Client Case Study : DELL Marketing Portal

Background

With a long list of international clients, 60 employees and a mission to do things better than the rest of the --advertising industry, AdPeople is one of the leading full service ad agencies in Denmark.

Ever since AdPeople was established in 1999, the ad agency has been able to write Dell Computers Europe on its list of clients. As Dell Pan-EMEA Direct Marketing agency, AdPeople is in charge of all Direct Marketing and below the line activitites in Europe including catalogues, direct mails etc.

Taking the catalogues alone, the agency develops more than 40.000 mio. catalogues in more than 250 different versions in 15 languages pr. month.

The challenge

The comprehensive production of marketing materials not only calls for efficient project management. It also calls for an advanced technical infrastructure to facilitate a smooth and problem-free production process. In short, a technical solution which ensures a cost-efficient workflow and guarantees maximum quality in the finished marketing materials.

For Dell and AdPeople the answer was DellShare, an online marketing portal, developed by AdPeople’s sister agency, NetPeople.

As a web-based system DellShare is accessible 24/7 to the marketing staff at Dell, AdPeople and Dell’s other marketing partners – ad agencies, media brokers, printing houses etc. – in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The solution

DellShare facilitates the handling of products, pictures, prices, languages and translations that are used in Dell’s marketing activities. Besides handling the great amount of marketing assets, the marketing portal controls workflow and planning of all ongoing and future activities, such as print advertising. catalogues, direct mails and online activities.

One of the key features in the DellShare marketing portal is the image bank. Based on the eRez imaging server, the image bank holds all Dell pictures, logos etc. used for marketing purposes. This not only means 24 hours availability. It it also means quick handling and easy management for AdPeople and other Dell marketing partners.

The eRez imaging server enables the repro staff at AdPeople to prepare only one copy of every picture. This “mother copy” is then used by the graphic designers to generate pictures on the fly for Dell’s ads, catalogues etc. The pictures are generated in the exact format and color space needed. In effect, an infinite number of copies can be generated from the same picture, in different varieties, sizes and qualities.

The results

The eRez imaging server also presents the designers at the ad agency with a whole new level of flexibility since zooming, cropping and scaling the pictures can be done before downloading the picture. Furthermore, the error margin is kept at an absolute minimum, because the designers are able perform on the spot verification that the product pictures match the chosen hardware configuration.

The eRez imaging server is fully integrated with the DellShare marke-ting portal and works as the back end of AdPeople’s own image bank. Full integration was a basic demand from AdPeople, since the ad agency did not want a solution dependant on external components. As such, the eRez imaging server works as a “window” to the image bank used by the graphic designers at AdPeople. By adding a search interface to the image bank, picture search results are shown as thumbnails. From there, the eRez imaging server enables zooming and downloading the chosen picture in different varieties.

Solid partnership

All in all, the DellShare marketing portal and eRez imaging server have made life a lot easier for AdPeople and over 300 Dell marketing professionals around the world. The solution is synonymous with a smooth, cost-efficient workflow – and a solid partnership based on 100% reliability.