Esko and MediaBeacon Develop Integrated Platform for Brands

Esko (www.esko.com) and MediaBeacon (www.mediabeacon.com) are releasing a fully integrated packaging and marketing process and digital asset management solution. It enables brands and marketers to deliver consistent content across digital, social and packaging consumer touchpoints.

The new platform helps brand owners streamline complex creation, approval and deployment processes across multiple teams and locations.

Esko acquired MediaBeacon two years ago, with the intention of developing this new solution for industries such as CPG and life sciences, retail and apparel, media and entertainment, public sector and financial services. The platform’s unique strength is the integration of a superior asset management system with a powerful project and workflow management system, complete with support for packaging, which is exceptional in the market.

Content Consistency: A Clear Yet Unmet Need

A recent Forrester(i) report revealed the growing importance of consistent content: “To drive positive brand experiences, brand owners need to simplify their complicated content processes, while boosting transparency and reliability across teams. Brands today want to be able to drive consistent omnichannel content for all digital and physical touchpoints.”(ii)

Unique Abilities Combined

Esko and MediaBeacon have decades of combined experience with packaging management and digital asset management. This deep understanding is tangible in a platform that tackles the following challenges:

• Collaborate. Connect all stakeholders — whether people, partners, processes or systems — creating a seamless work experience based on automation, transparency and doing the right task at the right time.
• Create. Provide a wide range of options to create something new faster than ever thought possible, increasing time to market by up to 50%. Be it packaging, designs, content, or 3D, brands have the right development tools, fully integrated into existing workflows.
• Manage. Establish a Single Source of Truth, enabling brands to control and leverage their assets and eliminate costly rework.
• Publish. Deliver the brand the way envisioned by all, regardless of whether it is a digital or physical representation.
• Analyze. Drive decisions based on insights into the use and effectiveness of assets with performance dashboards.

“We’ve built this solution very strategically, driven by customer conversations we’ve had over the past few years, and we’re pleased to be deploying and integrating it within a global brand now,” said Udo Panenka, president of Esko. “The acquisition of MediaBeacon has enabled us to create this truly unique platform: it combines the creation of brand assets, including packaging, with the management and actual publication to all distribution channels.”

Practical

The new platform is available on a worldwide basis from May 2017 onwards. It can be purchased modularly, deployed on-premise or hosted, and integrated with all popular ERP, MIS, PIM and PLM systems.

Esko sales channels will handle the platform commercialization for CPG and life sciences companies; MediaBeacon will focus on the retail and apparel, media and entertainment, public sector and financial services industries. A network of integration partners will support the company in the platform deployment with customers.

i “The Next Generation of Digital Asset Management.” A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of MediaBeacon, an Esko Company, March 2017.

Source: Esko.