MILLIONS OF STORIES,
BRAND ASSETS AND INFORMATION
ALL WELL MANAGED
AND JUST ONE CLICK AWAY!

THAT’S AMAZING!

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Find out how digismart organizations have benefited from our
solution and increased the value of their digital assets.

Integrated Digital Asset Management and
easy-to-understand processes

CASE: Alko

Alko is a specialized and responsible specialty store chain of alcoholic beverages with 351 stores and 96 service outlets around Finland. Alko Oy is an independent, state-owned Finnish company with exclusive distribution rights for retail sales of beverages containing more than 4.7 % of alcohol. The company employs approximately 2,700 people.

Alko’s product images are centralized in Gredi digital asset management system

The digital asset management provided by Gredi serves as a centralized and shared system for images used by Alko. In addition to product images, company’s website contains abundance of photos from vineyards to grape varieties around the world.

“Photos link from Digital Asset Management directly to alko.fi. When a consumer explores a particular wine, the image of the wine bottle comes from the image bank provided by Gredi and the image information is enriched with product information from Alko’s product management system. All systems work smoothly with each other.”

“We use the material bank to utilize Alko’s image material. Here you will find personal and brand images, logos and promotional videos as well as material related to product training, history and stores. It serves the needs of everyone from media to the Etiketti club,” says integration architect Markku Pekkinen of Alko Oy.

Integrated Digital Asset Management and easy-to-understand processes

The various information systems have integrated data management and they retrieve image data from the material bank always according to the usage case. Intranet and product management systems are used by Alko employees, corporate customers are served by digital order channel Alkovi and alko.fi is utilized by customers who look for product information or general information of drinks and food.

“Before a new product is listed in our range, it will be evaluated. The product image is part of an evaluation process involving professionals from buyers to quality observers. When the photographer has taken a picture of the product, he will save the image to the image bank. When the product has been evaluated, approved for sale, and marketing has processed the product material, it will eventually appear in alko.fi,” says Pekkinen.

An advertising agency also uses the image bank to produce, for example, a brochure about product novelties. The advertising agency is able to extract the image material directly from the same system, where the final marketing material is then stored.

Alko and Gredi have worked together for more than 10 years

According to Pekkinen, it would be difficult to imagine any alternative to digital asset management. It would be impossible to arrange massive imagery and its utilization for several different purposes in a cost-effective way.

“In the retail sector, we live in interesting times in the middle of digitalization. Information is published online and in social media. In such a world, the management of digital material has to be organized.”

“We are really pleased with Gredi’s operations and our customer relationship has been going on for more than 10 years. Gredi’s long-term development work is reflected in the functionality of the service and the integration of the material bank into other systems, which is absolutely key factor for us,” Pekkinen sums up.

TV channel program information for
over 450 magazines and media houses

CASE: Fox Networks Group

FOX Networks Group (FNG) is an international multimedia company of the 21st Century Fox Media Group. FNG develops, produces and distributes more than 350 fully owned or majority-owned documentary, sports, movie and lifestyle channels in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. The media advertising channels in Finland include FOX and National Geographic Channel and the online TV service FOXplay. The content includes a wide range of domestic and international series and movies, documentaries, lifestyle programs and children’s programs.

Gredi’s services streamline Fox marketing

Media company Fox Networks Group utilizes Gredi’s digital asset management in its Finnish operations in a versatile manner. The channels are full of activity and there is a lot to tell about new programmes. At the same time, the marketing and communication materials has to be well organized and easy to find and share.

“Gredi’s digital asset management supports our marketing and communication in many ways. Gredi’s Venetsia is an unbeatable service for all television operators and the media. And in addition we use Gredi’s digital asset management to communicate directly with suppliers and in-house operations,” says Elina Mustelin, Director of Programming & Marketing at Fox Networks Group.

Venetsia is a program information system used by all major Finnish television operators. It provides the latest program information, print quality press photos, and previews of selected programs for over 450 newspapers and media houses.

“When it comes to information, it is convenient to collect information packages of our novelties and distribute them directly to media representatives. Gredi’s digital asset management is an easy-to-use system. Downloading and distributing data works smoothly as expected. And it helps a lot that you don’t have to use many systems separately,” Mustelin continues.

Digital Asset Management also supports material production

Fox also utilizes digital asset management for internal use, and one important application is the production of marketing and sales materials.

All the necessary images, templates and other materials are found in one, centralized location, and the design and production of new materials is smooth. Centralized digital asset management also facilitates commenting on review versions, and the final versions are immediately available to everyone.

