Industry Overview 5: DAM, PIM and Global Business ~The Worldwide Automobile Brand Support~

A unified foundation combining DAM and PIM ensures that headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, and agencies all reference the same sources, enabling localization while maintaining a cohesive brand identity. Here are the four key areas of transformation essential for global expansion.

2-1. Establishing a "Global Single Source of Truth"

By implementing DAM and PIM, visual assets and product information such as specifications and product descriptions are managed on a single platform. Updates made at headquarters are instantly accessible across all global hubs, preventing data discrepancies between the offices. With unified master images and source manuscripts, the local teams can proceed with translation and editing with full confidence in the data's accuracy.

2-2. Systematizing Global Brand Governance and Permissions

User permissions and authorization levels can be set at individual-asset-level on DAM. It allows overseas hubs the flexibility to localize content while ensuring they remain within the brand guidelines set by headquarters. By controlling who can use which assets, organizations can guarantee brand integrity on a global scale while accommodating regional needs.

2-3. Accelerating Local Deployment through Efficient Localization

By referencing the product information registered on PIM, the promotional teams can automatically verify the consistency of technical specs and translated content. Besides, DAM houses all the promotional materials for each country, the local subsidiaries spend less time searching and more time on high-value creative production. This drastically increases the overall speed of regional campaign rollouts and product updates.

2-4. Global Real-Time Updates

With DAM×PIM a shared foundation at the core, headquarters can push updates to all overseas locations simultaneously and reliably, allowing global campaigns to move forward on a unified schedule. Achieving synchronized global releases maximizes the overall effectiveness of marketing initiatives. DAM and PIM provide a centralized global datacentre, the information prepared at headquarters is deployed accurately across the world.

For automobile manufacturers operating on a global scale, leveraging DAM and PIM allows them to consolidate disparate regional promotional activities into a unified foundation. Here are four key scenarios where this integration is most effective.

3-1. Streamlining Distribution Management for Global Campaigns

New vehicle launches and its campaigns will be the most impactful and effective when having all the plans go synchronically. With DAM and PIM, images and videos registered at headquarters are instantly shared with every country, ensuring that only the most current versions are used. Standardizing the asset delivery process minimizes regional launch delays and visual discrepancies, enhancing the speed of the global campaigns.

3-2. Efficient Production and Updates for Multilingual Catalogs and Websites Managing multilingual catalogs and web pages is notoriously complex due to variations in promotional copies and technical specifications by country. By aggregating product information on PIM, regional teams can handle the translated materials while referencing a single source of truth, reducing errors and data mismatches. Furthermore, storing templates and past translation data on DAM increases asset reusability, significantly shortening production lead times.

3-3. Standardizing Localization to Balance Brand Unity with Regional Needs Regional subsidiaries must often tailor visuals and messaging to resonate with local market characteristics. However, excessive creative freedom may bring deviations of the final product from global brand standards. DAM allows headquarters to define editing permissions and the scope of use, which establishes the pre-defined framework and the local subsidiaries can follow the definition for the works, striking the perfect balance between brand integrity and local optimization.

3-4. Unified Data Sharing with External Agencies and Global Partners

Global expansion involves frequent collaboration with external creative agencies and advertising firms, which often leads to the issue of data security. DAM ensures that only approved assets are shared securely, preventing version confusion or the use of incorrect materials. Agencies can retrieve necessary assets autonomously, the communication burden on HQ and local subsidiaries is reduced, accelerating the pace of production and ad operations.

CIERTO, provided by VPJ, serves as an integrated DAM x PIM foundation that enables headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, and regional agencies to operate using the same source of information. It provides a highly effective framework for addressing the specific challenges of global expansion including multi-language support, multi-hub coordination, localization, and brand consistency.

4-1. Establishing a Single Source for All the Stakeholders

By implementing CIERTO, visual assets and promotional copies managed at headquarters are consolidated into a single platform, ensuring overseas hubs always have access to the latest data. Moving away from disparate folders and tools used by different regions, CIERTO introduces an operational structure where the entire world references the same master assets and information. It significantly reduces the risk of data discrepancies occurring between different countries.

4-2. Multilingual Metadata Management and Efficient Localization

CIERTO manages metadata including product name and specifications at multilingual-level. It is easier to maintain data integrity during the localization process: regional subsidiaries can proceed with translations and adjustments while referencing the latest data centralized in the PIM, preventing mistranslations. Furthermore, through customization, the system can support automated translation workflows tailored to specific corporate requirements. 4-3. Global Brand Unity through Permissions and Guideline Governance

Within CIERTO, users' permissions can be configured at a granular level for every asset. It allows overseas subsidiaries the flexibility to localize content while ensuring they do not deviate from the brand standards set by headquarters. By embedding rules such as mandatory logo placements or the use of model portraits, brand-compliant expression can be guaranteed.

4-4. Reducing Operational Burden by Minimizing Cross-Hub Coordination

CIERTO minimizes the frequent back-and-forth communication previously required between headquarters and overseas hubs, as all the latest versions of the assets, guidance and product information can be found on a centralized platform effortlessly. It also drastically reduces file sharing via email and manual verification tasks. As a result, both headquarters and regional teams are liberated to focus on high-value, strategic initiatives.

In sum, CIERTO is more than just a tool for managing assets and data; it is the foundational solution for delivering consistent brand value to every corner of the globe. For automobile brands with complex, multi-layered structures involving headquarters, subsidiaries, and agencies, CIERTO provides the global infrastructure to contribute to both brand unity and operational speed. We strongly believe the automobile industry should implement CIERTO as a foundation of data and workflow management, to streamline your whole production line, and receive the greatest return on investment.