Scaling Efficiency: Leveraging Adobe Dynamic Media Classic for High-Volume Creative Assets

Transcript

Welcome everyone to scaling efficiency, leveraging Adobe dynamic media classic for high volume creative assets. I’m thrilled to be here today to discuss how we at stream companies have harnessed the power of Adobe dynamic media to revolutionize our creative workflows. My name is Corinne Preston and my journey in the advertising world began about two decades ago. When I first stepped into the field as a graphic designer. The industry has evolved immensely since then, and I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the transformative power of technology in the creative process. In my role as director of creative innovation, I’ve always been driven by a passion for pushing boundaries and exploring new ways to enhance our creative output. This passion has guided me and leading our team towards innovative solutions like Adobe dynamic media, ensuring we remain at the forefront of industry changes. A few fun facts about me before we begin as someone in an innovation role, it may come as no surprise that I love to learn new things. And this year I’ve been teaching myself how to sew. And much to my mother’s dismay, I’ve been riding dirt bikes and motorcycles since I was eight years old. As I mentioned, I work at stream companies, and we partner with a diverse range of retail based businesses with a significant focus on the automotive industry. Here’s a little context for what that means when it comes to creative retail advertising, especially in the automotive sector is a dynamic and demanding field. This industry operates on a rapid monthly offer cycle with dealerships competing fiercely to be first to market with fresh, relevant creative assets and promotional offers. We manage advertising for well over 1000 clients in the automotive sector alone. But let’s use 1000 clients as an example for some easy math. With an average of three unique offers per client, each needing eight unique graphics for different advertising channels. That means we’re creating at least 24,000 graphics each month solely for digital advertising campaigns. And that’s a conservative estimate. The sheer volume of work necessitates a highly efficient and streamlined process to ensure timely delivery without compromising on quality. This produces some challenges for our creative team, which I’m sure are familiar to many of you, regardless of the sector or industry you serve. One of the primary challenges we face is the need for rapid speed to market and the production of a high volume of graphics. In a competitive market like automotive, our clients demand quick turnarounds and high quality creative that resonates with their audience. They expect us to deliver solutions that set them apart from their competitors, which requires us to stay ahead of industry trends and continuously innovate our processes. Another significant challenge is adhering to multiple layers of compliance and guidelines. Our creative process must align with FTC regulations, state laws and OEM brand guidelines, as well as individual client brand standards. Balancing these requirements while producing engaging and creative content is critical. Inconsistent adherence can lead to brand identity issues or regulatory noncompliance, both of which can cause issues for our company and our clients. As our business continued to grow and the demand for more advertising content increased, it was clear that our old workflow for creating this content was becoming outdated. Even though we had built in forms of automation to this workflow along the way to help with efficiency. In the past, we utilized our proprietary platform called Retail Ready to gather offer details and pricing information from our clients. This step helped us comply with FTC and OEM guidelines. And then this information was funneled into an Excel or CSV document and connected to custom Photoshop templates utilizing the variables feature to expedite graphic production through data. While this method allowed for some scalability and speed to market, it involved many manual touch points that could lead to errors, longer turnaround times and resource planning difficulty. But this is where a dynamic media classic integrated with a AM assets steps in providing a robust solution to manage and deliver a high volume of digital assets with precision and speed. In today’s fast paced digital landscape, efficient media management is crucial for delivering high quality personalized experiences to consumers. Dynamic media classic stands out from other media management tools due to its powerful image serving capabilities and its ability to integrate seamlessly with Adobe Experience Manager. Unlike traditional tools that may focus primarily on asset storage and basic editing, dynamic media classic offers an advanced feature that enables real time customization and optimization of media across multiple platforms. One of the key differences of dynamic media classic is its sophisticated image serving technology. This feature allows creative teams to dynamically deliver images and assets at the right size, resolution and format, ensuring optimal performance and user experience. By utilizing custom renditions, creatives can tailor images to specific needs without the overhead of creating multiple versions manually. For instance, dynamic media can automatically adjust the dimensions and resolution of an image based on the device accessing it, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. This not only enhances the user experience by providing faster load times, but also reduces bandwidth usage and storage requirements. Dynamic media also includes advanced multimedia viewers that enhance the way users interact with digital content. These viewers support various media types, including images, videos and 3D models offering rich, immersive experiences. One feature is the 360 degree spin and the 3D visualization capabilities. This technology enables businesses to create interactive experiences that allow users to view products from every angle, providing a virtual experience similar to in-store browsing. Dynamic media also supports color and texture swatching, which is invaluable for industries where customization and personalization are key. At Stream Companies, our goal was to leverage dynamic media classic to increase our speed to market and reduce the workload burden on our creative teams, especially regarding digital advertising assets. Achieving this required a shift from our traditional manual processes to a more automated, scalable approach. To facilitate this transition, we turned to the power of basic templates within dynamic media classic. Basic templates are a feature of dynamic media classic that allow us to streamline and automate the creation of new ads by dynamically switching elements such as images, text and other design components. This functionality is key to producing customized, high quality graphics at scale with minimal manual intervention. Traditionally, creating individualized ads for each client involves significant manual effort, including adjusting designs and copy for each asset. This process was time consuming and allowed room for error, especially when handling thousands of graphics each month. Basic templates have revolutionized this workflow by allowing us to set parameters and automate these changes, dramatically improving efficiency. The real power of dynamic media classic lies in its ability to automate these changes using HTTP requests and parameters. Here’s a simplified explanation of how this works. First, we create a basic template in dynamic media classic with placeholder elements for images, text and other variables. These placeholders are defined by parameters that can be altered to customize each asset. Parameters are key to flexibility. Each element that can be customized like text, image source and color is assigned a parameter name in the template. To generate an asset, we construct an HTTP request that specifies the template to use and includes the parameters with the desired values. For example, a request might look like this URL on screen. This request calls the dynamic media server, instructing it to render the template using the specified parameters. The server processes the HTTP request, dynamically replacing the placeholders in the template with provided values from our data source and AEM assets. This renders a customized graphic tailored to the request. The final asset is generated and served instantly, ready to be used in campaigns or shared with clients. This process significantly reduces the time and effort needed to produce multiple variations of an ad. Now let’s take a closer look at some of the parameters that are available and allow us to swiftly generate a multitude of unique assets. With image variables, we can swap out images within a template based on client branding or current promotions. This flexibility ensures each ad remains relevant and visually aligned with the client’s brand identity. In this example, the background of the entire template has been made variable and we have included a parameter that calls in the featured vehicle image as well. By modifying text elements dynamically, we can quickly update offers, pricing or promotional messages without redesigning the entire ad. This is particularly useful for industries like automotive where offers change month over month. In the example on screen, I’ve called out some of our text variables as examples. We also have static text included in our template as the verbiage must remain the same to stay compliant. Adjusting colors and fonts with parameters and variables allows us to stay compliant with OEM guidelines and maintain brand consistency across different markets while still offering customization for individual clients. Dynamic media supports TrueType, PostScript and OpenType fonts. And finally, we also utilize visibility parameters. These control which elements appear in the final asset, allowing us to tailor messaging for specific audiences or highlight different features depending on the campaign focus. Here you can see I have the vehicle identification number set as an element that can be hidden as well as two styles of disclaimer that we can turn on and off through data. A single template truly can create many possibilities. As you can see here, the template on the left of the screen was used as the base for each of the three finished example assets on the right of the screen. In our new workflow, we have significantly streamlined and automated our operations by leveraging Adobe Dynamic Media Classic and AEM assets. We start by capturing client data and pricing information through our retail ready platform just as we did before. However, instead of manually transferring this data to an Excel or CSV document and connecting those documents to variable Photoshop templates, we now use basic templates in Dynamic Media Classic and an API connection to our AEM assets. instance to build our HTTP request directly in our retail ready tool. Once the assets are created, we use a custom API to seamlessly push them into Workfront where they are shared with team members or directly published to clients’ websites. The implementation of basic templates has significantly improved our workflow and we have been able to use this to create a more robust and more robust platform for our clients. The implementation of basic templates has significantly reduced the workload for our creative teams. By automating repetitive tasks and minimizing manual touchpoints, we have decreased the total time it takes to produce digital assets. This has allowed our teams to focus more on creative strategy and innovation rather than on execution details. The improved speed to market has enabled us to respond quickly to client requests and industry changes, ensuring that our clients’ advertising materials are always current and competitive. With ads going live in as little as four hours compared to our previous 24 to 48 hour turnaround, we’re able to meet and exceed client expectations consistently. If you’re ready to integrate basic templates into your creative workflow, here are some essential tips and best practices to ensure a smooth and successful implementation. This section will also include links to relevant Adobe documentation for deeper insights. First, verify that you have Dynamic Media Classic access. If you’re an Adobe Experience Manager assets user, you likely already have Dynamic Media configured to take advantage of features like Smart Crop and Dynamic Renditions. Currently, Dynamic Media Classic and its basic templates are accessible through a desktop app. Ensure this app is installed on your system and grant access to any additional users who will be involved in the workflow. Then you’ll want to identify your use cases and objectives. What are your