Widen will be sponsoring and exhibiting at the Henry Stewart Business Briefing on Digital Asset Management on Monday, October 27, 2008 at the Avenue Hotel in Chicago.  Henry Stewart Events cover Digital Asset Management, Marketing Resource Management, and Best Practices in Marketing Operations.  The comprehensive one-day briefing will cover the challenges, opportunities, problems and solutions with digital media management.

See below for the full conference program or learn more at www.damusers.com.

Conference Chair:  Michael Moon, President & CEO, GISTICS

What is DAM – introduction, latest developments, how to get started and how to upgrade

• What is it?
• Who needs it?
• DAM for improved efficiency
• DAM for consistency, e.g. specification and billing
• DAM for better marketing
• DAM for generating new products

Michael Moon, President & CEO, GISTICS

Benefit analysis, ROIs, implications for the bottom line and the construction of an internal business case for implementation and improvement

• Evaluating costs and risks of an enterprise wide asset management solution
• Identifying harvestable benefits: short term and long term
• Strategy from the organizational level to the individual perspective
• Using statistical methods for ROI analysis and forecasting the future

Mary Yurkovic, Manager DAM and Distribution, Playboy Enterprises, Inc

Evaluating and Selecting DAM Technologies

• Fundamentals of DAM technology
• How to categorize the DAM/Media Asset Management marketplace
• Rough cost estimates for different types of projects
• Selecting the right offering to meet the identified business objective
• Typical pitfalls in tool selection and implementation, and how to avoid them

Tony Byrne, Founder, CMS Watch

The Management Challenges In Installation and Operation

• Golden rules to ensure an implementation goes right
• The pieces that need to be in place
• Getting your vendors to work with you
• Managing inevitable changes

Linda Burman, CEO, L.A. Burman Associates

Understanding the critical importance of metadata and adopting a metadata approach suitable for your organization and its activities

• Why metadata is so critical to effective Digital Asset Management
• Taxonomies, metadata and search – combining components to improve findability of content
• Making the punishment fit the crime – how much metadata is enough?
• Who does what? – developing a workable governance policy around development, maintenance and application of metadata

Seth Earley, Principal, Earley & Associates

Case studies – who has done what, how and with what results?

Case Study: Extending the Brand Experience through DAM

• The digital asset management software helped Knaack marketing implement and launch the new system enterprise-wide quickly and seamlessly.
• The web-based DAM system was integrated with the Knaack Partner Gateway allowing channel partners to access images, videos and PDF files in a variety of formats from the same single sign-on portal they use to access other Knaack Resources.
• The Big Achievement: Knaack’s digital media is stored in one location, eliminating redundant and outdated libraries. More importantly, Knaack’s assets are repurposed across multiple interactive media channels to extend the brand experience from corporate marketing to channel partners.

Jim Scarlata, Director of Marketing Operation, Knaack LLC, Division of Emerson Electric Company

Case Study from General Motors

• Designed, implemented and managed a process to streamline the digital asset creation, storage and distribution process in the area of Advertising & Marketing for General Motors Corporation.
• Worked with Marketing Teams at GM, their Ad agencies and Production houses to understand their workflows and create a Digital Asset Management process that improves their workfows. Also, identified redundant systems and migrated those to a common global platform
• All GM brands are now using one common global system to store, share and collaborate advertising assets across the world. This has resulted in multi-million dollars in cost savings and also driven significant efficiencies.

Manish Mallick, Program Manager, Asset Manager, General Motors Corporate

Case Study from Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon deployed its Digital Asset Management system to centrally archive artwork created to support consumer product initiatives for Nickelodeon Shows such as Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants. A B2B, rights-managed website, Nicksource.com, was developed in tandem as a means of delivering content to licensing partners, lowering printing/shipping costs and expediting delivery to developing markets. Over time the archive has grown to over 200,000 files and the B2B site has become a globally accessed central hub for creative content. In addition to all internal lines of business (On air, On line, off air design teams, marketing, advertising, press, publications and all international offices) 3,000 users access Nicksource to download 2,000 files a day on average. More recently the Nickelodeon DAM system has been used as a central screening point for viewing QuickTime files of on air promos, reviewing and routing digital photography and serving as a repository for audio, mechanical and Aftereffects files.

Our main challenges:

• An ever growing amount of content that is regularly being revised, updated and retired.
• Limiting content by contract rights, region and timing which coincides with broadcast.
• Global delivery of large amounts of content in a simple, visual manner as quickly as possible and routing artwork simultaneously to offices throughout the world
• Distributing exclusive artwork to select partners.
• Dealing with large, difficult and complex file sizes.
• Routing artwork simultaneously to global offices.
• Receiving content.