A service that is constantly evolving

The introduction of the service went smoothly with Fox and the users quickly adopted the functionalities. Along the way, Fox has introduced new features in digital asset management and expanded its applications.

“We have used Gredi’s services throughout our four-year existence. Collaboration has proceeded smoothly, and Gredi actively helps to develop digital asset management. We are especially interested in the automatic personalization of the material to multiple channels, the new possibilities of the moving image and the integration with our other systems,” says Mustelin.

EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE

CASE: Helsingin Yliopisto

The University of Helsinki is the largest and oldest university in Finland. Since 1640, it has been involved in creating a fair and equitable society which is considered the best in the world by many. Today this multidisciplinary scientific community is solving the problems that affect all of us, in Finland and internationally. The scientific community of 31,200 students and employees is creating solutions that shape the future of our planet.

Joanna Kokonmäki, Marketing Specialist at the University of Helsinki, says that there are over 7,800 employees at the University of Helsinki. Joanna has been working as a marketing professional at the University of Helsinki since 2015.

“The university world is very international in terms of reputation management. For example, 25% of the researchers in our scientific community are international professionals. Science in general is global,” says Joanna.

“There is a wide range of communication needs in the university world, but commercial terminology is not always well received in the academic world. Naturally, times are changing as competition between universities intensifies and efforts are made to attract more international researchers and students. You must differentiate. The tightening financial situation of universities also means that there is an increasing need to raise funding and communicate about it,” says Joanna.

What was the most urgent need for Gredi’s digital asset management service?

“It was necessary to find one platform that could store all the material in one place and that is easy to use,” Joanna sums up. “Previously there was a separate image bank and a separate material bank. That was not convenient for the users,” says Joanna.

The service created by Gredi is named UNI MATERIAL BANK. It contains all the communication materials that the University of Helsinki needs. There are over 24,000 different assets easily searchable with keywords. The service contains logos, PowerPoint presentation templates for different faculties, visual guidelines and customizable templates for different uses. This powerful tool has images for all purposes. You will find photos related to buildings, themes, people, communities and various sciences. “And of course, the presentation materials such as PowerPoint presentations and videos,” tells Joanna.

How to manage over 7,800 different users?

The University of Helsinki is an advanced forerunner in utilizing new digital services.

So, who are the different users of the service? “First of all, the marketing and communications staff and others whose work needs to be communicated. Furthermore we have more than 7,800 employees at the University of Helsinki and we have given them all access to the service,” says Joanna. “For example, researchers can find and use the PowerPoint presentation templates for their faculty,” Joanna illustrates.

“Separate material and image banks as well as many different usernames would be difficult to communicate. And also difficult to use. The fact that we have one Gredi platform is the most obvious bonus. You can find everything there. The downside in the beginning was the use of system IDs in our large community of thousands of users, but that was solved by Gredi integration! The usability of the service improved significantly as it was integrated with the authentication system already in use. It’s easy for users to remember one ID,” says Joanna.

Now, the system also recognizes whether the service is used bya teacher or communications staff, for example. Different users have different views and access rights. “We have 90 employees in our communications and public relations unit, and we are all individually identified by the system,” describes Joanna.

“Following the integration of user management, the use of the University of Helsinki service has grown more than 360 percent, which is a great result,” says Matti Tammisalo, Sales Director at Gredi.

Joanna has a great tip for all universities that are starting to use the Gredi Content HUB. “Plan carefully the user groups right in the beginning! It speeds up the design of the entire service, makes it easier to use and improves the user experience. The same goes for big universities and, of course, big companies,” Joanna says.

What new does the University of Helsinki create with customizable templates?

In the future, the University of Helsinki intends to create a lot of new things helped by the expanding use of Gredi’s service. “The greatest potential is in dynamic templates! They allow people to make invitations without separate layout software, for example. We already have customizable templates for brochures, invitations and flyers. Researchers often use poster templates to present their work at international conferences. Flyer templates are used the most frequently,” says Joanna.

“We could also consider making more extensive brochure materials with customizable templates,” says Joanna.

Unigrafia is developing the service together with the University of Helsinki and Gredi

The University of Helsinki has access to Gredi’s service through Unigrafia, a client of Gredi. Unigrafia is owned by Aalto University, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, University of the Arts Helsinki and the University of Helsinki.

“Unigrafia’s role is to be aware of the specific needs of its owners, and to adapt Gredi’s digital asset management service to meet them,” says Unigrafia’s Jorma Ahlqvist who is responsible for partnerships and development projects. “At the University of Helsinki, Gredi’s service is used by three different units – Communications, Properties and Facilities services and the National Library,” Jorma Ahlqvist sums up.

