What’s your score?

Evaluating your need for marketing asset management incorporating packaging

|| Introduction

Marketing asset management systems help However, despite the importance of driving
brand teams to centralize their content – quality omnichannel experiences, many
including packaging assets – streamline firms still struggle to deliver consistently
their creative workflow and increase collab- high-quality content across digital, social and
oration. However, while asset management physical touchpoints. Many organizations
systems are commonly in use, they are often are still facing issues that point to their need
specific to one function within an organiza- for a marketing asset management platform
tion and not interconnected, or are used that incorporates packaging.
simply as asset repositories.
Here we feature some of the most common.
If packaging management is successfully Of the following eight questions, how many
combined with marketing asset manage- do you say ‘yes’ to?
ment, it can enable brands to deliver consis-
tent and powerful omnichannel experiences
across all digital, social and physical (e.g.
packaging) customer touchpoints. Recent
research reveals that omnichannel delivery
of content assets is critical to customer
relationships.

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1. Do you have trouble locating your
marketing and packaging assets?
Many companies have too many assets
stored in too many different places being
sent to too many people. Assets become
siloed into shared drives, email approval
chains, other processes or even stored at
external sites, such as creative agencies.
When it comes to finding the right asset for a
packaging or marketing campaign, how sure
are you that you are using the absolute final
version?
|| 3
Truly connected marketing asset manage-
ment provides control and visibility of assets
(including images, text, movies, logos, etc.),
enabling companies to track performance of
brand-related content from brand ideation
to development to brand maintenance. This
provides much-needed consistency across
channels, with the same finalized assets
used (and viewed by consumers) whether
they’re on social media, a retailer website or
on the shelf.
2. Do you only use flat 2D images of your
products online?
No matter how good the photography, 2D
digital images never convey the full power of
the brand packaging as well as holding the
physical product does.
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However, powerful packaging software
enables 3D digital assets, complete with
the ability to turn the product 360 degrees,
which goes some way t o fulfilling this gap.
This is a benefit for your retailers, and gives
online customers the best possible experi-
ence with your brand.
3. Are your packaging and marketing
departments disconnected?
Currently, there is often disconnect between
those who design and produce packaging
and those who market the packaged goods,
with the two functions not collaborating
either from a communication or data-sharing
perspective.

But the role of packaging is more important

than ever for marketers, vital for personifying
a brand, attracting consumers and driving
differentiation from competition.

A combined packaging and marketing asset

management solution links all relevant stake-
holders together from both functions (and
others), centralizing control, visibility and uti-
lization of brand assets across departments,
regional hubs and third parties.

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4. Do your regional hubs use their own assets?

Regional offices are often unable to find
the latest ‘global’ marketing and packaging
materials.
As a result, they sometimes recreate assets
unnecessarily, use an earlier version or
something else entirely;
in fact, research shows that reuse of brand
assets is as low as only 1.6%. But the pack-
aging represents the brand, which rep-
resents everything your business does –
consistency is vital.
By having a single platform that bridges
these gaps and provides the opportunity for
collaboration, this risk reduces significantly
and also provides an enormous opportunity
for savings.

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5. Do your marketing materials
reside in several places?
For many companies, their marketing mate-
rials (including packaging files) are not incor-
porated into a single asset management
platform for consistent use and reuse.
|| 7
Centralizing all brand materials, both pack-
aging and marketing, into a single source
of truth, makes it easy to see how content
is used, make sure that the right content
is being used and reused, and shared with
retailers.
6. Do files reside
with suppliers?
The supply chain is a complex environment
– both internally, where packaging can touch
a wide range of functions – and externally,
where several stakeholders such as agen-
cies, printers, pre-media and translators can
be involved.

Research has shown that agency coordina-

tion is the most frequently cited challenge
when trying to create omnichannel experi-
ences.1 Often, supplier-created packaging
and marketing files are not within the con-
trol of the organization. Ideally they should
be easily searchable – now and years from
now.

A truly integrated end-to-end asset manage-

ment system makes this possible.

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7. Do you spend additional time and money on
photographing your packaged products?
Partly because marketing departments
and packaging departments are so discon-
nected, companies waste a lot of money
on unnecessary product photo shoots for
their external promotions. With an asset
management system that is designed for
marketing and packaging support, you can
automatically generate 9-view images from
a 3D packaging image. This can all be done
in advance of manufacturing, getting you
to market faster all while saving significant
costs and time.

Joining up the dots with a single source of

truth accessible by all key stakeholders then
makes these images available for consistent
use and reuse.

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8. Do you lack an audit trail?

An audit trail is essential to assess what went
right and wrong with your last campaign.
A comprehensive platform allows for high
quality reporting, e.g. who uses files, when
and what for.
Having this added insight allows for edu- More importantly, companies can see where
cated changes, improving the efficiencies their process is not optimal and integrate
within your organization. those learnings into the next packaging
development project.

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|| How many did you score?

Even if it is only one or two out of eight, these will still have a significant
impact on the efficiency and accuracy of your packaging and marketing
and, ultimately, your bottom line.

A combined packaging workflow and marketing asset management

solution helps to align your brand’s physical and digital worlds, cen-
tralizing all brand assets, both packaging and marketing, into a single
source of truth. This makes it easy to see how content is used and That’s where Esko comes in. Want to learn more?

AUG17 © 2017 Esko. All rights reserved. All specifications are subject to alteration.
makes sure that the right content is being used and reused. It helps to Talk to us at info.eur@esko.com
build quality into your processes, reduce risk of errors at every stage, or visit www.esko.com/brands
maintain absolute control and visibility of all assets and aspect of the
supply chain, and manage the challenges of controlling packaging and
labeling copy and content with ease.

When choosing such technology, it is important to ensure you can seam- 1. The Next Generation of Digital Asset Management.
A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
lessly integrate digital asset management capabilities with workflow so behalf of MediaBeacon, March2017

that adoption and change management is optimized. It is also important

to ensure you are thinking in the long-term – you are building a sustain-
able organization, so make sure the technology you choose is aligned
with your long-term strategy, and will be there for the long-haul.

www.esko.com