How does a company founded in 1948 get into digital asset management software?

Friday, September 3, 2010 by Jake Athey
Old Article, Common Question: How does a company founded in 1948 get into digital asset management software?
 
It’s a confused look or baffled pause we get every time someone evaluating our digital asset management services asks “How long have you been around?” and we respond with an answer that starts or ends with “…60 years!” 
 
In the mid 1990s, as a 40-some year old family-owned company creating and manipulating large volumes of massive image and page files with our prepress operations, Widen created a problem for our customers by not having a means to easily manage, access and distribute these “digital assets” from different locations across the country. Hence, Widen began the R&D department for what would later be known as Digital Asset Management software.

Widen never thought of providing software that would be left up to the customer’s IT department to install, maintain and support. We’ve always been delivering software as a service provider—placing an emphasis on the Service aspects. The Marketing and Creative people we worked with did not want that then, they don’t want that now, and more common nowadays—IT departments don’t want that either. C’mon IT, why would you want to be taken off supporting your core business applications to devote resources to Marketing with such a specialized and ever-changing demand?
 
Read the WisBusiness.com article “Gonnering: Widen Enterprises thrives through tech transitions” from March 31, 2009 to learn more about the evolution of Widen’s service offering to marketing and creative groups. Or, check out Widen’s History to learn how it all began—starting in 1948 as Widen Engraving, Co. Check out the historical photos of Widen Engraving Co. at Facebook.com/Widen.
 
Widen Engraving Co.
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Does Your Company Need Digital Asset Management?

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Jake Athey
Does Your Company Need Digital Asset Management? People talk all the time about the good old days, but if you were a photo editor, audio/video professional or graphic artist (or owned a company providing these services) in the 1960s those days were often quite tedious. What we call asset management, the storing and retrieval of photos or artwork, meant having entire rooms, sometimes even entire buildings, full of file cabinets, storage closets and 1,000-page inventory lists. It could take days to find something. 
 
The same sort of manual filing systems were used for fingerprints at police labs when DNA profiles were not even featured in science fiction yet. Technicians could compare crime-scene fingerprints only by sight, and only had access to local print cards, too. Printing, publishing, photography and police work all changed radically with the advent of computers and the digital workflow. Asset management became digital asset management (DAM), and a completely new paradigm was born. 
 
The basics 
 
Every company today has computer files that need to be stored for either random retrieval or long-term archiving. Even a Mom-and-Pop print shop could have thousands of font files, hard drives full of photos and DVDs full of clip art, not to mention all the completed projects and their various components. Keeping track of all of this is far beyond the abilities of a file cabinet. Digital asset management experts have come forward to help the many individuals and firms that get lost in the sea of files, formats, drives and discs. 
 
At its most basic, your plan for digital asset management begins with an honest, thorough assessment of the objectives you have for managing and distributing your particular digital assets. You then need to define and adopt a long-term plan for what you wish to accomplish, factoring in the real-world experience at your place of business (and the different people and departments that need various levels of access). You can take the job on yourself, as long as you have sufficient expertise and time. If you do not have one or the other, or have neither, you can get help from companies that specialize in solving your DAM problems (pun intended). 
 
What it provides 
 
It is not just about storage. It is about efficiency, time, employee productivity and profits. Once you quantify the cost of your present inefficient system, you will be able to provide an accurate idea of the ROI (Return On Investment) that you will get from a new DAM system. In a generic corporate example (not a digital content producing company but, say, a shoe manufacturer), DAM would be essential to the functioning of the in-house marketing department. Even large Fortune 500 firms that use outside ad agencies have their own in-house departments, and companies large and small can both have huge libraries of images, shelves full of discs and hard drives full of uncoordinated digital materials. 
 
You can approach the solution several ways, but it will normally involve centralizing the media assets for quick retrieval. Some firms will do all of this onsite, but the real advances in computing in the cloud, as it’s called, is convincing many other companies to seek DAM in the SaaS (Software as a Service) model. The advantages are numerous, including redundant backups, on- and off-site access and storage, tech support and customer service, too. There is no one overarching model, and unique situations require unique solutions. However, it is clear that the SaaS model is a powerful, efficient and cost-effective solution for many companies. 
 
