Manufacturing brands amass thousands of digital files and require a system that enables efficient, accurate content distribution across their channels. It's crucial to have a DAM system in place to help centralize, organize, and distribute content and to ensure all stakeholders have access to the correct assets.

Manufacturing companies that focus on digital marketing are able to unlock the potential for significant growth. In fact, what companies state as their main priorities, fully rely on effective marketing including existing market expansions, unlocking new geographies and introducing new products and services.

For marketers in the digital age, a company’s digital assets such as photos, images, content, media, videos - are their new currency. These digital assets facilitate the value exchanged between a company and its customers before any sale takes place. Sales, distributors, PR, agencies and contractors require a steady flow of product-related content, creative media and visuals to grow brand awareness and revenue.

How do manufacturing organizations effectively create, manage and distribute assets across their communication channels, brand and revenue-generating teams? And what are the challenges that need to be considered? Read on to find out more.

• What type of content do manufacturers use?
• How can manufacturers manage media content?
• Why should manufacturing organizations implement a DAM?

Types of Content Used by Manufacturers

Every aspect of manufacturing marketing requires extensive visual and media production. The most effective websites use a combination of aesthetics, performance and ease of navigation. Just a few years ago, hiring a photographer and providing photos of available product, would be sufficient to showcase the brand, expand the business and grow demand. But now there are new forms of media that create more engaging experiences for customers. Organizations that provide more unique experiences, will earn more attention and engagement. Video demonstrations of the product, three-dimensional product images and even virtual reality experiences are just some examples of visual and media formats that manufacturing companies are now using to create content.

Considerations for Managing Media Content

These assets are increasingly expensive to produce and require specialized solutions and expertise to manage. Here’s what needs to be considered:

• Finding photos and videos of product collections, brand assets, marketing and safety resources (MSDS, brochures, price lists etc.)
• Building and sharing visually compelling product photo and media catalogues and collections
• Distributing and sharing with employees, distributors and agencies product photos, videos, 3D models and promotional materials
• Setting up permissions for Corporate Marketing and other divisions to view, edit and share select content and resources
• Setting up connected libraries for different divisions or brands with separate taxonomies and administrators
• Enabling all users to download and transform files into different file types and sizes

Use Cases for Managing Digital Assets

Let’s take a look at a few use case scenarios, where organizations have found solutions to common challenges around digital and media assets.

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Providing multiple divisions with corporate assets

A global manufacturing conglomerate with multiple product divisions and sub-brands needs to ensure that everyone has access to on-brand corporate assets such as corporate logos, PR resources, investor information and reports. Yet, each division needs to have access to their own unique library, but also have designated administrators and permission structures established for accessing and editing assets.

A digital asset management platform with a multi-library structure was leveraged, creating several libraries under an overall corporate umbrella. Every division now has access to the corporate collateral and the IT team has oversight and administrative control for the entire corporate library. Each division and product line have their own nestled library and designated administrators, asset curators and even taxonomies specific to their division specialization. Leveraging a DAM platform provided all departments, subsidiaries and partners with secure access to approved corporate assets, streamlined collaboration, enforced brand integrity, and increased productivity across their entire organization.

One-click content access and file transformations

One of the biggest complaints from marketing and creative teams at an aerospace manufacturing corporation was the number of requests to provide the required product collateral or to alter logos and images to a specific format from everyone in the company. The Marketing team was already under pressure to produce a tremendous volume of content and visuals, but was also wasting hours searching for required resources or reformatting files. With global offices in India, Europe and North America, each location had its own on-premise storage systems, with no way to search across all available assets. The inefficiencies kept growing and required a company-wide solution.

Implementing a digital asset management system with an unlimited number of users completely eliminated this challenge. All employees, agencies, external contractors and distributors were given access to the approved section of the corporate library. Every user, even those who were resistant to new technologies, were able to find what they needed from the latest versions of the approved photos, brand assets and collateral. What’s even better is that they were able to specify the file type, size and resolution that was required, and download in that specific format and size. As a result, Marketing had a spike in productivity and users were happy to use the platform to find any visuals, media or content when they needed it.

Brand consistency for global sales and distribution network

Serving a global customer base, a global leader in bolt securing technologies with subsidiaries in Europe, the United States and Asia, and a worldwide network of authorized distributors was having issues with brand consistency across their large corporate umbrella. Due to the large global footprint of the organization, the marketing team required a solution that would enable them to quickly and reliably access and distribute assets from any country in the world. In addition, these assets required permission restrictions, to ensure that they were being accessed by the correct people. A digital asset management solution was identified and rolled out globally in less than a month. Today, their entire organization – including its extended distribution network - can quickly, easily and securely access the corporate assets they require, from any device, anywhere in the world. And the Marketing team can ensure that all sales and distribution points have the on-brand resources and tools they need to effectively drive sales growth within all markets.

To learn how digital asset management can help with other key challenges marketing or creative teams experience in the manufacturing industry or how it can help scale digital strategies, check out Digital Asset Management for Manufacturing.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.