Brand Asset Management Software

Widen is featured in the March issue of the Capital Region Business Journal, a monthly print publication of the Wisconsin State Journal.  In an article titled “Complexity of the Software Industry,” Widen along with Epic Software (medical records software and the largest software company in the state of Wisconsin) are quoted along with the inherent challenges to the software industry.

Quoted from the article, “The biggest challenge facing the software-as-a-service industry is educating the marketplace on why installing software and using internal IT (information technology) resources to manage that software is significantly more expensive than using a SaaS provider…The total cost of ownership is more manageable and the value received is greater in the SaaS model because customers are subscribing to software (typically through a web browser) and sharing in the core technology used by other organizations.”

Now, I’d like to take this opportunity to expand on how software-as-a-service keeps the complexity of software manageable.

First off, it is both timely and timeless to mention that service is king.  If a software company is to provide a useable product and expects to develop a long-term relationship with its customers, it starts and ends with the last “S” in SaaS.

Here’s the core areas in which DAM SaaS keeps the complexity manageable:

Install and Control – From the technical requirements to resource allocation for the implementation, Widen Project Management staff serve as the “head wranglers” to align appropriate resources with the goals of the project.  In marketing speak, the team of technical and project management people is what helps customers with enough other projects on their plate “get up and running” as efficiently as possible.

Next, it comes with the training of the client administrators to use the system and coordinate the ingestion of content, organization and the setup of user roles and access levels. 

The last key ingredient to a successful implementation is user adoption.  This comes in several ways, but a SaaS provider is well equipped to work with the client administrators and project managers to setup the appropriate controls, train and educate users on the functionality and purpose of the software, and is able to make it as easy as possible to promote the existence and “the big shift” of the software to all users – usually in stages – both internally and externally with channel partners and affiliates.

Live and Grow - A successful implementation is not only measured by the launch of a system but by the use. ROI is driven by USE.  What differentiates the SaaS model?  The ability to scale and adapt with and throughout the enterprise (and external partners) while being nimble enough to accommodate growth and a changing business climate with resources guided by a company whose core competency is the creation, management, and distribution of digital content.  Internal IT resources remain dedicated to maintaining the business operations, while a SaaS provider is there (sometimes when internal IT is not) to assist in adding more infrastructure or provide more service.  What happens when you have a question?  You want to be able to get an answer, right.  A SaaS provider dedicates trained people to both staff a help desk and consult with the client on ways of making it work – usually supplying more than one right answer.

Be Real & Work - A SaaS provider is not a software company that hires a bunch of software developers to live on an island and write code.  A SaaS provider is equipped with several teams who are responsible in meeting with clients, interpreting their needs, delivering solutions that really work, and being able to quickly change the solutions as needs change.  This is where Widen typically has a heads up.  We’re not just a software company.  Widen is a developer and a user of our own technologies. 

What’s more, we are part of a process – as a whole – for and with our customers.  We serve to aid in the creation, management, and distribution of digital media.  Not all of that is achieved with automation, some of it comes with skilled labor – the color production stuff that represents how your products and brand looks and represents itself in the marketplace.  As a part of the process for our customers, we understand the importance of speed to market, increased quality, and reduced costs when it comes to creative workflows and marketing execution.  As a part of that process, Widen understands how the advancement of marketing operations and brand management drives top line business growth by maximizing market penetration and brand value.  In that process, our solutions and methods must work and must co-align with the goals of our customers in order to succeed. 

What’s the key to all of this complexity?  The short answer: make it manageable.  How? Choose your strategic business partners wisely. More to come… 

DAM = Digital Alligator Management

Let's say you build a big red barn. It's huge. Like the size of the Superdome. And instead of cows, you fill that barn up with alligators. Big ones. With big teeth. They are all over the place, just running free. Now, it is your job to maintain that barn. In addition to knowing the ins and outs of barn maintenance, don't you think you should know something about how to handle all those alligators inside so you don't lose a limb each time you go inside? You should know how to organize them in cages, how to feed them, care for them if they get sick, and how to handle them with the proper equipment. You need to know how to speak their language. Hey, alligators just need a little love.

