marketing teams need a dam system

5 Good reasons why marketing teams need a DAM system

5 Good reasons why marketing teams need a DAM system

Digital Asset Management, or DAM, is nothing new. Originally developed in the 1990s, DAM was a response to the rapid growth of digital image volume and the increasing difficulty users had finding individual images. For example, a name that the original file creator typed in might have made perfect sense to them but might be obscure to others who needed to use it. Worse still, many versions or updates to a single image might increase the likelihood of finding and using the wrong one. By saving time and reducing the potential for error, DAM systems promised order and efficiency for companies with growing libraries of images, illustrations, and even videos.

The first DAM solution, Cumulus, was introduced in 1992 by Canto Software. Despite the name, it was not a cloud-based or network solution but an application for individual Macintosh computers. In addition to tracking a file’s metadata, it also generated and stored a visual thumbnail of the image for easier visual identification. Since then, Canto and many other developers have expanded the scope and capabilities of digital asset management, vastly improving database capabilities and migrating their systems from purely local installations to the cloud.

Without a reliable DAM system, graphic artists can spend up to thirty percent of their time looking for the right image. This means that for everyone involved in marketing, from merchandise planners and production managers to graphic designers, DAM is not a “nice to have.” On the contrary, it is essential to every retailer’s bottom line. Here are five good reasons why every marketing team needs DAM.

1. Assets Are Easy to Share But Hard to Discover

In the age of social media, we’ve all learned how easy it is to share images and videos, often with URLs, attachments, and file transfer services like DropBox. But that convenience comes at a cost. A simple exchange between two people gets incredibly complicated for larger teams and departments. Without DAM, as assets multiply, those with campaign deadlines have a more challenging time finding that needle in an ever-growing haystack.

2. Files With Multiple Owners Can Create Version Chaos

Very often, an image may go through multiple revision cycles by several different photographers and graphic designers. As a result, every product shot could have dozens of different versions circulating throughout the marketing department. Without a robust DAM system to keep versions organized—and ensure the most current one ends up in the final catalog or web ad – the chances of costly production errors increases exponentially.

3. Inconsistent or Unapproved Brand Assets Are Costly

Retailers in today’s highly competitive market must ensure that their multichannel campaigns resonate with their current and prospective customers. To do so requires visual consistency not only with the retailer’s brand but also with that of recognizable consumer products. An off-brand look can make a shopper look elsewhere, costing millions in lost sales. Similarly, licensed images, for example, often require a rigorous approval process that includes license verification for period, purpose, and medium of use. Without an effective DAM system to monitor consistency and licenses, a graphic designer can easily inadvertently use an unapproved image, jeopardizing relationships with the manufacturer, or face legal consequences.

4. Disconnected Systems and Workflows Slow Production

By themselves, DAM systems cannot support every aspect of retail marketing operations. They are essential but only a part of a total workflow solution. For example, retailers rely heavily on product information management or PIM systems to track literally thousands of individual SKUs, often using data supplied by hundreds of separate manufacturers. In addition, there are separate databases for product pricing (and regional or promotional price variations), inventory, and sales history. Unless DAM, PIM, and other systems are integrated with purpose, marketing teams will waste enormous amounts of time putting all the pieces together. They will not have time to create effective campaigns for an ever-increasing array of channels and their regional variants. Comosoft’s LAGO system is uniquely positioned to combine all these data sources and put their combined data at the disposal of marketing managers and graphic designers.

5. Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever

Finally, as retailers grow larger and more complex, the need for collaboration is growing faster than ever before. Marketing departments must collaborate with manufacturers, multiple internal departments, and decision-makers within the company. The review and approval cycles must be maintained across various channels and regional variations. A powerful DAM system integrated with PIM, collaborative proofing, and web-based approval makes such collaboration a practical reality.

Putting It All Together

Modern marketing teams must make the transition from isolated, legacy systems to a centralized DAM, closely integrated with PIM and other essential data sources to endure. By doing so, merchandise planners, production managers, and graphic design teams will be able to scale their operations to create multichannel campaigns that are tailored to each region and demographic. Comosoft LAGO is preciously such a solution.

LAGO enables marketing and product planners to use their data to plan effective campaigns—using a data-connected whiteboard application and other tools. It then conveys those planning decisions to graphic designers using our Layout plug-in for Adobe InDesign to create visually compelling campaign materials using the most current data from their integrated DAM and PIM systems. It also allows them to create separate versions of each piece without having to “reinvent the wheel” for each version. Finally, the results of a campaign – down to the success of an individual featured product – can be tracked and used to plan the next effort.

Digital asset management is an essential building block for any modern marketing department, but it cannot stand alone. When integrated with other critical business systems, it can power a successful multichannel presence for the twenty-first century.

LAGO Digital Asset Management

Curious now? Find out more about the DAM system of LAGO.

More about LAGO DAM

by Viktoria Nösel

Frau schaut sich Produkte auf dem Smartphone an und scrollt

How PIM and DAM are essential to Retail E-Commerce success

How PIM and DAM are essential to Retail E-Commerce success

E-commerce is here to stay. No one can argue that we’re ever returning to a predominantly brick-and-mortar retail experience. Even before the pandemic supercharged the trend, ordering products and services online had become the norm for millions of shoppers. The real questions are: How does the e-commerce experience inform retail marketing and advertising strategy? More importantly, what tools will help retail marketers and advertisers succeed across multiple channels?

The key to both questions is in the use of product-related information. By that, we mean not just the attributes (e.g., size, color, or weight) of each SKU but also how customers experience it. The good news is that e-commerce can provide this information – loads of it – if only we can learn how to use it well.

Retail Moments of Truth

In June 2011, Google’s Managing Director of U.S. Sales, Jim Lecinski, published Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, a free eBook that rocked the marketing world. In it, he highlighted the importance of a customer’s online behavior – long before becoming aware of their need for your product. This revelation was a new twist to Procter & Gamble’s version of Retail Moments of Truth, which roughly goes as follows:

  • The First Moment of Truth is when a customer first sees a product on a shelf or online.
  • The Second Moment of Truth is when they purchase and use it.
  • The Third Moment of Truth is when they provide feedback, preferably positive, share their experience, and hopefully become fans and promoters.

Lecinski asserted was that feedback from the Third Moment ultimately ends up as part of the vast universe of social media posts, reviews, photos, and videos that would-be customers inhabit every day. People learn about a product and its reputation through deliberate searching or random interactions with family, friends, and online connections. From that awareness, that “Zero Moment of Truth,” they eventually decide to buy – or not.

