How to Maintain Brand Integrity in an Era of Multi-channels and Multi-platforms

I think it’s safe to say that most of us are addicted in some degree to our digital social channels – logging into Facebook and Twitter or sharing content on YouTube, Instagram and Vine nearly every day. Compare this to just 15 years ago, and the average consumer relied on just a handful of sources to share and consume information.

The combination of a social media boom and an ever-increasing need for constant online connectivity has massively impacted the complexity of marketers’ jobs. In, say, the 1990s, coming up with a breath-taking, effective concept was half the battle won – rather than delivery or implementation being as big a priorities as they are today.

It may cause some initial headaches for more old-school ‘right-brain’ marketers, but digital technology has opened up a whole world of opportunities for creative, savvy brands. If anything, with more channels available to reach consumers than ever before, marketers also have greater freedom than they did previously. 

Today’s advertising world is increasingly perceived as a generation of ‘maths men’, and there are countless traditional and digital channels crossing paths and intertwining. But when there are so many options for promoting a brand or business, how do ‘creatives’ stay in the equation, keeping track of, and more importantly control over, their brands?

Managing the global distribution of the latest cinema release is now an extremely complicated, strategic marketing affair. Consumers expect instant access to content regardless of the browser or device they are using. As a result, marketers must guarantee they can meet this demand and deliver material in a manner which meets ever-changing compatibility needs.

To achieve this goal, companies can no longer rely on multiple vendors to manage the delivery process. The need to provide multiple agencies and media houses access to content at any given time, from anywhere in the world, means a single central platform is vital.       

The creative brains at CHI&Partners, the agency behind a recent advertising campaign for car manufacturer Lexus, encountered this issue when managing the post production process. With all assets totalling in excess of 100GBs, the agency struggled to find a method for distributing the content to all necessary parties, which were operating in both print and online channels in a variety of international markets.

However, it was not only the delivery process that CHI&Partners needed to define, it also required a method for tracking and reporting how each and every asset was being utilised in different countries, across platforms.

With this in mind, CHI&Partners decided to employ the help of Adsteam, a global provider of digital advertising distribution solutions.  

Adstream stores all assets in its Adbank utility, an integrated platform for digital asset management and distribution. It was in this utility that CHI&Partners and Lexus were able to create a bespoke solution which addressed all of their combined global marketing needs.

Working closely together, Adstream and CHI&Partners were able to use Adbank to monitor ad performance in real time, by single asset and select markets. Furthermore, it provided peace of mind that in using a single, searchable repository, all of the campaign assets were protected and brand integrity was safeguarded.

CHI&Partners also benefitted from significant time savings throughout the workflow process, helping to reduce campaign delivery costs while increasing speed to market. As a result, CHI&Partners increased traction and loyalty with Lexus by embedding the agency into the company’s common processes.

By switching from a multivendor approach, to utilising a single global marketing resource in the Digital Asset Management and delivery solution, CHI&Partners has also been able to overcome the challenges many brands face in trying to reach consumers in a crowded, multichannel and multiplatform environment.

Only through greater connectivity between brands, creative and production agencies and media owners, can marketers keep up with the explosion we’ve seen in digital and social channels since the turn of the millennium.

Although, who knows where we’ll be in another 15 years…

Phil Edmonds is UK managing director at Adstream