The importance of standard viewing conditions

"01000010 01101001 01100111"

Do you recognize the name of the movie above? It's a famous movie from the 80's you've probably seen. Come on, you must know it... What's that...? You can't read ones and zeros? Oh yeah, that's binary code. I'll bet the computer you are reading this on right now knows what it says. You and the computer are not on the same playing field, so you cannot communicate with it using it's native language.

It's kind of like if you're trying to communicate color with someone. Unless you are on the same playing field - seeing the same thing, you can't understand each other. It won't make sense. As I noted in an earlier blog, three things are necessary for our brains to perceive the sensation that we call color: An object, a light source, and an observer (human eyes). If there are any variables in any of these three things, a different color will be perceived.

Many things influence how we see color, so in the interest of keeping this blog short (I'm sure you're a very busy person) we will skip the biology (observer) part of the equation, and focus on the physics (light source). More on the biology thing later.

Visible light comes in many different flavors. It runs from red - yellowish to blueish and is measured on a scale known as  Kelvin. The Kelvin scale is a thermodynamic temperature scale, and no, it is not named after Kelvin Klein, the guy that invented skin-tight, dark blue jeans in the 1970s. He was Calvin Klein. The kelvin scale is named for a Scottish mathematician and physicist, Kelvin, Lord William Thomson (1824-1907). Not that you need to know that.

Lord Kelvin views a color proof under
his own 5000K lighting standard

Just know that the sun at sunset or candlelight (warm light) is down around 2000K (2000 degrees kelvin) and an un-calibrated computer monitor or light from the north sky (cool light) is up around 9000K. Somewhere in the middle is 5000K, which is a more neutral, white light. In scientific (or color geek) circles, this scale is known as the correlated color temperature.

Getting back to the different variables when viewing color, let's take an extreme example: Look at a photo in a dimly-lit room with a single candle or 25 watt bulb. Then look at that same photo outside on a sunny day, and again in a typical office environment with warm white florescent lights humming overhead. Would you see anything different in the photos as you moved into the different environments? Sure, you could say that you would see more with more light as there would be outside compared to the dimly-lit room. But we're not just talking about more light, the light is a different temperature. As the color of the light source varies, so does the color of the object it is illuminating.

The GTI Color Rendition Demonstrator includes three different flavors of
light, showing how they produce three very different colors.

Theoretically, the best viewing condition to view a color proof is the environment in which the final printed piece will be viewed. In the case of a catalog, for example, that could be the fluorescent light in your kitchen, or the 40 watt incandescent vanity bulbs of your bathroom (Wait- do you take catalogs in the bathroom? Eeew.). I have actually had a client once that took color proofs home and looked at them at their kitchen table. Is that wrong? Of course not, the customer is always right, right? In this case, they weren't really right.

The fact is, you usually don’t know where the color that you are looking at will be viewed once it reaches the ultimate consumer. Especially in the case of portable material like catalogs and magazines. That’s why our industry has adopted a standard for viewing color: 5000K. The neutral white light of 5000K helps everyone involved in the color approval process to speak the same language. Standards in the graphic arts like this exist to help us achieve more balanced, consistent results throughout the workflow.

You may hear some people refer to 5000K as D50. This is technically wrong. D50 is known as a daylight spectral curve. The only thing that can create D50 is the big, burning bulb in the sky - the sun. 5000K is essentially the temperature of a light that is trying to simulate D50.

To help ensure that everyone involved in color approval process is using 5000K, I am developing a special hat that incorporates a 5000K light source under the visor. See the ad below for more information.



TTFN
Mark

Honda announced today that they have started production on a vehicle that produces no measurable emissions.  Beyond the implications for the environment and all of us on this planet, it’s even more encouraging that steps are being taken to limit and eradicate inefficiencies.  Now that it’s possible with vehicles, what about marketing and creative departments?  I know, I know, marketing and creative departments…zero emissions…not possible.  Well, getting rid of all excess might be slightly ambiguous, Widen is certainly lending a hand in cutting down on the creative department carbon footprint.

Widen’s digital asset management (DAM) solutions help thousands of users every day.  Simplifying the storage, conversion and delivery of assets, as well as streamlining photography workflows and collateral material creation are all just benefits of using Widen’s services.  While duplicate and misplaced files, corrupted file data and complicated conversions may be raising your departmental level of “emissions”, technology now exists that can help you eradicate that unneeded waste.

