphic Design USA Editor Gordon D. Kaye explains, "The competition aims to assure the outstanding work of inhouse designers is recognized by colleagues, the creative community, and, importantly, corporate and institutional managements."

About

Graphic Design USA

Graphic Design USA, published for 40 years, is one of the country's leading monthly business-to-business magazines for professional graphic designers and related creative and production professionals. The magazine has been sponsoring design competitions for three decades. Further information is available at www.gdusa.com.

Bitstream

Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS) is a software development company that makes communications compelling. Bitstream enables customers worldwide to render high-quality text, publish all things variable, browse the Web on wireless devices, select from the largest collection of fonts online, and customize documents over the Internet. Its core competencies include font technology, browsing technology, e-commerce technology, and variable data publishing technology. You can visit Bitstream on the Web at www.bitstream.com.

Bitstream is a pioneer and technology innovator in the variable data printing market starting with its introduction of variable data software in 1997. Bitstream’s Pageflex software enables template design, flexible layouts, personalization, customization, document scaling, variable-length documents, Web-to-print portals, interactive online editing, cross media marketing, and personalized emails and web sites. Pageflex provides the capability to produce all things variable for printers, advertising agencies, marketing services companies, and corporate marketing departments worldwide.

itstream is a registered trademark. Pageflex, Pageflex Studio, All Things Variable, and the Bitstream logo are trademarks of Bitstream Inc. Other technologies and brand names are used for information only and remain

Contact

For Pageflex

Marion Williams-Bennett
Marketing Specialist
Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc.
(617) 520-8311

Arlene E. Karsh
Kismet Marketing & PR
(617) 489-1235