I’m Jake Athey. I’ve been with Widen since 2004, where I’ve spent a majority of time promoting and educating audiences about the role of digital asset management at the core of the digital media value chain.
About a year ago, someone told me that this business of marketing was like a soap opera. It’s always changing and there’s always a new episode of roadblocks – new or old – to overcome.
So, I thought about the days of our lives and how we (as marketers) use digital media to help create passions for our products in efforts to trigger buying decisions among the countless other messages we’re exposed to as the world turns.
After a few hours of contemplating life on another world, Dr. DAM dawned on me as the guiding light to share real customer problems and solutions in a more general, loose type of setting. This is no general hospital, but I figure this shared wealth of knowledge could help you leverage digital asset management best practices along your quest for global market domination (another blog).
For now (I say for now because marketing is always changing), the purpose of this blog is to share real customer stories of the common disorders, success stories (and lots of stuff in between) associated with the growing amount, types and uses of digital media in marketing organizations today.
Want to share your story or have a question? Just write... Dear Dr. DAM.
As the sun shines and summertime nears it makes me want to get outside and play yard games – bocce ball, bean bags (where I come from) and that game with the golf balls on a string. Would you agree? However, I have a game you can play right there in the office… it’s a classic called “Where’s my assets?”
Unfortunately, I doubt the one you’re looking for has a hat, sweater and glasses.
Al, Ryan, Kristina and I enjoy it because it gives a chance to really give each other lots of grief. I’ve been with the marketing team the longest, so naturally I’ve structured a majority of the internal shared drive for our sales and marketing materials. It’s great because I know where some of the stuff is so I get to laugh at them when they’re basically stuck in the mud (another childhood favorite).
When our sales team asks us to create something that I swear we did at the end of the year last year, it’s like a game of duck, duck, goose or rock paper scissors to see who gets to handle the request. Hmmm… I’m not sure if this ever happens to you, but after about 20 minutes of hide and seek we’re forced to ask our designer, Danielle, if she can quickly whip up a new document. I can’t even begin to tell you how many lunches we owe her for the number of times she’s had to recreate a new version of something that’s been done a half-dozen times.
What’s even more fun is when Matthew calls on us for the most current slide that he needs for a presentation tomorrow – it’s kind of like a game of marco polo the way our speaker phones echo across the corridor – more office fun!
For a marketing department of 7 at a company of 110, we really don’t have any excuses because we have this DAM marketing software at our fingertips to help us manage our content and brand assets. But, I’m sure bigger companies don’t really have these problems because they’ve got it all figured out. If you feel like joining in on the fun, just ask Dr. DAM.
You know who you are… You’re in the trenches just trying to put in a fair day’s work and make an honest living. You’re trying to keep up with the status quo. In tough economic times, you don’t need to do anything to stand out. You don’t want to ask for the money or waste the time looking for some empty software box with no clear-cut ROI. You’re okay with the small battles, occasional fires and tedious, redundant processes… why change if that’s the way it’s always been – right?
I didn’t think so - that’s not good enough.
You’re the ambassador of your digital media embassy and you deserve better.
Where do you keep all that stuff? Your images and videos (and the rest of the materials that are the lifeblood of your sales and marketing efforts).
Are they easily accessible? Are they scattered? Are you in control? Are your field reps using the most recent version? Is time on your side or is the current process winning? Are marketing and sales on separate islands? Are you recreating lost files that you know are out on some server? Are the emails in your inbox asking for a photo of that one image from last season’s whatever taking focus off the projects you really want to work on?
If so, you’re grappling… you’re battling the status quo and change is essential.
Experience an ROI and live an ROE – return on expectations. When was the last time you made a business decision that you were 100% satisfied with?
You know what Dr. DAM would prescribe. A recent testimonial from a DAM user basically says it all: "Wow, I really like this. I just go out there and bing, bing, bing, I'm done."
Two weeks ago, I was one of the presenters at the $5 Friday seminar hosted by C2 Graphic Productivity Solutions in Milwaukee titled Life Cycle of a Digital Asset. C2, the only Wisconsin-based Adobe Authorized Training Center, hosts the $5 seminars once a month for those interested in learning more about current topics in the world of graphic design and creative. The topic of the seminar – Lifecycle of a Digital Asset – was a learning session about how Digital Asset Management (DAM) software helps design, creative, and marketing communications people “find all their stuff.”
