Kraft Heinz
Discover how a CPG company saved $4 million annually with a DAM system, boosting efficiency, cutting costs, and streamlining asset management for improved results.
hours saved
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Kraft Foods, a leading multinational $20 billion food and beverage powerhouse, boast some of the most popular brands in the industry, several exceeding over $1 billion in annual revenue. In 2014, the CEO of Kraft couldn’t find the TV spot he wanted to embed in a shareholders presentation deck. After a chaotic search, all involved agreed: Kraft needed a centralized place to go for access to the correct, most current versions of all of marketing, sales and communications materials. A single digital asset management solution was needed to make better use of Kraft’s resources and minimize risk.
This chaotic search was the catalyst for an enterprise-wide charter to centralize and gain control of this food and beverage powerhouse’s vast array of digital assets. The company’s ambitious initiative spanned all disciplines and asset categories and involved close to twenty creative agencies and thousands of internal and external users. MERGE was tapped to lead the charge.
After two failed attempts from other firms, Kraft reached out to MERGE to identify inefficiencies in their current state, formulate a shared approach to transform their digital asset lifecycle and provide one centralized asset repository. Involving current state analysis, future state definition, process design and technology selection, MERGE paved the way for a single, centralized solution that assures program creators (including the CEO) are able to easily and appropriately put their hands on the current and proper assets they need to do their job.
MERGE's methodology begins with taking a look at digital asset management from a people point-of-view. Fifty stakeholders in this asset-heavy environment were interviewed in an effort to better understand their needs and pain points. The complex nature of the business, which encompasses not just standard marketing materials, but packaging and publishing as well, necessitated an end-to-end current-state analysis including process requirements from both a human (manual) and systems (automated) perspective to assure a successful outcome.
Due to a lack of centralized DAM solution, we found several of Kraft’s brands were paying agencies to store and archive their images and assets. These prices were inflated, and sometimes charged across several brands. Through our work, we helped return control of assets to the marketing organization rather than multiple, external partners and ultimately save money.
Based on knowledge gleaned from the interviews, a future-state model identifying areas of opportunity to optimize process and technology to reduce wasted effort was developed. We assessed 10 DAM solutions and narrowed their 13 solutions down to one solution that fit their needs the best. MERGE has keen understanding of the importance of not over-engineering the process in order to successfully implement operational improvements in a marketing environment. Done right, a high-level process accommodates marketing’s need for flexibility and its iterative ways.
Automating workflow, the next step undertaken as part of this DAM initiative, requires granular detail to make sure technology does its job—a critical distinction many marketing organizations—and marketing operations consultants—miss. Knowing the appropriate level of detail to incorporate at each step is fundamental to any marketing automation effort. By leveraging automated workflows and APIs, we minimized manual work and freed up resources.
Through MERGE's current state discovery, we found Kraft was wasting an estimated $3.1 million annually through inefficient searches for digital assets, effort spent recreating assets that couldn’t be found, brand damage from using improper assets, and risk incurred when expired assets were used.
Process maps, system requirements, an implementation roadmap, including a program management and system migration plan addressing change management needs as well as user training and adoption plans, were completed. After just three months, a comprehensive, well-engineered plan was in place.
MERGE worked closely with the CMO and 50 other key stakeholders across 18 brands and 16 agencies—and 5,000 users—to define a new and better way to access this company’s millions of content elements. We met Kraft’s digital asset management needs based on in-depth understanding of unique asset lifecycles in an exceptionally complex environment.
After our proposed plan, we delivered projected savings of 28,000 hours a year, monetized at $2.2 million to $4 million annually.
Thanks to MERGE's expert processes, the market leader is on its way to maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of its vital digital asset management function.