Digitalization revolutionized the archive

CASE: HELSINKI CITY MUSEUM

The Helsinki City Museum is a museum owned by the City of Helsinki. It focuses on documenting and presenting the history of Helsinki. The museum was founded in 1911. It is dedicated to the preservation and cherishing of the spiritual and material heritage of the Helsinki area. As well as its cultural environment.

The National Digital Library (KDK) is a project initiated by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The aim is to collect information resources for museums, archives and libraries in Finland. In addition the aim is to provide free access to them both in Finland and in Europe. The aim of digitization is not only to make cultural heritage more accessible, but also to ensure its preservation.

The public can browse and view materials collected at the National Digital Library. The material includes objects, pictures, artwork, books, maps and documents, via the Finna search service at finna.fi. The Helsinki City Museum collection is available at hkm.finna.fi.

Photos for all people to see

Since 2008, the City Museum has used Gredi’s Mediaksi digital asset management service to digitally manage its image archive. The museum opened its collection in 2013 in the new Finna.fi search service. A reliable and secure way of transferring images from the museum to the search service was needed. The solution was designed in collaboration with Gredi.

Now digitalized images can be transferred directly to the Finna.fi search service via the API solution provided by Gredi. Images and metadata are routed from the Mediaksi system to a server located in the DataCenter Oy, and the images and metadata are retrieved by Finna system. “The entire API implementation has been designed very flexibly,” says Aki Pohjankyrö, researcher at the photo archive.

The Helsinki City Museum has a total of one million images in its archive, some 60,000 of which have been digitalized. Approximately five thousand new images can be digitalized each year, and 30,000 images are to be transferred to Finna during the first year. “First, we have digitalized the oldest material that can be at risk of perishing. The most important priority are the images ordered by our customers. And also the materials that have been highlighted in the museum’s digitization program, ”says Pohjankyrö. Earlier, digitalized images were only in the museum’s own Mediaksi system. The customers have been able to view them in the museum’s photo archive. Finna opens the photos for everyone to see.

Customized solutions for Helsinki City Museum

When Gredi and HKM started to develop a new API solution, some customizations that the museum wanted were implemented. Now, when archiving images, researchers can choose whether to export the image or just the metadata to Finna. In addition, the metadata exported can be selected one by one, so for example, potentially secret names and addresses can be left out of the public web. “In some implementations, there is no such possibility,” Pohjankyrö says, “but if one wanted to leave some information out, then the same information should be left out of all the images.”

One specific addition to the museum system is the ability to customize configuration related to the image metadata from the front server to Finna. “Gredi has responded well to our feedback and the implementation has been painless,” says Pohjankyrö.

As a result of the API implementation, the City Museum’s front server has been transferred to the data center of DataCenter Oy, part of the same Sontek Group with Gredi. Because Finna retrieves service images directly from the front server, the server must be open to the public network. The City Museum’s own server contains the entire archive’s collection data and system tools, so using it as an interface server would have been too high a security risk. “If you have the resources, then it makes more sense to create a separate server for Finna and open it on a public net,” says Pohjankyrö.

Digitalization revolutionized the archive

The City Museum of Helsinki has been a customer of Gredi since 1995, when the Maria image bank was installed. “It was the first system in which the images were displayed,” Pohjankyrö explains. Previously, a photo archive was analog and based on proof prints and card archiving. “The digital asset management will change the nature of this work completely, and we can no longer imagine other than focus on digitalization,” says Pohjankyrö. “It has made our work easier – search for and browse images, and provide them to the public.” A new challenge is the preservation of digital material, for which well-established international standards have already been developed.

Pohjankyrö believes that opening up images to the public web through the Finna service clearly enhances the attractiveness and influence of the museum. The archive on Sofiankatu has been open to the public with limited resources only two days a week during office hours, which, according to Pohjankyrö, has excluded many visitors. “It’s a pretty big threshold if you need to take a day off from work to visit the archive,” he says. Now the images are always online for everyone to see.

The Helsinki City Museum is the only museum in Finna to offer low resolution versions of its images for free use. “We are a public archive and we do not have entrance fees anyway,” Pohjankyrö explains. “This is also in line with the city’s open information strategy.” The archive has larger versions and prints of the images for sale separately. “Hopefully this will increase the number of regular visits. The number of contacts and customer feedback has already increased.”

RESPONSIBLE MARKETING SAVES COSTS AND NATURE

CASE: Kivra

More than 500 million paper documents per year are still mailed in Finland. Each of them is excessive for our climate. The digital mailbox company Kivra wants to build a more climate-responsible and safer society by offering smooth digital transactions from companies to people. Kivra arrived in Finland from Sweden in early 2020. The service already has almost 4 million users in Sweden and 27,000 companies send digital mail to their customers using Kivra. Kivra’s mission is to make everyday business smooth and climate-friendly.

Kivra appreciates the easy customer path of Gredi’s service

In practice, corporate responsibility means management, concrete everyday eco-actions and the use of sustainable services for the benefit of the whole planet. Kivra takes responsibility seriously. Kivra, which markets digital invoice payment services to its customers, uses the Gredi Content HUB to manage its own brand and brand materials.

“The service includes the materials needed by our entire organization and stakeholders. You can find logos, images, company information, press releases, marketing materials, sales materials and brand guidelines there,” says Maija Leivo, Kivra’s Marketing Director.

What was the most burning need for which the Gredi’s service was introduced? “Kivra’s whole ideology is based on doing good things together. Doing good needs to be easy for our customers, that is, businesses and consumers. When I compared service providers Gredi offered the easiest customer path! That’s how it started. I was familiar with Gredi’s service from the time I worked at Varma,” tells Maija.

“Security is extremely important in this area and for ourselves as well. The fact that Gredi has servers in Finland is of great value to us. Our customers also appreciate that,” Maija emphasizes.

“Gredi’s service fits our ideology as we ourselves are a hub for everyday business. With Gredi we can provide a hub within our organization and publicly for all marketing and communication materials, as well as customer relationship management – be it B-to-B or B-to-C customers,” says Maija.

How does Kivra handle customer relationships with Gredi’s service?

Respect for the customer and a genuine partnership are important parts of Kivra’s responsible operations. “Thanks to Gredi, we now have one service that shows relevant content for each target group, and nothing unnecessary. There is no need to search for materials through different links. We respect and value our customers’ time,” says Maija.

“We produce marketing materials for our corporate customers according to their wishes and deliver the materials effortlessly with Gredi. By doing so, we do not congest emails or send materials through many channels. In the service, our customer companies have their own material folders, where we constantly keep the materials updated,” says Maija.

“Gredi is an everyday tool  and part of our everyday life. Not just a warehouse,” emphasizes Maija.

“Everything is based on simplicity. Gredi’s service is easy to use. It is easy for our client companies and the media to find the materials. And, of course, all materials are also kept very safe.”

The different needs of different target groups can be exploited

Who are the different users of the service? “Internally we have the marketing, communications and salespeople who use it every day. Our customer service also uses it actively! Our customer service staff operates through Gredi’s service, and all material reviewed with the customer is stored in the customer’s own folder. Part of our customer service package, for example, is customer service training,” elaborates Maija.

“Even on the public side of our service, the main point is easiness and usability. You can access it directly from our website without any usernames or passwords. That is important to us. The service is free for companies and the media. There are pictures, logos and the introductory material about Kivra,” says Maija.

“Digitalization and paperlessness create huge cost savings for companies”

“Paper invoices are a huge expense for many companies. In addition, paper transactions consume our natural resources completely in vain. Then why are there still so many paper invoices? Businesses would love to put everything into digital format! In the past, it has not been easy enough for consumers to switch to digitalization. Everyday life should be smooth, regardless of the channel and the way of doing things,” analyzes Maija.

Gredi’s service fits well with Kivra’s service package and supports the ideology inherent to the service. Easy, smooth and climate friendly. The service simplifies material management and enables business growth through responsible and environmentally friendly digital asset management.

What is the best thing compared to the time before the service? “The best thing is the ease of use. Everyone has the same challenge – there is information to be searched in intranets, databases and there are different services and channels available with different partners. Centralizing digital asset management in one channel is the best solution,” says Maija.

What happens next in Kivra’s field of business? “Electronic transactions are already a strong business sector today. We are now investing more in the customer experience and streamlining everyday transactions between companies and people,” says Maija.

“Climate responsibility is at Kivra’s DNA and we just cannot overemphasize it. As a result, we are the first digital mail service in the world to receive Climate Positive certification. The carbon footprint of our service has been compensated 110%. This certificate gives value to our customers, as it means that the positive carbon footprint is automatically growing all the time for all those companies and consumers who use Kivra,” thanks Maija.

100,000 pictures in Finland's largest online holiday home service

CASE: Lomarengas

Lomarengas Group includes the parent company Lomarengas Oy, Ylläs Matkailu Oy (Ylläs Travel), Villi Pohjola Oy and KRT Yhtiöt Oy. In 2017, the group turnover was about EUR 32 million and the number of employees 38. Ylläs Travel is the leading accommodation booking center in Ylläs. KRT Group is a real estate specialist in the Levi region. Villi Pohjola Oy is a nature tourism company.

