How to prevent inefficiency from stifling your brand’s growth

Digital transformation takes many forms – from manufacturers digitising paper-based processes on the factory floor, to law firms and accountants automating research and reporting activities with AI.

 

But there is a common denominator across all enterprise businesses – their brand. Brand assets are estimated to drive on average 19.5 per cent of enterprise value, and managing this vital area of business, from digital assets to strategic marketing campaigns, requires considerable resources and investment.

 

As enterprise businesses grow, so can the hidden costs associated with brand building. In-house marketing teams are spread across several markets, and increasing demands on them to create more content results in complicated workflows. Alternatively, outsourcing the brand to multiple agencies and partners can make for miscommunication and confusion.

 

This is where a digital asset management (DAM) platform can have a truly transformative impact. Most businesses can claw back efficiency gains and see ROI from day one.

 

Eliminating inefficiency

 

In most businesses’ marketing and commercial operations, organising brand assets is one of the biggest hidden inefficiencies. Most execs and managers substantially underestimate the amount of time marketers spend searching, filing, tagging and organising digital assets, then ensuring these can be securely accessed by colleagues and third parties. Years ago that was the only way, but now AI-enabled systems do this in seconds, freeing up a team’s resources for more productive work.

 

Jenny Cobelli, Head of Creative at Domino’s Pizza UK’s in-house creative agency, explains the impact of the company’s assets being poorly organised and stored across multiple platforms and devices. “It was taking days of our time to find assets that we already owned,” she says.

 

“Seek out AI-powered platforms which automatically identify objects, people and colours in your images and videos, and which add the right metatags for you,” advises Andrew Hall from Canto, the global industry leader in digital asset management.

 

“The software also exists to automatically categorise and organise content for you, so there are no more clunky content hierarchies, no more junior execs spending hours editing file names and folder structures and no more messages between team members searching for assets,” Hall adds, referring to AI-assisted features which enable people to discover assets in their library simply by searching using natural language.

 

Cutting out these hours lost on administrative chores allows your marketing and creative teams to scale up content production and meet business demand, which is vital for brands growing and expanding into new markets.

 

Improving collaboration

 

This approach not only benefits a company’s marketing function, but brings significant knock-on effects across the business and its partners. Poorly managed collaboration with clients, agencies, suppliers, publishers, new business leads, media outlets and so on can all drive inefficiency and stifle brand growth.

 

Through adopting a digital asset management solution, businesses can boost efficiency by giving stakeholders instant self-service access to approved content. As well as improving efficiency, this also tightens up brand management and version control and enables economies of scale through a more streamlined end-to-end process.

 

Canto’s Andrew Hall explains: “Rather than having to send and resend files externally, you can create branded environments with precise access controls. It means you can share professional-looking suites of assets with partners, journalists, franchisees or prospective clients, giving them everything they need – and nothing they don’t.”

 

This is particularly powerful for decentralised and franchise-based businesses, such as Shuttercraft, one of the UK’s largest shutter and blind companies, with 32 franchise locations. “People in the network can just open Canto, go to ‘Living Rooms’ and show customers living room inspiration designs,” says Shuttercraft Franchise Manager Clarissa Hearn.

 

Digital transformation

 

Recuperating a full 20 to 30 per cent in efficiency savings may take considerable time and investment, but adopting a digital asset management strategy can deliver quick and impressive ROI. By eliminating inefficiency hidden costs are not only reduced, but brand growth receives a boost.

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To explore how digital asset management can boost your brand’s growth, visit www.canto.com.