The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital ...

The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in

Digital Asset Management

May 2009

Ian Michiels

The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management

© 2009 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200

Executive Summary Research Benchmark

Aberdeen’s Research Benchmarks provide an in-depth and comprehensive look into process, procedure, methodologies, and technologies with best practice identification and actionable recommendations.

In April and May 2009, Aberdeen Group surveyed over 130 executives (67% of which worked in marketing functions) to understand how organizations justify investments in digital asset management for marketing. The related data and analysis herein highlight Best-in-Class practices for managing marketing assets. This further validates 2008 Aberdeen research on marketing asset management which revealed that digital asset management technology is vital to Best-in-Class performance in return on marketing investment, brand consistency, and time-to-market.

Best-in-Class Performance Aberdeen used three key performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class companies:

• 18% annual increase in average return on marketing investments

• 23% year-over-year increase in time-to-market "Our biggest challenge [with marketing asset management] has been incorporating the DAM solution into the everyday workflow. DAM exposed many bad habits and areas for improvement in the existing workflow"

~ Jeff Stevenson, Marketing Manager, Sigma-Aldrich,

Chemicals

• 100% reported improved brand consistency over the last 12 months

Competitive Maturity Assessment Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance shared several common characteristics:

• 82% periodically measure marketing collateral effectiveness

• 63% have access to marketing content from a centralized repository

• 47% have closed-loop processes to measure collateral effectiveness

Required Actions In addition to the specific recommendations in Chapter Three of this report, to achieve Best-in-Class performance, companies must:

• Invest in tools to centralize digital assets. Best-in-Class realize operational efficiencies and top-line growth through centralized management of marketing assets. Lowered performance expectations during a recession offer an optimal window to add new processes and capabilities to the organization.

"How do we deliver strategic value with DAM? Right now all we have is a document repository."

~ VP Marketing, Midsize Financial Services Company

• Re-purpose and re-use digital assets to cut back on redundant licensing and maximize the return on existing assets. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Best-in-Class re-use marketing assets (versus 45% of all other organizations).

www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897


© 2009 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200 www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

Table of Contents Executive Summary....................................................................................................... 2

Best-in-Class Performance..................................................................................... 2 Competitive Maturity Assessment....................................................................... 2 Required Actions...................................................................................................... 2

Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class.................................................... 4 Justifying Investments in DAM .............................................................................. 4 What's Driving Demand for DAM? ..................................................................... 5 The Maturity Class Framework............................................................................ 5 The Best-in-Class PACE Model ............................................................................ 6 Best-in-Class Strategies........................................................................................... 7

Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success................................... 9 Competitive Assessment......................................................................................11 Capabilities and Enablers ......................................................................................12

Chapter Three: Required Actions .........................................................................16 Laggard Steps to Success......................................................................................16 Industry Average Steps to Success ....................................................................17 Best-in-Class Steps to Success ............................................................................17

Appendix A: Research Methodology.....................................................................19 Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research............................................................21

Figures Figure 1: Top 4 Ways Companies Store Marketing Content............................. 4 Figure 2: Top Three Pressures Driving Use of DAM........................................... 5 Figure 3: Top Two Strategies for Improving Marketing Execution................... 7 Figure 4: Measuring Return on Investments in DAM Technology .................... 9 Figure 5: Processes Currently in Use.....................................................................12 Figure 6: Best-in-Class Technology Use ................................................................13

Tables Table 1: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status.............................................. 6 Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework ....................................................... 6 Table 3: The Competitive Framework...................................................................11 Table 4: Linking Features / Functions to the Business Case .............................14 Table 5: The PACE Framework Key ......................................................................20 Table 6: The Competitive Framework Key ..........................................................20 Table 7: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework.........................................................................................................................................20



Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class

Justifying Investments in DAM Fast Facts

√ 46% of all respondents have been using a digital asset management solution for >1 year

√ 79% of respondents not using DAM indicated the inability to identify a measurable ROI on the technology investment was the number one reason for not making an investment in DAM

√ 40% of respondents that used DAM indicated understanding a clear and justifiable ROI was “critical” to the decision to invest in digital asset management, 34% indicated it was “important but not absolutely necessary in the investment decision”

The digital era has led to an exponential growth in marketing content. As companies expand outbound marketing across multiple channels, content management becomes essential to maximizing marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Solution providers offer an eclectic mix of content management solutions that are designed to help marketers capture, store, and retrieve marketing content, both structured and unstructured. These solutions fall under a number of categories; some are built specifically for the marketing function and others are general content management technologies that are leveraged by the marketing function. (See the January 2008 benchmark Marketing Digital Asset Management: Capturing, Storing, and Retrieving Digital Media to Deliver Strategic Value for a comprehensive definition of each category.)

