Digital Assets & Brand Equity. The DAM System

Transcription

1 Scan for PDF

2 Digital Assets & Brand Equity Digital assets take on many forms consisting of marketing brochures, video footage, audio files, product images, lifestyle photography and other branded material. Each of these digital assets is expensive to create but worth the investment because it generates enough impact to drive revenue. Organizations need to create digital assets because the customer needs to see the merchandise to make a purchasing decision. Higher investments in digital asset creation are more closely tied to goods and services that are represented as more of an overall experience; demonstrating the impact of a product or service on the lifestyle of the target market. These higher digital asset investments are primarily needed in marketing and creative initiatives to continuously build brand equity allowing the organization to garner premium pricing for increased margins. Lower cost digital asset creation may be needed in other areas of the organization where there is little to no direct customer exposure. The need for digital asset creation is increasing significantly, hence the reason the amount of data that needs to be managed and distributed is rising exponentially. With the importance of digital assets influencing revenue and the exponential rise in the quantity of files being created, how can an organization receive maximum value from each digital asset created? The DAM System The craze around digital asset management and the vendors supporting these systems would lead you to believe that a system that helps you organize and tag these digital assets is how you extract maximum value from the investment in digital asset creation. To a certain degree, digital asset management can help but how you measure and monitor your digital asset management system is how you understand the actual value you are receiving. This is where software-as-a-service providers gain yet another distinct advantage over the installed software model. The service provider you select will help monitor and measure the value received by comparing your metrics to the aggregate of data they are tracking for all customers. The software-as-a-service provider shares insights into a best practices model of digital asset value relative to other organizations striving to achieve the same end result; maximum value from the digital asset creation investment. The SaaS provider shares insights into a best practices model of digital asset value relative to other organizations striving to achieve the same end result; maximum value from the digital asset creation investment. 2

3 Widen Enterprises, Inc. continues to maximize the value of a digital asset creation investment by managing the creation, management, and distribution components. As one of the premier service providers in both the premedia and digital asset management industries, Widen has an impressive understanding of the digital asset lifecycle backed by their environment which creates nearly one-half million files annually, manages millions of digital assets across various file types, and enables access to over 50,000 users from 120 countries in six continents. DAM Ratios The rich understanding is a key reason why Widen leads the value measurement charge by creating a set of reporting guidelines to help executive level marketing and creative teams understand the value of their digital asset portfolio and how they can receive additional value by using the right digital asset management technology. Widen established four key ratios after interpreting customer requirements and helping to create their areas of focus. These ratios include the repurposing ratio, digital asset activity ratio, user activity ratio, and the digital asset consumption ratio. The Digital Asset Repurposing Ratio For this whitepaper we are focusing on the repurposing ratio which is the ratio that is most closely tied with the value being received as a result of the investment made in the digital asset creation process. The repurposing ratio isolates a time period and determines the digital assets that were used at least once during that time. That quantity of digital assets provides us with what we consider active digital assets. These active digital assets now need to be compared with the total amount of downloads that occurred over that same time period. This review provides an average of the quantity of times each active file was used by the user community, otherwise referred to as the repurposing ratio. As an example, if a customer possessed 1,000 active digital assets in June and the quantity of downloads in June was 10,000, the repurposing rate is Repurposing Ratio = Quantity of All Digital Assets Ordered Quantity of Active Digital Assets Stored What value was received as a result of having achieved this repurposing rate? ROMI: Cost Per Use The repurposing rate all by itself could be analyzed by evaluating cost per use and number of overall product or brand impressions. In a cost per use evaluation, we want to understand the average cost for the digital asset creation process. This may be segmented by file type to provide additional insight as in the following example: if the 3

4 average digital asset creation cost is $2, for lifestyle photography and the repurposing rate is 10.00, the cost per use is $ Cost per use assessments may vary by file type and with video becoming increasingly popular the amount of downloads may represent a higher number or since they are more expensive to produce the quantity available is much less causing the cost per use to fluctuate versus lifestyle images. To put a few numbers to this, and using the aforementioned creation cost example: Lifestyle Photography Active Digital Assets: 1,000 Digital Asset Downloads: 10,000 Digital Asset Creation per File: $2,600 Digital Asset Repurposing Ratio: Digital Asset Cost per Use: $ Video Files Active Digital Assets: 200 Digital Asset Downloads: 10,000 Digital Asset Creation per File: $10,400 Digital Asset Repurposing Ratio: Digital Asset Cost per Use: $ In this example you may say the value received from video files is much greater because I am able to repurpose them more frequently than lifestyle photography driving the cost per use below the lifestyle photography cost per use. The point is that through the use of digital asset management services and the analysis using the repurposing ratio you are capable of understanding the value you are receiving from a cost per use perspective. The other segment of value when using the repurposing ratio by itself is impressions. Brand Impressions An increased and controlled brand impression to your target audience is also where digital asset management can add value. The repurposing ratio communicates the number of impressions you can expect for every file you create. The repurposing number is quickly multiplied if the digital assets are being used by independent marketing channels then placed in other locations to promote your product (e.g. web site, catalog, and brochure). Making digital assets more easily available to marketing channels enables increased impressions within a controlled environment upholding the integrity of the brand through consistency. Are you a best practices organization when it comes to repurposing your digital assets? 4

5 The repurposing rate in comparison to other organizations and your own historical data may reveal information that requires changes to the digital asset creation process or the promotion of the digital asset management system. The software-as-a-service provider can formulate a repurposing ratio for the aggregate of all customer data. So if there are only a few customers in that provider s portfolio there will not be much value to gain with this comparison. Installed software providers cannot easily perform these assessments because each deployment in an Making digital assets more easily available to marketing channels enables increased impressions within a controlled environment upholding the integrity of the brand through consistency. independent location without the appropriate means of gathering the data from all customer sites. Using service providers that have a healthy user community with diversified brands in the customer mix will allow you to receive a valuable comparison to what everybody else is doing. Comparing repurposing ratios against your historical data and an aggregate of other customers may reveal certain classifications of repurposing. A low repurposing rate may indicate light usage by the user community or an over abundance of digital assets that are only being used a few times before reaching the end of their life. This would cause an increased cost per use, which may be appropriate in certain circumstances. A high repurposing rate may indicate an active user community frequently interacting with a popular set of digital assets which may be closely tied to the effectiveness of the digital assets. Helping you receive maximum value from your digital assets is learning what other organizations are doing through centralized customer success management. Helping to understand why the average repurposing ratio may be much greater than your rates will help guide the digital asset creation process. Helping you also understand how the repurposing ratio has progressed over time and what adjustments need to be made to achieve higher rates is how value can be assessed and extracted from your digital asset management system. About Widen Enterprises, Inc. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Widen has honed its more than 60 years of experience in premedia and color management specifically for assisting customers build brand equity and support consistent brand representation across print and web communications. Through its inventive suite of web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provide marketing networks with real-time web-based access to the clients digital asset libraries that subsequently eliminates manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that cannot be located, and the added cost for hardware, software and upgrades. For more information, visit 5