100,000 pictures in Finland’s largest online holiday home service

Founded in 1967, Lomarengas is 100% Finnish, the oldest and largest company that rents holiday homes in Finland. The company provides cottages, villas and apartments in its online service. A selection of about 4,000 destinations covers everything from beach cottages to ski apartments and luxury villas to forest huts.

“Every holiday destination is inspected and its condition is verified,” says Pekka Huttunen, Marketing Manager at Lomarengas. “Most of our customers are family-oriented. It is interesting that kids are often involved in the selection of cottages as well as adults!”

This is the way the holiday cottage is selected

For a refreshing and relaxing holiday for everyone, the holiday home and holiday activity base that will please the whole famile can be selected from the Lomarengas online service.

“The first step criterias: the distance from home should be 2-3 hours, and the price-quality ratio of the cottage should be appropriate. In the light of these criteria, you will browse through the selection of cottages. Buyers visit our online service for an average of six times in 2-3 days, and the average turnaround time for the purchase process is 30 minutes,” Pekka Huttunen summed up.

“The most important selection criteria definitely are the pictures of cottages. Our customers spend a lot of time with our photos. Visuality and atmosphere sell.”

Domesticity is important in choosing a partner

“We have dozens of photographers who are traveling around Finland taking pictures of cottages. Images are processed, colour-corrected and generally made attractive. Each cottage has 20-25 pictures. Since there are about 4,000 items, we have a total of over 100,000 images. This awesome and massive number of images is now in Gredi Content Hub,” says Pekka Huttunen. “Gredi was recommended to us by Tietotalo, our technical partner.”

“We chose Gredi because it is domestic, reliable and secure. Gredi’s data is securely stored on servers located in Finland.”

“Because our customer experience is essential to us, we wanted to significantly increase the image sizes on our online service and improve the user experience. These two things became possible when we chose Gredi as the digital asset management partner,” says Pekka Huttunen. In the online service, customers enjoy browsing through pictures and making up their mind what type of cottage and what kind of landscape they want for the vacation.

Introducing a common operating model, tools and deployment

Gredi Content Hub enabled Lomarengas to share common practices, tools and automated processes. Materials, such as images, are automatically integrated when content providers, such as photographers, store the material they want. The stored image is transferred to the Lomarengas online service thanks to Gredi’s integration.

How successful was the implementation? “Of course, our photographers first had to learn a new operating model. It went smoothly and easily. The big challenge is to maintain the folder structure now and in the future because of the large number of images,” says Pekka Huttunen.

The business is open all year round and reservations are done even years in advance

“We can always find accommodation for our customers. Even though Lapland’s Christmas season is usually sold out already in November there are still cottages available in other parts of Finland. The summer season begins immediately after the midsummer. Many reserve their cottage for their summer holidays early in the winter, some even for many years in advance,” says Pekka Huttunen.

What about the future? Are there any videos and 360-degree panoramas as sales tools? “Technically, we can link videos and panoramas to our online service. We also use the feel-good videos for marketing. The versatile photo selection of cottages is still the one that sells best. Our customers like to browse atmospheric photos at their leisure,” Pekka Huttunen says.

Gredi has automated the important business process of Lomarengas. The Lomarengas online service, in turn, covers all stages of selecting, booking and paying for a holiday home. Detailed destination descriptions, photos, equipment lists, and map location help customers choose the destination. Customer comments, recommendations and ratings act as good indicators and boost sales. The success of Lomarengas is measured by the online service, surveying users how well we managed to help them find a suitable cottage. Important quality data is constantly accumulating, as 40,000 visitors per week visit Finland’s largest holiday cottage portal.

Images and videos at once for everyone

CASE: Lumon

Lumon Oy is an international group focusing on the sales, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of balcony and terrace glazing products. The company has subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Spain, Canada and China. Balcony and terrace glazing is exported to more than 20 countries. The design and manufacturing of the products takes place in a highly automated factory in Kouvola. Lumon also offers tools and expertise for balcony design. Lumon employs 800 people. Lumon’s main market area is Europe.

From chaos to order

At the beginning of the 2000’s, Lumon Oy started to expand its business internationally. New affiliates, resellers, and partners spread over Europe at a steady pace. That increased the need for marketing material localization. With digitalization, along with the traditional print marketing material, a lot of online and video material piled up, the uncontrollability of the material began to be chaotic. In addition, Lumon’s high-quality images were used in unauthorized brochures by some industry players even on the web. In order to keep marketing lead in Finland and the brand management in control, Lumon started looking for a solution to these growing problems.

