the content hangover cure

The content hangover cureNever wake up wondering where your content is ever again

Jake Athey from Widen with Jennifer Hurley from Clear Channel Outdoor

THE CONTENT HANGOVER

Hello, is it you I’m looking for?Do you…

● Manage a content management system?

● Manage a digital asset management (DAM) system?

● Believe you have mastered content or DAM?

If not, you’re likely dealing with “the content hangover.”

@TwitterHandle • #intelcontent

Jake AtheyDirector of Marketing

“I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack.”

JAKE ATHEY


Jen HurleyDirector, Marketing Operations

“So there were two of us in the wolf pack.”

JEN HURLEY

TAKEAWAYS

TakeawaysWhat you’ll learn today

1

2

3

Digital librarians empower people to find what they need

Good content libraries make assets discoverable

The digital librarian will become a standard role

DISCOVERABLE ASSETS

Well-managed content libraries make assets discoverable1

UNDERSTANDING

It starts with understanding...

WHAT? WHERE? WHO? HOW? WHY?

UNDERSTANDING WHAT

It starts with understanding… …What

● The most important step in creating a well-managed content library is defining the WHAT.

● Your WHAT could include photos of products, brand elements, digital examples, and stock photos — ingredients used to build your story.

● What is your company’s story?

UNDERSTANDING WHERE

Next you need to understand...…Where

● Once you’ve established your WHAT, you can assess the WHERE.

● There are a lot of people who would love to help you get organized.

● If your content currently lives somewhere, is it working for you?

UNDERSTANDING WHO

Then you need to understand...…Who

● For the WHO, content systems usually have permission levels so you can control who has access to what.

● Primary user groups could be creative, marketing, and sales teams.

● Each group has different access to different assets and is trained differently.

UNDERSTANDING HOW

After that you need to understand...…How

● HOW you organize your assets is based on what system they live in.

● Some systems are search-based and others are folder-based.

● Some systems allow for different types of searches:

○ A search bar, a category search, a collection search

○ There’s more opportunities for discovery

UNDERSTANDING WHY

And finally, understand… …Why

● WHY is good to ask along the way, like a kid.

● It’s a good tactic to make sure you’re thinking about all the questions.

COUNTLESS HOURS HUNTING

You waste countless hours hunting2

COUNTLESS HOURS HUNTING

You waste countless hours huntingfor graphics, photos, and videos inside the software

● The software that is supposed to make it all findable

● Only one person — a.k.a. a “finder of stuff” — knows where anything is

● Maybe you’re that person at your company…

CONTENT OVERLOAD

Content overloadLeaves marketers with piles of disorganized, wasted, and wandering content

● Given the volume and variety of content that is created and consumed everyday, it can cause a really bad hangover effect!

● Companies are losing valuable resources with time, money, and content waste.

● Scattered assets, siloed teams, content misuse, duplicated efforts, and many other daily struggles leave you thinking there’s got to be a better way!

THERE’S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!

There IS a better way!That’s what we’ll focus on today

Today’s goal:

Have you leave with an understanding of why DAM technology is important and , more importantly, know that it’s not just about the technology.

It’s about people.

MORE THAN SOFTWARE

Good software is insufficient3

MORE THAN SOFTWARE

Software is greatBut don’t fall for the trap of technology

● You can’t just throw a bunch of money at software and expect all your problems to be solved.

● Technology allows humans to be better humans.

● It allows designers to design, writers to write, and producers to produce content with stronger, faster, and more consistent output.

IT’S TECH AND HUMAN

It’s not tech or human…...It’s both!

● The success or failure of marketing and content technology is determined by vision, creativity, and strategy (human attributes!).

● Artificial intelligence is worth exploring, and it’s getting better, but it will, at least for the foreseeable future, require human intelligence.

● This is especially true with DAM!

WHAT IS DAM?

What is DAM?Before we get too far, let’s define DAM.

● Simple definition: DAM is the management, organization, and distribution of digital assets from a central repository.

● Content management systems have been around for decades.

● DAM tools are working to manage the plethora of visual content types today.

● DAM is still evolving!

WHAT IS DAM?

Why is DAM important?DAM, when applied consistently, will help you:

Increase efficiency and effectiveness

+ =+Connect to

revenue fasterImprove brand

consistencyBuild brand

equity

5 FUNCTIONS OF DAM

The top 5 functions of DAMHelp your teams work at higher levels of quality and consistency to reach and influence your audience

● You get this when you have a central source of truth for the creation, distribution, and measurement of your digital assets.

● The next slides will show the 5 DAM foundations that drive a return on your content.

● Keep in mind, these are technical and human functions.

GOVERNANCE

DAM foundations

GovernanceUser roles and access controls

GOVERNANCE

GovernanceIn the form of user roles and access controls

● This helps you make the right content, accessible to the right people, at the right time.

● For example: Creatives collaborate over in-process work and sales people only get the finalized versions.

● The software will help you keep it separated, but it requires some strategic thinking to set up and maintain it.

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY

Collection Development PolicyJen shares the policy from Clear Channel Outdoor

● Clear Channel Outdoor’s Collection Development Policy represents the overall strategy and process of their DAM.

● It’s the skeleton, or framework, that supports all they do.

○ Defines how the content they curate supports the vision of the company.

○ Defines user roles and permissions, where their content comes from, record retention, and lifecycles.


Collection Development PolicyJen shares the policy from Clear Channel Outdoor

● The policy offers a level of transparency so it’s clear what’s in the DAM system, why it’s in there, and for whom it’s for.

● It evolves as the company changes.

● It always gets linked back to how the organized assets can work to support the company as a whole.

METADATA AND TAXONOMY

DAM foundations


Metadata and taxonomySearchability and organization


Metadata and taxonomyHelps you organize, find, and discover your best content

● Metadata:

○ Describes content for search (by color or product, for example)

○ Defines appropriate use and reuse (perhaps by persona or lifecycle stage)

○ Protects from misuse and exposure to liability with rights release and expiration controls


Metadata and taxonomyHelps you organize, find, and discover your best content

● Software can help you extract, tag, and monitor metadata.

● But it requires a strategic thinker to know what metadata is important across different types of assets and what it means to your business.


Jennifer’s approach to metadata strategyHow a digital librarian handles it

● The documents on the next slides are the ones Jen’s team touches everyday.

● These documents provide a roadmap to managing the tech. They define how they make the system work for them.

● The DAM system makes humans better humans.

METADATA SCHEMA

Overall metadata schemaFor different business units

● This colorful doc shows the overall metadata schema for different business units.

● It shows what metadata fields have controlled vocabularies, whether or not fields are required when filling out metadata, and any dependencies

METADATA SCHEMA

Keyword auditing approach For industry keywords

● This doc shows some industry keywords.

● It also contains category taxonomy and scope notes and helps describe assets using synonyms.

AUTOMATIC PROCESSING

DAM foundations



Automatic processingConversions on-the-fly

↑↓


Automatic processingMakes content reusable and adaptable with on-the-fly file conversions

● Drives repurposing and saves creative time of having to convert and transcode creative assets to other file formats

● Content assets are served up in the right specs, ready to use

● Version control is made easy with one asset, regardless of the channel, medium, or intended use

● Although automatic, it requires your strategist to define the processing options and versioning rules


How Jen uses itConversions based on use cases

She saw that sales people were downloading high-res images and dropping them into PowerPoints, creating these huge decks that would crash their email.

In response, she found an optimal size for a PowerPoint image and created a conversion that made any file into something appropriate to drop into a deck.

CREATE ONCE, PUBLISH EVERYWHERE

DAM foundations




↑↓Create Once, Publish Everywhere

Sharing, linking, embedding


Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE)A central concept to DAM

● COPE allows for sharing, linking, and embedding assets across multiple systems, channels, and websites.

● COPE happens with DAM in tandem with your web content management, e-commerce, and marketing automation platforms.

● The software makes assets extensible, but it’s up to you to connect the dots across your marketing tech stack.


How Jen uses itShe uses it a lot

● She has two examples of how she uses COPE.

● The first example is a client-facing map-based app, called Seek, that showcases billboard inventory by area.

● When someone searches by market, they’ll get a list of results by location with a market photo.

● Those shots live in the DAM. When the photos are updated in the DAM by a marketing manager, they’ll show up immediately in the app.

COPE EXAMPLE #1


How Jen uses itShe uses it a lot

● The second COPE example is a slide from a recent playbook that was shared with sellers for the automotive vertical.

● The photos are different curated collections of creative examples that sales staff can download or share with prospective clients.

● This example shows how Clear Channel is leveraging the tech in ways that serve them and making connections between the tools that really optimize assets.

COPE EXAMPLE #2

ANALYTICS

DAM foundations




↑↓Create Once, Publish Everywhere

Sharing, linking, embedding

AnalyticsPerformance insights

ANALYTICS

AnalyticsThe last foundational area

● Analytics help you understand your best performing assets across all channels.

● Having insights into content engagement, intended use, and what your internal and external audiences want is critical today.

● Having content performance data at your fingertips is powerful, but you need to apply the data for actionable decisions.

ANALYTICS

How Jen uses itShe loves data!

● The Widen Collective has a built-in Insights app with customizable dashboards that show what assets are being used, what’s popular, how users are searching, search terms, trending categories, and more.

● Using Insights, che can also tell what’s NOT being used, so she can make decisions to archive unused content.

● With this info, she creates biannual and year-end reports on use and can get actionable insights from it.

INSIGHTS EXAMPLE

PEOPLE > TECHNOLOGY

People are more important than technologyGreat code is to make a great experience. And that’s a human experience!

These are the key stakeholders that will help you move any DAM or content tech initiative forward, including you:

INFLUENCER CHANGE AGENT

MARKETINGTECH

LIBRARIAN

THE PEOPLE

People are more important than technologyWho are yours?

● Your internal marketing influencer — Whether it’s your CMO or head of content, you need someone who is ultimately responsible for the success of DAM.

● A change agent — This is the person on the ground, pushing the process forward. This person may be a creative, responsible for visual design, or a member of your content team. Larger organizations may have a consultant push the process forward.

THE PEOPLE

People are more important than technologyWho are yours?

● A marketing technologist —This person sees the big picture of what systems and processes you need to support the customer experience, because DAM is just one piece of the puzzle.


Jennifer’sstory

It’s not tech OR human. It’s both!

JENNIFER’S STORY

JENNIFER’S STORY

Jennifer’s storyIt’s not tech OR human. It’s both!

In Jen’s case, she’s a digital librarian who’s all three! That’s a perfect world. Consider how you can acquire librarian principles.

INFLUENCER CHANGE AGENT

MARKETINGTECH

LIBRARIAN

JENNIFER’S STORY

Jennifer’s storyIt’s not tech OR human. It’s both!

● Jen is the third librarian to work for Clear Channel Outdoor and part of three different DAM solutions over the years.

● She finds technology to be both a blessing and a curse.

● It’s opened up discoverability, accessibility, and work efficiency, but all of that can be a challenge when there are a lot of complicated systems.

● She thinks of the DAM as a respite. It’s fun to look through images and get ideas.

LIBRARIANS EMPOWER

Digital librarians empower people4

JENNIFER’S STORY

Digital librarians excel in content managementThey are masters at connecting people with information

● Not only are they well organized, but they help others do their jobs better because they present the right information.

● Librarianship is a service industry. They provide a service of connecting users to information.

● Most assets now are digital-born, so there’s a heightened need to be comfortable with technology.

LIBRARIAN PRINCIPLES

Embrace librarian principlesMachines aren’t there yet

● You’ll always have users that don’t like technology or are uncomfortable learning new systems.