Aberdeen Group’s January 2008 study on marketing asset management, Marketing Digital Asset Management: Capturing, Storing, and Retrieving Digital Media to Deliver Strategic Value, explored Best-in-Class use of digital asset management for marketers. The research revealed many companies still struggle to justify and understand how investments in marketing content management technology translated to real cost savings or performance gains.

Among the 130 executives Aberdeen surveyed in April and May 2009 for this study, 72% stored marketing assets in a digital asset management (DAM) solution, suggesting digital asset management is a mature technology. However, 55% stored marketing content on a shared drive (this percentage remains unchanged from 2008). DAM solutions will never eliminate the use of shared drives and FTP servers. But as we will see in Chapter 2, improper dependence on shared drives and FTP servers can negatively impact marketing performance (Figure 1).

Report Overview

This report will explore the tangible benefits to centralizing marketing assets and isolate the practices and capabilities top performing organizations leverage to consistently achieve superior performance.

Figure 1: Top 4 Ways Companies Store Marketing Content

38%

38%

55%

72%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

FTP File Server

Store f iles on individual hard drives

Shared Drive on Internal Netw ork

Invested in Technology Solution

Percentage of Respondents, n=132

All Respondents

Source: Aberdeen Group, May 2009


http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/4579-RA-marketing-asset-management.asp






Ninety-eight percent (98%) of all respondents indicated that tangible justification for investments in marketing content management technology was critical to the marketing function. This report will isolate exactly how organizations that achieve superior performance in return on marketing investments, brand consistency, and time-to-market measure / optimize marketing content management practices.

What's Driving Demand for DAM? Marketing asset management technologies can have a direct impact on top line revenue and operational productivity. The current economic climate has changed the way companies evaluate digital asset management solutions. Just one year ago, the top two challenges companies sought to mitigate with DAM investments were improved return on marketing investments and brand consistency (Figure 2). In 2009, brand consistency and return on marketing investment were bumped to the number two and three spots as organizations attempt to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible under volatile market conditions and often with fewer resources. Today, the number one reason all companies are turning to DAM is operational productivity (66%). Companies are desperately trying to supplement a lack of top line revenue, with increased productivity to maximize profitability.

"As a large matrixed [sic] organization [our biggest challenge is that it’s] difficult to get all stakeholders and key decision makers on the same page to realize risk and opportunity."

~ Marketing Director, Utilities

Figure 2: Top Three Pressures Driving Use of DAM

46%

46%

66%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Need to improve return on marketinginvestments

Need to manage brand consistency

Need to improve operational efficiency


All Respondents


#2 in 2008

#1 in 2008

All Respondents

46%

46%

66%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%





All Respondents

46%

46%

66%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%





#2 in 2008

#1 in 2008


In Chapter 2, we will explore exactly how Best-in-Class organizations are linking performance metrics to the above challenges to justify investments in centralizing and automating the creation of digital assets in the marketing department.

The Maturity Class Framework Aberdeen used three key performance criteria to distinguish the Best-in-Class from Industry Average and Laggard organizations. These performance criteria directly aligned with the top three challenges all respondents sought to address with DAM technology:

• Return on Marketing Investments: Is the organization extracting more money from outbound marketing campaigns in 2009?



• Time-to-Market: In a volatile market, can the marketing department rapidly adapt to changes in consumer buying behavior?

• Brand Consistency: Globalization and multichannel efforts can degrade the brand as multiple constituents in the marketing supply chain execute campaigns. Have companies improved their ability to manage brand consistency from the second half of 2008 to the present?

Table 1: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status

Definition of Maturity Class Mean Class Performance

Best-in-Class: Top 20%

of aggregate performance scorers

18% annual increase in average return on marketing investments 23% year-over-year increase in time-to-market 100% reported improved brand consistency over the last 12 months

Industry Average: Middle 50% of aggregate

performance scorers

1% annual increase in average return on marketing investments 1% year-over-year decrease in time-to-market 45% reported improved brand consistency over the last 12 months

Laggard: Bottom 30% of aggregate

performance scorers

17% annual decrease in average return on marketing investments 11% year-over-year decrease in time-to-market 0% reported improved brand consistency over the last 12 months


The Best-in-Class PACE Model Using marketing content management and digital asset management to improve the operational efficiency of the marketing function requires a combination of strategic actions, organizational capabilities, and enabling technologies that can be summarized as follows:

Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework

Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers The need to improve operational efficiency

Centralize access to digital assets for all parties in the marketing supply chain (agencies, consultants, partners) Optimize marketing investments by analyzing past performance

Closed-loop processes to measure collateral effectiveness Organizational culture desires tangible understanding of return on investment in technology Marketing has access to all digital assets to re-purpose or re-use content and images

Marketing Resource Management (88% Best-in-Class Adoption) Segmentation and Targeting (76% Best-in-Class Adoption) Real-Time Reporting (71% Best-in-Class Adoption) Rich Media Support (53% Best-in-Class Adoption) Searchable Access to Digital Content (53% Best-in-Class Adoption)




Best-in-Class Strategies In response to the need to improve the efficiency of marketing operations, Best-in-Class have adopted two strategies (Figure 3):

• Centralize access to digital assets. As highlighted in Figure 2, 55% of respondents indicated their company uses shared drives to "centralize" marketing content. Best-in-Class are two-times more likely than all others (the combined Industry Average and Laggard) to leverage technology that centralizes storage of digital assets and automates marketing campaign execution. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Best-in-Class have invested in technology to centralize marketing content and make it actionable – which helps manage brand consistency across campaigns, improve efficiency, and maximize profitability.

• Optimize marketing with past performance. Improving return on marketing investments is a closed-loop process requiring marketers to measure performance of each campaign and constantly look for new and innovative ways to adapt messaging, content, and positioning to changing market desires. This strategy requires deep analytics on asset utilization and the ability to link the campaign to conversion. Best-in-Class achieve superior performance across key metrics because they have invested technology and processes (which we will discuss in Chapter 2) to optimize performance over time.

"Despite our lack of capitalizing on solutions that may exist we realize there is an opportunity to increase productivity with front line employees, which could reduce costs for multiple reasons and lead to increased revenue as employees focus on selling rather than administrative type tasks. We also risk conveying mixed messages to customers."

~ Marketing Manager, Utilities

Figure 3: Top Two Strategies for Improving Marketing Execution

53%

41%35%

40%31%

42%36%

23%

50%

0%

20%

40%

60%

Centralize access to digitalassets

Optimize marketinginvestments by analyzing

past performance

Link marketing investmentsto business objectives

Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard n = 132

53%

41%35%

40%31%

42%36%

23%

50%

0%

20%

40%

60%

Centralize access to digitalassets

Optimize marketinginvestments by analyzing

past performance

Link marketing investmentsto business objectives

Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard n = 132 Source: Aberdeen Group, May 2009

Industry Average and Laggard organizations desire the ability to link marketing investments to business objectives without the tools or capabilities to accomplish such strategies (Figure 3). It is important to note, 54% of Industry Average organizations use campaign management tools and 33% use digital asset management tools. The technology is not a differentiating factor for Best-in-Class performance, but the technology empowers Best-in-Class with automated measurement and performance for




optimizing marketing operations. This lack of insight is the reason the number one strategy for Industry Average and Laggard organizations has to do with linking marketing investments to business objectives.

Aberdeen Insights — Strategy

Typically, content management solutions are associated with bottom line cost reduction and efficiency gains in marketing. However, new technology capabilities are allowing digital asset management to be linked to the top line. Managing the brand for a global organization can be very tricky. Regional marketing functions often need to customize content to maximize marketing effectiveness. At the same time, corporate marketing wants to ensure brand consistency across all global marketing campaigns. It's difficult for corporate marketing to create collateral that will work for every region and the last thing the organization wants is siloed execution of creative efforts across the regions (which causes huge brand management challenges).

Marketing Asset Management (MAM) providers have developed a capability called "Dynamic Content" updating. Templates can be created within the system which are centralized and pushed out to the field within the technology. The field can then customize and personalize specific elements of the template (that corporate marketing unlocks) to maximize the effectiveness of the collateral. Thus, dynamic content capabilities can directly impact an organizations' ability to adapt marketing to unique market conditions, while simultaneously manage brand consistency. This impacts the top and bottom line for the organization.

Best-in-Class organizations are three-times more likely than all other organizations (60% versus 20%) to use dynamic content capabilities to change marketing collateral from within the content management system.



Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success

Fast Facts

√ 82% of Best-in-Class utilize systems that store digital assets and execute multi-channel marketing campaigns

√ 33% of respondents expect the budget for DAM to increase in 2010, 56% expect budget to remain the same

√ 59% of Best-in-Class plan to increase budget for DAM in 2010

Investments in digital asset management solutions are big decisions for organizations. After all, a centralized content management solution is only valuable if the marketing function actually uses it on a regular basis. So, it's critical to find a solution that addresses all of the organizations challenges and management's top concerns. Justification for such investments can be tricky because many of the tangible benefits are derived from employee productivity, which is difficult to quantify.

Aberdeen asked all respondents how they measure (or plan to measure) the return on marketing asset management investments to identify if Best-in-Class organizations view ROI on DAM investments any differently than all others (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Measuring Return on Investments in DAM Technology

53%

37%

34%

45%

38%

24%

35%

53%

71%

71%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Don't Measure

Savings from Re-Using Assets

Improvements inBrand Compliance

Improved Cycle Timeon Marketing

Initiatives

Efficiency ofOperations


Best-in-Class

All Others

53%

37%

34%

45%

38%

24%

35%

53%

71%

71%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Don't Measure

Savings from Re-Using Assets

Improvements inBrand Compliance

Improved Cycle Timeon Marketing

Initiatives

Efficiency ofOperations


Best-in-Class

All Others


The results highlight an interesting trend. Best-in-Class are 1.8-times more likely than all other companies to select operational efficiency or employee productivity that results from freeing up staff to focus time on other issues. Executives at Best-in-Class companies gravitate towards the notion that (1) their marketing resources are underutilized because of mundane, manual tasks, and (2) if marketing resources had free time, they would spend it on tasks that immediately impact the return on marketing investments. As such, Best-in-Class organizations justify investments in marketing asset management technologies by measuring employee productivity and cycle time on marketing initiatives. Employee productivity and time savings is a real tangible cost which can be annualized across the organization and used to justify a return on DAM investments.




Case Study — Staples Promotion Products

Staples Promotional Products specializes in the development, promotion, and extension of corporate and brand trademarks through logoed merchandise. The company has been an industry leader for more than 50 years and services more than 350 of the Fortune 1000 companies. In 1998, three companies were merged to form Staples Promotional Products. The company needed a way to consolidate operations, particularly in the management of digital assets, which historically had been stored on multiple servers in multiple departments without a clear view of all the assets under management. This meant assets were difficult to locate and were often re-created or duplicated which increased the storage space, consumed resources, and generally increased the time required to locate specific assets.

According to Kathy King, Staples Promotion Products’ Digital Asset Manager, “We had a specific set of requirements for a corporate digital asset management solution. Chief among those was the need for a robust, enterprise-level solution because we know that no matter how many assets we had accumulated, the database was only going to keep growing along with us.” King pointed out that, like many companies, employees had a wide range of technical skills so ease of use was a critical criterion for choosing a solution.

The company chose a phased approach to fully automate asset management enterprise wide. The rollout initially started with the Marketing Services Department (responsible for producing the company’s catalogs) and the Graphic Art Department (responsible for producing artwork for customer projects). Over time, other departments were integrated into the digital asset management workflow.

Today, the company has been using the solution for five years. “In the past, significant staff time was consumed with finding and disseminating assets, via email or FTP, as a result of customer, supplier or sales associate requests. We had one client for whom we were making 60 to 70 CDs per catalog release. Now it’s a simple matter of a ten-minute task.”

Staples Promotional Products exemplifies the Best-in-Class use of digital asset management technology. Digital assets are incorporated into workflow processes to standardize common activities and centralize access to all digital assets, no matter what department the end-user is in. Staples Promotion Products is realizing operational efficiency as a direct result of the digital asset management product. More importantly, the digital asset management solution can be directly linked to top line growth and customer satisfaction because customer requests are delivered with much faster turnaround and confidence that the best possible combinations of assets that reside in Staples Promotion Products systems are delivered to clients.

“We had a specific set of requirements for a corporate digital asset management solution. Chief among those was the need for a robust, enterprise-level solution because we know that no matter how many assets we had accumulated, the database was only going to keep growing along with us.”

~ Kathy King, Staples Promotion Products, Digital

Asset Manager




Competitive Assessment Aberdeen Group analyzed the aggregated metrics of surveyed companies to determine whether their performance ranked as Best-in-Class, Industry Average, or Laggard. In addition to having common performance levels, each class also shared characteristics in five key categories: (1) process (the approaches they take to execute their daily operations); (2) organization (corporate focus and collaboration among stakeholders); (3) knowledge management (contextualizing data and exposing it to key stakeholders); (4) technology (the selection of appropriate tools and effective deployment of those tools); and (5) performance management (the ability of the organization to measure its results to improve its business). These characteristics (identified in Table 3) serve as a guideline for best practices, and correlate directly with Best-in-Class performance across the key metrics.

