Digital Asset Library

Why is it that IT departments want Digital Asset Management solutions that are installed on-site?

Sunday, March 7, 2010 by Jake Athey

Why is it that IT departments want Digital Asset Management solutions that are installed on-site? Is it because they own it? Is it because they can customize it? Is it because they want their assets behind their firewall? These are all valid questions. DAM SaaS providers and SaaS adopters deal with these questions all of the time. There are answers to these questions, but the DAM project owners should ask these questions back to their IT managers as well.

The truth is you don’t own the installed software. You only own it if it’s a home grown solution and many large companies are finding that their home grown solutions, after years of development, do not compare to modern-day DAM solutions. Many home grown solutions don’t embrace the feature set, ease of use, and scalability of today’s enterprise-class DAM solutions. If you’re thinking an installed solution belongs to you, you’re not entirely correct. You don’t own the code. If you want to customize it, you must ensure the parts to customize fit with what your needs are and that you have the competency to customize it.

You’re still subject to the release cycles, support and professional services offered by the installed provider. There’s a certain level of expertise it takes to implement and maintain DAM software and many IT departments are not staffed with “DAM experts.” Consider the competencies of IT and the competencies required for a DAM implementation, ongoing maintenance and expansion. In most organizations, the IT team’s time is filled in maintaining the other business critical systems. Does DAM carry that high of a priority with IT?

Installed or SaaS, You Still Own Your Digital Assets

Whether you deploy an installed solution or work with a hosted provider, you still own the assets. It’s just a matter of where they live. Of course with an installed solution, they live behind your firewall. With a SaaS solution, your assets live in the hosted provider’s secure data center or the cloud. This is much like banking… you keep your money in a bank because you trust they can do a better job managing it than you can. Certainly, there are good reasons to have asset libraries on the client site. That’s why Widen introduced the Appliance. With the Widen Appliance, companies have replicated assets on-site to support internal creative operations and business continuity planning in the event of catastrophe causing the internet to go down.

One of the many reasons companies – big, medium and small – choose to work with a SaaS provider is because the hosted DAM provider has a better infrastructure to support a widespread network of internal and external users. A hosted provider can often offer greater scalability of the infrastructure. This includes scalability to scale resources up as the demand increases and scale the resources down when so much storage and bandwidth is not required. Scalable SaaS DAM deployments can be more cost-effective as they support a true pay for what you use model.

Online Digital Asset Management Solutions for Online Digital Assets

Sunday, March 7, 2010 by Jake Athey

We had a prospective client share their DAM story with us last week and their needs matched up very closely with what Widen could provide in a hosted Digital Asset Management solution. They needed a central repository for images and videos, easy to use, easy to find assets, multiple levels of control and access, and asset tracking and usage reporting.

However, after learning the Widen online digital asset management solution matched up very well to the needs of this particular client, they came back to us saying that their IT department would only consider solutions installed on-site. Regrettably, Widen is a 100% DAM SaaS provider and delivers web-based DAM solutions where the asset libraries are hosted in Widen’s data center.

Do they want the internet installed too?

I thought it was interesting that this particular client’s IT team would only consider an installed solution since they’ve been unable to maintain the current system. This is something we hear all of the time. Ironically, most of their digital assets – images and videos – end up online. Do they want the internet installed too? If the destination for your digital assets is to be online, then wouldn’t it make sense for the digital asset management solution to be online as well?

A recent Forrester ECM (Enterprise Content Management) report by analyst Stephen Powers shows that more interest was seen in SaaS products (than on-premise or open source), with 43% of the respondents expressing interest in SaaS WCM and 39% in SaaS DAM. “Because content stored in these systems are often public-facing, organizations were less concerned with sharing the content outside the firewall,” reports Powers.

Consider the use and destination of your digital assets in defining your goals and needs with a DAM system. In a large organization with multiple divisions in multiple locations, an installed solution isn’t always the best option. Consider all internal and external users? Will the installed solution be the single point of reference for everyone in the organization? Will everyone adopt the solution or will people still work in the same siloed environments their used to? One of the main goals for deploying a DAM solution should be making it easy for users to access the system, enjoy using it and make it easy to get want they need so they will come back again.

Digital Asset Management Governance: What Sets Widen Apart?

Sunday, March 7, 2010 by Matthew Gonnering

Common challenges with digital asset management programs include segmenting internal and external groups of users to have varying levels of access to specific groups of digital assets. Widen makes this easy by empowering clients to govern their user base and the level of interaction they have with different digital asset libraries. Roles and Permissions controlled by client administrators make governance a critical yet manageable part of DAM software deployments in organizations of all sizes. Watch the video to learn more.

What is the best digital asset management product?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Jake Athey

What is the best digital asset management product? That’s a good question… and a common question among those beginning to research digital asset management technologies and vendors. The purpose of this post to help those understand how to decide what is the best digital asset management product for you.

Organizations of all shapes and sizes are adopting digital asset management systems and practices to improve efficiency, brand consistency, accountability, intelligence and effectiveness. When asked, “what kinds of companies need digital asset management?” my response is typically any company that has sophisticated enough creative or marketing operations that they’re creating significant amounts of digital content – images, videos, brochures, etc. – that need to be used and repurposed. That digital content is to be centrally managed and readily available for multiple users to access the content they are supposed to. DAM is particularly valuable to organization’s that have distributed user networks and workers who require remote, self-serve access to a central library of digital assets. There is no exact right or wrong answer to know if a company needs DAM. The size and scale of a DAM implementation varies. When the “traditional” methods of using the shared drive, email attachments, and FTP site start to bring reoccurring pain, then DAM might be something worth considering.

