WatchGuard is a company that’s more than nice to have around. For over 20 years, they’ve provided simple, smart solutions that have taken the world of cyber security by storm. Backed by big-data visibility, their products and services help businesses of all sizes feel confident that their network and WiFi are safe and secure from the villains and perpetrators of cyberspace. But, like all superheroes, WatchGuard’s success was not without a few challenges (and victories) of their own.

“Everything’s fast now and it’s totally unreasonable,” says comedian John Mulaney. “The world is run by computers. The world is run by robots. And sometimes they ask us if we’re a robot just because we’re trying to log in and look at our own stuff!”

Marketing teams face the opportunities (and temptations) of more channels, more content, and more technology. And thinking about how it all works together to deliver a consistent, effective customer experience can lead to more headaches.

“We’ve been able to provide people with materials, templated materials, that deliver on our brand equities on a much stronger basis than what we were doing earlier, where people were pulling things out of nowhere and putting them all together.” –– Josh Hafer, Heaven Hill Brands

Integration enables marketing teams to ingest user-generated content from TINT into the Widen Collective® with metadata and image rights

We’re thrilled to announce our integration with the social display platform TINT. Mutual customers can now ingest user-generated content (UGC) from social media via TINT directly into the Widen Collective with all the metadata, including image rights. The integration enables brands to easily repurpose UGC for marketing initiatives at scale without the risk of misusing images.

Gartner reports that “managing marketing assets and scaling content operations are top priorities for marketing leaders today, which is driving increased investment in digital asset management (DAM) platforms.”

Digital asset management (DAM) can be an intimidating subject.

The goal is clear. Help people find and use the digital assets they need. But the metadata, taxonomy, roles, permissions, and integrations to make that possible can give even the savviest teams hesitation. Then you factor in the unique organizational structures, workflows, technologies, and change management and it’s no surprise that some DAM programs stall.

Connector syncs Widen Collective assets in Showpad’s sales enablement platform so that salespeople can access accurate, brand-safe content quickly

I’m so tired of talking about integrations.

There, I said it. Now you say it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

“I’m so tired of talking about integrations.”

Excellent. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Your brand is a way for customers to identify your business. It is how they recognize and differentiate you from the competition. But, just as a sports team is more than the uniform they wear, a strong brand is more than a logo or tagline. To its most loyal fans, it’s a community. It’s an emotional connection, a badge of honor, and a driving force in why people buy what they buy. According to a recent Nielsen survey, nearly 60 percent of global respondents prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them, and 21 percent say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like.

Whether your brand is traveling down the hall to a colleague's office or across the globe, you need to safeguard it for the journey ahead. With freelancers, marketing agencies, internal teams, and many others using your brand in communications and content, it's easy for inconsistencies and misuse to arise. A brand identity kit can help by providing disparate groups and individuals with the tools and information they need to uphold your brand consistently. While every brand identity kit looks different, here are a few essentials to pack in yours: