Marketing Operations

Back to the DAM Future?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by Mark Norris

As the Brand Development Manager here at Widen I’m constantly looking forward. Where are the markets going? What are the latest trends? What is the next Big Thing in rich media management that we need to be a part of?

So it was kind of a fun “looking back at looking forward” exercise I went through when Newsweek re-published an article that they had originally published in 1995 titled The Internet? Bah!.

In it, Clifford Stoll, the journalist who is unfortunately linked to his couldn’t-be-more-wrong predictions for life, laments against the value of the internet and how it will never be a big life-changer everyone wants it to be.

While I could pick nearly any sentence out of the article and show how Clifford was wrong (e.g. “The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper” – tell that to the newspapers of today!) the more interesting aspect was what Clifford got right by getting it all wrong. You see he came to those conclusions by considering the tools that were available at the time and to illustrate that he started it off with “Consider today’s online world.” That was his first mistake. If the online world stayed how it was in 1995 (think text based usenet groups and 2400 baud modems – a 30k image would easily take 30 minutes to download!).

If you consider the future based on the tools we have available today then the future will always look impossible. What he wasn’t considering was that cell phones of today would have 100x the power as the computers of 1995. Or that downloading a full movie today would take 5 minutes, when downloading a simple JPEG image in 1995 takes 30 minutes!

But in uncovering all these problems Clifford was uncovering opportunities – unfortunately he just didn’t know it or didn’t care to act on it. In the article he talks about the lack of social communities in 1995 – hello Facebook, MySpace, etc. He calls the internet a “wasteland of unedited data” – hello Google! And his rant against the future of ecommerce because of a lack of secure online purchasing (PayPal, Google Checkout, SSL, etc.) and lack of social feedback (Amazon rating system, review sites).

The point is that every single one of the problems he mentioned later became billion-dollar industries and, in many cases, companies in their own right. So Clifford was so right by being so wrong!

How does this all relate to DAM Asset Management? Well, just like Clifford I’m not sure yet.

We as a company and an industry have become comfortable with the markets we serve and the use cases from those markets. For example here at Widen we started off serving primarily the manufacturing and retail industries (via their Marketing departments), though more recently DAM software is catching on with Healthcare, Government, Education and other sectors.

We make some assumptions that our product is not the right fit for, say, an individual. Or a sole-proprietor. For all the reasons you might think and agree with—it’s too complicated. Individuals don’t need all those features. People prefer storing their images locally for speed reasons.

But after seeing Clifford’s 1995 example I have to challenge you and myself on these – how many of these are legitimate roadblocks, and how many are glowing opportunities waiting to be solved by the next Bill Gates?

I’d be willing to be bet that the 2025 version of us will kick ourselves for not acting on these ideas sooner.

What is the best digital asset management product?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Jake Athey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Digital Asset Management Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Jake Athey

Why DAM Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010

The last several years have seen a dramatic shift from traditional media to digital media such as online marketing and social media. The move to digital media has led to an exponential growth in digital marketing content, which has in turn created bottlenecks and inefficiencies in managing this content and difficulties in measuring the performance of campaigns and in maintaining a consistent brand image.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) technology can overcome these problems by automating the process of ingesting, archiving, searching, managing, repurposing, sharing and publishing content in a seamless and collaborative environment. 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. This article will examine in detail how DAM can rapidly generate ROI by improving the performance of digital marketing efforts.

In order to give power to your marketing programs in 2010 and be more efficient in doing so, Digital Asset Management should be your first technology investment.

Widen has released a new whitepaper that addresses 5 key benefits that DAM provides to marketing operations, including:

Generate additional revenues by reducing time to market
Reduce costs of finding assets
Reduce costs of distributing assets
Save money on physical samples
Improve brand consistency

This whitepaper is an interactive PDF containing videos of customer interview segments from InSinkErator, Brady Worldwide, Knaack and Sub-Zero and Wolf.

Download: Why Digital Asset Management Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010.

