General

MM: That gets to an underlying theme of what it takes to produce great creative. Oftentimes people operate under what I think of as a misconception: creative is some guy off in a corner with a ponytail and a Mac making up something that looks cool and in a flash of insight goes, “Ah! That’ll work!” Then, they storyboard something and off they go to the client and sell it.

More often than not, you start off with a germ of an idea that might become something. Then comes communication, collaboration, and interaction with a whole bunch of different people, including the quantitative side of the house that’s looking at analytics (customer demographics and trends like that) retail or Web site traffic reports with the questions of what kinds of people show up, where, and when.

Out of this kind of really rich “soup” of communication and interaction comes a creative product that reflects not only a good marketing focus, but also a way of really engaging very specific customer groups as influenced or directed by the retailer or brand marketer.

So communication and collaboration tend to be much more a part of great creative. It’s only exacerbated or multiplied by the question, “How do I get great creative into print and online?”

JK: Yes. I agree with everything you say, Michael. I think in the future, this will be taken to new levels of collaboration.

Using some of the Adobe tools and using Canto Cumulus as a DAM system, I’ve noticed that the collaboration—in my opinion—has gotten much better.

So think about it. You don’t have to take paper proofs of a concept or a storyboard to an advertising director or the AE. You might just shoot them a link that ties back to the Cumulus database and they’ll look for it themselves and annotate it themselves.

That type of collaboration is only going to become greater and greater as the tools get more sophisticated.

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, a few users have emerged as “very satisfied, arm-waving, walking-talking, brand-fan who advocates” of a particular product or services, and will (if asked) support, train, and inspire other customers to follow in his or her footsteps. Before these would-be-evangelists can move, however, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Outlets for advocacy
What are types of outlets or “soapboxes” for my advocacy?

• Speaking at industry events
• Authoring articles in trade publications
• Presenting case studies at customer events

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, a few users have emerged as “very satisfied, arm-waving, walking-talking, brand-fan who advocates” of a particular product or services, and will (if asked) support, train, and inspire other customers to follow in his or her footsteps. Before these would-be-evangelists can move, however, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Communications and interactions
What are types of communication and interactions really make a difference in motivating others to adopt this new technology or service?

• Regular, well-announced teleconference Q&A roundtables
• In-depth interviews that document the journey from chaos to success
• Detailed process benchmarks documenting productivity gains and cost savings
• Industry awards for innovation in DAM
• Small-group insight-sharing sessions among industry peers

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, a few users have emerged as “very satisfied, arm-waving, walking-talking, brand-fan who advocates” of a particular product or services, and will (if asked) support, train, and inspire other customers to follow in his or her footsteps. Before these would-be-evangelists can move, however, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Big story needed

What dream or big story does this product or service enable me to tell?

• We can now spend more time doing our creative work and less time on logistics
• We are able to execute our marketing campaigns more effectively and efficiently
• We got up and running with a digital asset management solution in a matter of days. It was painless.
• We are doing a much better job of staying on brand, more of the time, around the globe
• I can rest at night knowing that we have considerably lowered the risk of copyright infringement

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, most customers have a successfully deployed, stable DAM system. Before they can move, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Support services needed
What types of support services do many customers need to expand the breadth or depth of your solution?

• Basic and Advanced Training Programs
• Implementation Support
• Integration Consulting
• Metadata model definition
• Bulk asset management

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, most customers have a successfully deployed, stable DAM system. Before they can move, they must “work through” several essential questions:

I.T. issues
What types of technical or IT issues emerge, hindering fuller expansion of your solution?

• System does not support certain file formats required by a specific group
• System integration with other enterprise systems
• Asset integration with other systems
• Insufficient bandwidth and storage
• Use of old browsers

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, most customers have a successfully deployed, stable DAM system. Before they can move, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Data needed to quantify feedback
What kinds of data do most deploying firms lack, hobbling their effort to quantify payback?

• Visibility into the cost of generating assets internally as well as acquisition costs from third parties
• Visibility into duplicate purchasing
• Understanding of how long employees spend looking for assets
• Understanding of total labor costs and distribution costs (FedEx etc) for producing and distributing assets
• Understanding of financial cost of delivery poor quality or off-brand campaigns
• Understanding compliance risk

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, most customers have a successfully deployed, stable DAM system. Before they can move, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Essential ROI benchmarks
What are the essential benchmarks that validate return on investment?

• Reduction in duplicate purchasing of assets. More repurposing
• Improved accessibility to assets
• Improved time to market
• Reduction in production and distribution costs
• Improved quality i.e., deliver the right asset the first time
• Conformity to brand standards – keeping more executions on brand
• Rights compliance – lower risk and avoidance of law suits
• Lowest cost to get system up and maintained

What else have you found in your experience?

In this stage of the Solution Lifecycle, most customers confront significant and, in many cases, unforeseen disruptions to the daily work life and operations. Before they can move, they must “work through” several essential questions:

Types of complaints by end-user
What are the typical end-user complaints in a start-up phase?

• Workflow changes – “old process worked better than new”
• Difficult to use new system
• New tasks ‘not in my job spec’
• System does not do ‘X’
• When can I get access to the system (i.e. for users that are not yet included in start-up)

Driving user acceptance
What can a customer do to maximize user acceptance from start?

• Early communication
• Sell benefits
• Scheduled training sessions
• Gain input from key employees during deployment
• Force people to stop using old methods
• Provide adequate support if things go wrong

What else have you found in your experience?