○ Train them differently based on that knowledge.

● Dispel the mystery of your technology and how your systems talk to each other when introducing or reiterating your system.

● Content systems live and die by how awesome their evangelist is. A system’s survival must be tied to someone’s job function.

THINK LIKE A LIBRARIAN

Start thinking like a librarian

CONTENT SELECTION AND ACQUISITION

RECORD RETENTION

NEW COLLECTIONS

COLLECTION AREAS

COMPANY MISSION

THINK LIKE A LIBRARIAN

Get a librarian to help with your contentIf that’s not possible, find someone who has librarian tendencies

Someone who is a little OCD, detail oriented, and strategical. And then:

1. Be sure that WHAT content you’re storing is meaningful to your organization. Does it match your company’s mission?

2. Create standards and document them.

3. Figure out what to keep, what to throw away, and when to do that.

4. Find someone who WANTS to manage it.

DAM ROI

DAM ROI is greater when you have a dedicated person5

DEDICATION TO DAM

Dedication makes a difference

20%

Have at least one person who dedicates > 50% to DAM

80% Have at least one person who dedicates < 50% to DAM

62% are less than 20%

FULL-TIME VERSUS PART-TIME DAM

Dedication makes a difference

Time spent

Total assets

Total downloads

(last 12 months)

Repurposing ratio* Total users

Asset consumption

ratio**

> 50% time 94,860 119,107 4.8 1,385 164.4

< 20% time 31,602 25,240 2.2 841 74.3

*Repurposing ratio = Average number of times an active asset is downloaded

**Asset consumption ratio = Average number of downloads per user in the last year

CONCLUSION

Companies with dedicated adminssee a greater ROI

OUR CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

In conclusionCompanies with dedicated content managers see a far greater ROI

● They see greater ROI in their technology and content efforts than those who understaffed it.

● Essentially, the ROI of content reuse pays for the tech and human required to manage it.

● It’s a worthy investment to avoid the content hangover!

YOU CAN DO THIS!

You can do this. Here’s how.6

GETTING STARTED

First thing’s first Pre-work required!

● So, hiring a librarian isn’t in the cards?

● But, you probably have someone on staff who’s super organized and could probably take on the management of your content systems.

● If you think you have someone on staff who’s perfect for the role, there are a few steps they can take to get started.

CORE VALUES

Core values of librarianship

FINDINGYOURWHAT

TEACH ‘EMTO FISH

BE A PRO

KEEP IT TIDY

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

?

CORE VALUES

Core values of librarianshipLibrarian values that you can apply to content management

● Define what belongs in the collection — Remember, it needs to tie to your company’s goals.

● Training — It needs to be consistent and part of onboarding. Part of training involves knowing how to talk about the tech landscape.

● Keep it relevant and updated — Think about archiving and record retention. Most things have an expiration date.

CORE VALUES

Core values of librarianshipLibrarian values that you can apply to content management

● Be a pro — You need executive buy-in for your system to have any chance at survival, so you need to be able to communicate HOW the system is working, WHY it’s great, and HOW it makes the company better.

● Be helpful — If the end goal of an evangelist is to get staff to use the system, it helps if you’re nice about it. It’s really important to apply a human personality behind a system.

GOVERNANCE

Have a governance doc

STAKE-HOLDERS

COLLECTIONPOLICY

INDEXINGPRINCIPLES

TAXONOMYMAPS

CONTROLLEDVOCABULARY

KEYWORDINGGUIDELINES

GOVERNANCE

Governance documentThis will future-proof your collection

● This can be an Excel doc, a Google doc, or anything formattedand broken out to include the items shown on the previous slide.

● It should underscore:

○ System management, which includes how the system will be supported by IT, who the admins or those accountable are, and who the stakeholders are

○ Your collection policy

GOVERNANCE

Governance documentThis will future-proof your collection

● It should underscore:

○ Your indexing principles, which includes industry terms and how to apply metadata to your content

● To the right person, this exercise should be fun.