Not your Grandpa's Digital Asset Management System

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Mark Norris

Digital Asset Management for Lemonade Stands aka SMBs

Digital Asset Management has long been the domain of the large enterprise – those companies that have front page stories on Time Magazine or companies whose owners make the Forbes 500 richest list 5 years running. But, is all that changing?

Is the DAM system that we know and love morphing into a tool that is useful to not only the PepsiCo's of the world, but also that little lemonade stand down the street? And more importantly, is DAM software entering the price range of that lemonade stand?

In this multi-part series of blog posts, we’ll look at the growth of DAM in the small- to medium- sized business space… from the why’s to the how’s and everything in between.

This first article, "Not your Grandpa's Digital Asset Management System," focuses on the why, as in "why is DAM growing in popularity among smaller size companies?" What is driving that growth?

Research shows there are four main drivers today in the SMB (small- to medium-sized businesses) space for Digital Asset Management programs:

Number of Files -- There is no indication that the number of digital files SMB companies create, manage and store will decrease in the foreseeable future. In fact, all signs point to extreme growth in this category over the next 5 years (and beyond). The IDC (EMC, 2009) estimates that “the digital universe will double every 18 months.” Internally, we estimated that our own company (with a marketing department of five) used approximately 47 gigs of video in the past year – a several times increase over the prior year and a number that we expect to increase by several more factors over the coming years.

Video Growth -- As SMB companies realize the benefits of video (customer testimonials, product demonstrations, training, marketing, etc.) the need to manage, control and distribute these files to the necessary parties will inherently increase as well. According to CMSWire, “organizations are looking for lighter-weight solutions (than [current] video management products) to manage their video assets. We see this as more and more websites offer videos and allow user-generated content in the form of video.” Furthermore, over 65% of companies using online videos and that number is expected to continue increasing (VideoBloom, 2009). This increase in video will also mean an increase in the amount of bandwidth required to serve the video – a requirement that many SMBs may struggle with.

Project Collaboration -- A long-time hot topic in the world of DAM, the advances of web 2.0 “is another trend that is moving DAM away from being more than a basic repository” (Mosher, 2009). According to Eric Barroca of Nuxeo, “users want to work together on developing this type of content, so features such as tagging, annotation for documents, pictures and video, collaborative filtering and viewing assets via a web interface are key to building a better repository of digital assets.”

Lower Cost to Entry -- With many DAM solutions still in the 6-figure range and most SaaS solutions in the 15-25k range, many SMBs struggle to justify an enterprise DAM. According to Frost & Sullivan (Frost & Sullivan, 2007) a lower-cost SaaS model “is expected to help the market grow significantly by luring price sensitive customers to adopt DAM technology.”

So the momentum is building… the need is building… But, how is the DAM industry responding to meet this need?

In the next article we’ll look at the DAM industry as a whole and in particular, how it is addressing this growing need.

Digital Asset Management and Brand Consistency

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Jake Athey

Watch the video compilation from several marketing professionals discuss how digital asset management supports brand consistency.

In the first segment, Michele Bedard, Vice President of Marketing, Sub-Zero, Inc. and Wolf Appliance, Inc. talks about how Sub-Zero and Wolf are all about the brand experience. For that reason, it is important to have brand consistency so the “brand” looks and feels the same from whatever source a consumer or partner would see it. Web-based digital asset management tools provide representatives in the field and/or channel partners, access to use the latest brand-approved digital assets – images, videos and marketing/promotional materials – from anywhere in the world.

As a bonus to ensuring enterprise-wide brand consistency, Sub-Zero and Wolf have more distributors and dealers using their advertisements and promotional resources that fit within the corporate campaigns. Thus, they get more return on their advertising investments with extend the reach and utilization of corporate-branded materials further down the marketing supply chain.

Plus, the corporate marketing departments and individual distributor/dealer networks are more efficient and effective in their collaborative marketing communications functions. The centralization of all images, videos, ads and marketing materials allows Sub-Zero and Wolf to have greater control in managing access to digital assets in addition to greater ease in managing the obsolescence of digital assets.

In the second segment, Jim Scarlata, Senior Marketing Operations Manager for Knaack LLC, explains that the Widen DAM solutions offer up the ability to have 100% brand consistency. In this economic climate where staffs are lean and staffs have numerous other responsibilities, DAM or brand asset management software provides Knaack corporate marketing with a safeguard.

As the person responsible for the Knaack marketing operations, DAM serves as a “brand guardian.” No matter what a channel partner, marketing agency, internal or external user needs, they will get an asset that is current, one they can use, and use it in whatever format they need to complete the project.

In the third segment, Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at InSinkErator, provides testament to how DAM software helps maintain global brand consistency in keeping with the InSinkErator global brand guidelines. To a company whose goal is to offer the most state-of-the-art and innovative products, they have an innovative system to store, retrieve and manipulate digital assets management in a way that best supports the marketing of those products.

Watch more Widen customer interviews to learn more about how Widen Digital Asset Management software and premedia services support the roles of marketing and creative people.

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

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Jake Athey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rebranding Your Company

Monday, November 9, 2009 by Jake Athey

The branding article in the September / October IPA Bulletin titled "Rebranding Your Company" by Nancy Lowther features an interview with Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering.

Recognized for its comprehensive coverage of issues and challenges facing graphic solutions providers, the bimonthly IPA Bulletin magazine features in-depth articles on technical innovations, standards, and business development in graphic communications.

Go straight to the article: Rebranding Your Company.

Here's a summary of the main points in the business branding article:

Branding is the most valuable and fragile asset to an organization.

Brands have two sides – an external and an internal. Externally, it is the perception of the products or services delivered to the marketplace. Internally, it’s a personality... a set of defining characteristics to which a company aligns.

How is Widen an example of a company re-branded? Like other traditional prepress services companies and printing companies offering prepress services have done, Widen has evolved and diversified into areas to include digital media management, digital content management, photography and premedia services. However, this goes beyond “re-branding” but also includes a company reinventing itself.

Why do companies rebrand? Companies look to rebrand if and when they say yes to any of the following questions:

Is your revenue declining?
Has your revenue been the same year after year?
Have you lost customers?
Are you losing key employees?
Have you lost market share due to market changes and trends?

Companies must face the rebranding question to answer this one: "If we continue to do what we’ve always done, will we still be in business 10 years from now?”

How do companies rebrand? Branding goes along with a company’s Vision, Goals & Objectives and Strategies.

A Vision is how you see your ideal future. Without a vision, you may not recognize opportunities that can get you to that ideal future. Things to consider include: the perspectives from key leaders and possible roadblocks, market demand and competition. You have to interpret the unarticulated demand of the market to recognize an opportunity. Brand building involves connecting at an emotional level and establishing trust to build brand equity. Brand positioning defines where you place your products/services relative to your competition and where you place in the minds of your customers. A Vision for your brand is achieved by learning what your customers need and want to be successful.

Objectives and goals are what shapes your vision. Every employee must know what an organization’s goals and objectives are. Objectives and goals are shapes by an organization’s major strengths (core competencies) and how they can be built upon. You must not forget to look for deviations from what it is and what it should be. Goals and objectives can also be developed by categorizing products and services according to a lifecycle state—startup, growth, mature, declining, etc. Other factors in formulating goals and objectives include a gap analysis of the market, products, services, customers, employees, finances and technology.

Strategies are the action steps on how to achieve your objectives. There will be one or more actions for every objective. Marketing actions are included for most objectives. Marketing uses this information to create a marketing plan. However, this is not owned by just the marketing department. Business and technology strategies must be aligned and every employee and manager must know how to implement them.

“Marketing Your Brand” - With an abundance of marketing and customer touch points and channels, brand consistency is a major concern for organizations of all shapes and sizes. Centralization of branded content and brand asset management is critical to making sure your audience hears and sees a consistent message. Your branded content involves everything from your stationery and business cards to brochures, website, packaging, signage, trucks, how you present yourself at a dinner meeting, how the company phone is answered and how the front lobby looks. As the old saying goes: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Read the full article in the IPA Bulletin: Rebranding Your Company

Video Asset Management In High Demand As Viewership Climbs and Marketers Use More Online Video

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Jake Athey

Widen is seeing increased interest in Video Asset Management solutions to store, manage, access and deliver digital video for online video marketing purposes.

As Sean Callahan recently reported in the Marketers Make Move to Online Video article in BtoB’s Best 2009 special issue for Marketers and Creative, the “Internet has accelerated the creative use of video in b-to-b marketing, which is one key trend we saw in the submissions for this year’s BtoB’s Best.”

Online video has become an affluent medium for both b-to-b and b-to-c marketers alike. Online video is a key method of delivering and consuming information that educates, entertains, and/or inspires in ways that touch emotions static text on a page cannot achieve. Best of all, online video isn’t just for big companies. An abundance of devices and software for video capture and editing are becoming popular additions for many marketing departments. Furthermore, Web-based DAM technologies are making the management and distribution easier and cheaper for organizations of all sizes.

In terms of viewership, the Nielsen Company recently reported viewers have substantially increased the time they spend watching online videos with YouTube being by far the single largest provider of streaming video. Nielsen's time-per-viewer metric rose to 195.2 minutes per month in September, a 25% year-over-year increase. Read Time Spent Viewing Video Online Up 25% per Viewer to learn more.

While the popularity of creating and consuming online video continues to skyrocket, the problems with video asset management are still there for nearly all marketers. The downside is video files are exponentially larger than text documents. Multiple copies of a file in multiple locations use even more storage. It also makes version control nearly impossible, since someone has to remember each file's location and update or renew it when a new one becomes available or when it expires. Plus, there isn’t always an easy way to search for the right video based on the content.

When you add all those factors, it makes a compelling argument for software-as-a-service that simplifies the tasks associated with managing, finding and distributing video content across the Web. The problem is that a lot of organizations that can benefit from distributing their content in the form of video; they just don’t have the internal infrastructure to support it. Like most projects that are challenging to do on your own, digital asset management can benefit from a software-as-a-service model that allows customers to focus more on what they want to accomplish than figuring out how to go about building and maintaining it.

In Widen’s recent article, RAM: Bandwidth on the Run, the increased demand for video content creates four issues that require more efficiency in how we manage video assets:

Not enough bandwidth to meet demand.
Difficulty moving video files from one user to another.
Multiple copies in multiple locations.
Lack of searchability.

However, digital media asset management technologies provide much more than simple file management or a video hosting service. Digital media files become assets of value through the attachment of metadata because they can be indexed, versioned, secured, stored and assigned a lifecycle state, a unique ID and an owner. Digital Asset Management systems serve as the keeper for both the files and metadata.

Benefits of digital asset solutions summarized from the Bandwidth on the Run article, include:

All users watch the same file from the same source.
Easier distribution.
Greater control over what is being viewed.
Simpler, more effective organization.
Simplifies backup.

For an expanded explanation, read the article titled RAM: Bandwidth on the Run by Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen Enterprises.

The Last “S” in SaaS for DAM Software as a Service

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Jake Athey

Watch the video compilation from several marketing professionals discuss their experiences with Widen Digital Asset Management Software as a Service (DAM SaaS).

This short video compilation includes three different customer interviews making a case for the SaaS deployment model for digital asset management programs. The first customer is Jim Scarlata, Senior Marketing Operations Manager for Knaack LLC. He speaks about why SaaS makes the most sense for companies with limited IT resources. He argues that DAM software is a subject area outside of the core competencies of Information Technology personnel responsible for critical business systems. Digital asset solutions reside more in the area of creative and marketing and should be handled by a company whose core competency is digital asset management workflow. Widen has 15+ years of experience in DAM software implementations across a variety of business models and vertical industries. Furthermore, Widen’s service-driven culture offers the consultation and suggestions to make the implementation go as smooth as possible.

The second customer is Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at InSinkErator, and he states that he turned to Widen as a DAM SaaS provider because of two main promises—technological expertise to solve problems and the service commitment backing the technology. As a self-proclaimed “non-technical” person, Jim Magruder and his team at InSinkErator have both the technology and service experts to make life easier when it comes to managing brand assets and promotional materials.

The third customer is John Wernecke, Global Marketing Manager for Motorola Mobile Devices, and he talks about the rapid response from Widen support teams and how they go “above and beyond” with no questions asked. He explains that when there’s a problem, it’s quite simply “What happened? ... What were you doing when it happened? … And, we’ll fix it.

For the latest about Widen’s commitment to service when it comes to digital asset management software support, watch the video about Widen25.

Service Is Just as Important as Technology to a DAM SaaS Vendor

Thursday, October 8, 2009 by Jake Athey

When it comes to hosted digital asset management software, also known and DAM SaaS—Software as a Service, the last “S” in SaaS is just as important as the technology.

What should DAM SaaS customers expect?

1. A timely, guided and smooth DAM software implementation.

2. Software that is easy-to-use and does the job in meeting workflow requirements.

3. Hardware and bandwidth infrastructure to meet the demand.

4. Regular upgrades served automatically without painful downtime.

5. Quality Assurance ensuring the software works with minimal bugs.

6. New innovations supporting creative workflows and marketing operations.

7. Training provided to administrators and end-users.

8. Security and backup policies and procedures to safeguard all data.

9. Stability and reliability to assure the DAM system is “always on”.

10. A Help Desk that is readily available to take questions.

Not all digital media management solutions meet these expectations. According to a vendor-neutral digital asset management analyst firm, “Larger digital asset management vendors pose a higher risk.” The firm finds most DAM products are evolving slowly while several vendors face turbulence. They are saying that the smaller, mid-market DAM vendors represent a safer bet for customers seeking reliable solutions—including both product and corporate stability.

Stephen Cassidy, Chief of UNICEF's Internet, Broadcast and Image Section, said UNICEF is rolling out the Widen DAM SaaS platform to 200 international offices.

"We looked at several best-in-class technology platforms, but it was Widen's history of support and service that impressed us and that has shone through in the implementation process and beyond,” Cassidy said. “Technically, we believe that managing digital assets is going to be one of our most important challenges. So, we are pleased to see that Widen's roadmap in that critical area is matching ours."

UNICEF had tried several approaches to DAM, including developing its own software, but usage of the systems had been limited. After researching the available options and requesting proposals from best-in-class vendors, UNICEF selected the hosted DAM platform from Widen Enterprises.

Read the KMWorld article “DAM takes on many roles” to learn more about the UNICEF DAM implementation.

What is the best way to store videos in a Digital Asset Management System?

Thursday, July 30, 2009 by Al Falaschi

I have been asked by many potential clients as to what is the best way to store video in a digital asset management system. There are a couple different ways to answer this. "Highest res," "high enough," and "this is all I have."

Highest Res: Whether the video is HD, or standard definition, it was acquired, or shot, on a video camcorder that recorded the footage in a specific format. This changes a bit if you take into consideration editing and effects, but based on just the video footage alone, the format the video was shot in is the “Highest Resolution.” If it was shot on a standard definition camcorder in the DV format, then that is the highest resolution (assuming it has not been recompressed). If it was shot on an HDV camcorder, then that is the highest resolution available, and typically what is stored as the master format. No additional recompression has been done that could degrade the quality. If you are making footage available, through your DAM, or your video asset management system, this is what they will want.

Here is a screen capture from a file off the camera:

High Enough: This could also be called a “Mezzanine format,” or “Proxy.” High resolution video can have very large file sizes, that in high volumes, can make digital asset management cost prohibitive. In many corporate marketing asset workflows, editing has already taken place, and the goal is access and distribution of finished video assets. Compression can be applied to video files to reduce file size while maintaining an acceptable level of quality. As video compression technology has gotten better over the past 10-15 years, some compression methods can reduce file sizes by 50-75% while maintaining a virtually indistinguishable visible difference in quality. So for the purpose of either viewing the video, or converting it to smaller, more compressed versions for email, or powerpoint presentations, a mezzanine format provides good enough quality while taking up 50-75% less disk space and bandwidth. This option gives you the high resolution viewing, and repurposing, while minimizing file storage. It will be the best option for most corporate marketing department's media asset storage and repurposing needs.

Here is a screen capture of a Mezzanine format. Notice there is very little difference:

This is all I have: It is common that marketing departments find or stumble upon video files that they would like to repurpose. All too often, they have “found” a highly compressed low resolution version of a video. If there is no way to go back to a master tape, or find the company that produced the video, then essentially you have the highest resolution of a video that just isn’t very hi res. That does not mean that it can’t be viewed and repurposed. This is unfortunately all to common, but it is ok.

Here is an screen capture of a highly compress video. It is not great, but it will work if it is all you have.

Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management

Friday, July 24, 2009 by Jake Athey

Since the Aberdeen Group Report, The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management, came out, we've been speaking with all sorts of organizations from various vertical industries – manufacturing, retail, healthcare, financial services, insurance and non-profits to name a few – about their marketing operations and digital media management practices. Organizations of all shapes and sizes are learning more about leveraging Digital Asset Management technologies for enhancing brand management and improving return on marketing investments with greater ability to reuse, repurpose and re-channel existing digital media assets. Is DAM right for you? Where do you stand?

Gauge how you compare with the Aberdeen Study participants and others researching DAM systems...Take the live poll below:

Where's your marketing content?

...compared to the Aberdeen Study participants

...Live Poll

What's your #1 reason for DAM?

...compared to the Aberdeen Study participants

...Live Poll

Check back or subscribe via RSS as sample size & results will be reported weekly.

Types of Digital Asset Management Systems

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 by Jake Athey

The current issue of Business Management Magazine has an interview with industry analyst Melissa Webster of IDC, a leading technology research company. The article, Optimizing Digital Asset Management on page 86, includes a section devoted to defining the Types of Digital Asset Management Systems.

The types of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Systems that are mentioned in the Business Management article include the following:

Brand asset management systems: Focus on content re-use of marketing and sales materials such as product images, logos and marketing collateral.

Library asset management systems: Focus on storage and retrieval of large amounts of infrequently changing media assets—video and photo archiving.

Production asset management systems: Focus on storage, organization and revision control of frequently changing digital media.

Digital supply chain services: Focus on pushing digital content out to digital retailers, such as music, videos and games.

These definitions of the types of digital asset management systems have common characteristics with the three core categories of DAM systems defined by another leading digital asset management analyst firm. The breakout includes the following core categories based on these use case scenarios:

Brand Management & Marketing Operations

DAM Library of Photo Archive
Basic Brand Management
Multi-Lingual Brand Management
Marketing Asset Production & Distribution
Ad Production

Publishing

Periodicals Production & Distribution
Multi-Channel Publishing
Catalog Production
Rights-Managed Syndication & Distribution

Video Production

E-Learning
Video Ad Review & Approval
Short Form Video Production
Broadcast Video Production

This DAM analyst firm suggests Widen’s digital asset management services are best fit for these use cases: dam library or photo archive, basic brand management, marketing asset production & distribution, and catalog production & management.

Widen’s 11 most recent customers added in Q2 2009 fall into several of these overlapping use cases, but primarily fall into the brand management and marketing operations category. Nonetheless, they all adopted Widen digital asset management tools to make creative workflows more streamlined, improve brand consistency and be more agile marketers.

Do you agree with the breakout of the types of Digital Asset Management systems above? How would your use cases agree or differ?

How Widen Software as a Service Applies Digital Asset Management Best Practices

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Matthew Gonnering

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?

Video 2: What does SaaS mean to a Widen customer?

Won’t you be my neighbor? Level III Services and Print On-Demand

Thursday, May 7, 2009 by Widen Marketing

Widen is continually working to build strong partnerships with third party vendors who provide technologies and services that are complementary to our own digital asset management programs. By partnering with industry leading vendors we can expand into new markets and bring more features and functionality to our own Widen Media Collective customers. It’s a win win for everyone. Through strategic partnerships and the technologies that they bring to the table, Widen can help our customers build out entire media workflow environments that go far beyond digital asset solutions. One of the central messages I have tried to focus on in some of my previous blogs was that DAM systems should be the backbone to our customer’s larger marketing operations, brand and creative software technology environments. So I thought it would be helpful to start a series of blogs highlighting some of our partner relationships and how our customers are using these external services and technologies to streamline and improve their internal media workflows. Level III Services is one of those partners who immediately came to mind as a great place to start.

Level III Services offers print on-demand and product fulfillment services that are second to none. Their online suite of products leverages Widen’s hosted DAM platform to give customers instant access to their marketing materials from anywhere in the world. Need to manage a large inventory of marketing literature or products online? Need to ship the latest brochure to the event for your biggest customer and need it there tomorrow? Tired of drowning in extra materials and cost because your printer requires you to adhere to large print runs instead of paying for just what you use and need? Yeah, they do all that. Level III Services saves their customers thousands by embracing the simple idea that less is more. You can save money and the environment by producing only what you need, when you need it. That sounds good to Widen and is one reason we think Level III is such a good neighbor. Customers of Widen’s hosted DAM service have been paying for only what they use, rather than what they can install, for over 12 years. For more info on Level III Services, visit www.level-3.com.

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

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Dr. DAM

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

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

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

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

Let DAM be the vehicle that drives your organization

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 by Widen Sales

I’m a visual learner, therefore I enjoy analogies. My latest one, in terms of Digital Content Management and how Software as a Service makes you more effective, refers to a bicycle versus a car analogy.

Take a person who lives 20 miles from their place of employment. Their only mode of transportation is a bicycle, so every morning they wake up at about 3am and start pedaling to get to work at 8am. (Yes I know Lance you probably don’t leave till 7:30am) Do they get there? Yes. Is it the most efficient way? No. Now imagine being the manager of this bike rider, and all the time they are pedaling to and from work they are still getting paid. Reallocate and invest that wasted money towards a tool that improves marketing operations, no need for new spending.

This can be related to your marketing communications efforts in handling your digital media. The time spent pedaling is like the time you spend searching for the digital assets on servers, burning files to a CD or messing with FTP sites. If you only had a car you can imagine how much more effective you’d be. Better yet, with a hosted digital asset management solution, it’s like having a mechanic riding shotgun with you at all times in case something would go wrong.

The worst part is there are some companies out there that are oblivious to the cars racing by them (probably honking their horn in anger) while they ride their bikes, not even knowing that these “vehicles of marketing expertise” even exist.

DAM Reporting Tools at Your Fingertips

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Widen Marketing

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

Understanding the Digital Asset Life Cycle

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Jake Athey

This question was raised in one of the DAM discussions on LinkedIn:
“Is there a clear distinction between Digital Asset Management and Digital Archivism?”

The question came about from the New York Times article in early February of this year Digital Archivists, Now in Demand.

Here’s part of the distinction I can offer between Digital Asset Management and Digital Archival…

Archival is just one of the four main phases of DAM and the digital asset life cycle – creation, management, distribution and archival. We link in Creation phases with DAM to quickly realize the value of the digital asset by achieving faster time to market and tightly integrating that with the management and distribution functions.

Here’s a list of the typical functions within each phase of the Digital Asset Life Cycle:

There are obviously several roles / players in any one or a combination of phases to DAM. Typically, a DAM admin is involved most with the Management & Distribution phases, but there’s a great deal of cross-over and roles vary by organization. Even different vendors specialize in some areas more than others. I say this as Widen performs the functions on the creation end of the digital asset life cycle while also providing the software technology, infrastructure and service (personnel) to blend all four levels.

A digital asset is truly an asset when it is leveraged to maximize its intrinsic value to the organization it is serving, commonly for the purpose of driving brand value and revenue. It seems to be the job of the digital archivist to recognize who/what/when/where/how the asset is to be applied to maximize its value and then again control when it is time to relinquish that value.

I’m interested to learn more about the roles of people performing each function these days as the economy has forced marketing operations and creative departments to reallocate and reposition resources. Please share.

SaaS Keeps the Complexity of Software Manageable

Monday, March 9, 2009 by Jake Athey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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