My co-presenter, Jim Conway, a photographer and C2 instructor with years of experience managing a digital imaging center, discussed some of the fundamentals of file management and showcased Adobe Bridge & Lightroom software and other single-user management solutions. He talked about how metadata is used and why it is useful to help you catalog, manage and find files using Adobe XMP metadata.
My presentation focused on the advantages of web-based, enterprise-level digital asset management systems over the single-user applications for larger workgroups, enterprises and organizations with a distributed user base.
Advantages of enterprise-level digital asset management software solutions (as we see it) include:
Internet Accessibility – With whenever - wherever access, web-based DAM systems allow marketing and sales channels to find and retrieve exactly what is needed in the hustle and bustle of a highly competitive sales environment.
On-the-fly File Conversions – With the power to store one, yet deliver many files via on-demand conversions allows organizations to maintain only one master hi-resolution or hi-definition asset and not have to mess with an infinite number of multiple file formats of multiple assets.
Distribution & Fulfillment – Emailing large files straps I.T. resources and sending CDs doesn’t allow you to react to last second demands for tight deadlines and deal closing meetings. Upon placing an asset order to another person, Widen web-based DAM sends an automatic email containing a link to download the assets in the format(s) requested. If you need a CD library of images or video on DVD, Widen will handle it for you and ship it overnight without tying up your staff.
Security and Access Control – Need to keep user groups apart so only certain users have access to specific sets of assets or features…you won’t find that with single-user asset management systems. Cases include granting your ad agency access to upload assets, while granting salespeople basic access to view and order materials they need. Or in the case of many of our clients, you may have products branded for your separate dealers in which you need to keep their assets separate as well. Motorola wouldn’t want Verizon Wireless to have access to Sprint branded image assets and vice-versa. You see the reasons…
Administration & Management – Enterprise / web-based asset management systems have a tremendous amount of configurability and scalability to accommodate growth and expansion, which often comes with high-levels of administration and management functionality. There are often multiple tiers of administrators and user groups having separate roles, responsibilities and levels of interaction with the system’s features and assets.
Reporting & Measurement – What good are your assets if they can’t be found, retrieved and used? … That’s why you implement a digital asset management system. But how great would it be if you could quickly and easily know who, what, where, when and why your assets are used? Enterprise / web-based digital asset management systems are more than just a means of organizing and distributing assets, they are a marketing tool for intelligence, strategy and budgeting purposes.
SaaS Infrastructure / Support – Like most software, you have choices… two in fact – installed or hosted a.k.a. Software as a Service (SaaS). With the former, it’s up to your I.T. department to handle the implementation, maintenance, upgrades, training, security, support, trouble-shooting, customization, etc. along with their list of other projects supporting critical business operations. With the latter, the service provider handles all of that for you … and if you pick ‘em right – they’ll put marketing, creative and sales at the top of the priority list.
Integrations and Other Applications – Does the software provider offer other technologies than DAM related to the digital media lifecycle – upstream to support the creation and workflow or downstream to support the distribution and publishing of assets? That’s another thing to look at when considering an asset management system. On top of that, do they play nice with others? Integration and the ability to share information (assets and metadata) with other systems supporting critical business functions is key to selecting a system that can continue to grow with an organization.
Recycling your assets in new projects and media channels prevents the loss of potentially useful content, reducing the energy required to re-create misplaced materials.
2. Reduce administration, re-work and time to market with new materials.
Reducing the amount of time and resources (human or technology) required to recreate, locate, re-process and use promotional materials increases the overall productivity and effectiveness of the people responsible for creating them.
3. Reuse your digital assets again and again.
Reusing digital assets across new promotional materials, channels and more people increases their impact and value, in addition to driving a consistent message.
4. Retrieve your digital assets anywhere, anytime.
Retrieving promotional materials using a powerful, easy-to-use system makes it possible to re-apply the efforts invested in the creation of those assets.
5. Repurpose your digital assets across multiple media and selling channels.
Repurposing promotional materials in a variety of mediums using workflow automation increases the effectiveness of the asset and the person using the asset and increases consistency of your brand message across multiple channels.