Organizations that are finding success in adopting DAM software solutions include the following vertical markets: manufacturing, retail, marketing & advertising agencies, media, entertainment, publishing, sports, colleges & universities, healthcare, insurance, financial services, non-profit organizations, hospitality, food service, government, engineering, construction, hi-tech.

When asked “What is the best digital asset management product?” … There really is no right answer. It varies. The digital asset management analyst community will tell you the same thing. The best DAM solution really depends on you and your company. It depends on what kind of company you are and what your functional goals are. The size of your company or industry you’re in may matter (or may not). The size of your digital asset library may matter (or may not). The types of assets you predominantly need to manage may play a part. The quantity of users and their location (internal or external) may make a difference.

The digital asset management analyst community will tell you to consider the types of solutions vendors offer to fit different use cases. It is important to understand the business scenarios that fit each vendor’s product strategy to find the best digital asset management product for your particular circumstances. The DAM analyst community has helped those looking for DAM solutions by rating vendors according to common scenarios useful for understanding which types of products tend to work better according to the type of projects. These use case scenarios can be divided into three buckets to include: (1) Image Management, Brand Management and Marketing Operations – segmented further by Digital Asset Library, Photo Archive, Brand Management, Marketing Collateral Production and Distribution, and Ad Production services; (2) Publishing – segmented further by Periodicals Production & Distribution, Multi-Channel Publishing, Catalog Publishing, Rights-Managed Content Syndication and Distribution services; (3) Video Production – segmented further by E-Learning, Video Review and Approval, Short Form Video Production, and Broadcast Video Production services.

Other things to consider when looking for a digital asset management vendor (in no particular order) include:

How long has the vendor been around? … How long have they been offering DAM? … How much of their focus is on DAM? … Is DAM a core part of their business or just a side activity? … How many DAM clients do they have? … How many DAM clients have they lost? … Do they have experience in your industry? … Do they offer complementary services? … Where does their experience come from? … How stable is the company? … Have they been bought or sold? … Is their DAM offering home grown or purchased from someone else? … How sophisticated is it? … Is it evolving as the marketplace changes? … What does their product roadmap look like? … Do they have one? … How often do they come out with new upgrades and innovations? … Who installs them? … Do they have a technical services team? … Do they have a help desk? … What are their hours? … How do you reach them? … Who handles the implementation? … Do they offer training? … Do they perform integrations? How? … What information technology resources will be required internally? … What is the cost to deploy? … What is the cost to maintain? How do you achieve an ROI? … What are the extra costs? … What are their security practices? … How can they ensure my assets are safe? … Is it customizable? … How much customization is required to make it work? … Is it scalable to grow with my business?

These are just a small set of the many questions to ask when looking for the best digital asset management product for your organization.

Leave a comment if you have other advice for those looking at DAM for the first time or share your experiences.

Overcoming Digital Asset Management Challenges

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Jake Athey

CMSWire recently posted an interesting poll about Digital Asset Management. For those commissioning DAM projects, “What is your biggest Digital Asset Management challenge?”

The answer options to the poll question include:

Taxonomy/Metadata development
Selecting a vendor or product
Building the business case or defining ROI
The usability of the system
User adoption of the system

A comment to the poll provides a good summary of the poll results after 2 days of data collection… “Usability of the system, User adoption of the system, and Taxonomy/Metadata development fall out as 1, 2 and 3…”

This poll couldn’t be more timely as two key areas for DAM development and enhancement in 2010 at Widen are Usability (UI) and Analytics.

What's Your Biggest Digital Asset Management Challenge?

Poll Results After 2 Days. Participate in the poll or view the results.

Are the results surprising to you? DAM systems that are not easy to use because they have clunky user interfaces or poor taxonomy/metadata development inherently have poor user adoption. What’s a clunky UI you ask? Generally speaking, over-gridded, over-cluttered, over-segmented interfaces with in an overabundance of features most users won’t use tend to be clunky. Systems with good UI design make a big difference for advancing user adoption. Solid taxonomies/metadata structures allow assets to be found easily. If a user can easily find what he or she is looking for in DAM library, then they’ll come back again. Additionally, vendors who offer training and best practices in setting up the system, counting taxonomies and metadata structures, are among the most important factors in selecting a digital asset management system.

Let’s talk “Usability”

Usability for a web based DAM system means that a user who logs in three or four times per year should know exactly what to do to find and retrieve an asset based on experiences working with other common web applications. In Widen’s world of DAM, clients generally have a few different groups of users. There are the power users or Admins who usually represent the smallest group in number but use the full features of the DAM system – ingestion through distribution. There’s typically another tier of regular users that use the DAM library with some regularity, but for more common purposes of finding and retrieving digital assets. Then, there are the hundreds or thousands of users that only login a handful of times each year. It’s that long tail of “once in awhile” users that the system should cater to in terms of ease-of-use. Other bells and whistles for more advanced users should exist, but shouldn’t over-complicate the UI, nor be too overbearing for the general purposes of the system—ingest, collaborate, manage, find, retrieve and distribute assets.

To provide a Widen customer example of user adoption, Steelcase—the global office furniture leader—had over 9,000 logins within the first two months of going live with their DAM solution. Interestingly, Widen serves five of the top 15 office furniture manufacturers. This type of user adoption drives the demand for DAM throughout the supply chain. While CMS Watch, an analyst firm who talks to DAM customers, reported that Widen has a “clean, well-designed user interface that appeals to business users,” we still recognize the magnitude of usability and opportunities for improvements in UI design.