Today, Lumon manages all of its marketing assets through the BrandTori material bank provided by Gredi Oy. It is based on Gredi’s modular Gredi Haven software, from which Lumon has selected the most suitable modules and features. BrandTori is also a fully cloud-based system and all the material saved there is stored on secure servers maintained by Gredi.

“BrandTori is the foundation of our marketing. It’s a warehouse and a review and distribution tool,” says Jyrki Hutri, Marketing Manager at Lumon Oy. In addition to the Group’s internal asset management, BrandTori manages, among other things, communication with advertising agencies to prevent unfinished plans from spreading to third parties. “We do not send files through any other service. Otherwise you never know where they may be found,” Hutri says.

Get rid of the intermediate storage

The most popular features of BrandTori include a web subscription channel through which Lumon’s employees, resellers and other authorized partners can order almost all Lumon material, from small PR-items to exhibition material and decorative clothing. Brochures and other print material are also ordered through BrandTori, both global brochures and localized versions for local offices.

“Previously, we had a large intermediate storage facility in Kouvola. We are now working to ensure that everything is delivered directly from the manufacturers’ stores,” Hutri says. Delivery is fast and the goods get to the right address, even directly to the exhibitions. “That means big savings and it has given us an enormous relief, because the material is brand-managed.” According to Hutri, the added benefit is also the ability to see directly from the BrandTori, what is being ordered. “There is no need to browse the catalog separately.”

Photos and videos at once for everyone

Lumon is a leading supplier in its field and continuously produces a large amount of images and material for marketing. All images are stored in the BrandTori and distributed in a controlled way. Licensees and the dealers may have their own images there. The latest material will always follow marketing department guidelines and outsiders will not be able to use them.

In addition to the images, video files, mainly in-house training videos, are always distributed through BrandTori. According to Hutri, video training saves Lumon resources. “It would be foolish to fly back and forth to train individual employees. You can also use the video for training when you want.” At the same time, all Lumon employees, regardless of country, receive the same training materials, sharing large video files is not a problem at all.

One third of work time is saved

“Unnecessary work is gone”, describes Hutri’s BrandTori’s greatest benefit. Brand management stays in Finland and it has been taken in strict control. Local offices can localize materials directly within the BrandTori, for example, by changing the right images and contact information. The final material remains in line with the brand guidelines and the marketing department can sleep calm. “One third of the working time is saved,” Hutri says.

Lumon’s target is to increase internationalization and exports, without forgetting the domestic market. The company’s net sales in 2012 was EUR 78.3 million, of which exports and subsidiaries accounted for 23 million. During the year, exports grew by 30 per cent, and Lumon’s goal is to keeping that pace. “In two years we are going to increase the share of exports over the domestic share,” says Hutri. BrandTori helps with big challenges. “It’s absolutely essential for achieving the growth. Otherwise, things would get out of control.”

BRAND RENEWAL OF A 100-YEAR-OLD BRAND IMPLEMENTED WITH
GREDI’S SOLUTION

CASE: MLL

Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) has been taking care of children since 1920. MLL was founded by Sophie Mannerheim, who studied in Florence Nightingale nursing school, Finnish Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim, Kouluneuvos (Finnish honorary title) Erik Mandelin and Arvo Ylppö, Docent in pediatrics. Today, the organization has more than 85,000 members and it  celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. In the anniversary year MLL is undergoing a brand facelift. MLL chose Gredi Content HUB as the solution to support this. All the material related to the new brand of MLL is now available in Gredi Content HUB.

What was the main reason Gredi’s solution was chosen? “We renewed the look of the entire MLL and it was essential to enable the smooth introduction of the new look in this social media era. We wondered how to get the new look implemented the fastest. We have a central organization and 10 area organizations with a total of hundreds of employees as well as 548 local associations mainly run by volunteers. There are a total of 29,000 volunteers”, says Maria Gnosspelius, MLL’s Communications Manager.

The brand and Digital Asset Management service by Gredi is structured in such a way that everyone who needs the materials has access to the materials they need. “We also created a public view on the service which can be accessed by everyone on our website without login. It is this public view that our local associations utilize.” Maria has a good advice for activating a large audience. “Give enthusiastic people the opportunities and tools to market, and they will deliver a lot of good communication together.”

With the Digital Asset Management solution, MLL activates and motivates members to do marketing

The public side of MLL’s service can be accessed without usernames and passwords. The public service contains the images, logos and other materials needed for the organization’s marketing, as well as MLL’s graphic guidelines for everyone to use the materials correctly. The service includes for example posters, brochures, flyers, presentations, layouts and ready-made social media materials for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The service provides topical news from MLL as well as information about fundraising campaigns and association activities.

