The holiday season is a time for marketing agency owners to take stock and plan for the future. As this whirlwind of a year begins to wind down, agencies can expect a surge of new 2022 campaign initiatives. Unfortunately, that means dealing with one item that is always in short supply: enough time to get things done!<\/em><\/p>\n The day-to-day schedule of a modern marketing agency is like living inside a pressure cooker. A client\u2019s \u201cmeal\u201d is cooked thoroughly in less time than if they did it themselves, but it\u2019s not a pleasant experience for anyone inside. As a former ad agency manager once put it, \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t willing to come in and work on Saturday, then I could forget about working on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the chief worries for modern agency owners is retaining the best people while still meeting the insatiable time demands of today\u2019s multichannel market. The pressure builds with each new channel\u2014from personalized print to social media to data-driven websites and mobile apps. Of course, each has its own set of excellent digital tools, but sometimes those very tools are part of the problem.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> Every marketing agency<\/a> has various planning tools to select the product information they need and map out what a new campaign should include. Unfortunately, these tools are seldom connected with the data sources a client uses to track product details. In addition, their planning tools may provide the specs for a printed or online piece, but they rarely give the production designer a head start. As a result, each new piece must start from scratch, with the designer interpreting the marketing manager\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n Unlike traditional planning tools, Comosoft LAGO<\/a> entirely integrates with the client\u2019s many data sources, including PIM systems<\/a>, DAM systems<\/a>, and pricing and inventory databases. LAGO\u2019s whiteboarding function allows marketing managers and ad planners to select featured products based on margin, availability, and other relevant product information with each layout decision. After campaign planning, LAGO produces a layout within InDesign with all the PIM and DAM information in place as a starting point for the designer to finesse the final appearance.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Adobe InDesign revolutionized the production of high-quality design and layout of the printed page. The problem is, InDesign can do more things than a single designer has time to do! For example, with retail and manufacturer catalogs<\/a>, there are almost too many different content components to keep up with manually: PIM data, images, DAM descriptions, and so much more. A designer<\/a> cannot hope to do an excellent job manually and still meet the crushing time demands of a complex catalog. In the past, marketing agency owners had to make some tough decisions. Either hire more designers (rarely an option) or sacrifice quality, accuracy, or both.<\/p>\n LAGO includes a powerful InDesign plugin<\/a>, allowing entire \u201cblocks\u201d of product information to import all at once, including the necessary product information, images, and descriptions. It also provides a two-way connection with the PIM<\/a>, DAM<\/a>, and other data sources. So, catalog and circular ad layouts<\/a> automatically update if information in those data sources change. In addition, if the designer makes changes that would affect the underlying data, an authorized manager is notified to review the change. Because this process automates a host of tedious, manual tasks, designers can focus purely on the design itself. As a result, there\u2019s an overall reduction in labor costs, and designers can take on more projects.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> If you thought a page designer\u2019s life was stressful creating one catalog, imagine how much more it is when every store needs a customized version of that week\u2019s catalog or circular ad! However, print is not the only stress multiplier. Websites and mobile apps also demand the same images and data, usually with even more frequency. As a result, agencies are at risk of not meeting the insatiable needs of their clients to fill every marketing channel with fresh, customized content.<\/p>\n One of LAGO\u2019s most compelling features is its ability to create and track multiple versions of a single marketing piece<\/a>. For example, it starts with the base version of a catalog or circular ad and then makes an unlimited number of regional or store-specific versions. Each version is driven by the company\u2019s integrated data sources and planned by the regional marketing managers. Thus, a catalog version for stores in Maine could feature a sale on snow shovels while the Florida version could feature outdoor patio furniture\u2014all using the same base layout. LAGO even allows the data used in a printed catalog or circular ad<\/a> to automatically export to a mobile shopping app or other digital publishing channels<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Estudio de caso LAGO<\/p>\n<\/div> Descubre c\u00f3mo Lowe’s automatiz\u00f3 la producci\u00f3n de sus anuncios circulares para agilizar el marketing digital y en las tiendas.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>The Planning Paradox<\/h3><\/div>
The Data Dilemma<\/h3><\/div>
The Versioning Vortex<\/h3><\/div>
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