Widen’s current users experience “zero emissions” marketing on a daily basis.  Brand and content management are simplified, time to market is decreased and our favorite praise, frustration has greatly decreased.  While the status quo may be fine for secondary workflows, asset management certainly is an exception.  Departments and organizations are seeing an ROI inside of 12 months and the acceptable rate of your departmental emissions is more than likely going to be decreased in the near future.  Maybe it’s time to take a step in the right direction and explore a little bit more about possible solutions.

I don't think anyone is confused about the staying power of newspapers and television news.  While internet news sources have been consistently growing over the years and gaining readership, the actual amount of the users are stunning to some people.  An in-depth study by Ipsos MediaCT has revealed exactly what these user numbers look like.

According to the study (link) 72% of business executives think that a strong web presence is integral for business publications.  Essentially, these executives may be watching or reading the news at a different time, but the web presence and search ability of the same publication's website is also a vital aspect of providing the news.

The convergence of the news media formats is also something that is growing tremendously.  As many as 57% of these executives have streamed or watched broadband video on their computer.  What we can see from this is that the synergy of media is allowing for a more cohesive presentation of the news.  Can't make it to a television in time?  Watch the exact same news on your computer.  This also seems to provide a technological security blanket for users, allowing them to experience traditional media through a new interface.

Along with this study regarding the ingestion of media, it has also been found in a separate study that promotional spending on traditional media is dropping significantly (link).  According to Eloqua, marketers plan on reducing their spending on printed media by 55% over the next three years.  While this is significant in itself, they also claim that the majority of this money will be re-appropriated to internet advertising budgets.

Alternative media forms have also gained a foothold in the market according to these reports as well.  According to Ipsos Media CT, there has been a 40% increase in blogging and social marketing usership, while Eloqua goes on to point out that marketers plan to increase their spending by as much as 77% over the next three years.

So what does this all mean?  The internet is getting bigger and more popular right?  Well who didn't know that.  While this may not seem like big news to some people, it may serve as a very slight wake up call for others.  Some businesses have resisted the changes associated with Web 2.0 and associated workflows.  While it may not have been justifiable to have someone on staff or outsource a portion of your business to address these needs, it seems that the time has come to pay more attention to where the internet may be going.

Two weeks ago, I was one of the presenters at the $5 Friday seminar hosted by C2 Graphic Productivity Solutions in Milwaukee titled Life Cycle of a Digital Asset. C2, the only Wisconsin-based Adobe Authorized Training Center, hosts the $5 seminars once a month for those interested in learning more about current topics in the world of graphic design and creative.  The topic of the seminar – Lifecycle of a Digital Asset – was a learning session about how Digital Asset Management (DAM) software helps design, creative, and marketing communications people “find all their stuff.”  

My co-presenter, Jim Conway, a photographer and C2 instructor with years of experience managing a digital imaging center, discussed some of the fundamentals of file management and showcased Adobe Bridge & Lightroom software and other single-user management solutions.  He talked about how metadata is used and why it is useful to help you catalog, manage and find files using Adobe XMP metadata.

My presentation focused on the advantages of web-based, enterprise-level digital asset management systems over the single-user applications for larger workgroups, enterprises and organizations with a distributed user base. 

Advantages of enterprise-level digital asset management software solutions (as we see it) include:

Internet Accessibility – With whenever - wherever access, web-based DAM systems allow marketing and sales channels to find and retrieve exactly what is needed in the hustle and bustle of a highly competitive sales environment. 
 
On-the-fly File Conversions – With the power to store one, yet deliver many files via on-demand conversions allows organizations to maintain only one master hi-resolution or hi-definition asset and not have to mess with an infinite number of multiple file formats of multiple assets.

Distribution & Fulfillment – Emailing large files straps I.T. resources and sending CDs doesn’t allow you to react to last second demands for tight deadlines and deal closing meetings.  Upon placing an asset order to another person, Widen web-based DAM sends an automatic email containing a link to download the assets in the format(s) requested.  If you need a CD library of images or video on DVD, Widen will handle it for you and ship it overnight without tying up your staff. 

Security and Access Control – Need to keep user groups apart so only certain users have access to specific sets of assets or features…you won’t find that with single-user asset management systems.  Cases include granting your ad agency access to upload assets, while granting salespeople basic access to view and order materials they need.  Or in the case of many of our clients, you may have products branded for your separate dealers in which you need to keep their assets separate as well.  Motorola wouldn’t want Verizon Wireless to have access to Sprint branded image assets and vice-versa.  You see the reasons…

Administration & Management – Enterprise / web-based asset management systems have a tremendous amount of configurability and scalability to accommodate growth and expansion, which often comes with high-levels of administration and management functionality.  There are often multiple tiers of administrators and user groups having separate roles, responsibilities and levels of interaction with the system’s features and assets. 

Reporting & Measurement – What good are your assets if they can’t be found, retrieved and used?  … That’s why you implement a digital asset management system.  But how great would it be if you could quickly and easily know who, what, where, when and why your assets are used?  Enterprise / web-based digital asset management systems are more than just a means of organizing and distributing assets, they are a marketing tool for intelligence, strategy and budgeting purposes. 

SaaS Infrastructure / Support – Like most software, you have choices… two in fact – installed or hosted a.k.a. Software as a Service (SaaS).  With the former, it’s up to your I.T. department to handle the implementation, maintenance, upgrades, training, security, support, trouble-shooting, customization, etc. along with their list of other projects supporting critical business operations.  With the latter, the service provider handles all of that for you … and if you pick ‘em right – they’ll put marketing, creative and sales at the top of the priority list. 

Integrations and Other Applications – Does the software provider offer other technologies than DAM related to the digital media lifecycle – upstream to support the creation and workflow or downstream to support the distribution and publishing of assets?  That’s another thing to look at when considering an asset management system.  On top of that, do they play nice with others?  Integration and the ability to share information (assets and metadata) with other systems supporting critical business functions is key to selecting a system that can continue to grow with an organization. 

Earth Day reminds us that there are many areas of our lives where we could cut back, conserve and do a little bit more for the environment.  While to many this means carpooling, making sure lights aren't left on in empty rooms and exploring the use of more environmentally friendly every-day products, there is also a conservation that could be going on in both marketing and creative departments.

Marketing and creative images and collateral materials used for brochure creation and brand management a lot of times are managed through cluttered hard drives and spread across several locations.  Perhaps conserving your time used in searching for these images and also the memory needlessly used in redundant saving could be a possible business application of Earth Day principles.

While digital asset management (DAM) isn’t the most familiar topic to everyone, there are several inherent benefits of having one centralized, searchable database of all vital branded materials.  Brand management can become a simple process with approvals and access only being granted to the correct materials and logos, as well as digital media distribution becoming a simple task with media routing and conversion on the fly.  This stealthy process allows you to direct required media to the correct individuals in a timely fashion, while also having some comfort in the fact that you know it will be arriving in the correct format.

While there will be a lot of talk surrounding today’s events regarding reducing our carbon footprint and renewable energy resources, but maybe it’s time to improve on the efficiency of your efforts.  Sometimes it is as simple as remembering the “Three R’s” that we all learned as kids.  Reduce wasted memory and time spend on scattered digital media. Reuse approved branded materials with no worry of corrupting the brand image. Recycle old logos and branded materials to the archives once they have become obsolete or no longer effective. 

Widen was recently ranked among the Top 10 Premedia Leaders of America as the 8th largest provider of premedia services by sales volume, according to a 2008 study by Graphic Arts Monthly and The Association of Graphic Solutions Providers (IPA).

Widen made the list of firms whose premedia sales are greater than 50% of total sales.  Within the >50% categorization, the market size is $1,340,276,000, primarily dominated by the top 3 providers.  Widen’s share of this market is 1.2% using data reported in this list.  However, isolating just prepress service providers whose primary market is the Corporate space, Widen owns 42.6% market share.

Premedia services are defined to include: preflighting, proofing, color retouching, color separations, image assembly, platemaking, photography, data management, workflow and other media production.

For the full list, visit:  http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/CA6549650.html

For more info about the IPA, visit: http://www.ipa.org/

Swinging with the X-Rite Munki

If you are a designer or photographer that is forced to "monkey" around with color on a regular basis then you may want to check out X-Rite's new product, ColorMunki...  http://www.colormunki.com/

ColorMunki is a device about the size and shape of a tape measure that is capable of calibrating monitors or projectors, creating ICC profiles for printers, and capturing and communicating color. The user selects the device function by rotating a dial on the side of the unit.

