When you’re reporting on your creative team’s work, what do you share? The quantity of content created, hours scheduled versus hours spent, and total cost of a project all frame up your creative team as a cost. So, if that’s all you’re reporting, you’re not positioning your team as the value-creating operation it is. Cost is only part of the story. You need to get at the root of how creative work makes an impact.

Your brand’s next big marketing campaign is on the horizon, and your team isn’t prepared at all. You still need to ideate the campaign vision, create all the assets, finalize the designs, and get approval from the necessary parties. The sheer amount of work yet to be done is paralyzing, and your team is really feeling the pressure. And worse, you know that as soon as you’ve finished this project, it will all start again with the next one.  Does this sound familiar?

With omnichannel marketing becoming common practice, the need for all kinds of content is on the rise. There’s photography, graphics, videos, white papers, sell sheets — not to mention emerging content types like 360-degree images and interactive content like room builders. Let’s just say there’s a lot of content. 

Depending on the maturity of your brand and your content efforts, you may already feel the weight of these demands within your own organization. And as you know, content creation requires significant time, money, and resources, which are lost if you don’t have a plan for maintaining, improving, and storing your valuable assets. 

When it comes to managing your content, it really depends on what stage it falls into in the content lifecycle. For instance, your interaction with assets that are in high demand, like images from a recent photoshoot, is likely to be quite different than with low-demand assets, like last season’s digital ads. That’s why having a solid understanding of the digital content lifecycle will help you keep track of your content and ensure you get the most out of your investment.

The Portals app in Widen’s digital asset management (DAM) solution offers a flexible, attractive, and easy way to share content within a branded environment. 

Our blog post Portals Examples and Use Cases showcases a range of creative and powerful ways that our customers are using portals to share assets, connect teams, and advance brand stories. In this article, we’ll share functionality details and best practices that will help you build a portal that meets your unique content and business needs.

The range of different file types for visual content can make it hard to know which one to use, especially if you’re not a graphic designer. But having a basic understanding of common file types — and when to use them — is a good skill for any marketer to have.

Let’s start by taking a look at four common file types: 

The right set of creative assets can make or break your next marketing campaign. Coming up with a clear strategy around creative asset management can be a game changer for content production, campaign execution, and overall results.

Without a strategic approach to managing creative assets through their lifecycle, you can easily waste resources and diminish the impact of your team’s work. With a solid strategy, you can deliver engaging omnichannel marketing campaigns that convert and build brand loyalty. Here’s a look at what creative assets are, what asset management entails, recommendations for software, and some tips on how to get started. 

Every brand evolves over time. One day, your brand will outgrow the look and feel you’ve used for years. The audience you speak to will change their behaviors. Your purpose will take on new meaning. And eventually, you’ll need to redesign the look and feel that worked so well, and relaunch your brand.

Just the idea of relaunching all your newly designed brand assets can feel overwhelming. How are you possibly going to coordinate all the changes and updates? Don’t worry, with the right tools and a strategic approach any brand can roll out new assets at a global scale.

Photographs have the power to tell stories, engage emotions, and inspire action — without using a single word. That’s why marketers rely on them to connect with their audiences across markets, channels, and devices. 

To keep pace with the ever-growing need for compelling visual imagery, marketers are relying less on expensive equipment and formal photoshoots, and more on smartphones. Not only has the technology in smartphone cameras advanced significantly in recent years, but they allow images to be created quickly and affordably. 

And because smartphones are always with us, they are also fueling user-generated content — which marketers use to support their content marketing strategies. Afterall, consumers are more likely to take recommendations from friends and family members than brands when making buying decisions. And further, we enjoy sharing photos with each other, as evidenced by 50+ billion photos uploaded to Instagram to date!

But using a smartphone to take outstanding shots entails more than just aiming and tapping. Here are some simple tips and tricks that can help even amateur photographers take pictures that measure up to marketing standards. 

Once you’ve decided on a new marketing campaign, you’ll be tempted to jump right in. Slow down! You’re missing an important first step: the creative brief. A creative brief is essential for getting all internal stakeholders on the same page before executing a project. All new creative endeavors should start with a brief, so use the tips in this guide to help you draft one that is clear, concise, and informative.