6. Respond to changing market conditions, consumer demands and selling situations.
Responding quickly to changing market conditions, consumer demands and selling situations with resources and promotional materials adequately satisfying the need helps increase marketing agility and brand equity.
7. Realize a Return on Marketing Investments.
ROI, as in justifying expectations of performance and cost savings (hard & soft), is a fundamental factor for marketing decisions dealing with new technologies, resources, and projects.
Digital Asset Management helps you realize a quick ROI from implementation to ongoing maintenance and support, in addition to helping you increase ROI for the creation, use and effectiveness of digital media.
Widen was recently ranked among the Top 10 Premedia Leaders of America as the 8th largest provider of premedia services by sales volume, according to a 2008 study by Graphic Arts Monthly and The Association of Graphic Solutions Providers (IPA).
Widen made the list of firms whose premedia sales are greater than 50% of total sales. Within the >50% categorization, the market size is $1,340,276,000, primarily dominated by the top 3 providers. Widen’s share of this market is 1.2% using data reported in this list. However, isolating just prepress service providers whose primary market is the Corporate space, Widen owns 42.6% market share.
Premedia services are defined to include: preflighting, proofing, color retouching, color separations, image assembly, platemaking, photography, data management, workflow and other media production.
I read an article posted online last month in the PC World Business Center titled “White House Official Pushes for Software as a Service,” which provides a little more fuel for the SaaS revolution.
Grant Gross of IDG News Service reports “A top official with the U.S. White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) gave her strongest endorsement yet to software as a service, saying…it can help federal agencies cut development costs.”
Karen Evans, administrator of the OMB's Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology said "Our track record is clear -- we are not very good at delivering our own software in the time frame set." Evans added, "We're also not very good at managing large projects."
That be said, that’s exactly why companies of all sizes and industries choose to work with vendors like Widen to manage and deliver large projects within a set time frame.
Several articles have been published since the Aberdeen Group recently released a study on “Marketing Digital Asset Management: Capturing, Storing, and Retrieving Digital Media to Deliver Strategic Value,” however I want to focus on one particular figure from the study – “Qualitative Value in DAM.” To clarify, Marketing Digital Asset Management is DAM for the marketing function – makes sense. The report was authored by Ian Michiels, Sr. Research Analyst for Marketing Management & Digital Marketing, Customer Management Technology Group.
The Qualitative Value in DAM
The study reveals the following improvements for Best-in-Class organizations as a result of digital asset management implementations:
Time spent locating content DECREASED 75%
Employee productivity INCREASED 83%
Asset utilization INCREASED 67%
These are some impressive stats. I particularly like the increase in asset utilization, which is a good indicator of high user adoption, high return on marketing investments and greater marketing effectiveness. Since DAM is the central repository for brand-approved assets, increases in asset utilization should also represent increases in marketing efficiency. This makes the protectors of the brand (like myself) very happy as well.
To provide a quick customer statistic, Widen’s DAM system has helped the Reebok On-field Apparel Group (now the Sports Licensed Division of the Adidas Group) repurpose each digital asset created over six times in its lifecycle versus a one-time use prior to Widen. Before Widen, Reebok used to ship physical apparel samples to their retail customers to conduct their own photography for use in catalogs and e-commerce sites. Widen’s digital sampling process and digital asset management technology allowed Reebok to give their customers on-demand access to official Reebok images, each to be used for a different purpose an average of six times per asset. In a library of 200,000 assets, that’s a lot of repurposing and brand exposure. View the case study to learn more.
Another interesting part of the Aberdeen report were the “Steps to Success,” separating companies into three categories of Laggard, Industry-Average and Best-in-Class.
Steps to Success
Laggards
Provide sales & marketing access to marketing assets
Evaluate asset usage
Identify business drivers and formalize process for measuring ROI
Industry Average
Extend access to key stakeholders beyond sales & marketing to others in the value chain
Standardize the use of one DAM system vs. multiple systems in one organization
Integrate with workflow processes
Best-in-Class
Extend access to external members in the marketing value chain
Integrate DAM with creative applications
Formalize process allowing users to provide feedback and rating system for content – along the lines of web 2.0
Invest in people and processes to support the technology
“ROI takes center stage at CMO summit” was one of the headlines from the February 11 edition of the BtoB Magazine for Marketing Strategists. The author of the article, Kate Maddox, explained “Proving ROI, using new technologies and leveraging partner marketing were key topics at Red Herring's CMO 2008 conference in San Diego last week.”
With that as the indication that ROI is what marketing executives want, than ROI is what you get (with Widen as your technology partner). Ok, enough marketing…let’s find out how we can calculate a hard ROI on your DAM project.
How to calculate a tangible ROI in 3 easy steps:
1. Existing Process per Request
Things to consider: How long does it take to locate digital assets? How many minutes are spent on manual conversions? How long does it take to organize the files, burn a CD, and prepare it to ship?
2. Ongoing / Redundant Costs
Things to consider: How much money is spent on materials and shipping? What about labor costs? Are re-work and redundant photography and prepress costs a factor?
3. I.T. Maintenance / Storage Costs
Things to consider: How many hours per week are spent to support existing processes and maintenance? How many dollars per year are spent on hardware expenditures and dedicated bandwidth?
In a DM Review Special Report on February 5, "The Marriage of Customer Relationship Management and Content Management," Dan Carmel discusses the inefficiencies plaguing sales and marketing organizations and the benefits of integrating CRM systems with SaaS-based content management systems.
According to Dan Carmel, the top 5 benefits of combining CRM and content management are:
Improved win rates with more effective and timely responses to opportunities
More effective marketing with greater collaboration, faster turnaround and greater ability to leverage the latest material across distributed sales networks
Sales & marketing alignment by eliminating the gap between different processes and workflows
Faster time-to-revenue by speeding up sales cycles
Broader impact by integrating other best-in-class technologies serving their own distinct purpose to share information via web services
As the form of content management dealing with rich media, Widen has integrated our digital asset management software as a service platform with the Salesforce.com customer relationship management system. Widen’s Digital Media Organizer brings the content marketing creates – images, videos and marketing materials – closer to the salesperson and end users.
Widen’s Marketing Template Creation gives salespeople the ability to easily customize or localize printable materials such as ads, brochures, direct mail and point-of-sale signage using marketing-controlled templates and content.
Marketing users within Salesforce.com have the ability to direct campaigns and manage all media used for email marketing, websites and print campaigns. Our web analytics indicate that interest levels in Widen’s video asset management capabilities within Salesforce are of the greatest interest as video grows in popularity for marketers and consumers alike.
As Carmel explains, five benefits of SaaS-based content management include:
Faster time to deploy because there is no hardware or software to install
Low initial cost for subscription-based pricing models
Rapid innovation with automatic upgrades every few months
Easy to use and configure specific to the requirements of each client
Globally available with no burden on IT because applications are delivered via web browser and maintained by the hosted provider
These five benefits overlap with the same benefits Widen DAM customers enjoy. SaaS-based business applications are not just for small to medium-sized businesses as larger companies continue to adopt best-in-class software as a service solutions. Jim Egan, Director of Communications Programs at Kerry America, a leader in global food ingredients markets, stated, "By integrating [the Widen] tools within our Salesforce application, we now have a 'one-stop-shop' for all marketing and collateral material; making them easily accessible for our sales teams and channel members. These tools will help us strengthen our overall brand messages and enable our sales and application experts to deliver innovative, business-building solutions for our customers."
Tony Byrne, Founder of CMS Watch – a vendor-neutral technology analyst firm – recently published an article titled “Pain in the SaaS? When your traditional software vendor hosts you application” that I thought is relevant to this audience as many traditional installed software vendors in the digital asset management space begin to add “on demand” or hosted solutions to their mix.
The article discusses the software and the software as a service divide and what to look for in a business model when considering a software product.
I’m not the first product marketing manager to talk about this topic of software, but like any other software purchase, realizing the difference between customization and configuration can help you save a lot of time, money and headaches.
What’s the difference?
If something is configurable, the existing software functionality can be set up to optimize a certain workflow or preference. When configuration is the case, clients can expect results within 48 hours to two weeks depending on the stage of implementation or complexity of the case.
If something is to be customized, it requires greater investments (human, financial and technological) for changes to be included in the software code. With most software vendors, be prepared to wait 12-18 months before your request is fulfilled.
As you select a software vendor, be sure you understand the difference between the two and can clearly differentiate where certain functionality falls.