objectives for introducing Dynamic Media Classic into your workflow? Determine which type of assets would benefit from the automation and define the specific goals you want to achieve, such as reducing production time, increasing personalization, or enhancing compliance with brand guidelines. Next up is defining your data sources. Understanding your unique data requirements by identifying the sources of data that will feed into your templates. This could include product information, pricing, promotional details, and branding elements. Determine how you will integrate this data, whether through APIs, CSV files, or another method. Identify the variables you’ll need to make your templates dynamic. These might include text placeholders, image fields, color options, and visibility settings. Clearly define each parameter to ensure consistency and accuracy across all assets. Keeping your assets organized within AEM assets and Dynamic Media Classic is crucial, especially if you plan to use APIs and additional scripts to call in data. Implement consistent naming conventions and establish an organized folder structure to facilitate easy retrieval and management of assets. Then start simple with your first template. Begin by building a simple template to get an idea of how you would like to structure your templates and parameters. This initial template will serve as a testbed for experimenting with dynamic elements and understanding how different parameters affect the output. Before rolling out templates at scale, be sure to test them thoroughly, ensure your data is populating correctly, and that the produced graphics meet quality standards. You can utilize the built-in preview tools within Dynamic Media Classic to verify that all elements appear as intended. You’ll also want to gather feedback from end users on your template. This will provide valuable insights into how they could be used and how they can be improved. Look for patterns in user questions and intended behaviors and make adjustments to optimize performance and efficiency. Once you know your templates are working correctly, it’s time to automate and scale your operations. Explore additional tools and integrations that can further streamline the process, such as an automated workflow or additional software that complements Dynamic Media Classic. After launching your first template, continue to monitor the performance and seek feedback for ongoing improvement. Use analytics to track how well your template is meeting objectives and identify areas for enhancement. Regular updates and refinements will ensure your workflow remains efficient and effective. As our team at Stream Companies has become more adept at using basic templates within Dynamic Media Classic, we’ve discovered several strategies that enhance efficiency and performance. Here are a few additional tips that have proven valuable in optimizing our workflow. When designing your templates, prioritize flexibility to accommodate a wide range of use cases. By creating templates that are versatile and easily adaptable, you can minimize the total number of templates needed. This reduces the time and effort spent on updates and maintenance, ensuring that your creative team can focus on innovation rather than on the other side. Consider designing templates with modular components that can be easily swapped or adjusted. This allows you to create variations for different campaigns or clients without starting from scratch. Modular templates enable you to mix and match elements, creating unique assets while maintaining consistency. Use a single parameter to control multiple similar variables within a template. For example, we use one parameter that dictates the color of each of the text boxes indicated on the screen. This strategy not only reduces the total number of parameters but also simplifies the management of template variations. Leverage parameters to manage the visibility of different template elements. This allows you to customize the content displayed based on the audience, campaign objectives, or specific client requirements. By controlling visibility through parameters, you can create more targeted and relevant ads. The Copy Fit function is a powerful tool that automatically adjusts the size of text within a template text box based on the character length. This ensures that your text fits perfectly within designated areas without manual resizing. It enhances the flexibility of text variables, allowing you to accommodate different messages and languages without compromising your design integrity. To get the most out of this feature, set the default font size to the smallest size that can still accommodate the longest anticipated character count. This ensures that even if the text is at its maximum length, it will fit within the designated area without getting cut off. For example, if you anticipate that the longest text string might be 100 characters, test different font sizes to determine the smallest size that can accommodate this length without clipping. You’ve heard me say this once already, but effective organization is crucial for managing a large volume of templates and assets. Establishing a consistent naming convention and clear folder structure to facilitate easy retrieval and management becomes even more important as you scale and automate your processes. Maintaining consistency in design elements and data integration methods across all templates ensures that your assets are cohesive and aligned with brand guidelines. Consistency also makes it easier to implement updates and automate processes, as your team will have a clear understanding of the template structure and functionality. Thank you all for attending this presentation. I hope you found the insights into Adobe Dynamic Media Classic and our approach to using basic templates both informative and inspiring. Now I’d like to open the floor for any questions you might have in our Q&A. Thank you, Corinne. That was incredible, and I loved all the examples you provided us. We have time for a few questions now. So audience, please type them into the chat if you haven’t already. All right, our first question. Do we have any API and API documentation to leverage Dynamic Media programmatically? Yes, so we’re actually using an Adobe API to connect to the AEM assets to pull our graphics into the Dynamic URL. So that documentation is going to be available to you. on the experience league through Adobe, and it’s really