How to proceed 
 
The first, most important thing, as previously mentioned, is doing an honest review of the present workflow and DAM system. There will be standardized tools and systems that a SaaS DAM provider will offer you, and often these are fully up to the challenge. If there are unique issues in your firm, the solution provider can customize the approach for your specific situation. It is important to acknowledge that the DAM professionals have the expertise and have seen it all, so the more you learn about the technology and the process, the better you will adapt to the new way of doing things. 
 
As to the question initially posed (Does your company need digital asset management?) the answer would have to be “yes” for every company. No firm today works without digital assets. However, you may have a very small home office and not need a cloud-based DAM. In fact, you can probably devise and maintain your own DAM system with a bit of study and ongoing learning. However, if you have a small to medium-size business (SMB) and are starting to drown in TIFF, JPEG, audio and video files, you may need to take a step back and consider how much it is costing you to continue working the old way, especially when the new world of DAM is waiting for you. Give it some thought! 
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Digital Asset Management at Oceania Cruises Before Widen

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by Kathy Lewis
This series of posts features a video interview with Jason Barinaga, Manager of eCommerce Initiatives, at Oceania Cruises, Inc. In this first video, Jason talks about the pitfalls with digital asset management at Oceania before Widen. Prior to implementing the Widen web-based digital asset management system, Oceania was using another proprietary DAM tool that wasn’t as powerful, robust or scalable as what they found with the Widen DAM solution. There were a number of limitations and, consequently, there was a lot of negative feedback from internal and external users who counted on Oceania brand assets for promotions and marketing collateral. Oceania did not have the ability to store, convert or transcode, and distribute high resolution images or video files, nor did their previous DAM system support the handling of PDF files and other corporate branding documents. Watch the video to learn more about digital asset management at Oceania Cruises before Widen DAM.

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Widen Media Collective Summer 5.5 Release

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by Widen Marketing
Widen Enterprises has released Widen Media Collective® Version 5.5 with its Summer 2010 update to the flagship Software as a Service product for digital asset management (DAM).

Watch the video to learn about the new features and updates with the Widen Collective 5.5 Release.

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.
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A Day in the Life of Widen Digital Sampling: The Story of LeBron James Hot Market Orders

Friday, July 9, 2010 by Jake Athey
Enthralled in the LeBron James buzz that is “The Decision,” Widen has been part of the “madness” that follows the announcement of the NBA's marquee free agent to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami HEAT.

The Widen digital sampling process and web-based digital asset management technologies allow the adidas Sports Licensed Division (SLD) and retailers of NBA jerseys and apparel to start selling LeBron James hot market products within 12 hours of the decision going public. Sources report that the LeBron James number 6 Miami HEAT jerseys are selling like hotcakes and are expected to produce record numbers within the first week.

The LeBron James jersey samples you see on e-commerce sites like FansEdge.com and ESPNShop.com were digitally created by Widen’s digital sampling premedia production team. This saves the adidas Sports Licensed Division time and costs of photographing the physical product samples and beats the need to mass produce the products before they can be sold. In cases like this where the jerseys and apparel are being marketed and sold within hours of “the decision” going public, Widen’s process and expertise plays a key role in meeting the hot market demands.

Here’s the breakdown of the steps for the LeBron James hot market orders surrounding the special telecast of "The Decision" on ESPN Thursday, July 8 at 9:00 PM Eastern time:

1.  Widen received digital sampling orders from the adidas SLD on Thursday 7/8/2010 for all scenarios to James’ decision.

2.  Widen prepared digital samples of the blank team jerseys (front and back) for each possibility including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami HEAT, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers.

3. Widen digital sampling technicians added the player name (JAMES) and number (6) to the appropriate team blank (Miami HEAT) at 4:00AM CST on 7/9/2010.

4. The final digital samples were added to the adidas SLD Media Collective web-based digital asset management system and images were sent to the customers by 9:00AM CST on 7/9/2010 to be marketed and sold worldwide.