E-commerce accelerated this phenomenon, making it easy to tag a product with star reviews, comments, and photos that populate not only e-commerce websites but also the labyrinth of social media. Such a flood of product-related data is both an opportunity and a challenge for retail marketers to channel that feedback into campaigns that increase e-commerce and traditional sales.

Product Information (and Product Experience) Management

Traditional Product Information Management (PIM) systems are the central data repository of everything related to an individual product. The data comes from both the product manufacturers and the retailers who sell their goods, who may not always agree on metadata convention or what to label each field. But the retailer’s eventual goal is to have a complete and consistent view of all the variables for every SKU. Therefore, the PIM system should also be related to price, inventory, forecasting, and even customer loyalty databases to efficiently manage each item’s sales and marketing process efficiently.

Of crucial importance to marketers, the PIM system should also be connected in a meaningful way to a robust Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. This system is the repository of potentially public-facing digital content for each product, such as photos, vector images, and videos. It can even potentially contain user-generated images and videos related to their experience with a product – especially if the retailer’s e-commerce site collects and readily shares information provided by the buyer.

To be sure, all this data (including digital assets) must be curated honestly before inclusion in a production workflow. However, when they are, such data can become meaningful marketing information, part of a process known as Product Experience Management (PXM). As Lecinski and others have shown, customers prefer to buy products with which they have some connection. That identification can be greatly significant when a product’s data and digital assets include images, text, review results, and other relatable data that help the marketing team fine-tune the relevant advertising.

Going Full Circle

Of course, all this does not happen by accident. Once a product’s public-facing data (including customer-provided and customer-influenced text and images) are in the DAM & PIM environments, they must be managed in a marketing production system and ultimately used to direct specific, multichannel campaigns. This process is the role of Comosoft’s LAGO solution.

LAGO coordinates practical DAM and PIM assets and data for each SKU and gives the marketing team a strategic overview of a product’s value to a campaign. This data includes traditional factors such as profit margin, inventory levels, and regional availability. But it can also have meaningful user experience data, such as a product’s popularity in certain parts of the country or among certain demographics. Based on this knowledge, marketers can select the best products for a campaign, including regional or demographic variations. LAGO can automate the creation of product catalogs and other marketing material, including multiple variations and digital output for e-commerce sites and mobile apps. Best of all, it gives marketers the tools to evaluate the results of a product’s inclusion in a campaign.

This is next point is where the process goes full circle. By collecting user experience data at the e-commerce site (the Second and Third Moments of Truth), a retail marketer can, in turn, use that data profitably. With the tools provided in Comosoft’s LAGO, they can create e-commerce campaigns that coincide with the “buzz” surrounding any product (the Zero Moment of Truth). In a world where e-commerce rules, it’s the secret to success.

by Viktoria Nösel

comosoft-emerging-image-formats-designer-software

From WebP to AVIF

From WebP to AVIF - Which emerging image formats you should have in mind now!

Meanwhile, there are more and more file formats to save an image or, for example, an animation. A universal image format system would make life a lot easier for the graphic design teams responsible. Instead, the abundance of confusing acronyms is constantly increasing. You frequently select the one you’ve heard of or used previously and assumed would work. Then you receive the message: Please send in PNG as this device does not accept this format.

When displaying photos for the web, we have various image formats to utilize. The primary distinction between image formats is the type of image codec that is used for encoding or decoding every type of image. An image codec is a representation of the algorithm used to compress, encode, and decode images into a particular file format for display on screens. Hence, many names like JPG, PNG, and GIF, among others. With the rise of mobile devices, 5G data, and the ever-increasing need for faster loading websites, new image and video formats are emerging to take on these challenges. Here is your primer on the latest versions so your team can be ready to use them!

WebP

The goal of Google’s WebP, a contemporary image format, is to improve lossless and lossy compression for photos on the web. WebP aims to create smaller images while maintaining richness because smaller images speed up the web. Additionally, WebP continues to support the expanding trend of animated graphics. It’s still in the works, but it will be significant.

Lossy WebP compression bases its picture encoding on predictive encoding and the VP8 video codec. It predicts the value of a block of pixels using values from nearby blocks of pixels and only encodes the difference. Multiple image compression algorithms are used to turn photos into lossless WebP files.

WebP lossy images are typically 25–34 percent smaller than JPEG images of comparable quality, whereas WebP lossless images generally are 26 percent smaller than PNG. They also make an excellent substitute for GIF images because they support animation.

Advantages & Disadvantages

  • Great quality images at smaller file sizes
  • Not supported by Social platforms yet, so traditional formats need to be utilized for Social sharing purposes

Browser & OS Support

  • Support in all browsers and operating systems

 

HEIF

High-Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, is designed to streamline the storage of images. In addition, it tries to maintain good quality while using lower compressed files. With 10 degrees of compression available, HEIF offers lightning-fast encoding and decoding, is lightweight, and doesn’t tax the system’s resources.

Theoretically, the compression is nearly twice as effective as JPEG, producing photos with up to twice the quality at the same file size. However, because it uses a raster picture format and pixel mapping, you cannot enlarge the photos without sacrificing quality.

Advantages & Disadvantages

  • Great quality to file size ratio.
  • No browser and limited OS support.

Browser & OS Support

  • Not supported by any major browsers.
  • Native support in macOS Sierra and iOS 11 and later, but not in their respective Safari versions.

 

AVIF

AVIF, which stands for “AV1 Image File Format,” is thought to be the upcoming image file format of the future. This format is essentially the protocol for storing AV1-compressed still and motion photos in HEIF files. Most tech experts consider the royalty-free video coding format AV1 to be the next development in media compression.

To produce high-quality photos, AVIF enables very effective lossy and lossless compression. AVIF compresses far better than the majority of currently used web formats (JPEG, WebP, JPEG 2000, and more). Images with the comparable visual quality might be up to ten times smaller than JPEGs. According to specific testing, AVIF offers a 50% file size reduction over JPEG while maintaining a comparable level of perceptual quality. Remember to analyze formats carefully because there are situations in which WebP lossless can be superior to AVIF lossless.

Because of its superior compression, AVIF can lower the size of image files. AVIF files download more quickly and use less bandwidth as a result. Because of this, it might enhance performance by speeding up the loading of photos.

