Digital Asset Tracking

Updates to the core Digital Asset Management application include search improvements with exact phrase search, stemming support for singular versus plural metatags and the ability to exclude full text search of Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents. The search results sort by “file format” function has been added to group assets of the same file type. Video Asset Management improvements were made to include FFMPEG video transcoding for faster video processing and automatic alternate still previews for embed links videos.

The Dynamic Media Building ad and brochure template building application included updates to allow text blocks to have different font and font colors based on end user selections during the build process. This allows one template to be uploaded with the flexibility for different branding. End users can also upload their own image (if the template allows) during the build process.

Updates to Project Collaboration include the ability to Add Notes on image projects. Notes can be added any place on an image. Multiple notes can be added by all users on the route and are reviewed by the owner(s) of the project. All notes added to or removed from the image are tracked with Project Details.

For more specific information about the Widen Media Collective and 5.5 release visit: http://www.widencollective.com.

We’re SaaSing back at the conventional wisdom of IT because DAM doesn’t need to be so difficult! Read our article in today’s ECM Connection newsletter--SaaSing Back without Getting Smacked. Here's a bit from that article...

Gartner put out a report in 2008 that indicated the SaaS model has become increasingly popular during the last three to four years. The report said more than 40% of organizations have used SaaS for more than three years and nearly 90% of organizations surveyed expect to maintain or grow their usage of SaaS, citing the following as primary reasons for adoption:

Immediate Deployment
SaaS services are immediately usable and begin returning on the investment immediately.

Service is Just as Important as Technology
Service providers supply implementation, training, software, integration, maintenance, upgrades, and support as part of the total package and are staffed to handle each component themselves.

Infinite Scalability
Software-as-a-service providers are already geared up to handle scalability so when you need to go from 100GB to 100TB, even for 24 hours, you can do it and only pay for what you use.

Lower Price Points and Total Cost of Ownership
Service providers are sharing in the power of user communities, shared technology, and innovation to keep costs down and price points that make installed software pricing look ridiculous. Also, no additional resources needed in a complete software-as-a-service model. No extra IT maintenance is required.


It’s the start of a new month, new quarter and new victories to be had… Are you ready to start increasing your Marketing ROI with Digital Asset Management?

When marketing teams implement Digital Asset Management software technologies to centralize, repurpose and track marketing and brand assets, they’re better equipped to:

• Maintain brand consistency and compliance across all media channels and selling channels in different geographic markets

• Reduce time to market with new campaigns by finding existing materials quickly and easily in ready-to-go file formats appropriate for the intended purpose

• Eliminate redundancies creating and distributing assets by reducing the need to recreate lost assets or depend on slower, manual processes for sending files

• Get internal teams and external partners on the same page with access to the same library of marketing and sales materials, collaboration tools and collateral customization

Widen makes it simple because 100% DAM SaaS provides you with a guided implementation (including training), automatic upgrades, and powerful web-based DAM without the burden on your internal IT resources.

We’ve reloaded our Demo site and invite you to check it out! Get acquainted with web based digital asset management and take the tour on your own.

I’ll be the first to admit… Digital Asset Management is not that sexy. As a marketing guy, it’s hard to get excited about databases. However, the content stored in a DAM system is another story… Of all the content types, digital assets—particularly images and videos—got to be the sexiest! Consider the growth and popularity of online video... Gartner Predicts 25% of content in the workforce to be images, audio or video by 2013.

I understand… you have a limited marketing budget so you’d rather spend that budget on things like social media, search engine optimization, video players and other “cool things.” Isn’t that convenient… Digital Asset Management is the backbone of your marketing efforts because it allows you to better find, manage and repurpose these assets that are the lifeblood of your marketing and promotion campaigns. Social media, digital asset optimization, and video marketing programs all use digital assets as a core part of the marketing message.

If you’re not sure you need DAM, then you may want to read my last post (Why we don’t need DAM…). I apologize for the overabundant use of sarcasm. Yes, small to medium-sized businesses need DAM just as much as marketing teams at Fortune 500 enterprises. And yes, there are still mid-market digital asset management solutions out there… few and far between… but they’re out there.

Step 1 – Admit you have a DAM problem. Step 2 – Seek help.