Table 3: The Competitive Framework

Best-in-Class Average Laggards Closed-loop processes to measure collateral effectiveness

Process 47% 20% "The return on a digital asset

management tool will largely be measured on the basis of the savings created by reducing the development of new creative due to increased utilization of existing assets and adaptations of the same.”

~ EVP of Operations, Publishing Company

14%

Organizational culture desires tangible understanding of return on investment in technology Organization

53% 23% 14%

Marketing has access to all digital assets to re-purpose or re-use content and images

76% 50% 41%

Access to a centralized repository of marketing content Knowledge

63% 48% 32%

Marketing technology currently in use:

Technology

81% Marketing Resource Management 60% Dynamic Content Updates 53% Searchable Access to Content 46% Digital Asset Management



Periodic measurement of marketing collateral effectiveness. Performance

82 % 24% 23%





Capabilities and Enablers Based on the findings of the Competitive Framework and interviews with end-users, Aberdeen’s analysis of the Best-in-Class demonstrates that marketing efficiency and effectiveness are contingent on more than technology adoption. Best-in-Class demonstrate the use of symbiotic capabilities that work in unison to achieve superior performance.

Process Best-in-Class add structure and process around content customization, which helps them to achieve superior performance in brand consistency (Figure 5). Likewise, Best-in-Class demonstrate a heightened ability to add structure and rigidity to marketing asset creation and optimization. For Best-in-Class, it's not just about measuring collateral effectiveness; it's about acting on the measurements. These are process-oriented challenges that Best-in-Class have standardized. They know where to go to find the data they need to measure performance and how to measure performance using standardized metrics that are tracked over time.

Figure 5: Processes Currently in Use

43%

37%

48%

54%

58%

65%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Workflow and Approval ProcessAutomation

Project Management Processes

Standardized process forcustomizing corporate collateral

Percentage of Respondents n=132

Best-in-ClassAll Others

43%

37%

48%

54%

58%

65%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Workflow and Approval ProcessAutomation

Project Management Processes

Standardized process forcustomizing corporate collateral

Percentage of Respondents n=132

Best-in-ClassAll Others


Organization From an organizational standpoint Best-in-Class demonstrate a unique culture that values justification and knowledge of the return on technology investments. Best-in-Class are 2.7-times more likely than all other companies to desire tangible understanding of technology ROI. This same hunger to understand and justify technology investments spills over into marketing execution. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Best-in-Class organizations calculate ROI on assets and campaigns on a periodic basis (versus 19% of all others) which directly contributes to the Best-in-Class organizations' ability to consistently improve return on marketing investments, even in a volatile, unpredictable market.

Knowledge Management Digital asset management is about knowledge management. The structure and process that is inserted into marketing content management practices through technology clearly enables Best-in-Class capabilities across process,




organization, and performance measurement. But, knowledge management isn't just about centralizing content for re-purposing or re-use (which Best-in-Class are 1.7-times more likely than all others to do), it's also about analytics. Best-in-Class measure the effectiveness of marketing data. In fact, Best-in-Class B2B organizations are two-times more likely than all others to democratize and formalize the distribution of the most effective collateral for sales reps.

Technology From a technology standpoint, Best-in-Class organizations are 2.7-times more likely than all others to use campaign management tools which typically automate customer engagement across multiple channels (Figure 6). Eighty-two percent (82%) of Best-in-Class indicated they leverage content management capabilities within a marketing automation tool.

Figure 6: Best-in-Class Technology Use

46%50%60%

71%81%

100% 100%

87% 88% 84%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

MarketingResource

Management

Real-TimeReporting

Social MediaTools

Marketing AssetManagement

Digital AssetManagement

Perc

enta

ge o

f Bes

t-in-

Cla

ss

n=3

1

Currently Use Plan to Use


Surprisingly only half of Best-in-Class organizations (53%) indicated they currently have searchable access to content, but 33% plan to add this capability in the next one to two years. In 2008, Best-in-Class organizations indicated searchable access to content was one of the top three most compelling features in a marketing asset management solution.

Building a Business Case for DAM Technology Respondents were asked to rank the technology features and benefits that contributed, or would contribute, to building a business case for digital asset management in marketing. A scale of 1 to 5 was used to determine the extent each feature and consideration contributed to justifying an investment in the mind of the end-user (1= does not contribute, 5 = heavily contributes). Table 4 shows average Best-in-Class scores.