LeBron James Miami HEAT Digital Samples


For more information about Widen apparel marketing technology and premedia services, check out the Widen Digital Sampling blog or download the DAM as SaaS 2.0 white paper  featuring a Reebok case study.
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Digital Asset Management SaaSisfaction Gauntlet

Thursday, June 3, 2010 by Matthew Gonnering
Digital Asset Management SaaSisfaction GauntletThrowdown with Bobby Flay, SmackDown from WWE, and now the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet from Widen. 

SaaSisfaction: The satisfaction levels of customers in a software world. My theory is that customers using software-as-a-service (SaaS) are happier with their overall experience than customers using installed software. I am throwing down the gauntlet and sharing our survey results from a recent set of questions that we asked our customers. This challenge is focused in the digital asset management industry.  

For those not familiar with digital asset management technology, systems, and services: marketers need help managing and distributing images and video files – in a nutshell, that's what a digital asset management system does. Of course there is much more but we're keeping it simple here.

In the digital asset management market there are big enterprise players, small desktop providers and everything in between. The buying cycle involves analyst reports, vendor conversations, product demos, feature-by-feature comparisons, reference checks, credit checks, vaporware, future truths, pointless RFP's, overcommitments – but the ultimate question that remains unanswered in the buying cycle is what is my service experience going to be after I sign up? How can we allow a customer to experience what it's going to be like before commitment? You can capture some of this from the analysts, demos, and references but sharing customer satisfaction survey results allows customers to understand what their satisfaction level might be throughout the relationship.

Hence the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet. We invite all the competitors in the digital asset management space to actively participate. Some of these competitors are listed on the recent analyst report by Theresa Regli at The Real Story Group available on the Enterprise Information Watch DAM Stream. Other competitors are listed on the bottom right of one of the best blogs in the digital asset management community at DigitalAssetManagement.org.uk. By all the competitors, I mean big and small – from the Open Text and Autonomy acquisitions to North Plains, MediaBeacon, Celum, Wave, Xinet, and Canto. There are lots, these are only a few. Come one, come all to the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet for the digital asset management market.  

Full Disclosure

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the details of how we ran our survey:
  • There were 7 questions and 18 clicks with a $25 Amazon gift card incentive for completion
  • We focused on the main contacts at each customer, amounting to 321 total invitations delivered
  • The invitations were sent via email in two stages, the first email was sent to all main contacts on 05/12/10 and the next email was sent on 05/27/10 to all those that did not reply to the first invite
  • We received 121 responses equating to a 37.7% response rate from 73 unique companies
The Survey Questions

A copy of the survey that you should use is located here: Download Survey Structure 

We used SurveyMonkey.com with a Widen logo in the upper left. Substitute Widen for your organization's name and that's all the changes you need to make. The questions and structure are available at the aforementioned link in addition to the questions below:

1) Please rate your experience with <DAM Company> in the following areas: (4 options given: Excellent, Good, Adequate, Poor)
  • Responsiveness of our service teams
  • Communicating clearly and effectively
  • Keeping you informed of our progress
  • Collaborating with you and your team
  • Performance of systems/applications
  • Product functionality meets your expectations
  • Providing value for the money
  • Meeting overall project objectives
2) Overall, how do you rate the quality of <DAM Company> products and services? (4 options given: Excellent, Good, Adequate, Poor)

3) Would you recommend <DAM Company> to other organizations? (2 options given: yes or no)

4) What is your perception of the advancements in <DAM Company> technology (6 options given: Ahead of the Curve, Just About Right, Getting Better, Not Fast Enough, Stagnant, Behind the Times)

5) How likely is it that you will continue to use <DAM Company> in the future (5 options given: Certain, Very Likely, Somewhat Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely)

6) If you have any comments or suggestions regarding how <DAM Company> could improve the services or performance, please enter them in the box below. (1 option given: enter free form text)

7) To receive your $25 gift card from Amazon, please provide your information below and the gift certification will be emailed to you. (4 fields displayed: Name, Company, Email, Phone)