That scenario is a little like some digital asset management companies that want to sell you some off the shelf software (the barn), but they really don't have any experience with the assets (the alligators) that are contained in their systems.

UPS says "What can BROWN do for you?" To play off that theme, I'll ask, "What can RED do for you?" (Widen's logo is red. But you knew that already.) So what can Widen do for you? Well, to put it simply... We know all about alligators. We've been raising alligators for over 60 years. Okay, enough about alligators already.
 

                                             
What can RED do for you?

What should your digital asset management provider know? They should know about your digital assets. They should be experts in digital photography and photo composition. They should be intimate with color management and color conversion methods. They should know how to construct a solution that is built with assets that can be repurposed for different media. They should live with Photoshop jockeys that know all about color retouching and image manipulation. They should have intimate knowledge of rich media and video asset management. They should possess a broad range of prepress and premedia services. They should breathe digital asset optimization. They should live digital asset workflow management. They should be all about catalog production services. Your digital asset management solutions provider should know how you work with those digital assets because they have been doing just that since the Truman administration!  (Well, okay the assets were analog back then, not digital. But you get the idea.)

So it's not just DAM software as a service that Widen knows. Or brand management. We know that very well. But we also know content creation, production, photography illumination, manipulation, alteration, rasterization, conversion, color reproduction, composition, pagination, resolution and optimization. We understand how important your digital assets are to you because we live with them everyday.

Okay, I have to take off my sales and marketing hat and put on my Alligator wrestling boots and big kevlar gloves. it's time to feed the little digital assets. They grow up so fast, don't they?  

Mark

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Fred, the owner of an international paint supplier based in the Caribbean and considering how a digital media system can help us out with our marketing operations.  Here’s our situation… We have many digital assets - photos, logos, graphics, Illustrator type files and other promotional materials scattered across multiple locations.  My pain is that we have assets in multiple locations for six different brands and we’re losing control.  Let me re-phrase that… We’ve lost control.  Our brand managers can’t even keep track of what assets belong to what brand, let alone our thousands of channel partners trying to access and use our assets accordingly.  It’s my goal to pull everything into one central repository for our marketing teams and distribution channels to have self serve access to download approved assets.  I don’t need much, just the ability to centralize, access and share globally.  Global image distribution is all I want.  That’s not asking too much is it?

DEAR ONE DAM FRED:  Problem solved.  Check out Widen’s demos and you’re cured.  Just kidding, there’s a bit more to it, but it’s not that complex.  I understand that a small department dealing with a large number of assets can often be overwhelmed by change in workflow and tools.  No fear, however, as change is good.  Embrace the technology and look to Widen as a service provider to help you leverage that technology investment for real business results – starting with increased efficiency internally where your team can spend less time chasing and more time producing.  A DAM system will help you keep track of everything and empower your channel partners to use your assets consistently for all brands. 

10 Years of Technicolor Training

The annual PIA (Apparently "PIA/GATF" was too many letters to remember, so they dropped four of them) Color Management Conference wrapped up last month in Phoenix, Arizona.

The conference celebrated it's 10th anniversary this year. Ah, memories... I was there when the first conference kicked off back on December 5, 1999. It was held at the Tampa Airport Marriott hotel where about 120 printers, prepress/premedia professionals, photographers, consultants, brand mangers, and vendors got together to discuss color management issues. The conference has seen steady growth over the last ten years as more people were confronted with color management issues.

Although most attendees were from the US or Canada, people from countries as far away as Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Germany, and the UK were among the more than 400 in attendance during the four day event. The conference was again held at the beautiful Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs resort on the north side of Phoenix.