Table 4: Linking Features / Functions to the Business Case

Factors Contributing to Business Case

Average Rank for Best-in-Class

Average Rank for All Others

Manage structured content (text, documents, images) 4.5 3.9

Content consolidation / centralization 4.2 3.9

Accelerated time-to-market 4.2 4.0

Manage unstructured content (video, audio) 4.2 3.6

Re-use of digital assets 4.1 4.0

Elimination of redundant tasks 3.9 4.0


During an assessment, it’s difficult to actually rank features relative in importance; they all seem important. However, the research highlights some very interesting differences in how a Best-in-Class company approaches business value over an Industry Average or Laggard. Best-in-Class are looking for process efficiencies (centralization of content, process automation, etc.) while all other organizations generally look to cost savings (eliminate redundancy, re-use assets, etc.).

Performance Management Best-in-Class excel in performance management. Measurement and performance allow Best-in-Class to justify changes in process to improve operational efficiency, or changes in content to improve return on marketing investments. Best-in-Class are four-times more likely than peers to periodically measure marketing collateral effectiveness. When asked how technology investments impacted performance Best-in-Class were the only organizations to consistently understand the link between technology investment and performance: How did the digital asset management investment impact performance?

• 69% indicated decreased asset creation cycle time

• 63% indicated agency fees decreased

• 40% indicated time spent transferring files decreased

• 63% indicated time spent locating files decreased

Aberdeen Insights — Technology

There are largely two kinds of digital asset management solutions available to marketers, those built for marketing and those built for general asset management, but used by marketing. Best-in-Class were two times more likely than all others to leverage asset management technologies that were designed for marketers.

continued



Aberdeen Insights — Technology

As such, Best-in-Class were 1.7-times more likely than all others to indicate the tool that delivered campaign management capabilities and the tool that delivered content management capabilities were actually the same solution. Likewise, the analytics and asset management capabilities from tools designed for marketing deliver more actionable charts and are typically pre-populated with performance dashboards that immediately deliver actionable insight about marketing performance.



Chapter Three: Required Actions

Fast Facts

√ Best-in-Class are two-times as likely as Laggards to increase spending on digital asset management in 2010.

√ 60% of Best-in-Class leverage integrated modules or single integrated solutions for marketing management (versus 20% of all others).

√ Best-in-Class display an aptitude for measuring performance and optimizing marketing investments over time; consequently, Best-in-Class extract far more value from technology investments and continue to stay one step ahead of their competitors in marketing effectiveness.

Whether a company is trying to move its performance in marketing execution from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry Average to Best-in-Class, the following actions will help spur the necessary performance improvements:

Laggard Steps to Success • Automate digital asset management. Research from 2008 and

2009 underscores one critical takeaway: Best-in-Class are two-times more likely to use a dedicated digital asset management solution for the marketing function. Laggards are twice as likely as Best-in-Class to rely on shared drives, FTP servers, and individual hard drives than asset management technology when it comes to managing marketing content. While shared drives and FTP servers may work to centralize content, they can cause huge inefficiencies in document retrieval, versioning, and recreation of content that already exists but can’t be located.

• Measure digital asset utilization for marketing. Operational efficiency is the top concern for 64% of Laggard organizations. The number one strategy Laggards are planning to implement to mitigate this challenge is linking marketing investments to overall business objectives. But, Laggards will have a difficult time linking marketing investments to business objectives if they don’t measure the effectiveness of marketing resources. Unfortunately, only 45% of Laggards measure asset utilization (versus 94% of Best-in-Class). Increasing return on marketing investments is a top concern for Best-in-Class organizations. This requires constant optimization of marketing assets to make sure they are relevant to the target audience.

• Use past performance to optimize marketing investments. Forty-one percent (41%) of Best-in-Class indicated optimization of marketing through past performance was a top-two strategy (versus 23% of Laggards). Laggard organizations lack analytics and insight about digital asset performance. Digital asset management is a process of constant optimization. By tracking historical performance, marketers can benchmark the effectiveness of new content and work to reuse effective copy or images as well as optimize future marketing campaigns.

• Measure employee productivity to justify investments in asset management for the marketing function. Costs saving on time spent locating files, re-creating content, and version management is a real, tangible cost that can be allocated to the return on investment calculation. Calculate average time spent on inefficient processes across a few employees. Compound this




annually or over a few years and a marketer can make a very compelling case for immediately investing in a centralized asset management solution.

