Esko acquired MediaBeacon two years ago, with the intention of developing this new solution for industries such as CPG and life sciences, retail and apparel, media and entertainment, public sector and financial services. The platform’s unique strength is the integration of a superior asset management system with a powerful project and workflow management system, complete with support for packaging, which is exceptional in the market.

The need for content consistency

A recent Forrester report revealed the growing importance of consistent content: “To drive positive brand experiences, brand owners need to simplify their complicated content processes, while boosting transparency and reliability across teams. Brands today want to be able to drive consistent omnichannel content for all digital and physical touchpoints.”

Esko and MediaBeacon have decades of combined experience with packaging management and digital asset management. This deep understanding is tangible in a platform that tackles the following challenges:

• Collaborate. Connect all stakeholders—whether people, partners, processes or systems—creating a seamless work experience based on automation, transparency and doing the right task at the right time.
• Create. Provide a wide range of options to create something new faster than ever thought possible, increasing time to market by up to 50%. Be it packaging, designs, content, or 3D, brands have the right development tools, fully integrated into existing workflows.
• Manage. Establish a ‘single source of truth, enabling brands to control and leverage their assets and eliminate costly rework.
• Publish. Deliver the brand the way envisioned by all, regardless of whether it is a digital or physical representation.
• Analyse. Drive decisions based on insights into the use and effectiveness of assets with performance dashboards.

“We’ve built this solution very strategically, driven by customer conversations we’ve had over the past few years, and we’re pleased to be deploying and integrating it within a global brand now,” said Udo Panenka, president of Esko. “The acquisition of MediaBeacon has enabled us to create this truly unique platform: it combines the creation of brand assets, including packaging, with the management and actual publication to all distribution channels.”

The new platform is available on a worldwide basis from May 2017 onwards. It can be purchased modularly, deployed on-premise or hosted, and integrated with all popular ERP, MIS, PIM and PLM systems.

Addressing major marketing challenges

Today’s digitised and globalised world gives marketers in industries such as retail and apparel, media and entertainment, public sector, and financial services huge challenges when it comes to consistent omnichannel delivery in a merging digital and physical environment. They need to reduce complexity, streamline content development and deploy assets across regions and time zones whilst ensuring brand consistency across all channels. The new platform is a powerful solution that helps brands accomplish the following:

• Improve consumer experiences: Meet consumer expectations and deliver a seamless and meaningful brand experience across every touchpoint
• Deliver omnichannel consistency: Digital and physical channels are converging. Whether its social media, printed media, eCommerce or on-the-shelf packaging, we empower you to deliver omnichannel consistency for your brand
• Increase speed to market: No more organisational silos. Get to market faster by providing your cross-functional team the visibility and the accountability necessary to deliver a successful Marketing Campaign from concept to consumer;
• Lower costs and monetise: Repurpose and reuse your digital and physical assets at no cost. Eliminate costs associated with errors and redundancies;
• Mitigate risks: Protect your Brand by monitoring and ensuring the use of approved digital and physical assets in the right format and in compliance with contractual terms, rights and licenses.

“Omnichannel planning, communication, and execution – which is really the only type of communication you should put in place today for your brand – requires near real-time adaptation and publication of content, and its reuse across both digital and physical channels,” said Joshua Foster, MediaBeacon general manager. “We see this integration as a market evolution, moving from digital asset management (DAM) to marketing asset management (MAM), driven by brands taking back control over the customer relationship. It is exciting to be able to offer a combined Esko and MediaBeacon solution to facilitate this evolution.”