Overall, AVIF does pass most of the tests, and WebP offers better support and compression than JPEG or PNG. As a result, you should, without a doubt, consider WebP when optimizing photos for your website. Considering AVIF for your purposes and implementing it as a progressive enhancement could be beneficial as the format spreads across many platforms and browsers. AVIF would eventually become more straightforward with better comparison tooling and faster encoding.

Advantages & Disadvantages

  • A better compression method than other image formats lead to faster load times
  • Adobe and other platforms not currently supporting this format

Browser & OS Support

  • It is supported by Chrome, Firefox, and Opera but is currently not fully supported in Safari or Edge

by Viktoria Nösel

digital-product-catalog-enhance-business-lago-print-digital-publishing-software

Can digital catalogs really enhance your business?

Can digital catalogs really enhance your business?

The heads of the marketing and advertising departments of retailers are faced with the challenge of investing their budget in the development of the most profitable channel every time they plan a campaign. Precise tracking and effective planning of advertising measures is therefore an absolute necessity in everyday marketing.

As our previous articles have made clear, the intrinsic value of printed catalogs to retail has risen, not fallen, in recent years. The Wall Street Journal, Retail Dive, and others have documented the resurgence in print catalog use. This increasing value is driven in part by the tactile nature of print products and the fact that consumers still spend an average of $850 per year on catalogue purchases. However, it is not a zero-sum equation between print and digital. On the contrary, both printed and digital catalogues increase sales, especially when they are aligned.

What is a digital catalog?

Digital catalogues come in different forms, already due to different electronic end devices. Early on, digital catalogs were digital facsimiles of their printed counterparts (think PDFs or fixed-format eBooks), with hyperlinks to purchase the items. On larger screen devices such as tablets, these can be a positive user experience, much as many digital magazines have become. But on smartphones, print facsimiles are less than ideal.

A more effective solution for devices of all sizes is a fully responsive display of the retailer’s products and special offers. Each element dynamically assumes the size and proportions suitable to a device’s screen size and user navigation habits. This responsiveness is, of course, much easier said than done. Effective, responsive web design can be anything but “automatic” and is complicated by the retailer’s need to maintain brand and content design parity with a catalog’s printed counterpart.

What also makes digital catalogs challenging to describe is their function. Like their print siblings, they are complex vehicles usually integrated with overall marketing campaigns designed to elevate sales of high-value, high-margin product lines. But, as recently outlined by retail consultancy MicroD, digital catalogs can extend customer reach, improve lead generation, and immediately connect users to e-commerce. They are also highly customizable – down to individuals and their shopping preferences. It should be noted that print catalogs are also highly customizable, thanks to Comosoft’s advances in data-based versioning and the widespread use of high-speed digital printing.

Data, data everywhere

As it turns out, the problem is not a lack of potential. Both print and digital catalogs can fulfill a retailer’s many needs – potentially – and often in ways that complement one another. The problem is that it’s tough to manage each channel’s complex data and to do so with two parallel channels without incurring unacceptable labor costs for manual design and production.

Catalogs are not just randomly-selected product images, prices, and descriptions. Instead, featured product information is stored in massive Product Information Management (PIM) systems, supplemented by SKU-specific (and frequently updated or modified) images and text descriptions stored in equally huge Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems. For fun, the data may also be supplemented by separate databases for product pricing, inventory, and regional availability. So much data, so little time (and money).

The challenge for retail marketing and advertising directors and their people is to select the right product(s), with all their associated data intact and current, and create an executable, trackable plan for well-designed print and digital catalog campaigns. This process must be done repeatedly, always maintaining the retailer’s brand image, and it must be done without spending the marketing equivalent of a lunar probe mission.

The best of both worlds

Fortunately, there is a data-centric, design-friendly way to accomplish this and produce compelling digital catalogs without detracting from the proven benefits of print. Comosoft’s LAGO system is an effective bridge between PIM, DAM, and other data sources and the world of page design. It allows marketing, advertising, and product line managers to prioritize and plan the products to be featured, using whiteboarding and other visualization tools connected to the retailer’s many data sources.

LAGO Whiteboard is the central module for the efficient and effective production of print advertising media, with which pages can be quickly designed and populated even without layout knowledge. The results are made available to the creative staff (graphics department), whether internal or external, in InDesign as a layout document. Here, the pages can then be professionally prepared for printing. In addition, the whiteboard is also the connecting element for involving or integrating product or category management in the marketing production process.

From that decision process, a series of page templates are created for the designer, who is freed to focus on visual impact without being burdened with searching for bits of related SKU product data. If the underlying data is altered or updated during the process, such as a new product image, the designer’s layout is automatically updated.

Once the page layout is created, multiple regional versions can also be generated, each customized to the retailer’s regional or demographic.

But the benefits of a data-driven design workflow do not stop there. Digital catalogs of any kind can be generated automatically, using the campaign data exported from the final catalog layout(s). Each product in the catalog retains its connection to the related PIM and DAM data, allowing the campaign contents to be displayed in a digital catalog – from facsimiles of the printed page to responsive elements that can populate mobile shopping apps, emails, and website catalogs.

There is no question that properly managed and designed digital catalogs improve sales and simplify the process of discovering, selecting, and purchasing retail products. With LAGO, retailers can assure product and brand consistency between their print and digital channels – both of which are essential to survival in the multichannel world.

by Viktoria Nösel

Eine Frau sitzt an einem Tisch und blättert in einer Zeitung

Automate catalogue production

Automate catalogue production – from conception to completion

In a previous article we highlighted four ways in which Comosoft LAGO integrates with Adobe InDesign and virtually any product information management (PIM) or digital asset management (DAM) system. For retail catalogues, this integration means huge savings on the production side. In this article, however, we focus more on the “front end” of the process – the cost of planning and managing these complex but effective marketing tools.

Why print catalogues?

Retailers are facing some shifts from the pandemic as consumers increasingly turn away from in-store shopping to online shopping. This includes nearly half of the baby boomers with their large spending power, according Forbes. But it also presents unique opportunities for retail marketing. The biggest challenge here, however, is probably the large number of marketing channels and the resulting “noise” that makes it difficult for retailers to get their message across. Search engine optimisation (SEO) and the targeting of consumer data can be effective, but the more everyone uses these tools, the less effective they can become. The solution is to set up a distinctive and visually appealing channel that can bypass all the digital noise – preferably a channel that can be easily targeted to regions, demographic groups and even individuals. One such channel has been around for many years: the printed catalogue. The pandemic itself may have given the catalogue a new boost in popularity. A November 2021 NBC News report noted that many customers – including millennials – prefer printed catalogues to digital media. In addition to the pleasant feeling of nostalgia, the report pointed to other advantages of print media over digital media:

  • The catalogue experience invites leisurely browsing and discovery, in contrast to the hectic, fast-paced mobile experience. One customer said, “I get frustrated when I search for something online. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you don’t know what’s available. You can’t just browse through and look at things”.
  • The catalogue’s large, full-colour layout provides a richer visual experience than most displays on smaller devices.
  • For millennials, who are often constantly in front of digital screens, flipping through printed catalogues doesn’t feel like work.
  • Customers acquired through catalogues are more loyal (and therefore likely to buy more) than customers acquired through online channels.

The catalogues themselves have also evolved. They are much leaner, attractively designed and focus on individual topics and product categories. Most importantly, today’s catalogues are highly customisable. The same consumer data that benefits online marketing teams can be combined with a retailer’s PIM and DAM data to create a high quality catalogue that is “just for you”.

The challenge and the solution

Creating customised print catalogues requires high quality underlying data, from the initial planning phase of a campaign to the production and distribution of the catalogues. This means selecting the right combination of products (products with high profit margins and successful sales history) and placing the right PIM and DAM data on the page, with the ability to customise and measure results.

Comosoft has found an efficient way to process all this data effectively with its multichannel software LAGO. LAGO enables retailers to unify PIM and DAM data entered by their manufacturers and suppliers, eliminating duplication and potential for error. In addition, LAGO’s whiteboarding feature brings marketers and product managers together, allowing them to draw from all data sources. This includes regional pricing and customer purchase history to create and manage effective, measurable catalogue campaigns.

LAGO Whiteboard is the central module for the efficient and effective production of print advertising material, with which pages can be quickly designed and populated even without layout knowledge. The results are made available to the creative staff (graphics department), whether internal or external, in InDesign as a layout document. Here, the pages can then be professionally prepared for printing. In addition, the whiteboard is also the perfect bridge to involve or integrate product or category management in the marketing production process.

Once the marketing team has finished designing the campaign, LAGO continues to work and automate the catalogue production process. For example, the graphic designer is automatically provided with each product’s PIM and DAM data as a ‘block’ of related information. In turn, they use a LAGO-generated Adobe InDesign template to design a high-quality layout – and don’t waste time manually searching for and placing individual SKU-related data.

One advertising medium – many variants. LAGO Whiteboard also supports the planning of a large number of regional or market-specific variants. Even at this stage of production, it is displayed whether individual variants have already been completely filled. In this way, regional exchangers can be easily planned in a controlled manner without losing the overview.

This drastically reduces costly errors. In addition, LAGO maintains a live connection between the PIM and DAM data sources and the InDesign layout. So changes in the data, such as a price change or an update to the product image, automatically update the catalogue layout right through to print.

The biggest advantage for marketing production managers, however, is LAGO’s ability to handle complex versions. This can range from region-specific catalogue versions to detailed adjustments based on demographic data or buying behaviour.

The LAGO Version Optimization module makes it possible to reduce the generation of print variants to the number of variants that actually have to run through a production and coordination process. It does not matter at which level you produce a variant. The entire range of country-specific, regional/market-specific and customer-specific variants is covered.

What would otherwise be a huge investment of time and money (and a greater risk of error) becomes a manageable, data-driven process. Although the benefits of data-driven catalogues cannot be overstated, LAGO also facilitates the digital side of the marketing equation. For example, complex product SKUs and special offers included in a catalogue campaign can be automatically exported for use in web and mobile applications.

LAGO Digital Output is an advanced module specifically for managing and outputting content for publishing online, interactive digital brochures and digital catalogues. The module creates JPEGs or PDFs from the LAGO InDesign pages and an associated XML file with overlay coordinate data as well as data on the project, project variants and product details. Digital Output can be configured to fully automate the creation of overlay coordinates. It is also possible to handle the assignment of gallery content automatically.

Learn more about how Comosoft LAGO can make complex catalog production more efficient, while also improving their quality and impact. Or you can book a demo via the button on the right to see it for yourself.

Book a demo

by Viktoria Nösel

Circular-Ad-Production-Software-Consumers

Do consumers still use printed circulars?

Do consumers still use printed circulars?

Once upon a time, value-conscious consumers eagerly open their Sunday newspapers, searching for the ubiquitous print circulars with weekly retail deals. Those coupons and specials helped inform their decisions regarding where and when to shop and what products to purchase.

With today’s rising inflation, consumers seek ways to make every dollar count by taking advantage of special values and promotions, and retailers offer more coupons to keep their prices competitive.

But the consumer landscape is rapidly shifting as savvy shoppers turn to their digital devices to shop online and find retail deals. However, that doesn’t mean print circulars have become entirely obsolete!

Context is the Key

While circular advertising is seeing positive momentum toward to a digital medium, that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain circumstances in which print circulars are still advantageous. Not all consumers are digitally savvy! Senior shoppers may not be used to shopping online or using digital advertisements and coupons. Other younger consumers prefer the print medium, which is easier to read and digest.

Consider the following statistics:

  • A recent study (post-pandemic!) found that 87% of shoppers were reading circulars the same amount or more than a year earlier!
  • For customers who feel inundated with information, print circulars can be easier to digest. Those advertisements that come in the mail or are included in newspapers take 24% less cognitive effort to process than digital marketing.
  • Post pandemic, 40% of consumers were still searching for deals by reading print circulars.

Yes, customers are still using printed ad circulars, but context and age are significant factors in the consumer’s preference. With high market volatility and supply chain uncertainties a multichannel marketing approach to circular ad production will pay off in the long run for retailers.

Digital offerings expand opportunities to reach consumers

The future of retail will inevitably become more digital. Historically, print circulars were included in Sunday newspapers. But with newspaper circulation rapidly decreasing, this is no longer an effective way to reach consumers. Daily newspapers have lost approximately 20 million subscribers in the past ten years. In addition, paid Sunday newspaper subscribers are losing 7% or more households each year, with a combined reach of less than a fifth of American households. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online shopping. In 2020 and 2021, Americans spent $609 billion more online than the two years before COVID, according to new data.

Younger target groups often rely to a greater extent on digital advertising offers, but if you look at the conversion rate of a personalized advertising e-mail (approx. 5%) compared to a personalized print brochure (approx. 30%), it quickly becomes clear that there is no equivalent digital alternative, especially for personalized print products. At the end of the day, it’s all about reaching consumers where they can access the retailer’s offerings. And this accessibility depends on various factors such as age, life circumstances and situation, both for print and digital media.

Nevertheless, the advantages of digital offerings in terms of sustainability and lower costs are beyond question. For eco-conscious retailers, transitioning to digital circulars also minimizes their carbon footprint and saves money on expensive paper and ink costs, which will continue to rise.

We can therefore conclude that the digital offer is a very useful supplement to the printed brochure and that the importance of the digital catalog will also continue to increase in the future, but from today’s perspective it cannot replace it as the sole advertising medium in the retail sector. The retailer who offers consumers the most touchpoints and whose offers are taken up by consumers in the right situation will continue to be successful. These diverse touchpoints can only be offered by successful and well-thought-out multichannel marketing, which picks up the consumer with both well-designed print and user-friendly digital media.

by Viktoria Nösel

Les brochures hebdomadaires, éléments clés du marketing de détail

Les prospectus hebdomadaires sont des facteurs clés dans les décisions d'achat des détaillants – Comment l'automatisation des processus d'impression peut vous faire économiser sur votre budget marketing

Les grands détaillants sont au milieu d’une transition difficile. Dans le sillage de la COVID, de l’inflation et de la crise de la chaîne d’approvisionnement, les marques doivent trouver des moyens innovants pour réussir. Par conséquent, la demande de créativité n’a jamais été aussi forte. À cet égard, la brochure hebdomadaire reste l’outil de prédilection de nombreux grands détaillants.

Selon les données d’enquête de Vericast, les brochures hebdomadaires restent un outil efficace pour attirer les clients. Les brochures hebdomadaires sont un important moteur de vente : 66 % des consommateurs étudient les réductions et les offres spéciales dans une brochure avant de faire leurs achats. L’étude montre également que 87 % des acheteurs lisent les brochures pendant le même temps ou plus longtemps que l’année précédente.

L’une des raisons de la popularité continue des brochures et des dépliants est leur facilité de lecture. Selon Vericast, les documents imprimés, y compris les brochures envoyées par courrier, demandent 21 % d’effort cognitif en moins pour être lus que leurs équivalents numériques. La question est donc la suivante : pourquoi les brochures commerciales ne sont-elles pas davantage mises en avant par les créatifs en marketing ?

Une mauvaise réputation non méritée

Il existe plusieurs raisons pour lesquelles les brochures peuvent être marginalisées dans le monde complexe du marketing multicanal de détail. D’une part, les brochures et les dépliants absorbent une part importante du budget marketing d’un détaillant. Une partie de cette situation est due à des facteurs moins contrôlables, tels que le coût du papier et de l’affranchissement, tandis que d’autres facteurs, tels que la main-d’œuvre impliquée dans la production, les versions régionales et la distribution, ne sont qu’en apparence incontrôlables. (La réduction des budgets marketing a conduit certains détaillants à réduire leurs programmes de brochures, mais cela a souvent eu des conséquences négatives, telles que la perte de millions de dollars de ventes. Selon Vericast, réduire le budget de prospection des épiceries de seulement 5 % peut entraîner une baisse des résultats en raison des ventes perdues qui ne peuvent être récupérées par d’autres moyens.

Une autre raison de la mauvaise réputation imméritée de la brochure est la prétendue “uniformité” de son format. Chaque brochure contient un mélange de nombreux produits phares, d’offres spéciales, de coupons de réduction et d’offres à durée limitée. Une combinaison aussi complexe exige beaucoup de travail (mais comme il faut faire tenir un nombre fixe d’informations sur un nombre fixe de pages – et sous la pression des délais – la conception est souvent reléguée au second plan). Le résultat est très fonctionnel, comme le montre l’impact durable des brochures, mais il est difficile de produire un design qui sorte du lot.

Comment faire une entrée remarquée

Il s’avère qu’il existe un moyen de réduire le coût de ce précieux support marketing et d’ouvrir de nouvelles possibilités de conception créative : l’automatisation. Avec la bonne stratégie d’automatisation, un spécialiste du marketing créatif peut réaliser des économies et rendre ce canal important pour la promotion de la marque du détaillant plus mémorable. C’est la version design du “meilleur des deux mondes”.

L’automatisation commence par l’élimination des tâches répétitives liées aux données, qui sont le lot de toutes les entreprises modernes. Les détaillants traitent souvent des données provenant de sources de données fragmentées, telles que des systèmes de gestion des informations sur les produits (PIM), des systèmes de gestion des actifs numériques (DAM), des systèmes de tarification et d’inventaire, des systèmes de gestion de la relation client (CRM) et d’autres systèmes propriétaires. L’effort nécessaire pour créer une campagne de prospection peut être coûteux. Si l’on ajoute à cela la nécessité de créer des versions régionales distinctes d’un prospect, l’automatisation peut simplifier radicalement le processus.

Heureusement, Comosoft LAGO peut le faire. En reliant toutes ces sources de données dans un flux de travail unique, le processus d’automatisation de la production marketing de LAGO surmonte ces défis et facilite à la fois l’échelle et la vitesse, sans compromettre la qualité ou la diversité des versions.

L’automatisation permet également une bonne conception. Lorsque la complexité de la sélection et de la gestion du volume de données sur les produits est réduite, les concepteurs peuvent se concentrer sur ce qu’ils font le mieux : la conception.

Une fois de plus, Comosoft LAGO répond à ce besoin, permettant aux responsables marketing et à leurs équipes de faire une excellente impression. Le flux de travail LAGO relie plusieurs sources de données (spécifiées par la direction du marketing de l’entreprise) au pilier de la conception d’imprimés modernes : Adobe InDesign. Ainsi, les brochures et les dépliants riches en données peuvent bénéficier de toute l’énergie créative de concepteurs expérimentés, même lors de la production de plusieurs versions régionales ou démographiques.

Le multivers du marketing

Bien entendu, la brochure n’est qu’un élément parmi un nombre croissant de canaux de marketing qui se disputent l’attention des clients. Des études ont montré qu’une campagne coordonnée avec un mélange cohérent de messages et d’attrait visuel est bien plus efficace que n’importe quel élément pris isolément. Ainsi, lorsque l’information peut être transférée sans effort d’un support à l’autre, cela crée un effet d’entraînement marketing qui peut se traduire par des économies nettes.

Ce splash est également un avantage de LAGO. Lorsqu’une brochure est préparée pour l’impression, y compris les versions multiples, les données et les images promotionnelles peuvent être automatiquement exportées vers des applications web ou mobiles, ce qui permet d’orchestrer facilement une campagne multicanal contemporaine. Au lieu de s’efforcer d’exécuter une fois une campagne aussi complexe, les équipes de marketing et de création peuvent confortablement le faire chaque semaine.

Dans l’environnement concurrentiel féroce d’aujourd’hui, le contenu, les actifs, les canaux et les campagnes d’un détaillant augmentent de façon exponentielle, alors même que les ressources et les budgets stagnent ou diminuent. Par conséquent, la nécessité d’avoir un impact important n’a jamais été aussi grande. Mais avec LAGO, un directeur marketing ou créatif intelligent peut y parvenir.

by Viktoria Nösel

Los folletos semanales son los principales impulsores del marketing minorista

Los folletos semanales son los principales impulsores de las decisiones de compra en el sector minorista – cómo la automatización de los procesos de impresión puede ahorrarle dinero en su presupuesto de marketing

Los grandes minoristas se encuentran en medio de una difícil transición. Tras el COVID, la inflación y la crisis de la cadena de suministro, hay que encontrar formas innovadoras para que las marcas tengan éxito. Por ello, la demanda de creatividad nunca ha sido mayor. En este sentido, el folleto semanal sigue siendo la herramienta elegida por muchos grandes minoristas.

Según los datos de la encuesta realizada por Vericast, los folletos semanales siguen siendo una herramienta eficaz para captar a los clientes. Los folletos semanales son un importante motor de ventas: el 66 % de los consumidores estudian los descuentos y las ofertas especiales de un folleto antes de ir a comprar. El estudio también muestra que el 87 % de los compradores lee los folletos durante el mismo tiempo o más que el año anterior.

Una de las razones de la continua popularidad de los folletos y prospectos es su facilidad de lectura. Según Vericast, los materiales impresos, incluidos los folletos enviados por correo, requieren un 21% menos de esfuerzo cognitivo para su lectura que sus homólogos digitales. Así que la pregunta es: ¿por qué los folletos comerciales no están más en el punto de mira de los creativos de marketing?

Una mala reputación inmerecida

Hay varias razones por las que los folletos pueden quedar marginados en el complejo mundo del marketing minorista multicanal. Por un lado, los folletos y los panfletos se comen una parte importante del presupuesto de marketing de un minorista. Parte de ello se debe a factores menos controlables, como el coste del papel y el franqueo, mientras que otros factores, como la mano de obra implicada en la producción, las versiones regionales y la distribución, son sólo aparentemente incontrolables. (La reducción de los presupuestos de marketing ha llevado a algunos minoristas a reducir sus programas de folletos, pero esto ha tenido a menudo consecuencias negativas, como la pérdida de millones de dólares en ventas. Según Vericast, recortar el presupuesto de prospección de comestibles en tan sólo un 5% puede hacer que los resultados se reduzcan debido a la pérdida de ventas que no se pueden recuperar a través de otros medios.

Otro motivo de la inmerecida mala fama del folleto es la supuesta “uniformidad” del formato. Cada folleto contiene una mezcla de muchos productos destacados, ofertas especiales, cupones de descuento y ofertas por tiempo limitado. Una combinación tan compleja requiere mucho trabajo. (Pero como hay que meter tanta información en un número fijo de páginas -y bajo la presión de los plazos-, el diseño tiene que pasar a menudo a un segundo plano. El resultado es muy funcional, como demuestra el impacto duradero de los folletos, pero es difícil producir un diseño que destaque entre la multitud.

Cómo hacer una gran entrada

Resulta que hay una manera de reducir el coste de este valioso medio de marketing y abrir nuevas oportunidades para el diseño creativo: La automatización. Con la estrategia de automatización adecuada, un comercializador creativo puede lograr una mayor eficiencia en los costes y hacer que este importante canal de promoción de la marca del minorista sea más memorable. Es la versión de diseño de “lo mejor de ambos mundos”.

La automatización comienza con la eliminación de las tareas repetitivas relacionadas con los datos que afectan a todas las empresas modernas. Los minoristas suelen tratar con datos procedentes de fuentes de datos fragmentadas, como los sistemas de gestión de información de productos (PIM), los sistemas de gestión de activos digitales (DAM), los sistemas de precios e inventario, los sistemas de gestión de relaciones con los clientes (CRM) y otros sistemas propios. El esfuerzo necesario para crear una campaña de prospección puede ser costoso. Si a ello se añade la necesidad de crear versiones regionales separadas de un prospecto, la automatización puede simplificar radicalmente el proceso.

Afortunadamente, Comosoft LAGO puede hacer precisamente eso. Al vincular todas estas fuentes de datos en un único flujo de trabajo, el proceso de automatización de la producción de marketing de LAGO supera estos retos y facilita tanto la escala como la velocidad, sin comprometer la calidad ni la diversidad de versiones.

La automatización también permite un buen diseño. Cuando se reduce la complejidad de seleccionar y gestionar el volumen de datos de los productos, los diseñadores pueden centrarse en lo que mejor saben hacer: diseñar.

Una vez más, Comosoft LAGO satisface esta necesidad, permitiendo a los directores de marketing y a sus equipos causar una gran impresión. El flujo de trabajo de LAGO conecta múltiples fuentes de datos (especificadas por la dirección de marketing de la empresa) con el pilar del diseño de impresión moderno: Adobe InDesign. De este modo, los folletos y volantes con gran cantidad de datos pueden recibir toda la energía creativa de diseñadores experimentados, incluso cuando se producen varias versiones regionales o demográficas.

El multiverso del marketing

Por supuesto, el folleto es sólo una parte de un número cada vez mayor de canales de marketing, que compiten por la atención de los clientes. Los estudios han demostrado que una campaña coordinada con una mezcla coherente de mensajes y atractivo visual es mucho más eficaz que cualquier componente individual por sí solo. Por eso, cuando la información puede transferirse sin esfuerzo de un medio a otro, se crea un “splash” de marketing que puede suponer un ahorro neto de costes.

Este “splash” es también una ventaja de LAGO. Cuando se prepara un folleto para su impresión, incluyendo varias versiones, los datos e imágenes promocionales pueden exportarse automáticamente a aplicaciones web o móviles, lo que facilita la orquestación de una campaña multicanal contemporánea. En lugar de esforzarse por ejecutar una campaña tan compleja una vez, los equipos de marketing y creativos pueden hacerlo cómodamente cada semana.

En el entorno ferozmente competitivo de hoy en día, el contenido, los activos, los canales y las campañas de un minorista crecen exponencialmente, incluso cuando los recursos y los presupuestos se estancan o disminuyen. Por tanto, la necesidad de causar un gran impacto nunca ha sido mayor. Pero con LAGO, un director creativo o de marketing inteligente puede conseguirlo.

by Viktoria Nösel

Wochenprospekte als Schlüsselfaktoren im Einzelhandelsmarketing

Wochenprospekte sind die entscheidenden Treiber von Kaufentscheidungen im Einzelhandel – Wie die Automatisierung von Printprozessen dabei Ihr Marketingbudget schont.

Große Einzelhändler befinden sich mitten in einer schwierigen Übergangsphase. Nach COVID, der Inflation und der Lieferkettenkrise müssen innovative Wege gefunden werden, um Marken erfolgreich zu machen. Infolgedessen war die Nachfrage nach Kreativität noch nie so groß wie heute. Der wöchentliche Prospekt ist für viele große Einzelhändler dabei weiterhin ein Mittel der Wahl.

Laut der von Vericast gesammelten Umfragedaten sind Wochenprospekte immer noch ein wirkungsvolles Instrument zur Kundenbindung. Wöchentliche Prospekte sind ein wichtiger Umsatztreiber: 66 % der Verbraucher studieren die Rabatte und Sonderangebote in einem Prospekt, bevor sie einkaufen gehen. Die Studie zeigt auch, dass 87 % der Käufer die Prospekte genauso lange oder länger lesen als im Vorjahr.

Ein Grund für die anhaltende Beliebtheit von Prospekten und Flugblättern ist die leichte Lesbarkeit. Laut Vericast erfordern gedruckte Materialien, einschließlich per Post verschickter Prospekte, 21 % weniger kognitiven Aufwand beim Lesen als ihre digitalen Gegenstücke. Die Frage ist also: Warum stehen Prospekte im Einzelhandel nicht stärker im Fokus der kreativen Marketingleiter?

Ein unverdient schlechter Ruf

Es gibt mehrere Gründe, warum Prospekte in der komplexen Welt des Multichannel-Einzelhandelsmarketings an den Rand gedrängt werden können. Zum einen verschlingen Prospekte und Flyer einen erheblichen Teil des Marketingbudgets eines Einzelhändlers. Ein Teil davon ist auf weniger gut kontrollierbare Faktoren zurückzuführen, wie z. B. die Kosten für Papier und Porto, während andere Faktoren, wie z. B. der Arbeitsaufwand für die Produktion, die regionale Versionierung und die Verteilung, nur scheinbar unkontrollierbar sind. (Dazu später mehr.) Schrumpfende oder eingeschränkte Marketingbudgets haben einige Einzelhändler dazu verleitet, ihre Prospektprogramme zu reduzieren, was oft jedoch negative Folgen hatte, einschließlich Umsatzeinbußen in Millionenhöhe. Laut Vericast kann eine Kürzung des Budgets für Lebensmittelprospekte um nur 5 % dazu führen, dass Ihr Endergebnis aufgrund von Umsatzeinbußen schrumpft, die Sie durch andere Medien nicht wieder wettmachen können.

Ein weiterer Grund für den unverdient schlechten Ruf des Prospekts ist die vermeintliche “Gleichförmigkeit” des Formats. Jedes Flugblatt enthält eine Mischung aus vielen vorgestellten Produkten, Sonderangeboten, Rabattcoupons und zeitlich begrenzten Angeboten. Eine solch komplexe Kombination ist sehr arbeitsintensiv. (Auch dazu später mehr.) Aber weil so viele Informationen auf einer festen Seitenzahl untergebracht werden müssen – und das unter Termindruck –, muss das Design allzu oft in den Hintergrund treten. Die Ergebnisse sind höchst funktional, wie die anhaltende Wirkung von Prospekten beweist, aber es ist schwer, ein Design zu produzieren, das sich von der Masse abhebt.

Wie man einen großen Auftritt hinlegt

Wie sich herausstellt, gibt es einen Weg, die Kosten für dieses wertvolle Marketingmedium zu senken und neue Möglichkeiten für kreatives Design zu eröffnen: Automatisierung. Ein kreativer Marketingleiter kann mit der richtigen Automatisierungsstrategie eine größere Kosteneffizienz erreichen und diesen wichtigen Kanal zur Förderung der Marke des Einzelhändlers einprägsamer gestalten. Es ist die Designversion des „Best of both worlds“.

Die Automatisierung beginnt mit der Beseitigung sich wiederholender datenbezogener Aufgaben, die alle modernen Unternehmen plagen. Einzelhändler haben es oft mit Daten aus fragmentierten Datenquellen zu tun, darunter PIM-Systeme (Product Information Management), DAM-Systeme (Digital Asset Management), Preis- und Bestandssysteme, CRM-Systeme (Customer Relationship Management) und andere proprietäre Systeme. Der Aufwand, der für die Erstellung einer Prospekt-Kampagne erforderlich ist, kann teuer sein. Wenn man dann noch die Notwendigkeit hat, separate, regionale Versionen eines Prospekts zu erstellen, kann die Automatisierung diesen Prozess radikal vereinfachen.

Glücklicherweise kann Comosoft LAGO genau das tun. Durch die Verknüpfung all dieser Datenquellen in einem einzigen Workflow überwindet der LAGO-Prozess zur Automatisierung der Marketingproduktion diese Herausforderungen und erleichtert sowohl die Skalierung als auch die Geschwindigkeit – ohne Kompromisse bei der Qualität oder Versionsvielfalt.

Gutes Design wird auch durch Automatisierung ermöglicht. Wenn die Komplexität bei der Auswahl und Verwaltung der Menge an Produktdaten reduziert wird, können sich Designer auf das konzentrieren, was sie am besten können – Designen.

