From Analog Chaos to Digital Success: How Image Relay Streamlined Kinder's Creative Process

Before Image Relay

Before implementing Image Relay’s DAM capabilities, Kinder’s Creative Director Caleb Brown says that the brand was stuck in an analog storage world of “printouts, spreadsheets, and three-ring binders.” In other words, not a good place to be for a long-established, yet fast-growing brand like Kinders, which is already the number three seasoning brand nationally and rapidly expanding its product offerings into new categories. 

In order to meet their ambitious goals for growth and increased revenue, Kinders needed to overhaul their digital storage system, improve how they communicated both in-house and with external partners, and finally get organized. 

Already familiar with Image Relay from previous jobs, Caleb knew the benefits first-hand: faster, more accurate information; improved communication; more consistent branding; and more bandwidth to focus on growth. His colleagues at Kinder's, though, were a bit less sure at first. In spite of the acknowledgment that their current system was far from perfect, investing in a platform like Image Relay still felt like a leap of faith. 

Getting The Team On-Board

Caleb believed the key to convincing his colleagues was in showing them how easy and intuitive the Image Relay experience could be. Luckily, he knew the platform spoke for itself. 

“I love Image Relay because it is so simple to adapt or adopt,” Caleb says. “There aren't all the extra clicks that [make other platforms] difficult to navigate.” 

Caleb worked with Sophy, one of Image Relay’s librarians, to make the Kinder’s Asset Library a sharply designed, easy-to-navigate reflection of the brand’s already established look and feel. That way, when his colleagues began using the platform, they would enjoy a seamless, intuitive experience that instantly made their work lives easier. Now, Kinder’s decades of historic company images, as well as the constant stream of new digital content, are secure, easy to find, and simple to search. 

Accurate, Up To Date Information 

Caleb believes that one of the biggest challenges facing most businesses “is that people aren't communicating and sharing accurate, up-to-date information,” costing them both time and money. Having already seen the benefits, Caleb knew Image Relay would help Kinder’s improve communication, increase efficiency, speed up time to market, and boost revenue. And through Marketing Delivery, Image Relay would allow Kinder’s to streamline and customize product information for their growing list of SKUs to meet retailer needs more quickly–and use freed-up bandwidth to expand into new markets.   

Kinder’s sales teams, excited to capitalize on the brand’s new product offerings and growing popularity, were anxious to approach buyers and/or potential customers; however, they didn’t always have the internal organization to move as fast as their ambitions. But with Image Relay, now they could. Image Relay’s simple platform made it easy to organize and share up-to-date information with retailers and begin reaching into new markets. The momentum was palpable. 

Even better, in communicating with external partners, the entire team would now always be sharing the most accurate, current information. Having a single source of truth instantly improves brand consistency and minimizes wasted time on cross-referencing and reliance on legacy knowledge. At a busy, growing brand, time is always a resource in short supply, and since implementing Image Relay two years ago, Caleb has seen it begin “to streamline the whole company. It saves time, and time is money. I don't know what we would do without it. It’s worth its weight in gold.”

Using Product Information Management to Grow

Now that Kinders has elevated their DAM game, Caleb is excited for Kinders to capitalize on the benefits of Marketing Delivery, which will allow them to bundle product info with creative assets, create custom product catalogs to meet retailer needs, and reap a significant return on investment. 
 
Maintaining and sharing accurate product information “is so important, especially here because things change so much with NFPs and ingredients.” Caleb also sees enormous potential in how Marketing Delivery can help Kinders build seasonal initiatives with big customers like Costco, Walmart, and Sam's Club, “Sharing what we're creating in real time while making our brand more consistent-looking across the board.”

This time around, Caleb knew his team wanted to see the benefits of adopting a new platform layed out in numbers illustrating the financial benefits of Marketing Delivery. He created an internal deck, which broke down the substantial time and revenue savings. “By showing DAM and PIM and how they work together, it's like a perfect storm.”

By Caleb’s estimation, one hour per day is spent at Kinders looking for files, product information, and updates. He then factored in 50 employees working 52 weeks per year at an average hourly rate of $30/hr and came up with an estimated annual cost savings well over $1M.  Talk about a return on investment! While these figures are only estimates, they made an immediate impact in helping demonstrate the power of Marketing Delivery and how it can facilitate growth and help Kinders meet its sales and marketing goals. 

Image Relay’s tools go hand in hand with Kinder’s continued success and big plans for the future. And Caleb now believes the benefits of using Image Relay have long proven themselves to outweigh the investment by a wide margin. “At this point,” he jokes, “we're making money off Image Relay.”