Now, more on making the case for digital asset management software in your marketing operations. Reference the recent eMarketer article “Marketers Buzz About ROI” that discusses the Marketing priorities for 2010. Many US marketing executives were planning to increase budgets this year as they were much more optimistic about the economic outlook in February 2010 than in 2009 when the recession was in full swing. However, that doesn’t come without scrutiny because the number one priority is focusing on ROI.

Priority #1: Increase Marketing Return on Investment —according to the “Marketing Trends Report 2010” from Anderson Analytics and the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).



Priority #1 as it relates to DAM—explained. You’ve made investments in the creation of digital media—photo shoots, retouching, video shoots, editing, stock and rights-managed photography purchases, etc. You’ve made investments in assembling the destination points for your digital media—websites, blogs, social networks, advertising, promotions and print. Now, it’s time to invest in a digital asset management product that will help you realize a maximum return on those investments by getting greater use out of your digital assets. DAM tools make those assets easy to find, distribute, reuse and repurpose while also allowing you to track, compare and measure their value.

Priority #2, 3, 4 & 5 will be introduced and explained in later posts. However, point 3 and 5 deal with brand loyalty and branding—another reason why companies invest in DAM technologies.

Focus on Marketing ROI – Reference the 2009 AberdeenGroup DAM Benchmark Report. Best-In-Class companies are using Digital Asset Management systems to improve efficiency, increase brand consistency and improve return on marketing investments. See the key charts from the report in the blog post for “The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management.”

AberdeenGroup found that best-in-class companies centralizing access to digital assets are two times more likely to use a DAM system for the marketing functions. These same best-in-class companies reported a 23% year over year reduction in time to market and an 18% increase in average return on marketing investments. On the other hand, time to market increased by 11% for DAM laggards and average return on marketing investment fell by 17%.


Download the whitepaper "Why Digital Asset Management Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010" to learn more about how DAM adopters achieve substantial return on investment including reducing time to market, improving the performance of marketing campaigns, reducing marketing costs and improving brand consistency.

The Bottom Line

DAM is not all that sexy, but you can’t ignore the fact that you need it to power your marketing operations and improve marketing ROI. In today’s distributed marketing environment, shared drives, FTP, CDs/DVDs and tape libraries won’t cut it. Your marketing partners need instant access to your digital assets and you must be able to find, reuse and repurpose assets multiple times and in multiple locations. Marketers don’t just rely on one channel anymore. We are all multi-channel marketers and publishers.  To do more with less, be a more productive marketer and get more out of the investments in creating and distributing assets, you need an asset management system.

Step 1 – Admit you have a DAM problem. Step 2 – Seek help.

Lucky for you, Widen provides DAM as Software as a Service provider, which means YOU GET HELP. With 100% DAM SaaS, you keep on marketing – no IT resources necessary. SaaS includes: guided implementation, shared best practices, help desk available when you need it, admin and end-user training, promotional support, automatic upgrades, ongoing maintenance and technical support. Learn more about Widen DAM SaaS.

I work in a small marketing team of about five. We have a designer, a product manager, a brand manager, a marketing assistant and an online marketer. We work closely with the sales and customer success management teams. We often collaborate with the account executives and project services teams on projects. Basically, anyone with a customer-facing role depends on Marketing and Marketing depends on them.

Like many organizations, our marketing communications programs include online marketing, public relations, brand management, event marketing, etc. We produce a number of digital assets that are put to use promote our brand, sell products and services and assist with customer relationship management objectives. These digital assets are owned and created by a number of different people across multiple departments inside the organization and externally. Each department has their own shared folder on the network and many employees also have their own folder as well. It’s easier for each department to work separately and for each employee to keep their work on their desktop. When we have a new project, we just start fresh in creating new materials. It’s just easier to re-create something than go digging through some archive somewhere or turn to someone else.

If for some reason, someone needs something that someone else has worked on, we’ll just email it or post it to the FTP. Sometimes, the materials get too large for email so we’ll just use web-based delivery programs like YouSendIt or something like that. There are all sorts of tools or methods we can turn to… no need to settle on one. If someone needs a logo or letterhead, they can always email our designer and she can stop what she’s working on and send them whatever it is they need. Sometimes it might take a few emails to get it right, but that’s ok she’s paid by the hour.

It’s common for teams to email a project file back and forth a dozen times and still see mistakes in the end. “She said this” and “he said that” and the project file morphs into something totally different than expectations called for. They should have given better directions and should have done a better job keeping track of changes. Version 1… version 2… version 7… Who cares what was done to which version and where they’re at? That’s just part of internal communication breakdowns that all businesses have. Why should Marketing care?

It doesn’t really matter to Marketing that different departments have their own libraries of materials and guidelines that they follow—we don’t have that strong of a brand presence anyway. Inconsistency is just part of business and “brand consistency” is a made up marketing term anyway… it has no financial impact. If companies would just spend more time selling and less time on branding then they’d be more successful, right?

Although it’s a pain in the neck, working with agencies or other partners is another part of marketing. If we work with an agency on a brochure, video or website we’ll just assume they’re keeping all of the original files, master assets and anything else they produced. If we need it later, we’ll just email the agency and wait for them to send a CD with the final files. Hopefully, they’ve kept all the files even though it’s been a couple years since the project. Why should we be care what happened to the files or if we have them later? ...Chances are we’ll never use them again.

If only Sales could do their job. It’s not Marketing’s problem to look after the crap sales teams put together. If our sales teams put together poor-quality presentations and lose a deal, then that’s their fault… they should have done a better job. They deal directly with our customers, they should get it right. If they’re putting together presentations on the road or working after five, then it’s not Marketing’s problem if there’s no one at the office to track down and send them the files they need. They should be better prepared.

Why should Marketing care what materials are accessed by whomever, used wherever and what impacts they had. All we want to do is create content and move on. If that old logo was used for the new proposal, that’s not Marketing’s fault. If that image for the new campaign was used before it was to be available for general use, that’s not Marketing’s problem. Why should we care what materials were used the most or had the greatest impact? We know what’s best because we’ve always done it that way. That’s Marketing for you… the department that doesn’t require accountability or intelligence.

We don’t need a digital asset management system. Or do we?

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.

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.




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.

Marketers have been shifting budgets and focus to Digital Marketing strategies for quite some time in order to be “multi-channel” and leverage the power of digital media, online and other interactive channels. These strategies allow brand owners to be more efficient in reaching their target audiences with their message. Leveraging new ways to push messages, publish content and interact with customers is the easy part because the ROI is clearer. However, marketers should not overlook the methods and technologies that assist in creating, managing and distributing the “assets” that power digital marketing strategies. Although managing digital assets is not seen as the “sexy” side of marketing, it is a critical component to increasing efficiency with operations, ensuring consistency in presenting a brand to the marketplace, and maximizing the return on marketing investments.

As marketers leverage more cost-effective means of reaching their audiences, they should also adopt more cost-effective means of managing their digital media with Digital Asset Management solutions.

An Integrated Approach to Marketing

There’s a lot of evidence to show that digital marketing is more targeted, more impactful, and better tied to other vehicles and channels. More appealing to marketing executives is the opportunity that digital marketing brings with reporting, tracking and accountability. While many marketers are not entirely doing away with traditional marketing and advertising programs (TV, print, direct mail, etc.), they have shifted more focus on an integrated approach. Digital marketing helps marketers better engage customers to complement more traditional approaches targeting the masses. Digital marketing is often more cost effective, builds awareness quickly, fosters relationships and is measurable in ways traditional advertising just can’t match.

As companies make moves in the way they deliver their message and connect with customers to be more cost-effective, they should also make moves in the way they manage the content of their brand. The solution to being more cost-effective with how to manage that content is better known as digital asset management (DAM). 

What DAM Provides to Digital Media and Brand Assets:

• Greater ability to organize and find approved and available assets
• Greater ability to share and repurpose assets across multiple channels
• Greater ability to ensure compliance and consistency with approved assets

Driving Brand Awareness with DAM

Marketers seek to improve brand awareness by being in more places in front of more faces. However, if the brand does not appear consistent from one customer touch point to the next, than that is more damaging to the brand than not being there at all. DAM helps marketers repurpose digital media across multiple channels and do so consistently with assets meeting the quality standards for each channel. For example, image assets were historically developed with the specific channel in mind i.e. print catalog. Now, image assets are developed for multiple channels--print catalog, brochure, store signage, website, email marketing, online video and other social/interactive media.


What Drives DAM Adoption? (From the 2009 Aberdeen Benchmark Study)

• Improved Operational Efficiency – streamlined digital supply chains
• Improved Brand Consistency – approved brand assets used in multiple channels – as opposed to communications coming from disconnected departments
• Improved Return on Marketing Investments (ROMI) – greater opportunity to find and reuse or repurpose existing assets and reduce re-work or costs of re-creating lost assets

Now that we’ve covered the core reasons why marketers should leverage digital asset management technologies to improve marketing efficiency and effectiveness, I’ll cover why SaaS is the most cost-effective delivery model for marketers to deploy digital asset management solutions next.

Almost everyone nowadays has a digital camera, even if it's just on their mobile phone. This means that data and images are no longer stored in file folders and photo albums, but on hard drives and memory cards. While this technology is superb for working with images, it is not without risks. Storage devices can get damaged or stolen and then your precious memories are lost.

Transition that into the business world where there is more digital media and more users requiring access on a daily basis. A memory is to an individual like a brand is to an organization. What does is stand for? How is it perceived? What do people think of when they see a brand’s assets? To consistently market a brand in today’s multichannel environments, digital media and brand assets must be protected and delivered using the most reliable solution.

What options are available to help protect digital media and brand assets?

Many people make multiple back-ups of their computer systems and storage devices. This is great for a while but eventually you end up with back-ups of back-ups with loads of duplicated data. Alternatively, you run the risk of deleting files that you think you have backed up only to discover that you did not. An online Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is therefore something worth considering. It has multiple functionalities, is quite simple to use, cost-effective to purchase, and can help manage all of your digital media very effectively. 

How does a Digital Asset Management system work?

A DAM system is made up of various software functionalities to assist in the creation, management and distribution of digital media. If your organization has multiple internal and external stakeholders, there may be additional applications helpful on both ends of the spectrum—creation and distribution. Here's a brief overview of the various applications that fit the digital asset life cycle.

At the core, a digital asset repository helps you to centralize photos, logos, creative files and other digital media. DAM makes it easy to search for specific media files, convert and distribute them using a web-based platform. You can access your files easily and conveniently—even if the files are very large. A video asset management system is similar in that it allows you to preview, transcode and send video and audio files across the web without much effort. This is particularly useful when working with tight deadlines and you need a convenient delivery method.

If you frequently have to select photographs from portfolios for various creative and advertising projects, then a collaboration application would serve as a versatile feature of a DAM system. Working upstream in the creative workflow from the general DAM repository, web-based workflow and collaboration tools allow photography and creative teams to review and approve the photos that you wish to use. Additionally, when working on specific creative or marketing projects, project owners can coordinate reviews, track comments and approvals on modified versions and keep design teams on track for a streamlined workflow.

Downstream from the general digital asset repository, partners and sales channels can create custom marketing and sales collateral with a dynamic media building tool. Using predefined templates and content options, non-technical or non-creative users can create localized ads, brochures, direct mail and signage. This feature allows sales channels and affiliates to produce brand-approved collateral for campaigns, product launches, events or special promotions at a local level.

What are the benefits of using a Digital Asset Management system?

A big plus of any DAM system is that it helps you manage and search for files in a centralized system for all types of digital media. No more searching for the CD with the photos from last year’s campaign; simply view, organize and retrieve assets online. Web-based DAM systems are designed to be simple and easy to use, and users do not need to be technical experts to get what they need.

An equally important benefit is that a DAM system offers a safe storage facility for your files. Hard drives may fail from time to time, and CDs can get lost or damaged. In that case, you may not be able to retrieve your precious brand assets. A web-based DAM system has necessary back-ups, ensuring that you will always be able to access your photos and videos even if you change your computer hardware.

DAM is a critical technology for organizations with collaborative workflows needing a single storage and access point. Collaboration is particularly useful for staff in the media industry and corporate marketing environments. DAM systems make life much easier in being able to review, approve, search, share and download files that are typically too large for more limiting means of collaboration. The system effectively becomes the virtual meeting point for everyone across different geographic locations, which is both convenient and cost-effective.

Lastly, one of the most critical issues that a DAM system helps to solve is safeguarding an organization’s brand by ensuring only the most current assets are used. An online DAM system provides the easiest access point to approved brand assets. Being able to easily retrieve assets helps to ensure internal and external users turn to the DAM system first as opposed to other unattended sources. Governance features such as roles and permissions help administrators regulate who can see what assets. Assets for future or past due uses can be on hold or archived so the general user doesn’t have access.

Digital Asset Management helps organizations be more efficient, effective and in greater control over the vast amounts of digital media and brand assets at every critical stage of the digital asset life cycle.

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.

The CMO Council released information today regarding marketers lagging in optimizing their supply chains.  Digital asset management is mentioned as something that 30.1% of the respondents have already embarked on as part of their online strategy.  The lack of visibility is one element of the challenge where Widen DAM SaaS has provided insight to CMO's.

As part of the relationship with Widen, we are providing customers with visibility into the critical measurements of Digital Asset Management programs.  These critical measurements include the repurposing ratio, a way of monitoring how frequently digital assets are reused in the marketplace.  These statistics provide CMO's with a higher level understanding of their digital media assets and how they can leverage more value from them.

Mike Perez, Vice President of NVISION, also makes a reference to SaaS by stating the following: "Marketers are clearly recognizing that they can gain significant efficiencies and cost-savings, which will allow them to re-direct spend and resources to more gainful programs. But to do this, they need the right information systems, process controls, knowledge, expertise and physical infrastructure to implement process improvements and better handle procurement, warehousing and just-in-time delivery of marketing materials worldwide. Often this is a competency that can be more cost-effectively outsourced."

That quote strings together beautiful words.....gain efficiencies, cost-savings, invest in better programs, need the right I.S., JIT marketing materials worldwide, more cost-effectively outsourced.  It all fits the value of Widen digital asset management with a high-powered service model and 62 years of business operations at the core.


The CMO Council press release, also available below, can be found here: 
Marketers Lag in Optimizing Global Supply Chains; Big Opportunities Exist to Reduce Cost, Improve Yield and Increase Accountability


PALO ALTO, CA -- 11/16/09 -- Nearly two-thirds of senior marketers have never undertaken a comprehensive audit of the costs and processes that contribute to their marketing supply chain and most admit their resources and suppliers are poorly integrated across global networks, reports the Chief Marketing Office (CMO) Council.

The milestone "Define Where to Streamline" study (www.marketingsupplychain.org/report) provides a comprehensive assessment of how well marketers are managing, controlling and introducing sustainability practices across increasingly complex global supply chains. These include hundreds or thousands of printers, exhibit and merchandise suppliers, warehouse and fulfillment operations, communications agencies, media channels, independent contractors, as well as creative and digital service providers.

The online audit of more than 300 senior marketers conducted by the CMO Council found marketers are inadequately positioned to introduce new efficiencies and waste reduction programs into their marketing ecosystems. The study is the first initiative in a sweeping program under the umbrella of a new think tank, the Marketing Supply Chain Institute, which is dedicated to examining the economics of spend in the marketing services sector. The study was conducted with the support of NVISION®, the Marketing Supply Chain Group of North America Corporation.

While only 25.2 percent of respondents have undertaken a comprehensive audit and analysis of costs and process efficiencies in their supply chain, the study found that roughly the same number -- 25.9 percent -- track obsolescence on marketing and event management consumables. However, just over 50 percent of the marketers audited acknowledge that ROI could be the greatest reward from an optimized supply chain as a streamlined process will likely speed time-to-market and time-to-value from marketing spend. These numbers reflect a lack of visibility into marketing supply chain operations and poor tracking and accountability of marketing materials and merchandise inventory, which often involve millions of printed items, including product packaging, corporate brochures, sales literature, premiums and point-of-sale display units.

"Auditing the effectiveness of producing, storing and shipping marketing consumables is the first step towards a more integrated, efficient and streamlined marketing supply chain," said Mike Perez, Vice President of NVISION. "Marketers are clearly recognizing that they can gain significant efficiencies and cost-savings, which will allow them to re-direct spend and resources to more gainful programs. But to do this, they need the right information systems, process controls, knowledge, expertise and physical infrastructure to implement process improvements and better handle procurement, warehousing and just-in-time delivery of marketing materials worldwide. Often this is a competency that can be more cost-effectively outsourced," he added.

Interestingly, the CMO Council study suggests that a trend toward greater sustainability and carbon footprint reductions may lead many marketers onto the right path for gaining a deeper understanding of their supplier network and value chain. More than two-thirds of respondents -- 63.6 percent -- said they are targeting print production, warehousing and delivery of marketing consumables and 37.1 percent said they were targeting transportation and logistics with an eye toward realizing sustainability gain and carbon footprint improvements. Delving into these areas will enable marketers to exact cost-savings and efficiency improvements from many of the greatest areas of spend within their marketing supply chains.

"The marketing supply chain is clearly not a strategic area of focus for many marketers, yet there are significant improvements that can be driven by change-minded executives willing to dig deeply into the operational side of the marketing function," noted Donovan Neale-May, the CMO Council's executive director. "You are going to see a much tighter linkage between the CMO, CFO and CPO (chief procurement officer) going forward and more involvement by the CIO to integrate back-end information from ERP systems to better synchronize marketing supply operations and partners."

Other key findings from the report include:

--  With 89 percent of companies indicating they are not generating real
    economies or efficiencies in their marketing supply chain process,
    marketers are further challenged as one third of respondents indicate they
    have no internal resource of expertise in supply chain management.  In
    fact, 47.8 percent of marketers surveyed indicate that marketing supply
    chain management is an evolving functional area that needs more attention
    or a discipline growing in importance of value.

--  30.4 percent of respondents said they weren't fully realizing the
    value and potential of the Internet and instead are managing partners
    through traditional means while 30.1 percent clearly have adopted an online
    approach, saying they were seeing major improvements in workflow,
    collaboration, content access and digital asset management.

--  Marketers acknowledge that a streamlined supply chain can improve go-
    to-market strategy and speed time-to-value from marketing spend, and play a
    critical role in managing the potential variance in customer experience.
    The delivery of accurate and relevant content, the uniformity of
    communication and consistency of message, and the timely provisioning of up-
    to-date sales and marketing messages and materials are the top three
    critical values an optimized marketing supply chain to go-to-market
    strategy.

--  Creative, once an area often left in the hands of agencies or
    advertising, may come under greater scrutiny as a significant number of
    marketers -- 40.5 percent -- identified creative design and development as
    an area in the marketing supply chain with the greatest potential for
    process, productivity and performance improvements.

I had a little fun with the 12-second Widen segment from the SIIA OnDemand 2009 Day 1 in Review video. In this video segment, Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering, preaches “Service is equally, if not more, important than the technology itself” when it comes to delivering Digital Asset Management Software as a Service. Check it out…




Catch the original video here: SIIA OnDemand 2009 Day One in Review


Keywords: DAM SaaS, Digital Asset Management Video, Digital Media System, Digital Asset Tracking, Video Hosting Service, Media Asset Storage.

Widen recently published a new “Brand Standards” document in efforts to maintain a consistent face to the marketplace. This exercise has been quite a grueling process as we work to gather, catalog and manage all of our logos and templates to enforce consistent use of our branding. (Go figure, a Digital Asset Management company has many of the same frustrations as the customers we serve!)

Like many organizations, the most public facing and prominent marketing touch point is the corporate website. We launched a new website in Q1 of this year and just recently updated our brand standards document that is three years removed from the last major update. (I’m sure you can relate!) Besides our website, we have several other forms of digital media channels that we try to maintain consistent with our corporate brand—landing pages, blogs, social networking pages, print collateral and corporate documents.   

The part of this process that became particularly complicated was managing all the different versions of our logos… 

Widen has 35 different logos from 13 different styles of the Widen logo:

1. 3-D Reflected versions
2. Flat versions
3. Black & White 3-D Reflected versions
4. Black & White Flat versions
5. 3-D Reflected versions with the tagline “Empower Your Digital Media”
6. Flat versions with the tagline “Empower Your Digital Media”
7. Black & White 3-D Reflected versions with the tagline “Empower Your Digital Media”
8. Black & White Flat versions with the tagline “Empower Your Digital Media”
9. 3-D Circle W Icons
10. Powered by Widen stamps for customer sites
11. Widen Media Collective product stamps
12. Widen Appliance product stamps
13. Widen for Appexchange logos for our Salesforce.com apps

Portfolio View of the Widen Logo Library

As users of our own digital asset management tools we can control which formats are convertible and what conversion options are to be configured within our DAM SaaS application. Most of the 13 different styles have RGB (for web or print conversion), CMYK (for print only) and PMS (for print only) versions so that’s why we total 35 different logos. There are 4 "for print only" logos that can be downloaded only as the CMYK or PMS file in the original .ai file format, meaning there is no conversion.

The RGB versions hold the integrity of the file the best—particularly with the reflected red 3-D Circle W that has several different colors in it. The RGB files can be converted to any file format for print or web use. Conversion options include: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and EPS (configurable to each client’s specifications). Therefore, instead of having on file and keeping track of more than 52 additional logos in different file formats, we only need to keep track of the 13 master logos that can be converted to any format using Photoshop conversions on-demand within our own Widen Media Collective DAM system.

Logo Conversion Options Configured Specific to the Widen Corporate Internal DAM System

Are there any other marketing people that can relate to the vast challenges in managing a logo library?  We’d love to hear your story!
 

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Eddy, the director of corporate marketing with a large engineering, consulting and construction company and I’m working with our I.T. business analyst to find a solution to our current digital image management process—which is doomed.  We’re leading an initiative to find a better digital media management system to manage and share images and marketing collateral.  We have nine different locations throughout the US and we’re in dire need of a more organized approach to share approved imagery with our marketing and engineering folks around the world.  We’re losing a lot of time and money chasing our tails with materials that we don’t even know exactly where they are. 

Our corporate marketing team wants to be able to drive brand consistency while doing a better job of capitalizing on the money spent on purchased images we know exist somewhere, but cannot locate.  Right now, we’re just using a shared network drive and it demands a lot of our designer’s time to fulfill requests for images.  We are also having issues with our marketing collateral containing outdated info and need to develop a more accurate process for customizing brochures with different pieces of information.  We currently use another enterprise software vendor for content management and looked into the DAM plug-in but that would cost us $100K+, which is out of the question.  We want a hosted digital asset management system because we don’t want to deal with our own internal servers anymore.  Please point us in the right direction.

DEAR ENGINEER A NEW DAM EDDY:  Looking toward a hosted DAM is a smart alternative, particularly in these times.  There are no major expenditures on hardware or expensive upgrades/add-ons to purchase.  The Widen hosted digital asset management system provides you with your own branded web portal to drive your corporate branding initiative.  Plus, you’ll get free software upgrades on a quarterly basis for as long as you’re a customer.  Your designers will enjoy more time to concentrate on what they set out to do because your agents will be able to fulfill their own requests.  No more purchased images will fall through the cracks as a new DAM system will greatly help you improve organization and accountability.  The Widen Media Collective includes a project collaboration module to route images and documents for comment and approval tracking.  And, the media building app will help your users produce custom marketing collateral using images and content fit for the situation.  You’ll enjoy the ability to run usage reports and see where your users are and what’s being downloaded.  Get ready for a change because you’ll start realizing an ROI within a few short months.  

From capture to distribution, Widen helps marketers save costs, improve efficiency and speed time to market with its array of digital production services. 

Photographic Capture

Specializing in tabletop and lifestyle digital photography, particularly for the apparel industry, Widen is able to reduce photography time and costs by capturing only a neutral color garment of a particular style instead of photographing every color swatch needed to bring that product to market.  This method dramatically reduces photography costs and model time because it greatly reduces the amount of products to shoot.  Products are captured according to the client’s pre-determined product display standards.  For example with these apparel garments, Widen photographers shoot three-quarter front and back views of the item on a mannequin.  Captures are tagged and instantly delivered to Widen’s digital production team who then create the full line of products. 

Digital Production

After the captures are taken, Widen color retouching specialists apply the necessary colors and special markings according to the client’s technical specifications, thus creating all color swatches and product variations.  This process is formally referred to as “digital sampling” for the apparel market.  This process is manual versus automated for the purpose of producing superior quality hi-resolution images that accurately represent the physical product.  Final images are created for both print and web use.  Benefits derived from this process include: reducing physical sample cost by marketing digital samples without physically producing all of the products, improving time to market with a process that previously took weeks or days to one that now takes only a couple of days to a couple of hours.  Intangible results for the client include improving brand consistency by accurately displaying all products available for sale in addition to improving market penetration by marketing the full line of products.