Opportunities our DAM System Presents:

• Ability to create active user and work groups for particular pods of creative.
• Ability to track download history
• Targeted delivery of cataloged assets.
• Cataloging of an enormous body of character art
• Ability to deal with assets in multiple formats: Quark, InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Quicktime, Audio and others

Miles Rohan, Senior Digital Asset Manager, Nickelodeon

It’s not very often that I get to talk about how I use our digital asset management system, but I just had the perfect use case that I wanted to share.  I’m going to the ExactTarget Connections user conference for email marketers again this year –  in September in Indy and they have a pretty sensational program lineup (if I may plug for ExactTarget).  Anyways, I just got a call from one of their marketing people asking us for a hi-res logo for the opening presentation and I quickly fulfilled the request… it was easy.  In fact, this particular marketing person replied “What quick turnaround time!”  How quick?... less than 30 seconds.  How’d I do that?...

Here’s the process I went through using our own asset management software:

Instead of sifting through the shared folder on the network, I have our corporate image library set as a favorite in my web-browser.  My “Remember me” settings on the login page got me in instantly and a quick search for “widen logo” presented me with our three logo options.  I clicked on the cart icon next to our standard ‘grey text with burnt red circle w’ logo which got me started with the checkout wizard.  All I had to do was enter the name and email address for the ExactTarget marketing person and then select which file formats I wanted to provide.  The request was for a hi-res logo, but I wasn’t sure on the specifics so I gave a few options – a 300 dpi RGB JPEG, a 300 dpi CMYK TIFF, 300 dpi CMYK EPS, and even a 72 dpi RGB PNG with no background to save this person the hassle of having to do any conversions.  My favorite part of this whole thing was that I was able to customize the send order with my own subject line and message so my ExactTarget recipient knew exactly what she was getting without me having to take the two extra minutes to craft an additional confirmation email saying “It’s on the way.”

Pretty fast huh… I even have the intelligence to know when my recipient picks up the order and what format is actually used.  Not only fast, but smart!

DEAR DR. DAM: My name is Betty and I'm the MarComm manager of a kitchen & bath fixture manufacturer. We have a section on our website for dealers to get lo-res images and marketing materials. It seems to be working ok--anything's better than what we had before. But, I want to know what else is out there that would let me to get sales collateral and hi-res images into the hands of our dealers and press contacts. And, it would be nice to see who's actually using our materials.

DEAR BETTER SYSTEM BETTY: You bring up a very good topic. Posting images and materials on your website can be very limiting in terms of types and number of files, delivery, updates, and tracking. It can be very frustrating when you must manage multiple file formats of the same file, especially when your webmaster or IT department does not update the website with the changes. You lack the ability to generate usage reports or set restrictions on access privileges. While posting images on your website is a great first step, I recommend looking into Widen's Digital Asset Management solution for your corporate image library. The single largest reason to consider a change is that your system is incapable of adapting and growing with the ever-changing demands of the marketplace.

DEAR DR. DAM: My name is Brad and I'm into marketing at a large manufacturer. We have loads of products and thousands of images and materials that our sales network needs to sell our products. We have our own regional sales reps in addition to distributors and dealers who request materials several times a week for use in sales presentations and promotions. I'm feeling tremendously bogged down with the time it takes to search for the digital files, burn them to a disc and ship them overnight.

My problem is I feel like I'm not getting any of my real projects done because I'm too busy getting materials out to sales. I don't know how much longer this can last before I go crazy from feeling too far behind. How can I focus on the real projects that I was hired to do, while fulfilling the needs of my sales network?

DEAR BUSY BURNING BRAD: I fully understand your situation. Growing libraries of marketing materials and expansive sales networks make it extremely time-consuming to fulfill requests for digital media. It is not worth your time to spend hours a week carrying out monotonous tasks when there are more efficient ways to distribute materials to your sales network. You can eliminate the stress of feeling behind in your work by implementing a digital asset management system.

I recommend working with Widen because they have developed a DAM system allowing you to grant your sales reps and external users self-service access to your digital media. Widen created their DAM system over several years of feedback from clients with expansive sales networks. Leveraging common web principles in designing a powerful, easy-to-use system, Widen requires very little training for users to get the materials they need. More importantly, because you (or your staff) no longer have to fulfill tedious requests, you have more time to focus on your core competencies and have peace of mind.

How does Digital Asset Management from Widen help simplify brand management and marketing?

Reduces the chaos in managing the latest product images, logos, presentations, audio/video and other marketing materials with one master library under Widen’s DAM SaaS platform.

