Insights

Transforming Digital Assets Into Brand Value with a Brand Portal from gateB

A partnership and a portal to solve modern problems

Almost every marketing professional knows the annoyance of managing an inbox full of requests like “Can I get your logo in these dimensions?” or “Do you have that image in CMYK?” This is true for any company that has a corporate marketing team managing assets for a number of locations, but it becomes an even bigger headache when external partners get involved. With their limited access to internal databases, simply keeping up with those requests can require an entire department.

This was the case at a Fortune 500 chip maker and leader in telecommunications equipment. They were facing a number of common problems businesses come up against in the digital age. They have a massive network of external partners, all of whom they want to support with marketing collateral. They were also planning a rebrand. Additionally, they had a digital asset management (DAM) system in place, but it wasn’t meeting their needs.

The company was looking for a way to streamline communication and give groups instantaneous access to rebranded assets. They partnered with gateB rather than simply implementing a new DAM. They knew that gateB could customize their marketing portal, giving them greater control over assets and a more user-friendly interface for everyone who logs in.

gateB built and tailored a brand portal to drive internal marketing efficiency and help the brand support its partners around the world. By working together on an ongoing basis, gateB was able to help the company leverage its new portal to solve the issues they faced at the outset – and create new efficiencies as opportunities arose.

Benefits from the new brand portal:

Brand consistency across all locations on all channels at all times
DAM with easy, customizable user interface for 15,000+ users and protections for 3,000+ assets
Streamlined launch of new assets with the announcement of rebrand
Simplified, strengthened management of projects based on requests from external partners
Web-to-print functionality that gives local offices the power to customize and print templates as needed
Optimization partner in gateB that helps expand the brand portal as needed, e.g. building a multilingual interface

Early signs of helpfulness: portal launch at rebrand

The brand portal became immediately helpful as it supported the company’s rebrand from its announcement. Any rebrand is taxing on internal teams. It’s not easy to seamlessly and simultaneously transition multiple departments to new assets. Add in a large network of external partners and you have the potential for a massive workload.

To combat this potentially corporate-wide headache, gateB pre-loaded the portal with all rebranded assets so they could be instantly accessible once the rebrand was announced. Rather than facing a barrage of emails requesting new logos, stationery, flyers, and more, the company was able to give internal and external teams access to the brand portal where every asset they might need was waiting for them. The same location where any individual had headed for old logos was instantly updated with new logos. From the get-go, the portal empowered the internal marketing team and lightened their load.

The goal for the brand portal was to give employees and partners seamless access to the right assets, putting everything at their fingertips while ensuring corporate was able to control brand compliance. Today, that portal gives over 15,000 users – both employees and external partners – access to over 3,000 branded assets.

Ultimately, this translated directly into brand value. No matter when or on what platform a customer interacts with the brand, they’re guaranteed a consistent, meaningful experience. Any rebrand can compromise brand integrity. Because of the brand portal, however, the company was able to control rollout of new communication to customers. The result was continued brand strength, helping the brand cement its place as a leader in its customers’ minds.

Ongoing functionality: asset control and analytics

gateB has years of experience establishing brand portals. They know that anytime you open up a database full of valuable internal assets to an external network, security and compliance come into play.

As a result, gateB continues to customize the brand portal so the company can extend the right assets at the right times while keeping its brand presentation strong and its data secure. Key administrators have the ability to divide visibility of the assets in their brand portal according to organizational units. They have the control to protect certain assets with a “Request for Download” protocol in which users have to provide a reason for downloading more sensitive assets.

Additionally, so that the brand portal can serve as a learning tool on an ongoing basis, gateB connected each asset download to analytics. Central teams can see who is downloading what, educating their creative and marketing teams’ content creation processes. These analytics have helped them keep their database streamlined to just a few thousand regularly used, highly useful assets.

By adding additional functionality to help identify opportunities for greater efficiencies, gateB is able to support their client’s ongoing growth in the digital age. But gateB didn’t stop there.

Further customization for further support: the Project Approval Manager

To this day, gateB continues to hone the brand portal as an ideal tool for their client. For example, gateB built a Project Approval Manager.

Using this tool, external users can enter the portal and request specific assets for any projects they want to run. Say they’re heading to a trade show and need a specifically sized banner. Rather than creating something themselves, then sitting in a feedback loop until the right internal party can approve it, they simply add a job to the Project Approval Manager. The company’s internal creative agency then takes it from there, ultimately delivering the exact assets they need. If the partner is curious about the status of their project, all they need to do is log in. From the Project Approval Manager, they can see all the latest actions taken on their request.

Everyone’s inbox stays clear and everyone’s time is best used. With this added functionality in place, the brand portal supports a huge number of global partners anytime they need marketing assets.

A model of continuous improvement: web-to-print, multilingual functionality, and beyond

Because this telecommunications company is an innovator, their world moves fast. They can’t employ a set-it-and-forget-it mentality with any of their tools or they’ll quickly become outdated. gateB continually works with them to keep their brand portal optimized for their current users and needs. By working together on a daily basis, gateB and the company are able to maintain a highly effective system and ensure administrators get the support they need.

For example, after the launch of their new brand portal, it became clear that internal teams would benefit from web-to-print functionality. gateB implemented a system that leverages InDesign and gives teams access to a wide range of templates. As soon as the template has been customized by the user, they simply click a button to submit it for corporate approval. Once approved, the system recognizes the printer configuration and resizes and optimizes the document for print. This web-to-print system gives local employees the power to quickly create the assets they need while freeing up corporate design teams.

Similarly, the company has noted that many of its users would benefit from having the brand portal in their native language. gateB is currently working to translate the entire system – all of the site content plus all asset labels – into Chinese.

Ultimately, this ever-evolving brand portal has helped the company better serve its partners while significantly reducing the number of people required to manage requests from internal and external parties. This shift helped them dramatically lower personnel costs while improving marketing efficiency and service to their network.

Synopsis

Before a rebrand, a Fortune 500 chip maker was looking for a way to streamline communication and give internal and external groups instantaneous access to rebranded assets. gateB built and tailored a brand portal to drive internal marketing efficiency and help their client support their partners around the world.

This ever-evolving brand portal has helped gateB’s client better serve their partners while significantly reducing the number of people required to manage requests from internal and external parties. This shift helped them dramatically lower personnel costs while improving marketing efficiency and service to their network.