Jack of All Trades or Master of One. Can all-in-one marketing solutions live up to the hype?

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1 Jack of All Trades or Master of One Can all-in-one marketing solutions live up to the hype?

2 The Labradoodle Decision It s the classic software showdown: all-in-one platform vs. best-of-breed solutions. In this corner, one solution promises to do it all with a single vendor and pre-built integration. In the other, a collection of technologies from multiple vendors provides deeper functionality. Marketing and IT leaders are facing this dilemma more and more often as the number of technology solutions in marketing begins to overflow. It s not an easy decision and, for most organizations, takes careful consideration of current demands and future needs. An IT leader recently described this situation as the labradoodle decision : if you need both a labrador and a poodle, that doesn t mean you should go get a labradoodle. It may be cute, but it isn t going to satisfy your needs. There s a lot to consider here, and much of it depends on your organization s preferences. Breadth of capabilities vs. depth of features Pre-built connections between functions vs. managing integrations between solutions Single vendor vs. multiple vendors All your eggs in one basket vs. the flexibility to adapt to changes in the marketing ecosystem Because creative assets play a central role in so many marketing processes, digital asset management (DAM) is one of the capabilities frequently bundled into solutions. These lightweight asset-storage features are a good option for some buyers, but it s worth taking a close look at your needs to be sure those features can handle everything you ll throw at them. The wrong decision now can wreak havoc down the road. This guide will help you evaluate these trade-offs and recommend a process for making a decision that pays off today and for the foreseeable future. 2

3 Jack of All Trade Offs There s a lot to like about the all-in-one option. Who wouldn t want to solve five problems with one solution and deal with fewer vendors, simpler implementation and less training? You just have to watch out for a jack of all trades that s a master of none. All-in-one solutions tend to have a super power one feature or component that runs particularly deep and works particularly well. Often this is the capability that led to the product s initial success. However, to satisfy more use cases and grow, these products must expand capabilities. In many cases this happens through acquisition. The new bolted-on features make sense on paper, but are often poorly integrated and fail to meet expectations like forcing a puzzle piece where it doesn t fit. In other cases, new features are developed in-house but lack the depth you d expect in a purpose-built application. For many organizations, a product that checks a lot of boxes without a lot of depth in any particular area may actually be fine. But for others with greater demands in more areas, a thin feature will prevent people from doing their job well and, ultimately, hurt the performance of your team. 3

4 The DAM Decision DAM is one of the more important capabilities to consider. Because digital assets are at the heart of the digital marketing value chain, more and more marketing solutions particularly content marketing and marketing management software are including some functionality to store assets. DAM-like functionality is sometimes referred to as a DAM, but can also be referred to as an asset library. Either way, this is where assets can be stored and made available to the application. A lightweight version of a DAM built into another solution might work for you depending on your needs. Here are some scenarios to help you decide whether an all-in-one solution with some asset management functionality or a full-featured DAM is right for your organization. A fully integrated marketing platform is just as elusive as the Himalayan Yeti. REAL STORY GROUP MARKETPLACE ANALYSIS 2015 Webdam.com learn@webdam.com 2018 Webdam 4

5 The Value of Digital Asset Management Industry regulation MarTech integration Market reach File organization Specialized marketing functions Digital asset count Size of marketing team Value of DAM Low Medium High Few Several Many Regional National International Centralized Hybrid Decentralized None Some Many < 1,000 1,000 10,000 > 10,000 < > 25 All-in-One Works Gray Area You Need a DAM 5

6 Brand Management Accelerated Workflow The DAM Difference If all you need is a place to store and easily access digital assets, then an asset library or the DAM-like functionality provided with another marketing solution may work perfectly well. However, as the size, complexity and specialization of your marketing and creative functions grow, the value of DAM increases. DAM specifically solves the problems related to the development, management and distribution of digital assets and marketing content. DAM is built to support the entire creative asset lifecycle, providing the functionality you need to create value with your brand assets. If you re torn between the light functionality of a bundled solution and the robust capabilities provided by a DAM, the description of key DAM capabilities on the next page should help during your evaluation. Controlled Access Extendable APIs & Integrations Powerful Search Actionable Analytics & Reporting 6

7 Brand Management DAM serves as the centralized hub where employees can access not only what they need, but the guidelines that govern where and how to use this content. Manage and distribute the assets that are the lifeline of your brand such as logos, color palettes and fonts. Build and publish easy-to-update digital brand guidelines that ensure consistent representation of brand and use of brand content across all channels. Controlled Access With DAM, administrators not only control where and how content can be shared, but also who can access content and what permissions they have such as viewing, downloading and editing. Use custom forms to automate fulfillment of download requests, restrict or verify asset use or route requests to admins for review and approval. Powerful Search There are some organizations using DAM to organize and manage 20 million-plus assets! Luckily DAM supports metadata and tagging, so your assets are always organized and easy to retrieve. Faceted search helps users hone in on the perfect asset by searching within files and folders, by file type and more. Users spend less time searching for assets and more time extracting value from them. Accelerated Workflows Marketing and communications teams use DAM to centralize assets and streamline content distribution. Content hosted in your DAM can be published directly to your web or social channels, allowing one change in your DAM to take effect everywhere that asset lives. Marketing teams aren t the only ones to benefit from DAM s streamlined workflows. Creative teams can use built-in collaboration tools to collect feedback and requests approvals in order to accelerate content creation and review cycles. And with built-in self-service tools that convert, resize and crop files upon download, designers can avoid the one-off requests that keep them from focusing on high-value activities such as creating the assets that deliver brand impact. Extensible APIs & Integrations DAM integrates with the platforms that power your enterprise. You can feed content and visuals directly to your CMS or social channels and use embeddable download links that connect to content housed in your DAM. DAM also boasts an extensible API for building custom solutions that integrate with proprietary software and third-party platforms such as: Content management systems like Sitecore or Drupal Social media publishing tools like Hootsuite Cloud storage sites like Dropbox or Box Design tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud Actionable Analytics & Reporting The robust analytics in DAM help optimize your investment in assets. View reports to see who is using your DAM, how many times an asset has been accessed and what actions users have taken. You can use this information to guide future investments or provide a measurable ROI to the the rest of the enterprise. 7

8 Choose Wisely Having it all is certainly a compelling value proposition. As marketing and creative departments depend on more and more technology, it s very tempting to consolidate around do-it-all platforms. But simplicity can come with crippling costs. Check-the-box features that don t really meet all your needs or give you room to grow are just going to slow you down. Digital asset management capabilities are a critical part of your decision because your creative and marketing assets play a central role in so many functions and processes. So check the We have DAM, too claims very carefully. That labradoodle may be cute, but make sure the dog you choose can hunt. Webdam.com learn@webdam.com 2018 Webdam 8

9 Learn More About DAM Want to learn more about how DAM can benefit your organization? Webdam can help. Webdam is a cloud-based digital asset management solution for marketing and creative teams. It accelerates marketing operations by uniting everyone on a common platform to organize, manage and distribute all your marketing content. Visit or contact us at learn@webdam.com. ABOUT WEBDAM Webdam, is a leader in digital asset management, changing the way marketing and creative teams manage the world s brands. Founded in 2005, the Webdam cloud-based platform connects the visual content that drives impactful brand experiences and allows brand-building activities to scale across the enterprise and consumer touchpoints. Over 700 of the world s leading brands rely on Webdam to accelerate their marketing operations. For more information, please visit webdam.com and follow Webdam on Twitter or Facebook. 9