Industry Average Steps to Success • Integrate digital asset management with marketing

workflow and processes. Perhaps the single biggest value-add for the marketing function is the ability to automate workflow processes specifically for the marketing function. Solutions become little more than asset repositories if they do not seamlessly integrate with marketing processes. Likewise, the ability to take assets and execute customer engagement campaigns, or dynamically update content to fit unique segments is critical to Best-in-Class performance. Eighty-two percent (82%) of Best-in-Class use a solution that delivers both asset management and campaign execution (versus 40% of Industry Average). Likewise, 100% of Best-in-Class indicated the digital asset management tool they currently leverage incorporated process and workflow automation specifically for marketing (versus 50% of Industry Average).

"We had a big problem with brand consistency, which has greatly improved with our new system. This is our first year with the new tool. Our franchisees did not like the program as much because they weren't allowed to do whatever they wanted. But it helped us with compliance and brand recognition. We're going to make improvements in the system this year based on franchisee suggestions. It should be accepted more readily next year."

~ Director of Marketing, Midsize Company, Finance / Banking

• Centralize access to digital assets. Fortunately, 40% of Industry Average companies already view the centralization of digital assets as a top-two strategy. Likewise, 68% of Industry Average companies use some sort of third party asset management technology. However, from a knowledge management standpoint, only 50% of Industry Average indicated marketing has access to all digital assets to re-purpose or re-use versus 76% of Best-in-Class who claim the same. The technology is only valuable if it is used to centralize ALL marketing assets.

• Adopt technologies that were built for marketing or have intuitive interfaces for marketers. In the Staples Promotions Products case study, Kathy King discussed the importance of adopting technology that marketers could actually use. Make sure individuals with a wide range of technical skills can leverage the technology or it loses value to the marketing function and will not deliver the expected return on investment.

Best-in-Class Steps to Success • Evangelize top performing documents for field marketing

or sales. Forty-one percent (41%) of Best-in-Class have processes to share or prioritize documents based on usage, relevancy, and timeliness. For large distributed organizations, locating the most impactful or effective content can be very difficult. Next generation digital asset management tools facilitate internal collaboration about asset effectiveness.

• Centralize unstructured assets for the organization. Online videos, webinars, and podcasts are not a fad. Fifty-three percent




(53%) of Best-in-Class currently have the tools necessary to manage unstructured data and democratize access to the organization. Access to more impactful rich media can indirectly impact the top line as marketing content becomes even more relevant and impactful to prospects and customers. But sales and marketing both need an effective way to distribute this media across the organization first.

• Adopt capabilities that add searchable access to digital assets. We have all become accustomed to having information at our fingertips on search engines. Surprisingly, only 53% of Best-in-Class currently have searchable access to marketing materials through their asset repositories. Search and indexing capabilities can have a tremendous impact on employee productivity and knowledge sharing within an organization.

Over half of all respondents used a digital asset management solution to manage marketing content. Yet performance in key metrics like return on marketing investment, brand consistency, and time-to-market dramatically varied across the maturity classes. While technology can directly impact operational efficiency, it is merely one piece of a larger puzzle that includes process management, performance optimization, and organizational culture.

Aberdeen Insights — Summary

The exponential growth of digital content will continue to fuel adoption in digital asset management for the marketing function. The research underscores the value of digital asset management for Best-in-Class organizations who achieve superior return on marketing investments by measuring asset utilization and optimizing future marketing campaigns. Best-in-Class also centralize asset management for increased brand consistency and automate marketing processes to optimize marketing productivity.

Top performing organizations are reactive to volatile marketing conditions. Best-in-Class are three-times more likely than their peers to seek analytics and measurement from asset management, which they incorporate into internal processes and the organizational culture. Most importantly, Best-in-Class underscore the value of digital asset management and highlight the many ways digital asset management technology can both increase top line revenue and enhance operational efficiency for any organization.



Appendix A: Research Methodology

Between April 2009 and May 2009, Aberdeen examined the use, the experiences, and the intentions of more than 132 enterprises about the use of Digital Asset Management (DAM) in the marketing function.

Study Focus

Responding executives completed an online survey that included questions designed to determine the following:

√ The use or planned use of DAM for marketing

√ The structure and effectiveness of existing DAM installations

√ Current and planned use of strategies used to identify strategic value from DAM

√ The benefits, if any, that have been derived from digital asset management

The study aimed to identify emerging best practices for measuring the business value of DAM investments and to provide a framework by which readers could assess their own digital asset capabilities.

Aberdeen supplemented this online survey effort with telephone interviews with select survey respondents, gathering additional information on the marketing asset management strategies, experiences, and results.