Fortunately, with Widen, you have the ability to do both. If customization is required, our aggressive three-time-per-year release cycle allows us to deliver at a much faster rate than installed software. Plus, our technical staff handles the upgrades…not your IT department who is often slammed with other projects critical to business operations. That’s “software as a service” and we’re SaaSy about it.
What does “requires customization” mean to you?
Widen has developed some very “customized” solutions for our clients with the intent to enhance or add value to specific “digital asset management – related” processes. However, all clients have different processes and each requires unique configuration and in some cases customization to accommodate specific tasks. Again, that’s the beauty of working with a software as a service provider who has experience across a multitude of industries – through years of development, Widen has dramatically increased what can be configured “out of the box”, vs. what needs to be customized. When you’re considering a solution, ask the vendor if your request requires customization or configuration and the answer you get should be a good indicator of the depth and maturity of the product. Oftentimes, you’ll find the greater the history and maturity of the software the greater the configurability.
Here are a few typical considerations of areas that are configurable for each client within the current functionality of Widen software. All of these questions are flushed out during the Site Survey stage of implementation with our technical communications team.
A. Site Skinning – How do want your site to look? What logos, color schemes and other graphical elements are to be used in order to meet branding expectations? Do you want your site to match a current website, intranet portal or other system? Will there me multiple skins to accommodate multiple divisions or brands?
B. Metadata – How will you catalog your assets? What is your existing metadata structure? What is your ideal metadata structure? Will you have different sets of metadata fields for different assets? Will you need to share and exchange metadata with other systems?
C. Media Processing – What conversion formats are to be applied for graphics, audio and video assets? For these types of media, we generally store one master hi-resolution or hi-definition file and convert / transcode on-demand to other output types.
D. Asset Security – How will you handle rights management? How are your users to be notified of expired assets? How will you ensure compliance?
E. Access Controls via Roles & Permissions – Who gets to see and interact with which assets and features? Will there be multiple levels of access and control? Will there be specific workflow cases for admin approval?
These are just a handful of questions that are asked when determining how your site is configured. When it comes time for you to select a software vendor, we’re always happy to discuss best practices.
Widen is featured in the February 2008 Henry Stewart newsletter for being recognized by Frost & Sullivan for strategies in place regarding digital asset management software as a service. Frost & Sullivan’s global analysis promoted Widen to a market leadership contender from emerging player. Widen DAM as SaaS technologies will be on display at the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management & Workflow Automation industry event in New York, May 12 & 13, 2008. Other top stories in this month’s newsletter include “The Fifth Wave of DAM” by Micheal Moon, Marketing Operations Benchmarking Study findings by Gary Katz, and summaries from the latest Journal of Digital Asset Management.
It’s the new year and many of us have made new year’s resolutions. If you’re like me, you haven’t exactly made a resolution, but you’re committed to changing at least one thing in your life. What’s the difference, right? Last night, after I got home from playing basketball, at the club I was checking email and something triggered me to google “Top New Years Resolutions.” The top spot (http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/holidays/tp/resolutions.htm) listed these as the Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends 2. Fit in Fitness 3. Tame the Bulge 4. Quit Smoking 5. Enjoy Life More 6. Quit Drinking 7. Get Out of Debt 8. Learn Something New 9. Help Others 10. Get Organized
Naturally, a marketing guy can always find a way to relate new year’s resolutions back to our digital asset management service offering. This opportunity is just too perfect not to mention in my blog.
I could go down the list and explain how Widen’s marketing technologies and digital asset management services help those in the marketing, creative and sales work more efficiently so they can spend more time away from work, be with family & friends, leave work by 5:00 to get in the gym and have a better outlook on life. I could tell you how Widen could help you be a champion in your company to get out of debt, help others also get ahead, and help yourself / others at work (and personal life) get organized. I’m not going to tell you Widen can help you quit smoking or quit drinking (our HR Director might if you worked here), but if Widen can help you accomplish the other eight goals, I’m guessing you may have a better outlook for some of those other lifestyle changes with more time to re-focus your priorities. No, I’m not really a Doctor, so I’m not going to feed you all of that info.
I don’t need to tell you in this venue about how Widen can change you life. I’d much rather coordinate a one-on-one review of your creative / production workflow, marketing execution strategies or sales enablement processes.
If any of these goals are on your “to-do” list, then you’ve come to the right place:
Organize digital assets
Improve creative / marketing efficiency
Help sales channels sell your products
Focus on global brand consistency
What I really want to do is quickly mention our new year’s resolutions.