Diving Deeper into DAM Data with “Analytics”

An Analytics application speaks directly to the business case for DAM endorsers and senior leaders who look at how DAM supports top-line revenue growth or impacts the bottom line. Digital Asset Management ROI is measured in a number of ways with hard dollar and soft dollar savings. Common buckets for measuring DAM ROI include: how DAM improves processes, how DAM reduces costs, how DAM increases revenues, how DAM adds new profit centers, and how DAM protects the brand. The time to realizing a DAM ROI is predominantly driven by two things – user adoption and subsequently asset usage and asset repurposing. Leveraging tracking, reporting and analytics tools offers more intelligence and thus greater ability to measure and prove ROI. For that reason, Widen developed four key ratios that help customers watch and evaluate adoption and success:

Digital Asset Activity Ratio: A comparison between the quantity of assets that have been ordered and the amount of assets stored in the DAM system. This ratio provides insight into the relationship between download activity and all the assets stored in the digital asset library.

Repurposing Ratio: A comparison between the active digital assets and the quantity of assets ordered. This provides insight into the amount of content repurposing that is taking place over a period of time. Repurposing continues to be a key component of digital asset management value.

User Activity Ratio: A comparison between the total number of logins and the quantity of users that have logged in provides information about visitation frequency. This metric also provides insight into how frequently users visit to browse or check back on new branded materials.

Digital Asset Consumption Ratio: Comparing the quantity of files ordered to the users that logged into the system provides information on the amount of data being consumed by each user over a specific time period.

The ratios are further explained in the Business Management article “What Those DAM Statistics Can Tell You.”

So we’ve touched on the metrics for monitoring ROI once DAM is deployed, but how do we build the business case?

Finding It All While Saving A Bundle

If you’re unsure of the costs that come with unmanaged data, consider these factors, and then apply them to your own organization.

Companies spend an average of $8,200 per person per year on file management activities. These include searching, verification, organization, backup, and security.
Creative professionals spend an average of one out of every 10 hours of their time on file management. Their prime activity: searching.
The average creative person looks for a media file 83 times a week and fails to find it 35% of the time.

A digital asset management solution could help alleviate some of these costs. According to findings from GISTICS Research, a DAM solution can cut the amount of time spent on file management by more than 85%. And rather than failing to find a file 35% of the time, users will not find something only 5% of the time.

SOURCE: GISTICS

Visit the DigitalAssetManagement.com ROI calculator for more assistance in putting together a DAM ROI.

Our thanks to all customers who continue to provide feedback and ideas for making the Widen Media Collective more valuable and enjoyable. Widen customers can expect more specific communications to come in the next few months about the User Interface (UI) enhancements and new Analytics application.

The Digital Marketing Shift – Part 2: Why SaaS Digital Asset Management is the Most Cost-Effective Deployment Option for Marketers

Friday, January 29, 2010 by Jake Athey

Digital Marketing and Digital Asset Management

Marketers shifting or integrating digital marketing strategies cannot ignore the importance of using DAM solutions to control and distribute approved digital media to authorized users. Digital media consumers demand the same amount of quality and consistency in the content they consume as they would offline media; they just might face more noise with the overabundance in clutter of messages. The brands that deliver quality content, including imagery and interactivity, are those that get noticed and drive brand awareness. Getting noticed in a digital marketing world holds tremendous value because of the opportunities for consumers to engage with marketers and other consumers in two-way communications. In the social web, satisfied consumers can serve as brand advocates whereas dissatisfied consumers can bring a brand down.

Like Digital Marketing is more cost-effective than traditional marketing channels, Software as a Service (SaaS) DAM is the most cost-effective way to manage digital media assets.

The explosion of digital content, including diverse content types such as rich media, forces organizations to invest in digital asset management tools to maximize the value of those assets by keeping them in a centralized location accessible for multiple purposes. That centralized location should be a SaaS DAM solution that enables the content to be most easily accessed by those that need it, when they need it. Those that need access to a digital asset library include multiple internal departments, partners, agencies, sales channels, and the media.

What are the Core Benefits of SaaS DAM Over Installed Solutions?

Speed to implementation inside 30-90 days versus 6-9 months
Low monthly subscription and minimal startup costs make it easier to budget
Flexibility, adaptability and scalability to grow and change with client needs

What’s the big deal about DAM SaaS?

A recent Forrester ECM (Enterprise Content Management) report by analyst Stephen Powers shows that more interest was seen in SaaS products (than on-premise or open source), with 43% of the respondents expressing interest in SaaS WCM and 39% in SaaS DAM. “Because content stored in these systems are often public-facing, organizations were less concerned with sharing the content outside the firewall,” reports Powers. That’s a new way of looking at it... (at least for a SaaS provider)!

The content stored in a rich media management system (images, videos, ads, brochures, etc.) was developed with the intention to be public facing at some point in time—oftentimes serving advertising and marketing communications purposes—so it should be easy to access (and control). SaaS DAM solutions make it easy to access digital assets anytime, anywhere while offering the security controls to protect rights and release/expiration dates.

Powers reports other reasons that installed content management solutions often fail or fail to meet expectations include poor content strategy and a lack of IT and business alignment. SaaS solutions make up for that because it is the responsibility of the SaaS provider to share best practices, contribute to content strategy and help manage change in order for the system to survive beyond the implementation phases. Remember, SaaS providers are required to meet the client’s needs every month and repeat it on an ongoing basis in order to earn the ongoing business. Moreover, SaaS solutions cut out much of the internal IT resources necessary to implement and maintain the solution because the IT resources, for the most part, are provided by the SaaS provider.

Download Whitepaper: Why DAM Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010

Free Digital Asset Management System Access

Friday, January 8, 2010 by Jake Athey

New in 2010, Widen is offering free Digital Asset Management system access for up to 90 days to companies and organizations researching DAM or needing a hosted DAM solution. Try it for a special project, campaign, product launch, trade show or event! Request VIP Access to the Widen DAM demo system.

Widen has spent over 13 years developing and supporting web-based digital asset management solutions to marketers of all sizes – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses, agencies and non-profits. In that time, Widen has offered the opportunity for individuals and teams to experiment, test and trial live online digital asset management systems in live production environments, real-time marketing workflows, and sales channel relationships.

Widen is rolling out the red carpet by providing free digital asset management system access to Widen's live online digital asset library for up to 90 days. You and your users get the same basic functionality as Widen DAM clients within Widen's Digital Asset Management demo site.

Free Digital Asset Management System access includes the following capabilities:

Setup your own personalized role and permissions
Upload your own digital media – hi-res images, videos, audio, PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, etc.
Add your own metadata – descriptions, tags and automatically captured file info
Download or send media with on-the-fly file conversions to print and web formats
Create additional users
Create custom system messages and user announcements

As a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, Widen DAM solutions are 100% web-based and designed for creative and marketing workflows. No software downloads or installs, no IT support required, and no specialized skills needed. Widen SaaS solutions scale to meet the demand for unlimited simultaneous users and unlimited asset uploads and downloads. Training and support is provided entirely by Widen. Ownership of Widen DAM SaaS solutions can be afforded with a low monthly subscription. Widen clients get their own branded web-based DAM solution and personalized URL, plus the ability to administrate their system with custom metadata structures and output types. Contact Us for more information about Widen DAM SaaS products and pricing.

For basic demo access to search and order stock assets, register for the Widen Guest Pass.

Notice: Widen's Free Digital Asset Management System Access does not provide users with a fixed permanent solution, but is intended to provide those investigating DAM solutions with a no-cost, no-commitment resource for evaluating Digital Asset Management technology and support to answer questions along the way.

Color Retouching Adds Mood to Digital Asset Library

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Joy Hamel

Happy 2010!

Let's take a look at what Camera Raw can do for your digital assets. Search around on your digital asset library or corporate image library and maybe you'll find a few lost images. This super simple tequnique will help you bring new life to these lost treasures.

Color Manipulation and Retouching in Camera Raw

I love a vignette... and really who doesn't? Ok, well not everyone and thats fine. Art is meant to be subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find beauty in imperfections. I love grain, rusty metal, scratches, etc... the list is long but you get the idea.

I thought for the new year I would create a quick little art piece out of a photo I took back in November.

I started out in camera raw and clicked Auto. Don't be scared! The Auto button today is fantastic! Well ok maybe not fantastic, but its pretty darn great.

Then I boosted the clarity (a note on clarity: this is an amazing little slider... it can give your wedding photography the look of misty far of romance and then swing it the other way for hard grainy hi pass grunge all in about FIVE SECONDS!) You must try it! Now add a bit in the vibrance then over to the vignette tab...

ohhh ahhh oooo LOVE the vignette feature in camera raw! Makes quick work of getting that old school feel...

Next open to Photoshop and tweek tweek tweek... I added a bit more sharpening and some more contrast... then its all done! What did that take like 10 minutes tops! Here's the final look... SWEET!

A look at 2010

Lets make fabulous images for the world to see! Images that inspire greatness in others. Not an easy assignment but we can make it happen.... Here's my first shot of 2010. My hubby in the woods wearing the winter crown he made with our daughter.

xoxo
Joy

Widen Premedia Services Video Case Study – Part II: Digital Sampling and Color Retouching

Monday, December 7, 2009 by Jake Athey

Watch the interview with Brian Becker, VP of Client Development for Widen Enterprises, as he talks about the prepress production processes performed for a large apparel marketer. Part II focuses on Widen's digital sampling and color retouching services in the life cycle of a digital asset.

Intro

Widen recently helped a large apparel company improve quality and streamline creative production processes by utilizing a blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management technologies. Widen helped the client make the move from showcasing garments currently shot on mannequins to garments shot on live models for a new women's sports licensed apparel campaign. In meeting the goal of going live inside 30 days, Widen created over 500 images with 20-25% of their shots featuring garments on live models versus mannequins.

To get up to speed with the photo shoot and Widen photography workflow management capabilities, check out Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.

Color Production
The image work for the project was done by the Widen Color Production department, which consists of six master graphic artists. They are the ones that go in and clean-up the files… They take the camera raw data and optimize it for the best environment for lighting of the flesh tones, hair color, garment color, detail and sharpness, etc. Widen’s color retouching experts have a knack for understanding the customer expectations, which was very simple and natural for them given the jobs they work on every day.

Digital Sampling
The Digital Sampling department is the group that applies the graphics to the garments shot on the models and mannequins. The color operators take artwork from Illustrator and merge them onto the actual photograph in Photoshop. There challenge and expertise is to make sure the graphics follow the contours, shapes, highlights, shadows and wrinkles in the garments as they apply logos, team names, numbers and names, etc. supplied in the client's technical specs.

Many people don't realize what a huge production process there is that goes on behind the scenes to get garments sent to Widen, put on models, styled, shot correctly, color-optimized, digital-sampled, posted to a database and eventually marketed on a website or print catalog, signage, etc.

Color Management
Consumers only spend a few seconds shopping for garments online, so it’s critical that what they see on the screen is what they’ll get in real life. We don’t use our eyes to confirm what we “think” we like on a screen, we use technical data that comes from a strong color management umbrella over the top of everything we do in production. From our cameras to our proofing devices, everything is color managed for the desired output – website or printed material.

In the end, Widen created approximately 500 images, which are upload to their digital asset library also hosted by Widen. From there, the images are ordered for placement on any number of websites. Posting images via embed links will help to ensure the most current images are used across all web domains.

The Widen Advantage caters to the life cycle of a digital asset by offering all of the production, management and distribution services under one roof. The blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management solutions working together help clients in a number of ways, including:

Cost Savings - Increases efficiency in creative/production cycles plus centralization of re-usable assets minimizes efforts re-inventing every process of the creation-production-distribution value chain.

Faster Time to Revenue - Shortens time to market and increases effectiveness of marketing execution by empowering sales channels with on-demand access to use brand-approved digital assets.

Competitive Advantage - Improves brand consistency with quality representation of products and ensures compliance across targeted, multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Better Planning and Strategy - Tracking of usage patterns including reuse and repurposing of assets allows for more effective budgeting, resource allocation and planning of future marketing campaigns.

Check out the Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.

How I used Widen DAM to distribute assets for a benefit I helped organize

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Al Falaschi

Unfortunately, my wife lost her battle to cancer earlier this year. In her memory, myself and other local musicians organized "Funk Out Cancer" a memorial benefit for Kate Gates Falaschi. All proceeds were donated to the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center for cancer research. When I started contacting local radio, tv, and newspapers, I knew they would want pictures, and audio and video of Kate for news stories that they would create. I sectioned off a portion of Widen's demo online digital asset management system and posted assets featuring Kate. I needed digital asset hosting as I knew I would be contacted often about these...and didn't want to spend my days fulfilling requests for assets. Not that a one time event has a "brand," but it also served as brand asset management software. It made it so easy to retrieve assets, that everyone grabbed the hi res approved assets that I determined were fit for public consumption...not low res, right click/save image as garbage from myspace.

I'm happy to report that over 50 different organizations logged in and placed orders for assets. That would have been a lot of emailing. Thank you Widen DAM software. Here was a video promo created from the assets I hosted in the digital asset library.

If you would like more info on the event...or to make a donation :) go to http://www.funkoutcancer.com.

Why Now is the Right Time to Implement Digital Asset Management Programs

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Jake Athey

There are a lot of companies that will say “now is the time to gear up for the new year so that you can hit the ground running,” but this customer video compilation goes to show why top marketers implemented Widen digital asset management programs to improve their marketing operations. See why these marketers have made the investment in Widen’s hosted DAM software to create efficiencies, improve productivity, and increase brand consistency throughout their marketing channels.

Are you wasting precious time and resources managing and fulfilling requests for brand assets?
Are you looking for ways to improve marketing efficiency, effectiveness and agility?
Are you seeking fool-proof ways to achieve brand consistency across all customer touch points?
Do you want to empower sales channels to be more effective?

In the first segment, Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at InSinkErator, talks about their growing problem managing and distributing brand assets. He explains what a problem it was to regularly get calls from customers, sales reps, ad agencies and PR firms needing digital assets and there was no easy way to provide them what they needed in a timely matter. Sound familiar? He knew they needed a more efficient digital media asset management system so he wouldn’t lose precious time having to duplicate the same process over and over again fielding requests such as “I need an image and I don’t know what format I need.” Each time, he would have to stop what he’s doing to find the asset, convert it, ship it, etc. Widen DAM asset management services changed all that and removed the burden of having to manage and distribute assets “the old way.”

In the second segment, Jim Scarlata, Senior Marketing Operations Manager for Knaack LLC, explains that there was one gatekeeper to their digital asset library and there was no easy way to achieve brand consistency across all marketing channels, ensure the most current brand assets were always available (and used), and make assets easily available to all channel partners. With Widen’s help, Knaack has a single online location for all of the most current digital content to be globally available to any approved user.

In the third segment, John Wernecke, Global Marketing Manager (Former Public Relations Manager), Motorola Mobile Devices talks about the ease of use when it comes to digital assets management with the help of Widen. The Widen Media Collective provides Motorola with enterprise-wide ability to share and collaborate interactively 24 hours a day, which has allowed marketing and creative groups to come together at a central location that is always accurate and working.

In the fourth segment, Michele Bedard, Vice President of Marketing, Sub-Zero, Inc. and Wolf Appliance, Inc., explains how Sub-Zero and Wolf is all about the brand and making sure customers have a consistent brand experience across all touch points. The Widen online digital asset management tools provide the people in the field with access to the most current assets so Sub-Zero and Wolf brands look the same from whatever source anyone would see it.

In the fifth and final segment, Michele Kowalkowski, Catalog Manager North America, Brady Worldwide, Inc., talks about how the Widen corporate image library empowers sales people to carry out their jobs and supports relationships with their distributor networks. Without always having to be reliant on the marketing team, they have a digital asset library they can trust to be accessible when they need assets and get them instantly in the format needed to complete their project.