Responding enterprises included the following:

• Job title / function: The research sample included respondents with the following job titles: marketing (67%); sales (11%); IT (10%); other (27%); executive and VP level (27%); director and manager (55%); IT (9%); other (9%).

• Industry: The research sample included respondents from high tech (17%), finance and banking (8%), computer equipment and peripherals (12%), publishing and media (7%), IT consulting (11%), telecommunications (9%), other (36%).

• Geography: The majority of respondents (68%) were from North America. Remaining respondents were from the Asia-Pacific region (13%) and Europe (19%).

• Company size: Nineteen percent (19%) of respondents were from large enterprises (annual revenues above US $1 billion); 24% were from midsize enterprises (annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion); and 57% of respondents were from small businesses (annual revenues of $50 million or less).

• Headcount: Thirty-four percent (34%) of respondents were from large enterprises (headcount greater than 1,000 employees); 33% were from midsize enterprises (headcount between 100 and 999 employees); and 34% of respondents were from small businesses (headcount between 1 and 99 employees).

Solution providers recognized as sponsors of this report were solicited after the fact and had no substantive influence on the direction of the findings in the study. Their sponsorship has made it possible for Aberdeen Group to make these findings available to readers at no charge.




Table 5: The PACE Framework Key

Overview Aberdeen applies a methodology to benchmark research that evaluates the business pressures, actions, capabilities, and enablers (PACE) that indicate corporate behavior in specific business processes. These terms are defined as follows: Pressures — external forces that impact an organization’s market position, competitiveness, or business operations (e.g., economic, political and regulatory, technology, changing customer preferences, competitive) Actions — the strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures (e.g., align the corporate business model to leverage industry opportunities, such as product / service strategy, target markets, financial strategy, go-to-market, and sales strategy) Capabilities — the business process competencies required to execute corporate strategy (e.g., skilled people, brand, market positioning, viable products / services, ecosystem partners, financing) Enablers — the key functionality of technology solutions required to support the organization’s enabling business practices (e.g., development platform, applications, network connectivity, user interface, training and support, partner interfaces, data cleansing, and management)


Table 6: The Competitive Framework Key

Overview The Aberdeen Competitive Framework defines enterprises as falling into one of the following three levels of practices and performance: Best-in-Class (20%) — Practices that are the best currently being employed and are significantly superior to the Industry Average, and result in the top industry performance. Industry Average (50%) — Practices that represent the average or norm, and result in average industry performance. Laggards (30%) — Practices that are significantly behind the average of the industry, and result in below average performance.

In the following categories: Process — What is the scope of process standardization? What is the efficiency and effectiveness of this process? Organization — How is your company currently organized to manage and optimize this particular process? Knowledge — What visibility do you have into key data and intelligence required to manage this process? Technology — What level of automation have you used to support this process? How is this automation integrated and aligned? Performance — What do you measure? How frequently? What’s your actual performance?


Table 7: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework

PACE and the Competitive Framework – How They Interact Aberdeen research indicates that companies that identify the most influential pressures and take the most transformational and effective actions are most likely to achieve superior performance. The level of competitive performance that a company achieves is strongly determined by the PACE choices that they make and how well they execute those decisions.





Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research

Related Aberdeen research that forms a companion or reference to this report includes:

• Marketing Automation: A Strategic Guide for Optimizing End-To-End Marketing Activities; April 2009

• Maximize Business Results Online: How Web Content Management Technology is Transforming Digital Marketing; April 2009

• Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies are Weathering the Storm; January 2009

• Trigger Marketing: Timing is Everything; November 2008

• Lead Nurturing: The Secret to Successful Lead Generation; November 2008

• Cross-Channel Campaign Management: Next Generation Multichannel Marketing; October 2008

• Marketing Digital Asset Management: Capturing, Storing, and Retrieving Digital Media to Deliver Strategic Value; January 2008

Information on these and any other Aberdeen publications can be found at www.aberdeen.com.

Author: Ian Michiels, Group Director, Customer Management Technology Group (CMTG), [email protected]

Since 1988, Aberdeen's research has been helping corporations worldwide become Best-in-Class. Having benchmarked the performance of more than 644,000 companies, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to provide organizations with the facts that matter — the facts that enable companies to get ahead and drive results. That's why our research is relied on by more than 2.2 million readers in over 40 countries, 90% of the Fortune 1,000, and 93% of the Technology 500.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by Aberdeen Group, Inc.

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/source.asp?pid=ch_cust_rrs&cid=5711












http://www.aberdeen.com/

mailto:[email protected]

The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital ...

Documents

Transcript of The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital ...