PRADCO Outdoor Brands

The Client

PRADCO Outdoor Brands, a division of EBSCO Industries, is home to some of the most iconic hunting and fishing brands in the outdoor space.

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The Situation

With over 5,000 SKUs across product lines, PRADCO has a large volume of brand and product content that’s used by teams across the company to support marketing initiatives and digital commerce. 

The Challenge

PRADCO’s brand and marketing content was stored in a system that could only be accessed by their creative team, and it took them hours — if not days — to respond to file requests. 

Additionally, PRADCO lacked a centralized system to store product data — like specifications, weight, color, and SKU — and product marketing copy, used to create catalogs, marketing material, and e-commerce listings. Martin Hill, PRADCO’s Director of Digital Sales, shared that spreadsheets were primarily used to manually collect and manage product content, which was a frustrating and error-prone process. “A lot of product information was coming to our team in piecemeal fashion, which is not ideal when you’re under serious timelines and trying to be organized.”

The Solution

To expand and streamline access to brand content, PRADCO implemented a digital asset management (DAM) solution, Acquia DAM, in 2015 . This enabled the teams to find the approved photos, videos, and creative assets they need, in minutes.

Several years later, PRADCO began exploring how a product information management (PIM) system could improve their product content workflows, and were interested in Acquia PIM. “We started looking around for different solutions,” Martin said, “and that's when we noticed that Acquia had just created their own PIM solution. And because it exists within our current DAM solution, it was a no-brainer for us.” In 2021, they implemented Acquia PIM.

Centralized product content

With Acquia DAM and Acquia PIM, PRADCO can now manage their product digital assets, data, and marketing copy in one view. Martin shared, “I’m accountable for all our brands being 100% ‘retail-ready,’ which means that we are achieving full excellence on all of our e-commerce product pages. And we can't do that without having centralized systems to store all of our product assets and information.”

Acquia PIM replaces siloed spreadsheets and storage tools with a centralized location for teams to find all approved product content on their own. Martin shared that once Acquia PIM is rolled out across the company, “then anybody in the organization who needs access to product information, whether it's someone from marketing, sales, or even customer service, whatever it may be, they will be able to access it.”

Customizable attributes 

PRADCO has a wide and diverse range of products. With Acquia PIM, they can build customized product profiles that capture the essential attributes for each product. “The specs required for a trail camera are significantly different from those for a tree stand, for example,” Martin shared. “And we need the ability to build out those profiles so that every time we enter a tree stand, we don’t miss any of those required specs. And there’s a lot of them.” 

This flexible attribute structure makes it possible for Martin’s team to manage the unique specs for every PRADCO product.

Channel-specific content

PRADCO’s products are displayed across hundreds of websites and e-commerce channels, including Amazon, Walmart, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. With Acquia PIM, PRADCO can manage product descriptions that are tailored to the requirements of specific marketplaces. “We wanted the ability to customize information for certain retailers. Amazon comes to mind. The bullet points on your Amazon product page are the most important copy you'll put on your entire product page. We needed the ability to customize our copy for Amazon, and then keep that content stored somewhere that was readily available for anybody,” said Martin.

Acquia PIM then streamlines content distribution by allowing PRADCO to export just the product copy, information, and assets required by that retailer. 

The Results

Speed across teams

Self-serve access to content has brought agility and speed to workflows across teams. “Now we can grab assets without the need to reach out to other people in the organization. For the marketing team, which is responsible for everything from building presentations to populating our website, direct access to assets has sped up all of our processes, in terms of building out these things for the organization. With Acquia DAM and Acquia PIM, everything just got a lot faster.” 

This agility allows teams to spend less time on manual tasks and focus on strategic work, accelerating progress toward the company’s goals and objectives.

Enhanced accuracy 

Without a centralized repository to manage product data and copy, and enrich it with related images and videos, teams across PRADCO were vulnerable to human error, despite their best efforts. “Even though I would say 98% of the time we were accurate, when we weren’t, it hurts,” Martin said. 

They are using Acquia PIM to build workflows that ensure teams across the company are using the same, approved content. “After an approval check is complete, in our eyes, that content is locked down. And once it's locked down, then we know it's ready to go out to the retailers.” This workflow will provide guardrails that empower teams to create coordinated, accurate, and trustworthy e-commerce experiences, across channels and touchpoints. 

Exceptional digital experiences

As e-commerce continues to expand across industries, brands need to deliver impactful and relevant digital experiences to stay competitive. And these experiences begin with coordinated, high-quality digital content. “Being organized is important,” Martin noted, “because the retailers have spoken: strong product assets are no longer a luxury; they are an expectation. PRADCO is committed to meeting that expectation as well as giving consumers a best-in-class experience with our product pages.”

And with Acquia DAM and Acquia PIM to help PRADCO organize, manage, and distribute their digital content, they create and deliver experiences that their customers want and deserve.