Web-based Collaboration, Management & Distribution

Widen also develops web based digital asset software for collaboration, approval tracking, management and distribution of digital files, an industry defined as digital asset management (DAM).  Widen speeds the approval process by allowing clients to instantly review the digital samples (digital assets) online and make comments, annotations, and order immediate changes.  Once the digitally produced file is approved by the client, they are available in a web-based, password protected, client-branded website where key internal marketing teams and external sales / distribution channels or retailers have access to download official product images.  Based on the level of permissions, users can download hi-resolution CMYK images for print use or lo-resolution RGB images for the web.  All files are instantly converted to the necessary output type from one master file type so that multiple formats of the same file do not need to be stored.  The Widen online DAM system is equipped with a number of features to manage images rights and access levels.  One of the hottest features and trends is publishing digital samples to online sources using digital asset embed links where the master file displayed online is referenced in the Widen DAM, which is the master repository.


 

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:

1. Photograph neutral color physical apparel samples
2. Digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors
3. Apply team and league graphics according to Adidas supplied technical guidelines
4. 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.

It is undeniable how important tracking, measurement and analysis are in business today.  All organizations are pushing resources to the max under restricted budgets and it is imperative to leverage usage data and analytics to make the best strategic decisions for digital asset creation and use.  Widen is helping customers apply usage data and quantifiable metrics to develop steps toward digital asset management best practices.  When applied under the guidance of best practices, digital asset management technologies and services are proven resources to assist in maximizing profitability.
 
In the clips below, I talk about how Widen, as a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, is set up to collect all sorts of client data about digital asset usage and apply that data in a way that helps customers constantly improve their marketing operations and digital asset management best practices.

Video 1:  How does Widen help apply best practices?

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.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name is Patrick, Director of Premedia at a mid-sized marketing agency.  I have an extreme problem providing and controlling access to our digital files.  I have a number of internal departments that require different levels of access and our current method of using an internal shared folder is driving me nuts with all the problems we encounter just trying to keep things organized.  We do a high amount of direct mail pieces and need an efficient way for my team and clients to review the prints.  How can something so basic be so difficult to handle?

DEAR PERPLEXED PATRICK:  You would think that everyone would be utilizing a web-based digital asset management system by now...  just kidding.  Your prescription calls for a central repository with role-based access controls, complete with on-the-fly file transformations and a project collaboration component.  With Widen marketing resource management features, you have the ability to upload proofs for internal and external review and approval tracking.  I caution you of the intense spike in productivity you may experience by cutting out much of the manual labor dealing with content management and structure.

From images, to audio and video, Widen DAM SaaS applications provide the tools to help clients successfully manage and distribute their digital assets.  For the majority of our clients, there are select individuals that become the champions of their digital asset management implementation.  These are the people that hold the most responsibility in administering the applications and are the key decision makers into what the system manages and how to manage the system.

One of the great capabilities with a DAM System is that Administrators have the ability to run reports on all activity.  These reports include determining who is logging in to the platform, which assets are ordered the most or even determining how many assets you have for a particular product. 

Reporting is key to gathering market insights, determining product popularity, and understanding how/where to allocate marketing resources.  Moreover, reporting is extremely important when it comes to managing rights and knowing exactly how, where and by whom your brand assets are being used.  Reporting and tracking tools are vital to leveraging digital asset management programs as a true resource to marketing operations driving brand consistency and revenues.
 

Here’s a brief overview of a few standard reporting options for Widen Administrators:

Site Overview – Dashboard showing number of users, number of assets, total size (GB/TB), top users by number of logins, top assets ordered, and top asset quick searches.

Trend Graphs – Standard list of out-of-the-box reports showing trend graphs and data tables over time for Assets Orders, Assets, Versions, Asset Groups and Users

User Reports – Custom reports on user demographic info, roles, and activity such as logins

Registration Reports – Custom reports to control / monitor system access

Asset Reports – Custom reports on all asset metadata and security / release dates

Asset Order Reports – Custom reports with sender and recipient data

Asset Upload Reports – Custom reports on all assets entering the DAM system

Other Reports – Photo Routing (for Backdrop), Projects (for Collaboration), Templates (for Media Building) and Catalog Production