To get more takes from the pros, watch more Widen Customer Interviews.

Digital Asset Management Reporting and Success Metrics

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 by Widen Marketing

Training, reporting and analysis are key ingredients to the implementation and ongoing success of digital asset management systems. Widen is helping customers understand four ratios serving as key success metrics to digital asset management adoption. As a DAM Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, Widen is able to collect quantitative usage data from all customer deployments. The data can be applied to help customers compare numbers against historical activity within the same system or against historical activity across the entire customer base. The key ratios are defined below:

Digital Asset Activity Ratio: A comparison between the quantity of files that have been ordered and the amount of files stored in the DAM system. This ratio provides insight into the relationship between download activity and all the assets stored in the digital asset library.

Repurposing Ratio: A comparison between the active digital assets and the quantity of files ordered. This provides insight into the amount of content repurposing that is taking place over a period of time. Repurposing continues to be a key component of digital asset management value.

User Activity Ratio: A comparison between the total number of logins and the quantity of users that have logged in provides information about visitation frequency. This metric also provides insight into how frequently users visit to browse or check back on new branded materials.

Digital Asset Consumption Ratio: Comparing the quantity of files ordered to the users that logged into the system provides information on the amount of data being consumed by each user over a specific time period.

The ratios are further explained in the Business Management article “What Those DAM Statistics Can Tell You.”

Widen Apparel Marketing Technology: Digital Sampling and Digital Asset Management

Thursday, June 18, 2009 by Jake Athey

Since my last post in regard to Widen apparel marketing technology, An Inside Look at How NBA Hot Market Demands Are Met by Widen Digital Sampling & Digital Asset Management, I received emails from DICK’S Sporting Goods when the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup Finals and again when the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Finals. (I’d like to think my previous blogs featuring the Penguins and Lakers had an impact on the outcome of the series, but I’m sure they didn’t!) These timely marketing emails from DICK’S Sporting Goods announcing the availability of the official locker room championship merchandise use digital samples created by Widen.

Widen Digital Sampling Process:

Photograph neutral color physical apparel samples
Digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors
Apply team and league graphics according to Adidas supplied technical guidelines
Upload final digital samples to web-based digital asset library for retail access

Using the online digital asset management workflow tools, Widen personnel route completed samples to the Adidas Sports Licensed Division marketing teams for approval. Once approved digital samples are available for download, online retailers and catalogers use the Widen digital media conversion wizard to send and receive the images in the exact file formats and resolutions needed for web or print use. That’s how digital samples for the championship hats and tees go from design to delivery just in time for you to purchase the merchandise online during the locker room celebration!

How Apparel Digital Sampling Uses Consumer Buying Preferences

Notice how the Reebok and Adidas apparel styles are displayed with the three-quarter front view of the apparel sample on a mannequin. Widen assisted a Reebok research study to understand consumer buying preferences for apparel sample images displayed in print and web media. Widen compared which views were most preferred by sports apparel consumers and the three-quarter view was most preferred over the full frontal view (as displayed above in the DICK'S Sporting Goods email template). By running reports on image distribution and access through the Widen image tracking system, Adidas is able to measure what styles are most popular.

Official Championship Apparel Samples Created by Widen

Displayed below are Reebok and Adidas hot market digital apparel samples (created by Widen premedia services and color retouching experts) for all three major sports champions declared in 2009: NFL Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, NHL Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins and NBA Finals Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

For more information about Widen apparel marketing technology and services, check out the Widen Digital Sampling webpage.

NHL Hot Market: Digital Sampling + Digital Asset Management

Friday, June 5, 2009 by Jake Athey

DICK’S Sporting Goods also delivers email marketing messages to subscribers for the NHL Conference Champions and Stanley Cup Champions. Pittsburgh Penguins fans received an email showcasing the availability of the official locker room tee shortly after the Eastern Conference Champion was declared.

Widen works with the Adidas Sports Licensed Division in creating and distributing digital apparel samples for the NHL, in addition to the NBA and NFL. Concurrent with the NBA Finals, the NHL’s hot market is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The same digital sampling process is applied for the NHL as it is for the NBA and NFL. One main difference, however, is that the NBA goes with the Adidas brand, whereas the NFL and NHL use the Reebok brand. Both brands are part of the Adidas Sports Licensed Division.

These images may be too small to notice, but the logos on the inside back behind the neck are even different—Adidas for the NBA and Reebok for the NHL.

All Adidas digital samples regardless of the league are housed in the Widen hosted digital asset library. Access controls are regulated via roles & permissions and asset groups. See the full post on the NBA Hot Market to learn more about Widen’s process and benefits of digital sample production and distribution for the apparel market.

Dear Dr. DAM: Control and Efficiency Needed in MarCom – Do I Need DAM Power?

Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Dr. DAM

DEAR DR. DAM: I’m Henry, the marketing communications manager for a global energy corporation. Does this sound familiar?… My issue is that we have thousands of photos located on multiple servers in multiple facilities. Many of our digital assets contain structured information that must be controlled so that those that need access can easily get it and those that shouldn’t—don’t. Control is just as high on my list of priorities as efficiency. How do we provide regulated access to different groups of assets at different clearance levels? After all of those issues, we have a ton of video we’d like to get fed to our online domains and need a central repository to manage and work with those files. Add in a handful of logos and audio podcast files and you get the mess I’m tasked to deal with now. We’ve reached the tipping point of not knowing where anything is on our internal network and it’s time I do something about it. I don’t have the staff to make this a full time gig, so service is critical.