“Many of our communication people are volunteers interested in the well-being of children, young people and families, and they give their own time without compensation and just for the joy of doing it. Few people can access image processing software or have a lot of time to use for communication work. The need for quickly usable social media templates is huge”, says Maria.

“The best way to motivate volunteers and get them to use materials and adopt our guidelines is to make it easy for them. Volunteers are passionate and enthusiastic. This is their organization, they create it at grassroots level, and the amount of communication they do gives us a huge visibility nationwide.”

“With Gredi’s solution we professionals help our volunteers communicate consistently, easily and quickly in their own channels, like in social media”,  Maria sums up.

How does brand management work in this massive network of more than 29,000 active communication volunteers? “76 % of Finns know MLL by name. We have the basics okay. The people of the local associations follow our common guidelines and MLL looks visually unified. Volunteers implement our graphic elements now that it is made easy for them.”

Two examples of campaigns that benefited from Gredi’s solution

“Our Children First fundraising campaign was conducted during the corona pandemic, as digital fund-raising. In the campaign, our associations raised funds for local projects important to children, such as the renovation of playgrounds and the local activities. In this type of campaign, we had customizable templates for social media and posters available through Gredi’s solution. For the first time, it was possible to make social media posts using common image templates, to which each association could easily edit its own topics and other content. In image templates we can change images and texts so that the image of our brand is maintained. Customizable templates make campaign work faster and easier. They also bring new opportunities to execute campaigns”, says Maria.

“In October 2020 we have a big 100th birthday celebration open to everyone. We start preparations months before the party by making various social media pictures and posters, among other things. Nowadays most of our posters are created in digital format and not many are printed. The change is huge, because earlier the main marketing tool was a printed poster, now it’s social media postings!”

The benefits are continuous and the more you get the more you want

What has been the biggest benefit for MLL since the introduction of Gredi’s solution? “Facilitating the communication skills of our volunteers is our main goal”, Maria outlines.

“In the service, we already have a certain basic setting ready for our volunteers to use. And the more the volunteers get, the more they want! They want more material all the time, and we make it available to them as quickly as we can”, Maria rejoices.

What kind of different users now use MLL’s service? “Of course, our marketing and communications teams as well as the organizational team. Our templates are also used by external partners. Our service supports different users really well. Next, we want to develop the utilization by the media. It is especially relevant at events.” As a professional who has managed communications and marketing for organizations throughout her career Maria knows that it is essential for busy journalists, image editors and graphic designers to access newsletters, logos, and images quickly without fussing with logos and time-consuming email enquiries.

The goal of Gredi’s team is to always have the customers in focus and to serve with high quality and responsibility. It makes Gredi’s professionals happy with their achievements when the customers’ daily operations run smoothly and with high spirits. Maria is already accustomed to extensively use Gredi’s solution and she has a clear vision for future use cases. Maria has noticed that when using the system it inspires new possibilities for its utilization.

When asked what it’s like to work with Gredi’s people, Maria answers outright: “It’s so smooth and simple to work with you. We always get help when we need it. For us brand management means that the people in our community are doing well and willing to take our message forward. We do it together”, Maria recaps.

MANAGE RESTAURANT BRANDS IN A FAST AND FLEXIBLE WAY IN ONE SERVICE

CASE: NoHo

NoHo (Nordic Hospitality) Partners Plc is a Finnish restaurant group behind about 220 restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs and entertainment centres in Finland, Denmark and Norway. The brands include the legendary Nokka, Palace and Savoy as well as Hanko Sushi. 4,500 employees ensure an unforgettable experience for customers. The company strives to achieve a better customer experience every day by giving their personnel a 500€ “You are a Star” reward.

What was the most urgent need in brand management?

“The service created by Gredi was introduced especially for two important needs. First, we wanted a single location for our restaurant brand guidelines, logos, photos and videos. We wanted all of this brand content to be in extensive use both internally and in the daily work of journalists and our partners,” says Henna Hällström, Brand Manager.

“Secondly, it was important for us to be able to quickly produce different kinds of material according to our brand guidelines. To meet this need, Gredi created ten ready-made dynamic templates that make it easy and quick to edit text and images directly in the service. Since then, our ADs have created more dynamic templates for the daily campaign-specific needs of our various restaurants. Today the menus, happy hour deals, and other important materials are made by our restaurant staff. The big benefit is that less unnecessary emails are being sent. The creativity of our own people will be put to use immediately,”  says Henna.