straightforward, but you definitely can utilize the API to programmatically connect your assets. Awesome. Thank you so much, Corinne. Next question. Can Dynamic Media create 3D renditions? Yeah, so I’m definitely not an expert in 3D renditions, but I believe that this is a capability of Dynamic Media. Again, there is wonderful documentation on all the different types of elements that Dynamic Media can create with an experience league. So it’s definitely worth taking a look to see if it fits your 3D experience. Awesome. Kind of a follow up to that, too. Someone asked, can we add custom renditions of an asset via API? Yeah, so when it comes to the API, you can control those settings. So if you have a custom rendition that you’re creating, you can control that. So when it comes to the API, you can control those settings. So if you have a custom rendition that you’re consistently creating on the assets that you would want to pull, you just need to have it call that in. And again, I know I talked about this quite a lot in the talk, but the naming conventions and consistency will be your friend there. So it obviously knows which rendition it’s looking for. Awesome. Great. Next question. Wow. Keep them coming, audience. Can this process leverage AEM dam asset metadata such as keywords, description, title, etc? Yep. So similar to the previous answer, so you can set that API up to look for whatever piece of information that you want. So currently, our API is looking for the file names specifically. But I believe that if you want it to call in, so you said, I think you said title, or if you’re looking for a specific keyword, you would just set your API up to look for that, those terms that you that you need. Wonderful. Okay, moving on to the next question. You mentioned loading final graphics to work front, are you utilizing work front to make sure that you’re not using the same terms? Yeah, so we’re not kicking off the process in work front, we’re utilizing that platform called Retail Ready that I spoke about to sort of start our process and generate those graphics. And we are actually proofing within our platform. However, you definitely could generate a proof in work front with those graphics if you wanted to proof within there. We’ve done that proofing process for other items. So that’s definitely a possibility if you wanted to sort of kick off a proof basis. on the items that are pushed in from dynamic media. Wonderful. Wow, I’m learning so much. Let’s keep the questions coming audience. All right, next question. Let’s see, what is the best way to integrate dynamic media for product pages? So I guess it depends on what you’re looking to accomplish. I’ve definitely seen dynamic media be used for like personal header banners for unique call outs on product images. So in that carousel of product images, if you wanted to call out that something was limited time or something was not, you know, product images. So in that carousel of product images, if you wanted to call out that something was limited time or on sale or whatever, you could definitely create unique experiences through dynamic media that way. If you have access to customer data, you could really personalize it that way. Or you could sort of create groups of data to help you, whether it’s like a regional or even like a language situation, if you wanted to use dynamic media to customize it. Awesome, thank you. Next question, are the images also set to fit the layout? Yes, our images are set to fit the layout. So the background specifically are currently set to that size. The vehicle images, however, we have set to an aspect ratio that works across multiple things for us. So they’re not necessarily sized exactly to fit. But we are utilizing the aspect ratio to use those like vehicle images. So there’s sort of, we’re sort of doing it both ways where the background image we’re pulling in is the exact pixel dimension, where the vehicle image is more of an aspect ratio. And we’ve sized the parameter like placeholder to be the size we want. So hopefully that answers that question gives you a little bit, there’s a little bit of flexibility there. Awesome. Flexibility is always appreciated. So thank you so much for that. Great. Moving on to the next question. How do you use caching with dynamic media? Yeah, so I might not be the correct person to answer this. I work very closely with a developer on our team, but we have, we have set up caching. So where, you know, we’ve added either like a timestamp to the dynamic media URL, or, and actually, I would say most of them are timestamps. So whenever we want to make sure that we don’t want the image to cache, we can utilize that timestamp data to help make sure that it’s not stuck. On a previous version. And hopefully that’s the answer you were looking for with the caching question. Because I think it automatically will hold. So like if you were saying like, does it hold like what it renders initially it does. So we actually had to add that timestamp to help push a new version. And hopefully I’m answering that in the way that with what you’re looking for. Wonderful. Thank you, Corinne. Next question. What’s the guidance on using dynamic media for personalized content and experiences? So I’m not exactly sure. So dynamic media versus target as a product, I would say it probably depends on if you’re using, and I don’t know if we have maybe an Adobe answer on this specifically, but I would say it probably depends on if you’re already using target, what type of data that you’re pulling from there, and then what you’re actually trying to achieve. So for us, what we’re trying to achieve would not be a good thing for target, it would definitely be more of dynamic media, just because of our end goal and where all the graphics are going. So hopefully that answers that question. I think it really depends on are you already using target as a product? How much data are you pulling out of there? And what is your end goal? Yeah, great answer. Thank you. Next question. If text over images, how will dynamic media support on different viewpoints as well as languages, like RTL context? Yeah, so specific to how we have our templates set up, we are using that text to fit to really control how far out the text goes. So again, our team can change the font and things like that. And it really helps control where the text shows up on the graphic. So I think even if you were to change a language, it would be