DEAR HAPHAZORDLY ORGANZIED HENRY: It’s a reoccurring theme my friend. You are not alone as these are issues that Widen DAM SaaS experts solve on a daily basis. How does a web-based, centralized digital asset library with permission-based access sound? As for structuring Widen digital asset solutions, assets groups are buckets where assets are held. Roles are groups of users. Users in a role receive permission to do things such as view, order or higher level administration to assets in an asset group. Asset groups are most efficiently used if you think in terms of restriction. If there is an asset or group of assets that a certain group of users should not have access (cannot view, cannot order, etc.), then those assets should be in their own asset group. That gives you the ability to control those assets more tightly. To power your online video content, you should see what digital asset embed links can do for control and efficiency. Simply paste the asset’s unique URL into your web CMS and each page will pull the most recent video asset from your DAM system. Update multiple websites instantly with one click. I know everyone in marketing is running pretty lean these days… that why you need software AND service. You need DAM Power.

The Future of Digital Media Management: Being Prepared for the Video Demand

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 by Matthew Gonnering

While images have historically dominated the make up of digital asset management systems, the trends are showing a growing amount of video and audio files are growing as the dominant asset types. A more diversified digital asset library means that we’re dealing with much larger file sizes. Widen is embracing trends by giving customers the scalability they need to use video in their digital asset mix. It’s our job to say no problem and be prepared to handle the video demand. We’ve thought of the next step because we watch the trends and position the technology to best serve customer needs so that you don’t have to. Watch the video commentary.

Dear Dr. DAM: Could I have the energy to put in a DAM System on my own?

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Dr. DAM

DEAR DR. DAM: My name is Jackie and I’m a “Jack of all Trades-Master of None” one person marketing team for a large energy corporation. I handle it all – marketing, communications and PR – but, with the help of several key outsourced providers and partners. Since I handle all of our business branding and promotional materials, I deal with a large amount of digital media. We have hundreds of files … mostly images, videos and brochures … used for ad campaigns, websites, mail inserts, presentations and investor materials.

We pay a lot of money for photography and videography but this digital content seems to always have a way of disappearing after only one or two uses. It’s like “poof” and it’s gone. Different departments throughout the company have no idea what other departments have. We are constantly recreating old stuff instead of repurposing existing work or creating new stuff. It’s definitely becoming very frustrating and seems like we’re missing out on a lot of opportunity. It’s hard to realize any marketing ROI if we can’t realize the full value of our assets. I attempted to implement a DAM system about 6 years ago, but didn’t have the time to dedicate to a project like this and the project got pushed to the back-burner. Now it’s time… point me in the right direction Dr. DAM.

DEAR JACKIE OF ALL TRADES: I like that you’re able to rely on an outsourced team of experts that are just a phone call away. It makes you look like a star and you have the best help available. As a hosted digital asset management provider, Widen has proven that for over a decade and sounds like it’s time for you to “phone a friend.” With centralized digital asset storage for all your photos, videos, Flash animations, illustrations, brochures, logos, and press clippings you won’t have assets slipping through the cracks or vanishing on you. With administrative access controls, you can open up the digital asset library up to nearly all 5,000 internal employees as well as external partners while maintaining control with sophisticated digital asset tracking tools.

Don’t be overwhelmed… This project is something you can handle on your own and with the help of the right DAM SaaS vendor. SaaS vendors like Widen have entire teams of project managers and implementation consultants that walk you through everything from best practices to training and help desk support. Plus, automatic upgrades future proof your marketing resources from going extinct. Best of all, I.T. will continue to support the business operations and you can stay on top of everything marketing operations while you get to be a little more savvy with marketing software. Need to quantify the time and money on DAM activities, check out the ROI Calculator from http://digitalassetmanagement.com.

I Gotta Have It – Feeding the Demand for Rich Media

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Jake Athey

Do you ever get the urge of “I just gotta have it”... Who doesn’t? ... Whatever “it” is.

Now when it comes to info, video clips and pictures, what do you do when you just gotta have it?

Applications like Facebook and devices like the iPhone have made that so much easier and have trained us to think that way.

Now, how does this apply to digital asset management software? The demand for rich media has been on the rise and will only continue to skyrocket. If you’re responsible for creating, managing and distributing digital assets – the lifeblood driving brand awareness and revenue – you need to have a system that can satisfy the “I gotta have it” need for those that need it most.

Search – Whether you’re a marketer, designer, web developer or salesperson, when you need a file – you just gotta have it now. You can’t wait for someone else and you can’t waste time sifting through file folders or legacy systems. Google has trained us to search by keyword and get the most relevant search results. It’s expected. Shouldn’t your rich media be the same way?

Preview – So now you got the file in front of you – print brochure, hi-res image, PowerPoint presentation, audio / video clips – don’t you want to actually see it. It’s no good to you if all you get is a small thumbnail preview. You want the whole DAM thing. The ability to preview files saves you the time of waiting for a file to download, unzip or pull down off an FTP site.

Transform – After you find the asset you’re looking for, you’re going to need it in different formats. No marketer is running a single channel anymore. You’re assets must be available for use in web pages, print pieces, catalogs, emails, blogs and social media. Moreover, they're being consumed on a whole variety of devices. You can’t always depend on a designer to convert the files for you or having the right software to handle every single file processing need. Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate file transformation services?