Auch hier erfüllt Comosoft LAGO diesen Bedarf und gibt den Marketingleitern und ihren Teams die Möglichkeit einen großen Eindruck zu hinterlassen. Der LAGO-Workflow verbindet mehrere Datenquellen (wie von der Marketingleitung des Unternehmens vorgegeben) mit dem Hauptpfeiler des modernen Druckdesigns – Adobe InDesign. Datenintensive Prospekte und Flyer können so die volle kreative Energie von erfahrenen Designern erhalten, selbst wenn mehrere regionale oder demografische Versionen produziert werden.

Das Marketing-Multiversum

Natürlich ist der Prospekt nur ein Teil einer immer größer werdenden Zahl von Marketingkanälen, die alle um die Aufmerksamkeit der Kunden buhlen. Studien haben gezeigt, dass eine koordinierte Kampagne mit einer konsistenten Mischung aus Botschaften und visueller Anziehungskraft weitaus effektiver ist als jede einzelne Komponente für sich genommen. Wenn also Informationen von einem Medium mühelos auf ein anderes übertragen werden können, führt dies zu einem Marketing-“Splash”, der zu Nettokosteneinsparungen führen kann.

Auch dieser “Splash” ist ein Vorteil von LAGO. Wenn ein Prospekt für den Druck vorbereitet wird, einschließlich mehrerer Versionen, können die Werbedaten und das Bildmaterial automatisch in webbasierte oder mobile Apps exportiert werden, so dass es einfach ist, eine zeitgemäße Multichannel-Kampagne zu orchestrieren. Anstatt sich mit der einmaligen Durchführung einer solch komplexen Kampagne abzumühen, können die Marketing- und Kreativteams dies bequem auf wöchentlicher Basis tun.

Im heutigen harten Wettbewerb wachsen die Inhalte, Assets, Kanäle und Kampagnen eines Einzelhändlers exponentiell, auch wenn die Ressourcen und Budgets stagnieren oder sinken. Die Notwendigkeit, eine große Wirkung zu erzielen, war daher noch nie so groß. Aber mit LAGO kann ein versierter Kreativ- oder Marketingdirektor genau das tun.

by Viktoria Nösel

Ein Paar schaut sich in einem Elekronik-Markt eine Waschmaschine an

Weekly brochures as key drivers in retail marketing

Weekly brochures are the key drivers of purchase decisions in the retail – How the print automation saves your marketing budget in the process

Major retailers are in the midst of a difficult transition. After COVID, inflation and the supply chain crisis, innovative ways must be found to make brands successful. As a result, the demand for creativity has never been greater. The weekly prospectus continues to be a tool of choice for many major retailers in this regard.

According to survey data collected by Vericast, weekly leaflets are still an effective tool for customer engagement. Weekly leaflets are an important sales driver: 66% of consumers study the discounts and special offers in a leaflet before they go shopping. The study also shows that 87 % of shoppers read the brochures as long or longer than in the previous year.

One reason for the continued popularity of brochures and leaflets is their ease of reading. According to Vericast, printed materials, including mailed brochures, require 21% less cognitive effort to read than their digital counterparts. So the question is: why aren’t retail brochures more in the focus of creative marketers?

An undeservedly bad reputation

There are several reasons why leaflets can be marginalised in the complex world of multichannel retail marketing. For one, brochures and flyers eat up a significant portion of a retailer’s marketing budget. Some of this is due to less controllable factors, such as the cost of paper and postage, while other factors, such as the labour involved in production, regional versioning and distribution, are only seemingly uncontrollable. (More on this later.) Shrinking or constrained marketing budgets have tempted some retailers to reduce their brochure programmes, but this has often had negative consequences, including millions of dollars in lost sales. According to Vericast, cutting your grocery prospecting budget by as little as 5% can cause your bottom line to shrink due to lost sales that you can’t make up through other media.

Another reason for the undeservedly bad reputation of the leaflet is the supposed “uniformity” of the format. Each leaflet contains a mixture of many featured products, special offers, discount coupons and limited time offers. Such a complex combination is very labour intensive. (More on that later, too.) But because so much information has to be packed onto a fixed number of pages – and under deadline pressure – design too often has to take a back seat. The results are highly functional, as the enduring impact of brochures proves, but it’s hard to produce a design that stands out from the crowd.

How to make a grand entrance

As it turns out, there is a way to reduce the cost of this valuable marketing medium and open up new opportunities for creative design: Automation. With the right automation strategy, a creative marketer can achieve greater cost efficiencies and make this important channel for promoting the retailer’s brand more memorable. It is the design version of the “best of both worlds”.

Automation starts with eliminating repetitive data-related tasks that plague all modern businesses. Retailers often deal with data from fragmented data sources, including product information management (PIM) systems, digital asset management (DAM) systems, pricing and inventory systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other proprietary systems. The effort required to create a prospecting campaign can be expensive. Add to that the need to create separate, regional versions of a prospectus, and automation can radically simplify the process.

Fortunately, Comosoft LAGO can do just that. By linking all these data sources into a single workflow, LAGO’s marketing production automation process overcomes these challenges and facilitates both scale and speed – without compromising quality or version diversity.

Good design is also enabled by automation. When the complexity of selecting and managing the volume of product data is reduced, designers can focus on what they do best – designing.

Again, Comosoft LAGO meets this need, empowering marketing managers and their teams to make a big impression. The LAGO workflow connects multiple data sources (as specified by the company’s marketing management) with the mainstay of modern print design – Adobe InDesign. Data-intensive brochures and flyers can thus receive the full creative energy of experienced designers, even when multiple regional or demographic versions are produced.

The marketing multiverse

Of course, the brochure is just one part of an ever-growing number of marketing channels, all vying for customers’ attention. Studies have shown that a coordinated campaign with a consistent mix of messaging and visual appeal is far more effective than any individual component on its own. So when information can be effortlessly transferred from one medium to another, it creates a marketing “splash” that can lead to net cost savings.

This “splash” is also an advantage of LAGO. When a brochure is prepared for print, including multiple versions, the promotional data and imagery can be automatically exported to web-based or mobile apps, making it easy to orchestrate a contemporary multichannel campaign. Instead of struggling to execute such a complex campaign once, marketing and creative teams can conveniently do so on a weekly basis.

In today’s fiercely competitive environment, a retailer’s content, assets, channels and campaigns are growing exponentially, even as resources and budgets stagnate or decline. The need to make a big impact has therefore never been greater. But with LAGO, a savvy creative or marketing director can do just that.

by Viktoria Nösel