At only $500, the ColorMunki is a low-cost, entry-level spectrophotometer aimed at the photography and design markets. It will quickly calibrate and profile a computer display or projector used for presentations or slide shows. It creates ICC profiles for desktop or large-format printers using only 50 -100 color patches, which it is able to quickly scan in about one minute. Painless monitor to printer agreement is promised by telling the ColorMunki to “match my printer to my display” as the user is guided through the profiling process for both the display and printer.

Designers will go "ape" over the color sampling and communication functions of ColorMunki. The user can grab color from almost any reflective surface and build a color library that can be shared with others or used in many popular applications like the Adobe Creative Suite. With ColorMunki's PrintSafe checking capabilities, you can preview your color palettes under different lighting conditions. You can even extract a color palette from any image.

The ColorMunki is not a device that serious color professionals will likely want to use, as it does not do things like interface with RIPS for calibration or linearization. Color geeks will want to stay with devices like X-Rite's Eye-One Photo/Print ($1600) or the iSis ($5000) along with ProfileMaker or Monaco software for creating very accurate ICC profiles and maintaining calibration on output devices.

But if your goal is swinging through the jungle of pleasing color without getting your fur ruffled or spending a lot of money, then the ColorMunki is for you. With this product, X-Rite will no doubt get color management tools into the hands of many more people. And I think that is a good thing. Besides, who doesn't love monkeys?

Mark

“ROI takes center stage at CMO summit” was one of the headlines from the February 11 edition of the BtoB Magazine for Marketing Strategists.  The author of the article, Kate Maddox, explained “Proving ROI, using new technologies and leveraging partner marketing were key topics at Red Herring's CMO 2008 conference in San Diego last week.”

With that as the indication that ROI is what marketing executives want, than ROI is what you get (with Widen as your technology partner).  Ok, enough marketing…let’s find out how we can calculate a hard ROI on your DAM project. 

How to calculate a tangible ROI in 3 easy steps:

1.  Existing Process per Request

Things to consider:  How long does it take to locate digital assets?  How many minutes are spent on manual conversions?  How long does it take to organize the files, burn a CD, and prepare it to ship?  

2.  Ongoing / Redundant Costs

Things to consider:  How much money is spent on materials and shipping?  What about labor costs?  Are re-work and redundant photography and prepress costs a factor?

3.  I.T. Maintenance / Storage Costs

Things to consider:  How many hours per week are spent to support existing processes and maintenance?  How many dollars per year are spent on hardware expenditures and dedicated bandwidth? 

Calculate your own DAM ROI

Visit http://digitalassetmanagement.com/return-on-investment.php. 

We’ll continue to discuss more of the intangible factors of your digital asset management ROI throughout the life of this blog.

The Painted Desert Part 2

Notes from the 2007 PIA/GATF Color Management Conference

Goexplore with Pantone

In 1963 Pantone introduced us to the Pantone Matching System. Since then, the system has been used by everybody from designers to printers to ink and dye manufacturers. It has been used in the automotive, home improvement and textile industries among others. 

In our corner of the industrialized world, the PMS system allowed designers, ink manufacturers and printers to speak the same language when it came to color. It was the Rosetta Stone of the printing industry.

But Pantone had its share of critics over the years. They wanted a better system with more colors, laid out in a more intuitive - chromatic fashion, incorporating new technology advances.  

So last September, Pantone came out with the PANTONE Goe™ System. It is a system that comprises both print and software components that allow designers to specify and effectively communicate color on a level that PMS has not provided. 

Although the Goe system has almost twice as many colors (2,058) as PMS (1,100), they use only ten base inks as opposed to the fourteen base inks in the original Pantone Matching System. There are more neutrals and more in-between colors. New colors were selected because they filled out color choices available, they were distinguishable from each other and were attainable on press. Only two colorants are mixed at any one time in addition to black and clear in order to achieve all the Goe colors. This helps to reduce metamerism and color shifting. 

Speaking at the PIA/GATF Color Management Conference last December, Pantone's Vice President of Advanced Color Technology, Andy Hatkoff, outlined the new system which includes:

• PANTONE GoeGuide™ A fan-guide, similar to PMS swatch guides,containing all new Goe System colors, arranged in a logical numerical progression - seven colors per page, each identified by a unique number.
• PANTONE GoeSticks™Two volume set of adhesive-backed color chips that can be arranged temporarily on a “Palette Playground” and then, when a palette is decided on, stuck permanently on palette cards for future reference.
• myPANTONE™  Software that makes choosing and exploring color in the PANTONE Goe System easy, and analyzes images to produce custom palettes, which can also be shared with the world via the myPANTONE.com online community. Kind of a "MySpace" for color geeks. "What's your color? I'm 116-2-4C! Like, OMG! Jenny, my old BFF is so PMS235! DYKWIM?"

The Goe System's myPantone palette software gives users the flexibility to work with Goe color data in sRGB, Adobe 98 RGB or L*a*b* so clearly the system is designed for use in cross-media environments.

In a DM Review Special Report on February 5, "The Marriage of Customer Relationship Management and Content Management," Dan Carmel discusses the inefficiencies plaguing sales and marketing organizations and the benefits of integrating CRM systems with SaaS-based content management systems. 

According to Dan Carmel, the top 5 benefits of combining CRM and content management are:

1. Improved win rates with more effective and timely responses to opportunities
2. More effective marketing with greater collaboration, faster turnaround and greater ability to leverage the latest material across distributed sales networks
3. Sales & marketing alignment by eliminating the gap between different processes and workflows
4. Faster time-to-revenue by speeding up sales cycles
5. Broader impact by integrating other best-in-class technologies serving their own distinct purpose to share information via web services

As the form of content management dealing with rich media, Widen has integrated our digital asset management software as a service platform with the Salesforce.com customer relationship management system.  Widen’s Digital Media Organizer brings the content marketing creates – images, videos and marketing materials – closer to the salesperson and end users. 

Widen’s Marketing Template Creation gives salespeople the ability to easily customize or localize printable materials such as ads, brochures, direct mail and point-of-sale signage using marketing-controlled templates and content. 

Marketing users within Salesforce.com have the ability to direct campaigns and manage all media used for email marketing, websites and print campaigns.  Our web analytics indicate that interest levels in Widen’s video asset management capabilities within Salesforce are of the greatest interest as video grows in popularity for marketers and consumers alike. 

As Carmel explains, five benefits of SaaS-based content management include:

• Faster time to deploy because there is no hardware or software to install
• Low initial cost for subscription-based pricing models
• Rapid innovation with automatic upgrades every few months
• Easy to use and configure specific to the requirements of each client
• Globally available with no burden on IT because applications are delivered via web browser and maintained by the hosted provider

These five benefits overlap with the same benefits Widen DAM customers enjoy.  SaaS-based business applications are not just for small to medium-sized businesses as larger companies continue to adopt best-in-class software as a service solutions.  Jim Egan, Director of Communications Programs at Kerry America, a leader in global food ingredients markets, stated, "By integrating [the Widen] tools within our Salesforce application, we now have a 'one-stop-shop' for all marketing and collateral material; making them easily accessible for our sales teams and channel members. These tools will help us strengthen our overall brand messages and enable our sales and application experts to deliver innovative, business-building solutions for our customers."

View Dan Carmel’s full article at: http://www.dmreview.com/specialreports/2008_60/10000666-1.html

Learn more about Widen’s digital asset management integration with Salesforce.com – Digital Media Organizer – and the brochure creation application – Marketing Template Creation.

The Painted Desert 

Notes from the 2007 PIA/GATF Color Management Conference

The PIA/GATF Color Management Conference concluded it's four day run on December 11. It was a record event this year as over 400 color geeks converged on the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs resort tucked into the mountains on the North side of Phoenix.

I used to say that you could always tell when the Color Management Conference was in town because the population of balding, middle-aged white guys would go way up. But that's not the case anymore. Now you will find younger attendees at the beginning of their careers and many more women along with all the chrome domes. Which is a testament to not only the popularity of the conference itself, but also the pervasiveness of color management in general. Printing, prepress, creative, photography... You can't swing a dead cat around a production workflow without hitting an ICC profile of some sort these days. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot turn off color management in Photoshop. But that's the subject of a future blog.  

Standard Talk

Every Color Management Conference has several sessions that deal with industry standards, and this year was no exception. The conference kicked off on Saturday with a day dedicated to G7. G7 is not really a standard per se, but rather is a revolutionary new methodology that outlines a process to calibrate a press or proofing system based on spectrophotometry (colormetric data) for gray balance instead of traditional densitometric (dot gain/TVI) methods. More and more printers are using G7 to control the color on their presses. It helps them print more consistently with less waste. At least this is true in North America. Europe and Asia have a different take on G7...

The European Perspective

One of the two keynote presentations at the conference was from Darrian Young, founder of Color and Image Consulting in Castellon, Spain, and member of the ECI (European Color Initiative). He gave his opinion of the G7 movement from the European perspective.  He essentially argued against any competing standard such as G7, asking, "If a method is shown to work better than the current standard, does that warrant or justify creating a second standard?". Young said that the European viewpoint is no. "Any improvements should be made to the standard, in order to avoid confusion, incompatibilities, and ambiguity. Not against it." He added.  Young emphasized that the current methods of controlling color on press via TVI (tone value increase, or dot gain) is specified by ISO (International Organization of Standards), and it is therefore a necessary conclusion that TVI is an international standard.    

Young claimed that time and money spent developing the G7 method would have been better spent on resolving issues like optical brighteners in paper, FM screening, varnish, etc. He concluded by saying that Europeans and Americans should work together to merge existing methods if possible, or search for common ground - one standard.

Donkeys vs. Elephants

After Young concluded his presentation, he received a standing ovation from about half the audience. I felt like I was watching a session of Congress on CSPAN and all the democrats just got up to applaud some other democrat from Iowa after his speech on universal health care, while the republicans watch silently. Actually, he did get a good round of applause from the entire audience. His argument, no matter what side of the fence you come down on, was well presented. 

Afterwards, a number of audience members had questions or comments for Darrian Young. Among them was Don Hutcheson, president of Hutchcolor LLC and well known speaker on color management. He is also the inventor of the G7 method. Don argued several points including that G7 is in fact based on existing ISO standards. Don later joked that he felt like he was the person that touched off WWIII.

My Take

What Don Hutcheson and the G7 method has done for the printing industry is a very good thing. Calibrating and controlling a printing press based on colormetric data makes sense. It reduces waste, and a G7 calibrated press will be more likely to match new SWOP and GRACoL certified proofing systems. Clearly other agree with that. Many large, progressive printing companies like Quad Graphics and RR Donnelley have already implemented G7, and many more are learning the process.   

One of the most dangerous things that can be said in any business is, "That's the way we've always done it." If we don't continually look for process improvement, then we are not moving forward. If there weren't those that looked for better ways of doing things, we might still be printing with hot lead. And I don't think that TVI or gray balance would even matter much then... 

That being said, there should be a concerted effort to try to unify the global printing industry. Many US companies outsource work to Europe and Asia among other places. The more we have true global standards for things like substrates, ink sets and calibration methods, the better off we will all be. But hey- we can't even get our electrical plugs to look the same or agree on what side of the car the steering wheel should be on, so maybe all hope is lost. As Rodney King once said, "Can't we just all get along?"  

Mark

   

Dear Dr. DAM…Is digital asset management a performance-enhancer?  Yes.  Would you prescribe digital asset management for a marketing organization with a widespread network of sales representatives and external selling channels?  Yes again.  

With all of the hoopla in the news about the Mitchell Report and the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, I thought it might be the appropriate time to talk about the side-effects of digital asset management for one particular group of end-users: the sales rep.   

The sales rep (whether an internal employee or external selling channel e.g. distributor, dealer, etc.) is in the trenches, face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder with your customers.  Unlike mass communication, the sales rep is the one using your digital media to give presentations, make sales calls and hold meetings directly with the people buying your product or service.  

Since they are the group of people making the one-to-one contact with your customers and serve as the face to your organization, you hope, train, and provide resources to that person so they are empowered to flawlessly represent your company and your brand – right? 

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most important:  How important is it that your sales reps and selling channels effectively represent your brand and your product / service according to the goals and brand standards of your organization?  Who wouldn’t say 10? 

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best:  How well does marketing support your sales reps and selling channels (to effectively represent your brand and your product / service according to the goals and brand standards of your organization) by providing the training, tools and resources to do so?  Regardless of your score, there’s likely room for improvement. 