the same situation where you’re really setting what that what the parameters for that text box are. And again, making sure that it will support your character count. So I think it definitely takes a little test and change to make sure that your longest character count will still be supported. But that’s how we’re stopping the text. Like we have full control of exactly where the text goes, regardless of if it’s a short word, or if it ends up being, you know, like five words in regards to like the vehicle name trim and all of that stuff. Right. I love the test approach. Awesome. So moving on to the next question. How did your team handle the transition from the old manual process to the new automated workflow using dynamic media classic and am assets? Yeah, so when we knew we wanted to test this out, we started by identifying the people on our team that could be that internal beta testing team. So really looking at the knowledge leaders throughout the team on the various aspects that were going to be needed to make this work. So I had mentioned I work with the developer on the retail ready team, we also have our compliance and q&a team involved. And we really work together to build not only what the templates were going to look like, and where the data was going to come from. But that process overall, as far as how were users going to interact with us when we rolled that out. And then that team really became our champions and helped train answer questions and get people to really embrace the product. Once we were happy internally, obviously, the next step was to roll it out to clients, and we wanted to approach it in the same way. So we handpicked some clients that we knew that were a little bit more tech forward wouldn’t necessarily mind if they had to reach out and say, Hey, this is looking this way or, or whatever, you know, very smart about who we picked. And then same thing, we really look to them to sort of give us clues on did we build this in the way that these users would interact with? And what were they expecting out of the performance? How did they expect things to look and feel once they went live? So I think it was really about identifying people we knew would help not only embrace the technology, but also challenge us as well, and give us that feedback. Great answer. I love the collaboration. Great to hear. So next question, as a beginner developer, is it a good idea to start with this dynamic media classic? Yeah, I think I definitely think so. I think there’s a lot to that you can learn utilizing this specific program and understanding sort of that dynamic URL, the HTTP request and everything like that. That’s the technology that is going to stick around. So I think I think if you’re interested in it, it definitely and you have access to it, it definitely makes sense to get in there and learn sort of like the parameters and what what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the, what the availability of the different variables are and how you might use them. Awesome. Cool. Okay. Moving on to the next question. What were some of the biggest challenges your team faced when implementing Dynamic Media Classic and how did you overcome them? Yeah, so I think probably the one of the biggest challenges and I mentioned during the talk was just the various layers of guidelines that we needed to keep in mind. When we were building the templates. So from previous experience with prior automation workflows, I knew that our team had the tendency to want to really customize and build out multiple templates to support their needs. And I really wanted to make sure that we maintained the minimum amount of templates that could meet the biggest amount of needs across our clients, across the OEM guidelines and, and really not have this super robust library of templates that we were having to maintain and test and make sure that they were working. So I think that was the biggest challenge of just making sure that we talked about this of treating these flexible templates that worked for a multitude of clients and instances. And that again, was literally just sort of testing and changing and really understanding what the needs were. So as we were testing, we could be like, okay, this parameter works really well, but we need it to do this. And how could we build in some of that flexibility? So that’s where you really see some of those visibility parameters come into play, where we could totally shut off sections of the template if they did not meet the requirements of a certain guideline. But yeah, it was a lot of it was just a lot of making sure we had the right team members in place and really reviewing that end goal of what did we want this to be at the end? Great, thank you so much for answering. And I love the testing component. As a marketer, again, you’re speaking my love language. Awesome. Okay, we have time for one more question here. So what key metrics do you track to measure the success of your new automated workflow? Yeah, so again, I think these key metrics will be different for everyone based on the use case they’re trying to solve for. But for us, the key metrics right away were that speed to market, because that was the problem that we were really looking to solve. How do we get to market faster for clients with quality creative, correct creative, and really give them extra days in their selling month because they do that month over month sales event sort of cycle. So speed to market was definitely one of the key metrics. And then the other key metric for us was, again, just time spent. So were we seeing a reduction in the creative teams hours spent on getting this creative life? As well, which we definitely did. And that was a huge, a huge part of this for us. So obviously, we had the clients, main concern, taken care of, and then our main concern taken care of. And then if to be fully transparent, this is very still very new to us from a metrics tracking. But I know in the future, what we would like to look at is obviously customer engagement with with these graphics. And the various places that they’re going to be to be fully transparent to traditional slideshows on a lot of homepage, homepages, we’re not seeing a lot of interaction with in general. So we were hoping that this would increase that. Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Corinne. That’s all we have time for a Q&A today. Thank you so much. Much. It was great to join you today.