Apply that mindset to a whole organization whose team is dependent on the ability to access, share and repurpose your digital assets – they all just gotta have it. For those that don’t (or shouldn’t), a digital asset library gives you the ability to control rights, access and usage levels.

When it comes to producing and repurposing digital assets, a web-based digital asset management system offering the ability to access what you need, when you need it satisfies the hunger for “I gotta have it.”

Dear Dr. DAM: Should I give Digital Asset Management vendors a second chance?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 by Dr. DAM

DEAR DR. DAM: My name is Greg, the IT Director at a non-profit organization that better serves the youth of our community. I first must admit that I have tried using some Digital Asset Management vendors out there already and this has aided in creating my troubles. The timing and requirements of upgrades, patches and missing some of the most basic features were extremely frustrating and time-consuming to keep after. Currently, assets are floating all over the place and can’t be found, nor rounded up for that matter of digital asset tracking. I need these files to be accessible to my creative, video, web and marketing creators and users. Most of all, I need help to get this problem off the ground now. These times call for smart resource allocation and customer service because we certainly don’t have the staff and hours to make it work alone. I have TBs of photos and video. I need help, but at a competitive price! I will not fall victim to over-promised, under-delivered legacy systems again.

DEAR GOOD-WILLED GREG: An enterprise level system with special non-profit pricing… is that music to your ears? That’s hard to come by these days, but you do have options. What you need is a globally accessible, web based digital asset library. Most of all, you need a resource that knows marketing software and information technology and can provide the service to get you going and growing. You mentioned the web… Widen Digital Asset Embed Links has changed online digital asset management in a way that publishing and maintaining images and videos has never been so easy with one central place to update and control your digital media. With cloud computing resources for infinite scalability and web services integrations, your day job will become so much easier when it comes to this DAM project.

Keeping DAM Solutions In Check in 2009

Monday, March 9, 2009 by Jake Athey

CMSWire recently published an article Digital Asset Management in 2009: Trends, Features and SharePoint Integration. The article had a few DAM players weigh in, so now I would like to continue the conversation by Keeping DAM Solutions in Check in 2009.

What’s driving the adoption of Digital Asset Management solutions? Moreover, how do you justify the purchase of a DAM system in this economy?

Did you stop creating digital content? No.

Did you shift the way in which you deliver content? Likely.

Do you need to continue supplying the digital content that is the lifeblood of commerce and marketing to those that use and repurpose it to help your brands sustain? Absolutely.

Do you need to do that in a way that minimizes cost and maximizes effectiveness in the areas that drive revenue? DAM, you’re good.

Enough of the Q&A. Let’s get into what’s big in DAM in 09.

SaaS – While it’s hard to lose sight of the current economic conditions, let’s bring SaaS to the forefront. Service is King… right? In this economy, SaaS is not looked at as an alternative, but as the answer. You’ve already answered the questions above, but how about these:

Do you have the financial resources for hefty capital expenditures on infrastructure costs?

Do you have the human resources (IT) to devote to “just another marketing project?”

Since SaaS is quick to deploy in a time when ‘time is of the essence’ and resources are limited, a cost-effective monthly subscription that can be budgeted for looks like a clear choice.

Widen understands the objection that sometimes you just need your digital content to be on-site. The Widen Answer: The Widen Appliance – an extension of the SaaS model with managed services on the client site. Local access (for the creatives) and business continuity (for everyone).

Let’s get a little more SaaSy with some highlights from an article from business technology publication ZDNet, SaaS model here to stay, say vendors.

SaaS solutions can be deployed without ramping up skill sets and infrastructure.
Why deploy an installed solution that may take 12 months if it’s out of date by the time it goes live?
Economies of scale and scalable resources. You’re renting the infrastructure, but you own the content.
Stronger security, redundancy and reliability than most companies can achieve on their own.
Not limited to simple applications, but a way to kick start a complex deployment.

Moving off the SaaS train to one of the hottest topics today...

Video - With the rise and popularity of consuming video – online and via mobile devices – organizations must look for video management solutions. Not to the level required by traditional media companies, but lighter weight solutions for the marketer looking to publish videos on web sites and social media outlets. Widen has added functionality to preview and transcode video assets, embed links to centrally control and globally repurpose and consume the most recent video asset, and cloud computing resources to scale with the demand.

Collaboration – The new way of saying “Teamwork.” Organizations are not siloed, or at least they want to break the habit of operating independently. Creative, marketing, web, sales… they all need to be on the same page. People want to be involved closer to the creation end of the digital asset life cycle and approval processes continue to be complex. A web interface into the collaboration process is critical to teams both internal and geographically-dispersed. With project collaboration comes workflow and reporting capabilities to streamline processes and hold people accountable.

Recognizing the demand for creating efficiency in review and approval workflows, Widen created Backdrop, a web-based tool to automate the complex photography routing and approval cycles behind the scenes for photographers and creative approvers. Separately, the Widen Project Collaboration application for the front-end of the digital asset library supports online reviews, annotations and versioning in one central repository to keep it all together and hold people accountable.

Social Media – 70% of online adults use social media. With the popularity and opportunity of rich media and social media together, organizations are inquisitively anxious and excited about how to use and manage rich media within social media.

DAM supports marketers wanting to get into social media much the same way it’s used in the traditional sense, however requires stronger consideration over managing access levels, digital rights, and what happens when an assets leaves the system? One solution Widen brings to the table, again, is embed links. Another trend to watch is how social media will shape how DAM and other software solutions work by creating a stronger sense of community and more variety in the way digital media is published and delivered.