How do you do that?  Manage all your digital media from your very own branded web portal, while your master assets reside at Widen’s secure hosting facility.  Administrators control who can access what assets via roles and permissions.  Additionally, administrators can control when assets are to be released to general users or expired / archived and made unavailable for general access.

How does Digital Asset Management (DAM) from Widen help simplify brand management and marketing?

• Reduces the chaos in managing the latest product images, logos, presentations, audio/video and other marketing materials with one master library under Widen’s DAM SaaS platform.

How do you do that?  Manage all your digital media from your very own branded web portal, while your master assets reside at Widen’s secure hosting facility.  Administrators control who can access what assets via roles and permissions.  Additionally, administrators can control when assets are to be released to general users or expired / archived and made unavailable for general access. 

• Enables real-time marketing for geographically dispersed employees, external agencies and creative partners to manage, create, collaborate, share, upload and download your digital media 24 / 7.

How do you do that?  Internal and external teams all dial into the same set of master assets via web based DAM system to ensure the latest version is accessed when re-working or re-purposing digital media.  When new versions are created, approved users can upload the new versions and attach them as the new current version or create new assets with the simple click of a button.  Haven’t quite reached the final version?  Widen Project Collaboration allows you to route new digital media files (in their pre-asset state) to other internal users to gather and track all comments and approvals.  When the final version is reached, the project (PDF document, image, audio/video file or presentation) can be released as an asset available to all general users with permission to view the file.

• Speeds time to market with new product introductions, ad campaigns and sales promotions by automating the distribution of marketing materials in the proper formats to print and web channels.

How do you do that?  First, automatic file conversions allow you to store only one file type as the master and access other derivative formats on-demand.  Need an image for a website, presentation and brochure – you can get a 72 dpi JPEG and a 300 dpi TIFF from the master hi-res EPS file stored on Widen’s servers.  We do the same for Audio and Video assets as well.  Secondly, where do the files need to go?  If you need the files now and can download them from the web… no big deal.  What about when you’re unable to download a 2GB image or a 60-minute video?  That’s ok too because Widen will burn / author the files to a CD / DVD and ship them overnight on your behalf. 

• Empowers sales channels to create personalized on-demand marketing resources according to brand compliance guidelines and marketing-approved messaging.

How do you do that?  Using brand approved templates and marketing-supplied content, dealers, distributors, franchisees, branches, sales people or anybody else who doesn’t have the know-how or access to Quark or InDesign (but still rep your brand) can build professional quality marketing collateral.  Users point-and-click to build ads, brochures, POS and direct mail customized, localized or co-branded for any selling situation – ad campaigns, special events, or in-store displays. 

• Gauges effectiveness of marketing campaigns and brand assets with automated tracking and reporting tools.

How do you do that?  Using real-time reporting tools, administrators can view and evaluate user access and asset usage.  Standard reporting tools can be used to show reports matching a variety of statistics including trending graphs that allow you to monitor trends over time without having to do the calculations and build the graphs yourself.  You also have the ability to run custom reports that can be mixed, matched and exported to Excel.  Want to know what was the most popular product image representing X-model widget in China last month?  That’s easy with just a few clicks.  Widen Digital Asset Management is not only a tool for marketing organization and execution in dealing with rich media management; it’s also a key part of marketing planning and strategy.

DEAR DR. DAM:   I’m a brand manager with an international cruise line.   No, it’s not hurricanes or icebergs that I’m worried about, it’s managing over 20,000 digital assets that exist in various archives across the organization.  My dilemma is finding a way to make a portion of these assets available to external partners, agencies and consumers while controlling proper use.  I’m looking to create a secure web-based library of our creative materials so external affiliates can access our logos, images, ads and videos for use in other print promotions and websites.  Help me protect against the use of out-dated logos and inappropriate graphics and messaging.  I did some internet searching and came across widen.com, which looks to have much of what we’re looking for in brand asset management software.  What do you think?
 
DEAR FLOAT YOUR BOAT FLO:  If you want to be king of the world like Leo in Titanic when it comes to business branding, then yes Widen can provide you with a powerful, yet easy-to-use DAM system.  You’ll be online with a corporate image library in as little as two weeks.  Their DAM SaaS model makes it very easy to scale as your creative library grows.  Plus, your external users will find value in the ability to get exactly what they need in the appropriate file formats and publish the assets to offline and online mediums with just a few clicks.  As a brand manager, you’ll find peace of mind in maintaining one set of media assets and metadata in only one location. The costs won’t put you overboard and their service level is sure to get all hands on deck.  Go ahead and have a fruity island drink by the pool because your corporate branding is safe with Widen.

• Easily create an a secure online image library
• Increase collaboration, communication and accountability
• Reduce capital expenditures with high I.T. investments
• Create workflow efficiencies upstream and downstream
• Become more agile in the ability to deploy and maintain assets across multiple media channels

I like to periodically expose some of the actual stories that take place with clients looking for ways to get control of their brand assets and rich media.  This was my original intention for Dr. DAM.  Does this sound like you?

We recently had a discussion and demo with the creative director at an advertising agency seeking help in managing two terabytes of data stored on local hard drives and CDs.  They currently use FTP sites to distribute digital assets to clients, but they're getting complaints that this isn’t meeting their needs.  The current processes are not user friendly, assets aren’t globally accessible, they’re grappling with multiple file formats and all of the files are too large to email at 70MB+. 

Like many agencies working with big companies, they have an enterprise client that has turned to them for help in building a web based DAM system to manage their brand assets.  The client needs to allow people from multiple departments all over the world to access current assets, add metadata, share, send and download images, store displays, banners and other marketing resources. 

Other “must-haves” for the client include:

• Branded site to meet corporate branding standards
• Full reporting and tracking of asset usage
• Simple ability to upload assets, add metadata and structure content
• User permissions to control who sees what

Since many ad agencies do not have the time or resources to take on enterprise digital asset management software implementations nor is it within their area of expertise, it’s becoming more common for agencies to turn to a hosted service or SaaS provider for help.  If you’re interested in Dr. DAM’s recommendation… trust the experts.

Wasn’t the purpose of digital asset management always supposed to be a platform technology?  By platform technology, I mean not acting as a stand-alone application but as an enabling technology allowing other applications to perform a task without having to be concerned with the complexities associated with digital media.

So why are so many digital asset management providers unable to easily provide other applications a means to use the digital assets in the most efficient manner?  Simple answer is because they created their digital asset management system with the intent of being a stand-alone application and not with the intent of being a platform technology.

What’s the difference; don’t they both have a purpose in digital asset management land? 

Sure they both have a purpose; the stand-alone digital asset management application is for temporary use and has a lifecycle that places it near end of life the minute you purchase it.  The stand-alone application has some of the following traits:

• New releases and functionality are promised but never delivered – no formal release cycle exists
•  You have a phone number to call for support but nobody picks it up or returns the call
• The application is not used by the company to help manage their own digital media challenges
• The company that sold it to you is not the company that creates the software
• The product portfolio consists of DAM and that’s it – no other complementary products
• Customization is part of the standard offering because they cannot anticipate how you will use it
• When you ask for integration, they say, “Sure, we are partnered with several integrators; let me find you a phone number.”
• The price tag borders on ridiculous and you begin to question their financial viability
• They might also be under the cover of the “installed software provider” label and cringe at the very thought of the software-as-a-service market
• After you shake their hand you need to count your fingers

I recommend you purchase a stand-alone application if you have:

1. Money to burn
2. Internal I.T. teams looking for something to do
3. A complete understanding of digital asset management and all the related technologies
4. No direction or vision for how you want to use your digital media as your organization expands and your market reach increases

A digital asset management provider positioning as a platform technology possesses the following traits:

• Religious release cycles with proactive development addressing the future needs of the market
• Service and support teams that pick up the phone and hold several training sessions for the user community to attend
• Their own digital asset management platform is used by the marketing, creative, and production teams to drive internal workflows
• The digital assets are not duplicated and placed into other locations; all sources using the digital assets of the organization reference the digital asset management platform eliminating redundant and outdated libraries of digital assets serving other applications and/or individuals
• The value resides in the combination of efforts from on-site marketing, development, and service, and product teams
• The portfolio of products is rich with other ways of using digital media in the approval and collaboration process or distribution and publishing channels
• Digital asset management functionality is designed around use cases creating immediate value from day one
• Integration teams are in the same facility as the development, infrastructure, service, product, and marketing teams so when you ask for integration, the parties involved already understand the technology and the process
• The price tag makes you wonder why the other providers are so expensive
• Software-as-a-service organizations commonly create digital asset management as a platform technology because the relationship continues after the agreement is signed; stand-alone digital asset management providers have a tough time looking someone in the eye after selling a soon-to-be outdated application
• Trustworthy and transparent

I recommend you purchase a digital asset management platform technology if you have:

1. Restricted budgets
2. Limited or no internal I.T. resources
3. A complete understanding of your business
4. A vision for how you want to expand the use of your digital media

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. 

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

Access the full report from Aberdeen Group