Before the end of last year, members of our R&D, Communications and Marketing teams met to decide on the development themes for the Widen Collective Digital Asset Management offering for the three 2008 releases. Here’s a quick snapshot of what they came up with:
Continuing expansion with video asset management and video handling technologies.
Advancing the recent beta release of the Backdrop photography routing and approval system to be one of the most feature-rich, flexible and user-friendly photography workflow solutions on the market.
Incorporating more web 2.0 concepts into our technologies to improve the user experience while helping organization retain brand control.
New innovations continuing to support marketing, creative and sales functions, while staying true to the Software as a Service model.
If you’re in creative or marketing, you know that new and potentially great ideas come all of the time, but the ones that actually make it through to your audience for good first impressions and lasting impacts are hard to come by.
If you’re like me…new marketing ideas can come at all hours of the day and in all different places. Where do they get recorded - the palm of your hand, a voicemail on your office phone or on a bar napkin?
New ideas are unpredictable and uncommon, but they’re not always unforgettable. They often get lost in the shuffle and then you’re back to recreating that great idea or coming up with new ones.
That’s why we have the cool idea box – a convenient place to keep inspiring artifacts, mementos, raw scribbles and gibberish jottings that have at one-time made us think “that’s a cool idea!” They’re inspiring little pieces of information that give us something to build on for our next campaign message or product launch.
Of all the great ideas that come to fruition in the form of usable media – photographic captures, illustrations, graphic designs, sounds bytes and video clips – where do they get recorded so they can be easily repurposed? That’s a DAM good question.
They’re likely on the designer’s hard drive or departmental network folder, but what good are they if they can’t be easily accessed. They don’t actually become digital assets if they aren’t applied to the ultimate goal of maximizing profitability or serving as a building block to your brand identity.
One of the biggest frustrations in marketing or creative is the lost time spent having to re-create usable media that once began as a great idea.
Just think of how many hours you’ve worked late trying to recover that once great idea and put it to work by recreating the digital assets adding to your message. How many people were involved? How many resources were used? Was it as good as the original?
Now, where would be a great place to keep those tangible (or digital) ideas so they can be accessed anywhere and repurposed by all stakeholders part of building the brand experience? You got it…digital asset management isn’t just for the finished media, it’s an idea box for creative and marketing people too.
Dear Dr. DAM…Is digital asset management a performance-enhancer? Yes. Would you prescribe digital asset management for a marketing organization with a widespread network of sales representatives and external selling channels? Yes again.
With all of the hoopla in the news about the Mitchell Report and the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, I thought it might be the appropriate time to talk about the side-effects of digital asset management for one particular group of end-users: the sales rep.
The sales rep (whether an internal employee or external selling channel e.g. distributor, dealer, etc.) is in the trenches, face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder with your customers. Unlike mass communication, the sales rep is the one using your digital media to give presentations, make sales calls and hold meetings directly with the people buying your product or service.
Since they are the group of people making the one-to-one contact with your customers and serve as the face to your organization, you hope, train, and provide resources to that person so they are empowered to flawlessly represent your company and your brand – right?
On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most important: How important is it that your sales reps and selling channels effectively represent your brand and your product / service according to the goals and brand standards of your organization? Who wouldn’t say 10?
On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best: How well does marketing support your sales reps and selling channels (to effectively represent your brand and your product / service according to the goals and brand standards of your organization) by providing the training, tools and resources to do so? Regardless of your score, there’s likely room for improvement.
Enter DAM. Digital Asset Management has long been a practice or solution for the publishing, broadcast and entertainment industries and until the last few years, had not been as popular with marketing organizations and brand owners. Marketing organizations and brand owners have come to realize brand is everything and the feet-on-the-street are an extension of the brand. Therefore, digital asset management has grown in popularity because organizations with widespread marketing networks and sales channels have sought out more efficient means to manage and distribute digital media than burning and shipping CDs or putting images out on the website. CDs are slow and the website is risky, in addition to a variety of other limitations.