Enter DAM.  Digital Asset Management has long been a practice or solution for the publishing, broadcast and entertainment industries and until the last few years, had not been as popular with marketing organizations and brand owners.  Marketing organizations and brand owners have come to realize brand is everything and the feet-on-the-street are an extension of the brand.  Therefore, digital asset management has grown in popularity because organizations with widespread marketing networks and sales channels have sought out more efficient means to manage and distribute digital media than burning and shipping CDs or putting images out on the website.  CDs are slow and the website is risky, in addition to a variety of other limitations.   

Salespeople use presentations, images, logos, audio, video, PDF brochures and a combination of it all throughout the sales cycle.  They oftentimes customize the presentations or brochures to fit the situation.  They work under tight timelines and at all hours of the day…and they like to take shortcuts.  They’re not afraid to take a lo-res logo off of the internet and put it in a print piece or build their own brochure to their liking.  It might make you – the marketer / protector of the brand – cringe, but to a salesperson it doesn’t matter.  

Your selling channels are much the same way.  Your distributors, dealers, branches, franchisees, etc. all need your digital media and they need it customized for their market.  They love to use your “official” product images, logos and other collateral because it helps them stand out.  How well do you – the marketer – enforce your brand and what’s current to all of your selling channels further down the chain?  You likely see some stuff that is quite out-dated.   

According to Sirius Decisions, a market research firm,  sales reps spend a large percentage of their time on preparation and administrative tasks, including redundant creation and customization of sales tools.  Research from Sirius Decisions breaks it down showing that sales reps spend 21% of their time on preparation and 10% of their time on administrative activities.  The other 69% of their time is spent on education (3%), account research (18%), phone calls (30%) and face to face calls (18%).  A sales rep spending 30% of their time on redundant creation and customization of sales tools is an awful lot of lost time from performing actual sales activities.  If you could reduce that amount of time by half, you could get that much more productivity out of your sales reps and ideally see higher closing percentages – right?  

Digital asset management (in Widen’s world) is so easy a sales rep will use it.  It gives sales reps and channel partners self-service anytime, anywhere access to repurpose corporate-approved digital media within the sales tools (presentations, emails and printed collateral).  Digital asset management helps ensure their using the most current “assets” within branding guidelines and usage rights.  Ultimately, DAM is like a drug (a good drug)… If you can get your sales reps using your digital asset management system – they’ll like it and then continue to use it because it’s the simplest and fastest way to get to your professional sales tools.  

Marketing reaps the benefits of global brand consistency at a local level, while reducing their own time spent on redundant admin tasks (but I’ll save that for another post.)

Would Dr. DAM prescribe digital asset management to enhance the performance for the players in the field?  I think you know the answer… 

Widen looks at digital asset management as a sales enablement tool.  That’s why we created the ad & brochure building application allowing sales channels to build custom printable collateral from a menu of marketing templates and content.  Furthermore, we’ve brought the power of digital asset management and brochure building closer to the salesforce community by integrating with the Salesforce.com CRM platform via the Appexchange.   

That’s enough from me – listen to what a few of Widen’s customers have to say… 

View the clips from two of our video interviews on the topic of digital asset management and sales enablement: 

Michele Bedard, Vice President of Marketing for Sub-Zero/Wolf

Doug Rammel, Vice President, Information Systems, Technology and Integration Operations for Adidas / Reebok Sports Licensed Division

Later on, will discuss the impact of digital asset management upstream with marketing and creative personnel.

I'm Al Falaschi. I’ve been with Widen Enterprises, Inc. since October of 2006, but my roots in dealing with digital audio and video date back to the late 1990’s. I’ve built numerous audio recording and video editing facilities and continue to be an independent music producer/engineer and video editor.

Understanding the technological blueprint of digital audio and video, I’ve helped form Widen’s expansion of the Digital Asset Management system to include additional audio/video capabilites, and help plan future growth in these areas. Understanding industry standards and custom workflows allows me to guide Widen’s product into maintaining the status as one of the leading providers of Digital Asset Management systems and services.

The purpose of my blog is to keep you in the loop on what's going on in Widen's world of video handling, in addition to discussing the opportunities and issues with audio / video and digital asset management. Stay tuned...