INNOVATION AWARDS: TWEAK.COM:FOUNDED BY Kerry entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly, Tweak.comaims to put professional design and graphics capability in the hands of business owners with no technical skills.
“We are aiming to empower business owners throughout the world to take control of the image of their business and produce Madison Avenue-standard design and print,” says Kennelly. “It’s a bit like offering high-end fashion at off-the-peg prices.”
Tweak.comoffers users almost a million pieces of design, which are customisable by colour, access to a vast range of stock images, a logo builder and editable sample copy for more than 350 business types.
The website first launched in the direct market in February 2011, with the key focus of positioning itself as a partner for the world’s largest B2B print retailers and franchise printers – about 300 print franchisees are now using Tweak as their sole web-to-print and design shopfront and five of the largest global companies in this space are now engaged in technical and commercial negotiations with a view to launching in the near future.
“Tweak.com has democratised the craft of design, copywriting and print,” says Kennelly.
"For a small or medium-size business attempting to create an image for their business through design has been a nightmare. We have carried out a study which showed that a simple A3 newsletter could cost up to €5,000 to design and print using traditional methods but costs just €500 with Tweak.com. They no longer have to hire a graphic designer, a photographer or a copywriter."
Kennelly says: "With Tweak.comit's really simple and cheap. The design is already done, and we've selected photos and written carefully-researched copy specifically around the business type. There is no time-consuming interaction with designers, copywriters, printers. Stock photography has already been selected or they can upload their own photographs at no extra cost. The copy is already written and changes can be made very easily. And if you don't have a logo you can create one in less than a minute. But most of all, everything happens when it suits the user."
According to Kennelly the business will shortly be launching new German, Spanish and French versions of the service. Last week the firm completed a multimillion euro deal with the digital branch one of Europe’s largest publishers, WAZ MediaGroup. “We have about 300 partner sites, which are constantly being refined,” says Kennelly.
