Video Games Publisher, Ubisoft Tames Digital Asset Beast with Interwoven MediaBin
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Successful U.S. Deployment Propels Global Rollout in Process to Ensure Consistent Brand Representation of Over 1,000 Titles
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 - HENRY STEWART DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Ubisoft, known for its best-selling video game franchises including Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Rayman, is no stranger to high profile product releases. Ubisoft's creative team is under constant and steady pressure to deliver a variety of jaw-dropping marketing content to support the promotion of new and existing video games. By teaming with Interwoven (NASDAQ:IWOV), Ubisoft has been able to ensure that the right design assets are synchronized across all of its marketing materials for launching its hottest video games to the mass market.
"We had an outstanding reputation as a creative team internally, but it was a challenge managing such a diverse set of creative assets for all our marketing materials across a multitude of channels," said Allen Adler, vice president of creative services at Ubisoft. "When people internally would ask us for the most up-to-date version of a file for the Web, promotional materials or packaging, we often had to scramble to deliver it, and our team would lose valuable design time simply chasing files." Even as internal coordination of assets was challenging, external coordination with retail partners was even more complex.
Ubisoft's challenge was difficult, but not unusual. Many companies face this same paralyzing realization every time a digital asset file is requested. Is it on someone's hard drive? Is it the approved version? Will it translate from a Mac to a PC? Are the right versions being used consistently? "It felt as though we were spending more of our time finding old assets instead of creating new ones, and we wanted to ensure that the Ubisoft brand was represented properly every time," added Adler.
Knowing there had to be a better way, Adler turned to Anthony Trask, director of project management office at Ubisoft, who with the help of advisor Doculabs, recommended Ubisoft implement Interwoven MediaBin. MediaBin is a Digital Asset Management (DAM) product that helps marketing teams around the world deliver a more consistent and compelling customer experience by effectively managing, distributing, and publishing the thousands of customer-facing digital assets used to promote their products and brands.
"We knew we could convince certain individuals to use the solution, but we wanted to create buzz within the company so that everyone would WANT to use it," said Adler. Adler and his team then re-branded the MediaBin solution internally as "FindIt!" and launched an email teaser campaign to generate excitement about what the new product would do. In parallel, Trask's team coached specific user groups in key geographies to make sure a core team of power users were ready to go at launch. "The launch was a huge success. On the first day we had 150 users in three countries, across seven departments and dozens of others clamoring to get their hands on it," said Adler.
What used to take the creative department several days to process now takes seconds or minutes, and in some cases 70-90 percent of the requests are now self serviced, with internal people "helping themselves" to accurate, approved assets.
Ubisoft's retail channel is feeling the impact as well. "The process for getting assets to our retail partners used to be very manual and time consuming. It involved tracking down approved assets, converting them to retailer specs, and sending them out to each retailer. Now, it's automated, instantaneous, and consistent, via secure, external access to our FindIt! System," said Adler.
With any IT initiative, the success of the regional rollout determines whether the initiative will become truly global. Having seen the success and ROI of the MediaBin initiative, Ubisoft's headquarters office in Paris is in the process of adopting the solution for the EMEA region, and has plans to use it consistently within all the marketing subsidiaries.
"Needless to say, we are thrilled with the outcome. Our creative teams have been given back hundreds of hours of productivity, and our internal clients and external partners now have access to the information they need the moment they need it," said Adler.
Ubisoft to Present at Henry Stewart Los Angeles
Allen Adler, Vice President, Creative Services and Sharlene Siegel, Senior Digital Media Analyst, Ubisoft will be presenting the full case study of this project at the Henry Stewart Los Angeles Digital Asset Management Conference. Allen and Sharlene will present "Synchronizing Digital Assets Across Global Marketing Teams" on Monday, November 12th at 11:40am. For more information, please visit http://damusers.com/LA_12_November_2007.php.
About MediaBin
Interwoven MediaBin is the leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) product chosen by marketing organizations to manage the thousands of digital assets and marketing content used to promote their products and brands. With MediaBin, extended marketing teams can easily catalog, manage, transform, and distribute digital assets; including photographs, logos, CAD and 3D images, audio, video, datasheets, advertisements, presentations, and documents.
About Ubisoft
Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft has offices in 21 countries and sales in more than 50 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. Ubisoft generated sales of 680 million Euros for the 2006-07 fiscal year. To learn more, please visit http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/.
About Interwoven
Interwoven is a global leader in content management solutions. Interwoven's software and services enable organizations to effectively leverage content to drive business growth by improving the customer experience, increasing collaboration, and streamlining business processes in dynamic environments. Our unique approach combines user-friendly simplicity with robust IT performance and scalability to unlock the value of content. Today, more than 4,000 enterprise and professional services organizations worldwide have chosen Interwoven, including: adidas, Airbus, Avaya, Cisco, DLA Piper, the Federal Reserve Bank, FedEx, HSBC, LexisNexis, Microsoft, Samsung, Shell, Samsonite, White & Case, and Yamaha. Over 20,000 developers and over 300 partners enrich and extend Interwoven's offerings. To learn more about Interwoven, please visit www.interwoven.com/.
Source: Interwoven
CONTACT:
Danielle Hamel
Interwoven, Inc
+1-408-953-7251
dhamel@interwoven.com
Web site: http://www.interwoven.com/
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http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/