A group of attendees from the very first Color Managent Conference in 1999 gather around a cake commemorating the anniversary. Among those joining me for the photo are: Dave Hunter - Pilot Marketing, Michael Makin - President and CEO - PIA, Eric Neumann - PIA, Don Hutcheson - Hutch Color LLC (sporting a beard!), Larry Warter - Fujifilm Graphic Systems, John Sweeney - IQ Color, Inc., Dan Caldwell - ICS, Inc., Steve Upton - CHROMiX, Inc., Gwen Martin - PIA, Arjen Van Der Meullen - Kodak GCG, and William Li - Kodak GCG

The conference this year featured two very solid keynote sessions. Duncan Berry from Applied Iconography addressed color perception as it related to global corporate brand management. He discussed how consumers perceive color and relate to different brands in a cluttered marketplace using the emotional power of color in packaging, advertising, design and innovation. Noted photographer Steven Johnson headlined another keynote session, where he discussed his extensive, pioneering work in digital imaging and photography. He discussed color management's application to digital photography. His work has been exhibited, published and collected in Europe, the US, and Japan. 

I will be covering these keynote presentations in more detail as well as several other noteworthy sessions in upcoming blogs. So check back to The Color Space in the coming weeks for regular notes from the 2008 PIA Color Management Conference. 

Mark

"Brand Control" video interview with Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager of InSinkErator, Division of Emerson Electric Co.

Selling any type of product, you want to make sure you are selling what people see and want.  If I was to look in a magazine or a brochure, I would want exactly what I see in the photo.  That is where Widen comes in to place.  If you want brand consistency on a global scale, Widen digital asset management solutions and services make that happen for top brands around the world.  You would be able to have everyone across the globe using the same high quality image for all of your brochures.  If not the same image, it would be a high quality one most representative of the market where it's used.  We make it easy to control market differences for more effective brand asset management.

Co-authors of the CMS Watch Digital & Media Asset Management Report, Theresa Regli and Kas Thomas, recently provided a great article to AIIM (The Enterprise Content Management Association) Infonomics, which helps technology professionals and business leaders alike understand the main differences between digital asset management (DAM) and web content management (WCM) systems. Additionally, the article defines several use cases for needing a DAM system. 

Here’s a summary of the article. 

Some confusion between DAM / WCM stems from WCM and enterprise content management (ECM) vendors promoting their products as DAM tools.  The truth is that most WCM vendors only offer a generic repository for binary files.  For those dealing with large amounts of rich media (images, audio/video, etc.), DAM tools are much more specialized to fit. 

In DAM, a piece of content becomes an asset when it’s been classified, indexed, versioned, secured, stored, reformatted, etc.  Digital assets are only valuable if they can be found and reused.  The key to search-ability is metadata.  Metadata is either automatically extracted (XMP, for example) or manually associated to assets. 

Established DAM vendors tend to be older than most WCM vendors.  Plus, DAM vendors have a broader understanding of the demands for scalability, storage and bandwidth in managing content.  DAM systems store files in a file system and the associated metadata is stored in a relational database.  Most WCM solutions (and light weight ECM tools, like SharePoint) store all content in a database, which generally doesn’t work for large rich media files.  According to the CMS Watch findings, metadata matters most in DAM more than any other content management technology.  Another unique feature offered by digital asset solutions not found in WCM solutions includes transforming and transcoding.  For example, converting a Windows Media File to a QuickTime or Flash Video file on the fly.  (The same goes for images.)  Other key features to DAM solutions include versioning, access controls via roles and permissions, navigation/search, review/collaboration and defining relationships between assets. 

Adopters of DAM systems include companies in manufacturing, retail, hospitality, consumer products, national/global brands, ad agencies and broadcasting. 

A few of the DAM system use cases listed in the article include:

• DAM Library or Photo Archive
• Brand Management
• Marketing Asset Production and Distribution
• Ad Production
• Catalog Production
• Short Form Video Production
• Broadcast Video Production

A complete list of common scenarios can be found in the CMS Watch Digital & Media Asset Management Report

I caught a great article for search marketers the other day titled The Search Visibility Plan, Not Your Average SEO Campaign, by Will Fleiss.  The article builds a case for digital asset management solutions to help search marketers leverage rich media content for blended search.  No marketer can ignore the power that search has in our daily lives.  Furthermore, no marketer can ignore the growing adoption and hunger for images and videos by online content consumers.  Fleiss maintains that having searchable content in different mediums distributed to your customer’s virtual hangouts and resources will become more important. 