A Few Guidelines

Set up the survey using the same questions and incentive:
  • Share the results on your web site or blog post (I'm sure the digital asset management blogs will pick it up and post it for us as results come in)
  • Share the quantity of open ended responses for question #6 understanding that ideas from customers possess product advancement ideas that may be used for differentiation
  • Disclose your invitation methods, list quantities, response rate and unique companies responding 
  • I'd like to say there is a minimum number of participants, let's say at least 50 unique companies represented but even if you have less than that, it's ok, the information will be revealed in your disclosure
Widen Results

We have already setup the questions, disclosed our methods, shared our response rate and participation, so now I invite you to see the results of the Widen customer satisfaction survey for free at widen.com. There is a form requesting your information so please provide complete contact info. I already understand competitors are interested in this information so there is no need to register as ABC company with a fake email address. With our web analytics we already know how many times you visit our pages and which pages you visit. So just use your real information.

Sign-up to receive the Widen SaaSisfaction Gauntlet Customer Survey Results

Looking forward to seeing how satisfied your customers are relative to Widen customers.

Good luck!
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The Difference Between Reusing and Repurposing Digital Assets

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Jake Athey
What does it mean to reuse a digital asset? What does it mean to repurpose a digital asset?
These two terms are used interchangeably all of the time in the Digital Asset Management (DAM) space.

Do these terms mean the same thing to you?

The goal of this post is to introduce how I distinguish the concepts of RE-USING and RE-PURPOSING digital assets. Join the conversation by submitting a comment as I’m interested in understanding your take.

Digital assets are generally developed for one of three reasons:
  • To make money in businesses where the assets are the actual products being sold, like digital music or movie downloads.
  • To market and/or sell products or services where the digital assets represent the product(s) being sold—for example, product images in a catalog or Web site.
  • To reinforce a brand image or build brand equity, like a brand logo or logo representing a special occasion such as “60 years of service.”
The goal for any digital asset produced is to get as much value out of that asset as possible. Maximizing the value of a digital asset is accomplished by getting as much use (work) and result (return) from that asset. The way we measure results and return varies because there are tangible and intangible methods of measurement. I’ll save the methodology for determining the value of digital assets for later posts…That's a complex subject. For now, let’s clarify the difference between re-using and re-purposing digital assets, as I see it.

RE-USE – To reuse a digital asset is to employ the asset for the purpose in which it was created more than one time.

Re-using Digital Assets Example
For example, this image was developed for use in a specific PowerPoint presentation. The first time that presentation is “created” or “given” then that is the point in which the asset is first “used.” The more times the asset is used in another presentation (separate slide deck – OR – staged appearance), then it is being “re-used” for the purpose in which it was produced. Reusing or re-presenting the original PowerPoint presentation or re-deploying the slide (or slides) that contain that digital asset would count toward the number of times it is “re-used.” Again, the reason the image asset was produced in the first place was for use in one or multiple PowerPoint presentations.

RE-PURPOSE – To repurpose a digital asset is to utilize the asset (in its original form or modified) for a new and different purpose than which it was originally produced.

Re-purposing Digital Assets Example

Again, let's say the common image in these examples above was originally developed for use in a PowerPoint presentation; however it was “re-purposed” for use on a website, in a brochure, in a promotional video, conference poster, Facebook page, and Twitter background. It is used in places different than its original intended purpose, thus it is “re-purposed.” The more an asset is repurposed, the more value it provides.

Repurposing is so commonplace in today’s multi-channel marketing environment that it is the standard. Everyone must deploy their message across multiple mediums in order to get the greatest impact and maximize the ROI in the time and money spent producing that asset. As marketers, if there is one thing we have learned over the last few years, we are expected to “do more with less.” It is also incumbent upon us to take advantage of all the latest cost-effective digital marketing vehicles that have come about. Advancements in technology, creativity, digital media management and digital asset optimization mean the emphasis is on efficiency.

Learn about the four key ratios in digital asset management that help customers realize the value of their digital assets. Among those four success metrics with digital asset management programs is the Repurposing Ratio. Download the whitepaper – Maximizing the Value of Digital Assets – to learn more about the Repurposing Ratio.

Read the related article on ChiefMarketer.com – Derive More Value From Your Digital Assets.
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New Widen Article for Chief Marketer: Derive More Value From Your Digital Assets

Friday, April 23, 2010 by Jake Athey
Widen recently had an article published on ChiefMarketer.com – Derive More Value From Your Digital Assets – discussing the role of digital asset management tools in maximizing the value of your digital media and brand assets.

Here’s an excerpt from the article…

An old episode of “Saturday Night Live” spoofed a real commercial, showing two characters arguing over whether the can they were holding was a floor wax or a dessert topping. After about 10 seconds of animosity, a chuckling Chevy Chase stepped in and said, “Hey you two, it’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping.”

That skit demonstrated how everyone feels good when they get more than one use out of something they buy. Wow—I can put it on my pumpkin pie and see myself in my kitchen floor? I must’ve done well when I bought it!

“Shimmer Floor Wax” clip from Saturday Night Live Season 1, Episode 9, 1/10/1976

The same mindset is pervading the world of digital assets, particularly in a cost-conscious economy. Organizations are looking to maximize the value of all their digital assets, both to reduce up-front costs and increase the ROI on every expenditure.

That’s why digital asset management (DAM) has become so important to organizations large and small. It provides a way to centralize the organization’s digital assets, ensuring not only that the correct and most current version is being used, but also that it isn’t being duplicated unnecessarily.

Digital assets are generally developed for one of three reasons:
  • To make money in businesses where the assets are the actual products being sold, like digital music or movie downloads.
  • To market and/or sell products or services where the digital assets represent the product(s) being sold—for example, product images in a catalog or Web site.
  • To reinforce a brand image or build brand equity, like a brand logo or logo for a special occasion such as “60 years of service.”
Maximizing the value of those digital assets is accomplished by getting as much use or work and result or return from that asset.

There are two basic ways to do that. You can either re-use a digital asset, which means employing it for the purpose it was created more than once, such as an image created for a specific PowerPoint presentation that is then used in other presentations. Or you can re-purpose the asset, that is, use the image created for one medium in a different one. An example of re-purposing would be to take the image created for the PowerPoint presentation and use it in a brochure, on a Web page, on a Facebook fan page, or in an e-mail marketing piece. Each method creates a different type of value for the asset.

Read the rest of the article at ChiefMarketer.com - Derive More Value From Your Digital Assets
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Tips for Naming Your Digital Asset Management System

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Widen Marketing
Tips for Naming Your Digital Asset Management SystemNames are a big deal with marketing and creative groups; especially when it comes to the everyday business systems and applications you depend on to do your job. Choosing a name for your digital asset management system is key to a successful deployment in building user adoption internally and externally. Not all users of your DAM system will understand what “Digital Asset Management” is, so it’s common to choose a different, more identifiable name. This post will help you understand how to go about naming your digital asset management tool and provide some helpful ways of building a short list of possible names.

Best practices in naming your Digital Asset Management System:
  • Choose a name that fits the department or functional area leading the project – e.g. marketing communications, creative, public relations, sales, etc.
  • Choose a name that fits the primary group(s) of users of the system – internal or external – e.g. marketing partners, sales channels, dealers, etc.
  • Choose a name that fits the types of assets that are most common – e.g. images, photos, videos, and marketing materials. If it’s all of the above, use a more general term such as media or brand assets.
  • Choose a name that fits your organization, brand(s) or mission. ** The most important best practice because your DAM solution is the single point of management and access to your brand assets.
Quick Tips – Be Creative, Realistic, Memorable and Simple:
  • Be Creative – Names that are catchy and fun are easier to remember.
  • Be Realistic – Names that fit the purpose of the system set clear expectations.
  • Be Memorable – Names that are easy to remember improve frequency of use.
  • Be Simple – KISS. (You all know what that means...) Confusion turns users away.
Two and three word combinations work best in achieving the goal of being Creative, Realistic, Memorable and Simple. Typically, you will want to attach your organization or brand name to the front of the two-word or three-word name for your DAM system. For example, “Widen Video Library” or “Widen Brand Asset Portal.”


Chart for Picking a Two-Word Name for your DAM System:

Asset Type Descriptor System Type Descriptor
Brand Bank
Creative Collection
Digital Database
Image Resource
Marketing Tool
Media Library
Photo Toolkit
Video Source
  Gallery
  Portal
  Collective
  System
  Center


Sample Two-word Names (Not including the Customer/Brand name):
Creative Library, Digital Gallery, Digital Toolkit, Image Library, Marketing Library, Marketing Toolbox, Media Database, Media Library, Media Source, Partner Portal

Sample Three-word Names (Not including the Customer/Brand name):
Brand Asset Library, Creative Resource Bank, Digital Image Gallery, Digital Media Library, Image Management System, Marketing Resource Center, Video Asset Library


Widen Media Collective - Request a Login with Registration Code "collective"
Take the tour of the Widen Media Collective DAM Demo Site > Request a Login >
Use Registration Code “collective” when you fill in the required information.

The Widen Media Collective® Brand Name

Media Collective® is the trademarked name for the Widen digital asset management software suite and serves as the default name for Widen customer DAM systems unless you choose your own. Generally, the name will appear in the title of the web-based DAM system, login screen and header within the application. The standard web address is https://customer.widencollective.com.

What if we want a vanity web address?

There is no cost to select a custom name, however additional charges may apply for maintaining a custom vanity URL. Here’s an explanation of the vanity web address options:

Vanity Web Address Redirect: Organizations not wishing to use the standard web address of https://customer.widencollective.com may opt for a vanity web address that is redirected to the standard address. For example, you can direct users to http://WidenMediaCollective.com and they will be redirected to https://demo.widencollective.com when they arrive on the page.

Vanity Web Address: Organizations not wishing to use the standard web address of https://customer.widencollective.com may opt for a vanity web address that is NOT redirected to the standard address. For example, you can direct users to https://WidenMediaCollective.com and that will remain the core part of the URL string throughout their use of the system.
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Digital Asset Management Analogies – Tool Shed

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Matthew Gonnering
Widen continues the Digital Asset Management education series of "DAM Analogies” with “DAM is like a tool shed.” In this video, shot outside the Widen headquarters in Madison, I talk about how DAM is an essential tool for marketing and sales teams. Widen marketing and sales teams use a SaaS pack of tools from leading providers including Salesforce.com, Google, ExactTarget, Compendium, Success Factors and our own Widen DAM software. Equally, DAM is like a tool shed because it houses other marketing and sales tools in the form of digital media - images, videos, brochures and other materials – used to assist with marketing campaigns and sales activities. Like a tool shed, DAM allows you to organize your tools and provide access to anyone who needs them to execute marketing programs.


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New Marketing Asset Management Benchmark Report Released by Aberdeen Group

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 by Jake Athey
Aberdeen Group recently launched a new benchmark report titled “Marketing Asset Management: Managing Brand Compliance in Distributed Marketing Environments,” authored by Peter Ostrow, Research Director, Sales Effectiveness for Aberdeen Group. The report examined 136 organizations that have deployed marketing asset management (MAM) solutions and found that 100% of the top performing companies improved their return on marketing investments, compared to 26% in other companies. This report from Aberdeen Group follows last year’s Digital Asset Management benchmark study “The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management.”

According to the study, managing marketing compliance and brand consistency across business units and geographies are among the top priorities of marketing managers and CMOs in 2010. Many organizations continue to stifle efficiency and waste money on unproductive, decentralized marketing resource management processes. As organizations attempt to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible under volatile market conditions and often with fewer resources, MAM solutions empower sales and marketing teams to maximize return on marketing investments by centralizing and improving accessibility to approved marketing resources.
 
The report reveals what leading companies have been able to achieve through deployment of marketing asset management solutions, including:
  • 24% average year-over-year increase in annual revenue compared to 2% increase in other companies
  • 32% average year-over-year improvement in return on marketing investment compared to 4% average decrease for other companies
  • 18% average year-over-year improvement in brand consistency compared to 2% improvement by other companies
Business Pressures Driving Marketing Asset Management Adoption
Common characteristics among companies enjoying Best-in-Class performance include:
  • 79% deploy a library asset management system for their marketing assets
  • 75% use ROI estimates to cost-justify marketing investments
  • 71% provide the marketing department with access to all digital assets, allowing them to re-purpose or re-use content and images
  • 62% have a process in place to disseminate information on best practices in managing marketing assets to both sales and marketing
Best-in-Class Strategic Actions in Response to Pressures for Marketing Asset Management
Obtain a complimentary copy of the Marketing Asset Management report from Aberdeen Group.

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Customer Management Research.

Learn more about Marketing Asset Management from Widen.
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Digital Asset Management Analogies – Getting Organized

Thursday, April 1, 2010 by Matthew Gonnering
When we talk with people about digital asset management, we’re often using techy jargon and fluffy marketing-speak to help marketing and IT teams understand the value of using digital media management systems for their images and videos. This time around, we’ve decided to relate DAM software technologies to everyday encounters and common conveniences. This video kicks off a new series on “DAM Analogies from the Widen CEO on the Beanbag” (for those that follow my tweets @mgonnering we recently made a purchase from Awesomesack.com) focusing on “getting organized.”

In this analogy, I relate getting organized with your images, videos and marketing materials in a DAM system to the use of storage bins and totes for all your stuff in your basement. Check it out and stay tuned for more DAM analogies. Leave a comment or tweet @mgonnering to provide your best DAM analogy.


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

Monday, March 22, 2010 by Jake Athey
Step 1 – Admit you have a DAM problem. Step 2 – Seek help.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).

Chart from "Marketing Trends Report 2010." Source: eMarketer

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%.

Top 3 Reasons Companies Invest in DAM. Source: Aberdeen Group, May 2009

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.
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Photoshop Background Extension Example #3 • Premedia Services • Color Retouching by Matt Anderson

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Matt Anderson
Many of my premedia / prepress clients have digital assets that require image extensions based on different uses. Their photo studio might have shot a certain scene in horizontal format, and the image is now needed in vertical for a different purpose. Another scenario may be a picture box in a page layout program ( Quark / InDesign ) is expanded by a graphic designer. The newly formed "white space" needs image data created. As is the case below. My client had a very nice legacy image that was retrieved from the image management system. This image needed to be versioned for a new purpose. My job was to use my high end Adobe Photoshop retouching and color correction skills to expand the bounds of the digital image, filling the new required space. The extension of this room scene wasn't as difficult as the image I posted in the prior blog. The wooden floor boards were easily stepped and repeated as necessary. You can see I did some selective masking and color correction on our clients amazing products.


Before
Color Retouching Premedia Services Digital Media Conversion Color Manipulation Color Management Prepress Retouching by Matt Anderson

After Color Correction and Extending the Lower Floor Boards
Color Retouching Premedia Services Digital Media Conversion Color Manipulation Color Management Prepress Retouching by Matt Anderson
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Background Extension Example #2 • Premedia Services • Color Retouching by Matt Anderson

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Matt Anderson
Many of my premedia / prepress clients have digital assets that require image extensions based on different uses. Their photo studio might have shot a certain scene in horizontal format, and the image is now needed in vertical for a different purpose. Another scenario may be a picture box in a page layout program ( Quark / InDesign ) is expanded by a graphic designer. The newly formed "white space" needs image data created. As is the case below. My client had a very nice legacy image that was retrieved from the image management system. This image needed to be versioned for a new purpose. My job was to use my high end Adobe Photoshop retouching and color correction skills to expand the bounds of the digital image, filling the new required space. This particular image may have been the "trickiest" background extension this post processor has ever tackled. Using tricks such as vanishing point, content aware scaling, healing brush, and good ole' fashion cloning. The contour of the tile, light fall-off, and scene elements made this image fierce competitor, but in the end, the results were superb.

Before
Digital Sampling Color Retouching Production Digital Asset Manipulation Prepress Services


New Image with Background Extension and Additional Color Corrections Applied
Digital Sampling Color Retouching Production Digital Asset Manipulation Prepress Services
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Background Extension Example #1 • Premedia Services • Color Retouching by Matt Anderson

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Matt Anderson
Many of my premedia / prepress clients have digital assets that require image extensions based on different uses. Their photo studio might have shot a certain scene in horizontal format, and the image is now needed in vertical for a different purpose. Another scenario may be a picture box in a page layout program ( Quark / InDesign ) is expanded by a graphic designer. The newly formed "white space" needs image data created. As is the case below. My client had a very nice legacy image that was retrieved from the image management system. This image needed to be versioned for a new purpose. My job was to use my high end Adobe Photoshop retouching and color correction skills to expand the bounds of the digital image, filling the new required space. This was on of the more tricky images I have worked. Using tricks such as vanishing point, content aware scaling, healing brush, and good ole' fashion cloning.

Original Image
Digital Asset Photo Composition Color Retouching Image Prepress Services

New Image with Background Extension and Additional Color Corrections Applied
Digital Asset Photo Composition Color Retouching Image Prepress Services

Careful selections, masking, and photo composition skills made this image possible. We now have a new media asset repurposed via high end prepress production.

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Using Lab mode in Photoshop to add Saturation to your Digital Image Management & Retouching by Matt Anderson

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Matt Anderson
Todays tip will involve using Lab color space in Adobe's Photoshop CS4. We'll make a curves adjustment layer, tweak the a / b channels, adjust the layer opacity, and BAM! Your photo just got more color than a new 64 pack of Crayola's ! Prepress color management and color manipulation done fast.

Step one, open your image and under "Edit" menu, use the Convert to Profile command, and choose Lab.

Step Two go to Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Curves

Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector

Next Select the a channel, click on the curve (straight line) and put a point right at 50,50

Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector

Next Select the b channel, click on the curve (straight line) and put a point right at 50,50
Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector

Now take the endpoint shown below in the a channel, and drag it over to a point just to the left side of the histogram. In this particular image, the data starts around the 0,30 point.

Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector

Now take the endpoint shown below in the b channel, and drag it over to a point just to the left side of the histogram. In this particular image, the data starts around the 0,30 point.

Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector
 

Our final step is to adjust the layer opacity. The curve layer adjustment at 100% is a bit too saturated. I'm going to set the opacity to 60% as you can see below. This produces a nice looking colorful image, which should standout from the rest of your digital - image assets. This simple color correction technique takes less then one minute, and you can easily automate the process for a group of photos!

Digital Image Management DAM Software Photoshop Processing and Retouching by Matt Anderson Photographer and Advanced Photoshop Retoucher and Color Corrector

*Tip for advanced users. If you select the midpoints we anchored (50,50), use the arrow keys to subtley offest the points position. In doing this you can add / remove color casts to images. Use the a channel for red / green, b channel for blue / yellow. DAM! Color Retouching isn't that difficult after all.
 

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Why we don’t need digital asset management to run our marketing operations.

Sunday, March 14, 2010 by Jake Athey
Darts Off TargetI 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?
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Leveraging Software as a Service for Digital Asset Management

Sunday, March 14, 2010 by Kathy Lewis
This is the twelfth video in the series of Widen customer interviews with Cheryl Rugland, Agency Director for Edge Advertising. At the start, Edge did not have a lot of IT resources. They needed to figure out a system to make up time and be better prepared and “always on.” The Widen SaaS structure ensures Edge will always have their images and other digital assets available. As a DAM software as a service provider, Widen provides Edge with business continuity and disaster recovery. Watch the video to learn about the extraordinary example of service Widen brings to a partner in need.


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Evolution of Digital Asset Management at Edge

Sunday, March 14, 2010 by Kathy Lewis
This is the forth video in the series of Widen customer interviews with Cheryl Rugland, Agency Director for Edge Advertising. Edge has tried lots of things with Widen to streamline the catalog production process. Edge has over 600 vendors that they deal with in their catalogs. That’s a lot of copy and information to go with all of the products. Before DAM, all of that data was kept with the copy writers. In the early 1990’s, Widen and Edge went beyond the catalog production process to develop a database that became the start of Widen Digital Asset Management and Catalog Production systems. Now, all of their catalog data is in a central location where the correct information can go in the appropriate catalog. All images, logos, charts and product information is part of the Widen digital asset management and catalog publishing system. With the help of Widen digital assets management and catalog production technologies, Edge is saving about 75% of the time involved with their catalog production processes from 10 years ago. Watch the video to learn more about the evolution of digital asset management between Edge and Widen.


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