● If the dedicated person ever can’t manage the DAM, someone capable should be able to step in, check out the governance doc, and be set.

LIFECYCLE AND RETENTION POLICIES

Have lifecycle and retention policies

Adjust based on demand and viability

Report on useSet a reasonable

timeframe

Nothing is truly deleted

X

LIFECYCLE AND RETENTION POLICIES

Have lifecycle and retention policiesBuild the idea of archiving into your strategy

● If you don’t know how long something is relevant, start to track a lifecycle through observation and user behavior.

● Once the lifecycle is over, assets lose their value and it makes sense to archive them.

● Some branded content needs to be updated yearly, so plan for updates then.

● Lifecycle and retention policies are fluid and responsive to user behavior.

CONNECT WITH USERS

DAM doesn’t happen in a vacuum Connect with people

● Good DAM management isn’t possible or doesn’t matter without making sure you’re doing it for the right purpose.

○ Connect your users to what they need

● See what they have to say from time to time

CONNECT WITH USERS

Come to terms

Different strokes

Regulate alignment

Observe and report

This is the fun part!

Talk to your people

CONNECT WITH USERS

Talk to your peopleThis is the fun part!

● This is where you’ll learn the most. You’ll get a sense of what is and isn’t working and gain a perspective that’ll inform future decisions.

● Reach users in a variety of different ways:

○ Send surveys asking them about the system and what they wished it would do

○ Offer scavenger hunts with incentives like Amazon gift cards to engage users

BEST PRACTICES

“You better check yourself before you wreck yourself!”

FIND YOUR REPS

ADAPT BACKED BY DATA

GLEAN REGULAR INSIGHTS

HAVE A CLEAR POLICY

DO THE PRE-WORK

Best practices

BEST PRACTICES

A recapOf the best practices we’ve discussed today

● Do the pre-work — Iron out your governance doc and metadata fields before getting everything set up and the system rolled out.

● Find your people who are willing to be consults, and have biannual meetings to make sure metadata and keywords are still relevant.

● Google Analytics should be your friend, or explore how you can see how your users are engaging with your system.

● Calendarize a regular reporting cadence, and you can share what you find with your users and the powers that be.

DON’T DO THIS

Think, "If you build it

they will come."

Hand your system to a temp, intern,

or novice

Rush into anything

Resist change

Don’t do this

DO THIS

Do this insteadComponents of a great system

● Realize it takes a good plan, good support, good training, and even then some users still won’t buy into it.

● You have to make it worth their while and show them what benefit they get from it. This involves training and good communication.

● Have an evangelist in place who can talk about the system as a meaningful part of the tech ecosystem

● Establish trust with your users

WELCOME CHANGE

Change is constantHumans required

So, we’ve taught everyone about finding their what, documenting its purpose, getting everyone ready and trained…

…the machine takes over and everything’s good to go, right?

MAKE SURE THE SYSTEM’S WORKING

NopeThere’s always a need to make sure the system is working

● Have a few temperature checks throughout the year

● Run QA searches to make sure the system behaves in expected ways

● Create a biannual report (who’s tapping the system, who’s not, what’s being used, what’s not)

● Conduct user interviews to make sure the system is helping them conduct business

● Make a year-end report with top users and top-performing assets to share with your executives

EMBRACE CHANGE

Dealing with change

EVALUATE BIANNUAL ANNUAL

Processes and policies every six

or 12 months

QA searches, report on use, interview users

Purge data, report on top

performers, justify

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Digital librarians will become a standard role in content organizations

7

MAKE SURE THE SYSTEM’S WORKING

Because it’s not tech or human. It’s both!What’s your vision?

You see that machines are not the full answer, because it’s not tech or human. It’s both.

While we believe digital librarians will become a standard role in best-in-class marketing organizations, we’d love to talk with you more about your vision to cure the content hangover.

Questions?Contact:

[email protected]