Salespeople use presentations, images, logos, audio, video, PDF brochures and a combination of it all throughout the sales cycle. They oftentimes customize the presentations or brochures to fit the situation. They work under tight timelines and at all hours of the day…and they like to take shortcuts. They’re not afraid to take a lo-res logo off of the internet and put it in a print piece or build their own brochure to their liking. It might make you – the marketer / protector of the brand – cringe, but to a salesperson it doesn’t matter.
Your selling channels are much the same way. Your distributors, dealers, branches, franchisees, etc. all need your digital media and they need it customized for their market. They love to use your “official” product images, logos and other collateral because it helps them stand out. How well do you – the marketer – enforce your brand and what’s current to all of your selling channels further down the chain? You likely see some stuff that is quite out-dated.
According to Sirius Decisions, a market research firm, sales reps spend a large percentage of their time on preparation and administrative tasks, including redundant creation and customization of sales tools. Research from Sirius Decisions breaks it down showing that sales reps spend 21% of their time on preparation and 10% of their time on administrative activities. The other 69% of their time is spent on education (3%), account research (18%), phone calls (30%) and face to face calls (18%). A sales rep spending 30% of their time on redundant creation and customization of sales tools is an awful lot of lost time from performing actual sales activities. If you could reduce that amount of time by half, you could get that much more productivity out of your sales reps and ideally see higher closing percentages – right?
Digital asset management (in Widen’s world) is so easy a sales rep will use it. It gives sales reps and channel partners self-service anytime, anywhere access to repurpose corporate-approved digital media within the sales tools (presentations, emails and printed collateral). Digital asset management helps ensure their using the most current “assets” within branding guidelines and usage rights. Ultimately, DAM is like a drug (a good drug)… If you can get your sales reps using your digital asset management system – they’ll like it and then continue to use it because it’s the simplest and fastest way to get to your professional sales tools.
Marketing reaps the benefits of global brand consistency at a local level, while reducing their own time spent on redundant admin tasks (but I’ll save that for another post.)
Would Dr. DAM prescribe digital asset management to enhance the performance for the players in the field? I think you know the answer…
Widen looks at digital asset management as a sales enablement tool. That’s why we created the ad & brochure building application allowing sales channels to build custom printable collateral from a menu of marketing templates and content. Furthermore, we’ve brought the power of digital asset management and brochure building closer to the salesforce community by integrating with the Salesforce.com CRM platform via the Appexchange.
That’s enough from me – listen to what a few of Widen’s customers have to say…
View the clips from two of our video interviews on the topic of digital asset management and sales enablement:
A few days ago, the Widen team met with a client that needed a better way to manage video assets. This particular client had video of all shapes and sizes for use in many different types of media channels – from broadcast to web. The dirt on video asset management can be found in a different blog, but the bottom line is we’re now in a time video is on the forefront as one of the most rapidly growing media channels within marketing organizations. As we’re faced with growing amounts and types of media, the goal of centralizing these assets and making them easy to repurpose is that much more of an issue.
The Diagnosis: Lost time due to the inability to locate your digital assets greatly adds to your sunk costs and is a good signal for change.
A success here was this client had defined a quick checklist of what to look for in a digital asset management system, making it a lot easier to bring about change.
DAM Quicklist:
1. Metadata 2. Versioning 3. User registration requests 4. Transformation of assets 5. Downloading assets 6. ID / Password requirements 7. Asset sharing via email 8. Asset previews 9. Permission levels 10. Robust reporting capabilities 11. Implementation Timeline to Live – another one of the many reasons software as a service is becoming so popular.
Here’s what the Widen team came up with about 18 months ago when we supplied a list of what we define as the "Top 15 Functions of a DAM" for use in the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Digital Asset Management Markets Study.
The Definition: Top 15 Functions of a Digital Asset Management System
For more details on how Widen defines the makeup of Digital Asset Management, see: http://www.widen.com/damtop15.html. I hope this helps you define what to look for in a digital asset management system.
I’m Jake Athey. I’ve been with Widen since 2004, where I’ve spent a majority of time promoting and educating audiences about the role of digital asset management at the core of the digital media value chain. 
1. Recycle your digital assets in something new. 
“ROI takes center stage at CMO summit” was one of the headlines from the February 11 edition of the BtoB Magazine for Marketing Strategists. The author of the article, Kate Maddox, explained “Proving ROI, using new technologies and leveraging partner marketing were key topics at Red Herring's CMO 2008 conference in San Diego last week.” 
