see merchant mariner s document . this article has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information . please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject s importance use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance . march 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this article if you can . march 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message zcard industry marketing founded 2003 area served worldwide key people george mcdonald inventor liz love managing director revenue 7 million 2011 1 number of employees 40 june 2011 website zcard.co.uk z card is the registered trademark for the foldable guide clarification needed invented by george mcdonald when he was a travel writer and consultant for british airways . contents 1 history 2 applications 3 use of technology 4 awards 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit mcdonald found that traditional fold out maps were too bulky to carry with him on travel research trips and wanted a more convenient solution . from this the z card was developed and launched in 1992 1 with the company as it looks today being founded in 2003 . the z card was quickly adopted as a marketing communications tool and reached such prevalence that the term z card is now used as reference to many z fold or concertina card and not just those produced by z card ltd. while z card pioneered the z fold market from 1992 a number of other companies have since entered the market by producing their own take on the z fold format . the original inspiration for the product came from the familiar fold out map format . z card has won industry recognition for their products with clients winning awards such as euro rscg s heist awards . loughborough university developed the maths card a classic z card format that opens out to reveal an extensive list of pure maths formulae that also claimed top honours in the direct marketing category of the heist awards . applications edit the z card and similar products have been used for a wide range of applications including internal corporate communications product and services information and promotional merchandise across all major industries . use of technology edit in recent years cards have featured technology such as radio frequency identification qr codes and augmented reality . 1 2 awards edit in 2011 z card won the chartered institute of marketing excellence award in the sme category . previous winners of cim awards include saatchi & saatchi mccann erickson and jcdecaux . in 2010 z card won south london business of the year and the best business for marketing categories at the south london business awards . 3 see also edit brochure business card comp card folded leaflet marketing collateral merchant mariner s document pamphlet references edit a b c the telegraph z card seeks to shape up for austerity times 2011 4 19 retrieved 2012 12 10 printweek z card launches augmented reality pocketmedia product 2010 07 21 retrieved 2012 12 10 south london business rbs south london business awards 2009 retrieved 2012 12 10 external links edit official website biz works retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title z card & oldid 704813653 categories types of marketinghidden categories articles with peacock terms from march 2012all articles with peacock termsarticles needing cleanup from march 2012all articles needing cleanupcleanup tagged articles without a reason field from march 2012wikipedia pages needing cleanup from march 2012pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterswikipedia articles needing clarification from november 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 february 2016 at 19 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view