Digital asset optimization is the term for leveraging rich media and its associated metadata for blended search.  The article gets into defining and constructing a Search Visibility Plan, which is the umbrella strategy for all online efforts from the standpoint of search.  For any piece of content that is found in search, you benefit from the visibility.  Fleiss explains that DAM should be considered a sizable chunk of your Search Visibility Plan because it allows the distribution of content to run smoothly.  More specifically, when digital assets are well organized and easy to find, they can be distributed and used more effectively in online channels.  What’s more, a DAM system helps marketers ensure that the digital assets are used by only those who have permission and are used within the rights and release dates set for those assets. 

DAM serves as a necessity for brand management and control for an organization’s brand assets.  Digital asset embed links are one way Widen is making it easy for marketers to leverage rich media in online mediums while at the same time making it easy to control rights and release / expiration dates.  Fleiss’ article ends with guidelines on creating a Search Visibility Plan, which includes these main topics:

1. Keyword Strategy
2. Search Engine Optimization
3. Mediums
4. Distribution Channels
5. Distribution Courses of Action
6. Measurement

View the Full Article and Template for Search Visibility

We recently interviewed Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at InSinkErator.  There are six segments to his video, but I was truly impressed with one comment that he made about their brand recognition and brand asset management systems and processes.

Jim showed me their recently completed Brand Guidelines document which was a very detailed description of exactly how they want their brand portrayed globally.  Innovation was a key part of their branding.  Jim made the statement that not only does InSinkErator strive to have the most innovative products, but they also strive to have the most innovative methods of marketing those products.  He specifically calls out Digital Asset Management as the answer.  Not only does DAM software help with digital media management and marketing personnel efficiencies, the use of it as a technology also becomes part of your brand.  If innovation and efficiency are part of your branding guidelines, it just makes sense to use DAM as the delivery method for your brand assets.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My team calls me Kramer and I’m with a marketing agency providing communications and branding services to B2B companies.  We’re in search of a digital media and brand asset management software solution to help manage clients’ photos, logos, videos, flash objects and other brand assets.  We prefer to have an on-demand/hosted DAM solution because it is not a core competency for us and would rather leave it up to the experts to manage all the hardware, implementation and support.  Also, I envision that we’ll pass most of the cost onto our clients for their asset downloads.  It’s something that will help us be more organized internally and automate a number of processes for fulfilling client requests.  I’m sure it will help us improve client communication and collaboration on projects.  We’re also interested in a collateral customization tool that would allow our clients to customize the marketing materials we create for them such as ads and brochures.  This would allow us to provide our client’s sales channels with the ability to personalize marketing pieces with simple modifications while we can control the messaging.  We work well with the marketing departments of our clients to get the master templates ready to go, but by the time they need to provide these branded materials to their sales channels, they almost always go off and create their own pieces that are more relevant and timely for their sales calls although the brand consistency element is usually NOT left in tact.  Our clients’ sales channels need to be able to upload their logos and add contact information to localize the promotional collateral for their market for simple co-branding controlled by our agency and client marketing administrators.  Please help us keep this simple and within reach.  With the difficult times and all, we got to do something to help our agency and clients save money.  Its the holiday shopping season and my daughters need new snow boots.

DEAR CREATIVE SOFTWARE KRAMER:  I can empathize with your situation.  You’re not alone; however I applaud you for wanting to be a hero for your agency and for your clients by trying to do something now.  You’ll be delighted to hear about Widen’s flexible agency billing options for digital asset management solutions.  Plus, with their rapid implementation schedule, you can still be up and running before the New Year.  The multiple branded user interface options will accommodate multiple clients with what looks like their own branded portal and “customer-ized” URL.  Plus, Widen will provide all the user and administrator training and ongoing help desk support.  No doubt, more efficient creative software technology will help you secure existing client relationships.  A smart DAM software implementation and internal automation will be a difference-maker for your agency in difficult economic times because your people will be able to concentrate on more creative and mission critical tasks.  As for the dynamic media building application, Widen's Communications team will provide you with training on how to create and administer the promotional templates.  Your staff won’t be bugged by repetitive, miniscule changes and you’ll still be able to empower your clients with brand approved marketing content.  The media builder allows for unlimited printable template options, so you have more opportunity for creative projects.  Hence, your team has more opportunity for larger billable projects.  The marketing software will help add value in addition to serving as an automated billing platform to giving clients the web-based access they’re already demanding of their assets.  The low total cost of ownership with a Widen DAM SaaS solution without any capital expenditures and an easy-to-budget for low monthly fee will keep you warm and cheery through the holiday season.  Cheers!

Sometimes, you’ve got the ‘hot’ product.  Cabbage Patch Dolls.  Tickle Me Elmo.  Wii.  What’s hot right now at Widen?  Marketing Template Creation for Salesforce.com is our HOT application right now.  Clients love the ability to customize brochures, ads, and sell sheets within their Salesforce.com CRM application. 

With only a couple clicks, you can customize flyers for your reps, distributors, and retailers – all those people who request custom promotional materials on a regular basis.  You’ll control your brand messaging and no worries about someone using outdated logos and images!  What easy way to add brand asset management software to your daily workflow!

Not only that, but if you have our Digital Media Organizer (our digital asset management integration with Salesforce.com) which works in tandem with Marketing Template Creation - you can manage all of your digital media (images, logos, audio/video, pdfs, word docs) and send them out to specific contacts all while staying within Salesforce.  You can also tag digital files to specific Campaigns and Opportunities which helps keep things organized! 

At Widen, we see our integration with Salesforce (both Marketing Template Creation and Digital Media Organizer) as the convergence of two best-in-class on-demand solutions for people in sales and marketing.  What more could you add to your holiday wish list?  Santa?  Are you listening?

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Want to see how it works?  Take a look at this super short DEMO (2+ minutes) for a step by step overview of Marketing Template Creation.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name is Howard and I work for a creative agency with about 50 employees.  Even though we are small, we have national and international clients.  Right now we have no formal creative software or efficient way to manage and share all of our client’s project files.  We do a good job of keeping digital assets separated by client, but we struggle to provide an easy way to collaborate and send files back and forth.  On top of that, one of our clients has been doing a lot of photo shoots around the world for an upcoming product release.  It would be nice for our creative directors and account managers to review the photography and be able to streamline the creative processes by speeding up and centralizing the file uploads and photography reviews.  Currently they are putting them on DVD’s and mailing those back to us so we can take those images and put them on our servers.  It’s not much of a 2009 type of system because it’s a very manual process.  There’s got to be a way to automate some things.  I’m hopeful you can help me find a solution and help our agency be more efficient in our processes, which will help us secure existing client relationships and differentiate ourselves enough to attract new clients. 
 
DEAR HOPEFUL HOWARD:  Having national and international clients, you really do need a more formal and efficient brand asset management software system.  An on-demand solution will give you a centralized location to organize and manage these files and be easy for clients to use worldwide.  Your clients will be able to browse and download their own files without having to bother you every time they need an asset for a brochure or web page.  As for your client conducting photo shoots around the globe, Backdrop brings the shoot to you and everyone else who needs remote photography review and approval abilities.  Backdrop, a rather new photo asset management software system, will make a great front-end to your DAM system by helping to streamline time-consuming collaboration processes.  Widen’s project collaboration system will also assist with tight timelines in sending document files back and forth and holding people accountable before the files become available as final assets.  Can I ask if you’re doing much with video these days?  If you’re not already, I’m guessing you will be soon… Widen digital asset solutions can easily scale to meet the high storage and bandwidth demands for video management and a feature set that is quite accommodating for broadcast and web quality video.  Say goodbye to the hassle of messing with DVD’s and high shipping costs.  The Widen on-demand DAM solution sounds like it is a perfect match for your agency.  Good Luck Howard!

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Trent, a marketing director for a manufacturer of top-of-the-line tactical apparel and uniforms.  You know that Sprint commercial with the fire fighters and the walkie-talkies…I’ m going to keep it simple like that and limit the bull.  First, I need help storing all of our files in one central location.  Next, we like the ability to control templates that would be used by our business partners and sales channels.  We want dealers to enter a brand asset management software system through our dealer portals and allow them to customize templates, or grab images and logos for promotional use.  This talk about digital asset embed links looks like an important component, along with single sign-on user authentication and robust video asset handling capabilities.  We use Salesforce.com, so we’ll take the Widen integration for DAM and media builder seriously.  So, I don’t really have any more questions for you, as I think you realize I know what we need.  Can I just get your blessing that this is a sound business decision?

DEAR NO BULL TACTICS TRENT:  I like your style.  Are you sure you don’t want to balance the budget or get clean water too?  You have a good handle on your digital asset management needs.  Widen is said by the analysts to be a down-to-earth DAM SaaS provider.  They’re a good choice to give you technology and service, without any bull – what you see is what you get.  You’d be a good speaker at a DAM conference with attitude and drive like that!

DEAR DR. DAM:  I want a hosted digital asset management solution and I want it now.  Sorry, for my candid nature, but I’m Raymundo, the web marketing manager for a mid-size sporting goods manufacturer.  We don’t have an I.T. department that can support such a system, nor can they fully support our marketing efforts.  Our digital files are stored in multiple locations within a file folder structure with no associated metadata.  Our users will require something that is easy to use (i.e. functionally fit) as they will not put up with a system loaded with confusion.  My main focus needs to offer global access to our assets, while enforcing brand consistency.  With that said, varying roles and appropriate permissions are key.  For our retailers and print partners, we’re building an online digital asset management warehouse to download approved files for their advertising, and also to use as an FTP for printers doing outsourced work on our catalogs.  We’ve recognized that there are many types of DAM systems—ranging from light, medium, and heavy.  We do one catalog per year per brand and have a handful of brands under the chief brand.  We have a few dozen sales and marketing people on our staff serving a couple hundred dealers. 

The FTP site does not work well for dealers and we’re doing away with the dealer extranet.  Since we’re revamping our web site, we want to replace the dealer extranet with a hosted DAM solution that will also replace the FTP site.  Some dealers have their own catalogs so once a year they will do a complete download of the entire product line.  Therefore, we obviously have a decent amount of volume when it comes to usage.  We also have a few different printers and advertising agencies, so the DAM system would serve as hub for all levels.  Our file types include product and lifestyle photography, PDF fact sheets, word docs and spreadsheets.  We have some templates for dealer promotions so a web-to-print type of collateral customization tool would be helpful in streamlining the creation of branded materials.  We need our DAM system in place before we launch the new website. 

DEAR BAM HUB RAYMUNDO:  You are facing quite an endeavor.  Your situation sounds complicated, but it’s a pretty average situation for many marketers your size and a mid-sized brand asset management software solution that can scale to meet your needs is well within reach.  You’ll be able to condense your need for different internal resources by doing away with the hard drive storage and FTP usage.  Your DAM system will serve as the graphic communications hub for internal marketing and sales, advertising agencies, printers and your dealer network.  Establishing metadata taxonomies and adhering to those standards will be imperative to the success of the system.  Widen can help you with that by sharing best practices in what others have done from the Widen user community.  Your marketing people should like what the dynamic media building tool can do for your dealers by allowing them to customize ads, brochures and other promotional sales collateral within branding standards.  Hang in there… Widen will help you move along quickly, but in manageable chunks.

If you were in attendance last week at the Henry Stewart Business Briefing on Digital Asset Management in Chicago, Widen thanks you for taking the time to learn more about the challenges, opportunities, problems and solutions with DAM.  We hope you found the event to be very helpful in your quest for a digital asset management solution implementation or expansion.  If you were unable to attend, we extend the invitation to learn more from the presentations archive.



The even featured several keynote speakers and case studies, including:

• An Introduction and “How To” from Michael Moon, President&CEO of Gistics
• Benefits and ROIs from Mary Yurkovic of Playboy
• Evaluating and Selecting DAM Technologies from Tony Byrne of CMS Watch
• Digital Asset Management Deployments from Frank Chagoya of Leo Burnett
• Critical Importance of Metadata from Philip Spiegel of National Geographic
• Common and Less Common Problems and Solutions from Doug Rammel of Synapse Operational Systems and Solutions, formerly of The adidas Group

Widen’s participation included a vendor presentation by Matthew Gonnering, VP of Sales and Marketing title “The Repurposing Department of Repurposing,” covering:

• The epicenter of all digital media no matter where it is used
• One true central source of digital media linked up to the world with the concept of “one internet, one file” via digital asset embed links
• Publishing images and video without straining internal infrastructure
• The matrimony of DAM and web content management
• How SaaS providers enable scalability on-demand

A customer of Widen, Jim Scarlata of Knaack LLC, Division of Emerson Electric Company, presented a case study titled “Extending the Brand Experience through DAM,” covering:

• How brand asset management software helped Knaack marketing implement and launch the new system enterprise-wide quickly and seamlessly
• Using DAM as a Platform Technology, Not Just an Application
• Brand Consistency on a Global Scale
• Building Equity in Brand Centralization

Contact marketing@widen.com for full access to the presentations from Doug Rammel, Matthew Gonnering and Jim Scarlata.  Video segments of the Widen presentations coming soon.  View the full presentation archive from Henry Stewart at http://www.damusers.com. 

Are you planning on attending the premier briefing and networking event in digital media management and marketing operations? 

Make sure to stop by the Widen booth #117 to catch the latest in DAM SaaS technology featuring an interactive presentation of the new digital asset Embed Links.  

The event features over 75 talks, case studies, panel sessions and interactive presentations. 

Sponsored by Henry Stewart, the event is for everyone involved in production, use or management of rich media and covers:

Digital Entertainment and New Media • Film Production • Exploiting Multimedia Platforms • Brand Management • Marketing (and Advertising) • Digital Rights Management • Ensuring Security • Optimizing Creative Workflows and Empowering Supply Chains • Metadata and Taxonomy Solutions • Latest Developments in Search Strategies • Structuring the Architecture of Systems for Maximum Performance

This is an event that will deliver exactly what it promises – briefings on all the important issues supported by case studies of real world performance.  Digital content management for increased revenue, profits and shareholder value.  Digital asset solutions for cost reduction, more effective marketing, brand management and new product development.

View the Full Program Details

Register Here

Contact Widen to receive $100 off the rate card price.

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Kate and I work for an interactive agency that does email marketing, websites and print collateral for a number of clients.  We have a situation with one particular client in which sales and marketing do not get along.  It’s really pretty silly… the independent salespeople don’t like and don’t use the print collateral that the corporate marketing department creates for them.  The independent salespeople need something more personalized for their customers.  Given the time-sensitive nature of their business, salespeople oftentimes end up whipping up their own sell sheets and brochures.  Of course the marketing team cringes when this happens because the business branding is inconsistent.  Since they are not all part of the same corporate head, it’s difficult to enforce.  If you can help me help my client’s sales and marketing people get along I would be very happy. 

DEAR 'CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG' KATE:  You need to check out Widen’s brand asset management solution – Media Builder, which will help you build your client relationship by helping marketing help sales.  How it works is the marketing department creates templates with certain static content such as your logo and corporate branding.  Marketing provides a library of official product imagery and associated textual content.  They have options to the degree of freedom they want to give salespeople to customize the piece – headlines, main messages, etc.  Each salesperson can build their own brochures on-demand by selecting which products their clients want to see, and then add their contact information.  Sales will be able to customize their collateral for the customer and marketing will be able to protect the brand recognition.  Best of all, you’ll look like a hero for presenting such a solution.  People helping people… it’s a powerful thing.

You wouldn’t be the first to tell us at Widen Enterprises that your sales channels drive you crazy with requests for custom promotional material.  Reps want sales flyers.  Distributors want product sell sheets.  Retailers call for custom brochures.  And many want the same thing with minor tweaking.  Often times you have the feeling that you are re-creating the same material over and over again.  Sound familiar? 

Widen’s Media Collective is not only a digital asset management application but also includes Dynamic Media Builder.  This web-based (Software as a Service) brand asset management software allows your sales channels to create their own localized promotional materials from a menu of brand approved content.  You select what they can or cannot change in a template – and they can log-in and build custom brochures, ads, and other marketing material for use in presentations, web sites, and print media.  By letting your sales channels help themselves with this type of digital asset management solution – your organization controls brand and image management.  And not only that – your life becomes easier!

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m the director of marketing for a very small department for an industrial products manufacturer.  We actually just purchased another company to add more products to our line.  With that, we’ve added new distribution channels, which mean more work for my department with the same amount of staff. 

My office is responsible for all the copy writing, brochure layouts, web design, direct marketing, media placement and trade shows.  We have a couple creative people including myself.  I know we’re small, but we’re still producing a tremendous amount of digital assets, which are stored at a variety of local hard drives.  With my time at a premium, our process of digital media management is very time-consuming.  Since there is no centralized system, redundant work has become a big issue. 
 
DEAR SMALL DEPT BIG DAM DENISE:  Small marketing teams still need a marketing asset management system.  I’m not surprised you are creating a tremendous amount of marketing assets and the problem of marketing asset management has spun out of control.  Naturally, smaller-sized implementations lend themselves to hosted digital asset management solutions.  Widen’s pricing model will suit your needs, plus the system is flexible enough to scale as you grow.  Somewhere down the line, you’ll also enjoy the brand asset management benefits by supplying distributors with self-serve access and collateral customization.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name’s Hank and I work as the web marketing manager for a recreational sporting goods manufacturer.  I’m looking for a DAM system and collateral builder.  We have a budget for this sort of tool and hope to have something in place and fully functional for the new year.  We don’t have much of an I.T. department and limited resources to support marketing software, so we’re looking for a hosted digital asset management solution that offers global access, is easy to use and has the ability to restrict the level of user access.  Like most marketing people, consistency in our business branding carried across all of our customer touch points is very important.  Our creative and marketing teams use Adobe CS3 products for our work in process assets, in addition to PDFs, MS Word and Excel documents.  Our storage requirements are in the 200GB range and growing, especially since we hope to add video in the near future.  Our dealers currently use word docs as templates for ads and brochure and some sort of collateral customization feature would be a big help to automatically control brand consistency throughout our dealer network.  We currently have assets stored in multiple locations with a file folder structure and have no associated metadata.  Our FTP site does not work well for dealers and we’re doing away with the dealer extranet for a new solution.

A DAM system would help us collaboratively with our retailers and print partners, serving as a media warehouse to download approved files for advertising, as well as to use as a replacement to the FTP site for printers doing our few different catalogs.  We have seven different brands under the corporate brand.  We have 500 employees, 30 of which in sales and marketing.  We have 300 different dealers and some have their own catalogs.  We work with multiple printers and advertising agencies.  I just started looking for DAMs and I have not drilled down very far into any one product, but have recognized that there are DAM solutions ranging from light, medium and heavy.  What do you suggest?

DEAR HOSTED DAM HANK:  I think you know who I will recommend.  Widen can offer you a top of the line DAM SaaS solution that will make for a good medium-sized marketing asset management system with strong brand asset management appeal.  Widen’s hosted DAM solutions are competitively priced to suit and will scale as you grow.  Your dealers, printer and agency partners will all enjoy the ease of use.  Your dealers will especially enjoy to the ability to build professional quality ads with just simple point-and-click functions.  Plus, you’ll have the peace of mind of building brand recognition within your guidelines.  Best of all, Widen will have you up and running in 30 days – well trained full steam ahead for the new year!