Brand management for very different target groups

In 2018, when Royal Restaurants and Restamax merged, the NoHo brand was born. “Different brands and brand management are extremely important to us. NoHo is an important brand for companies and investors as we are a listed company. But naturally it is less relevant to restaurant customers. For them, we want to market individual restaurant brands,” says Henna.

Elite and Savoy are classic restaurant brands that are well-known for over 80 years. New brands are constantly being created. “Especially the nightclubs have a very unique brand world. Nightclub brands are often new and change faster because people want to see and try new things all the time,” says Henna. The new brands are more attractive, and the trendsetters follow new things fast. The trendsetters bring a larger crowd with them and the brand quickly gets attention in social media.

How to get a head start on fierce price competition?

The brand plays a huge role in pricing. A trusted brand can sell at higher prices, and customers are happy to pay for perceived brand image and quality. “Especially with the more expensive brands, price image plays an extremely important role. Our idea is that all brands and campaigns must be credible and well-managed. A brand is always targeted for a specific target group. They are really different. Customers play an important role in building a brand and we want to listen to our customers when developing our brands,” says Henna.

“Content management that enhances brand success must serve users quickly. I don’t know anybody who isn’t in a hurry today! Speed ​​is an absolute forte,” says Henna.

You also need to be able to quickly access massive sized content such as videos. “Video marketing is growing a lot in concrete sales work, but also in creating a good atmosphere in our restaurants. Videos can convey the message extremely well.”

It also works in event marketing. “We organize plenty of events. They are produced after a long period of planning but also ex-tempore by our people, respectively. Dynamic templates make it easy to get an offer up and running quickly,” Henna thanks.

“I believe Gredi’s service will make us stand out from our competitors. For example, dynamic templates make us more agile in the market. All pictures and logos are easily and quickly available,” says Henna.

NoHo’s restaurants use dynamic templates in various ways – menus, food offerings, business cards, signage, campaign materials, price lists and other restaurant materials. “With dynamic templates e.g. Hanko Sushi produces its own stylish marketing material in a controlled way. It is convenient and quick to change the text and price at the restaurant.”

Everybody sees everything and can contribute new ideas

Henna has been designing and developing the service with the Gredi team from the very beginning. “Our service has been made available to everyone in the Group, starting from the management team. And to our restaurants. All restaurants can see all the material from other restaurants as well. This increases creativity,” says Henna.

“Images, logos and videos can also be uploaded from the service to media and partners.”

“The need for a good branding and asset management service is not industry-specific. In any business it will make the work of employees easier and faster,” Henna emphasizes.

What new and exciting will happen in the restaurant industry? “We strive to create ever more exciting experiences by providing new and exciting concepts. The great thing about this industry is to see the big change that the younger generation comes to the restaurant every day, not just on holidays. And these young people are always looking for new stuff. The important thing is that our restaurant selection ensures that everyone has a choice.”

All marketing materials in Gredi Content Hub

CASE: Paulig

Founded in 1876, Oy Gustav Paulig Ab, Finland’s largest coffee house, is also active in the Baltic countries, Russia and Russia’s neighboring countries. In recent years, Paulig has expanded its business especially in the out-of-home coffee market. The company is part of the high-quality brand Paulig Group, which operates in several European countries. Paulig remains a successful family business.

All marketing materials in one place

Paulig has been relying on Gredi’s expertise in digital asset management since 2004. Collaboration began with the delivery of an image archive and a material distribution application. Thanks to these, Paulig has unified the materials in image archive and standardized them to suit different digital channels. Production and distribution of marketing material has also become more efficient. Good cooperation continues to prosper. Today, Paulig manages all of their marketing collateral with an application called Brand Tool.

A more efficient and faster approval process

Paulig’s Digital Manager Petteri Kalaoja says that Paulig has recently upgraded, expanded and upgraded the Brand Tool to a packing material approval process enabled by Gredi’s visual commentary feature.

“Our approval process is now faster and more efficient. No longer do we need to make prints as real prints, but we can do it in the Brand Tool digitally. Importantly, this also increases the transparency of everyone involved in the approval process, when everyone sees what others have commented on. This way you don’t have to come up with the same things again,” says Petteri Kalaoja.

All the materials are in line with brand guidelines

The Brand Tool can help ensure that all material is also Paulig branded. Paulig Concept Designer Jenni Salmela uses the Brand Tool daily in her work. In her view, the greatest advantage in all its simplicity is that all materials can be found in one place. “Everyone of us knows that you can find all the visual elements we need in Brand Tool, and no one needs to spend time hunting for different files,” Salmela says.

Dynamic templates make work easier

When the image archive evolved to the Brand Tool, dynamic templates were added some years ago. They make many routine jobs extremely easy – for example, business cards and posters are made with them. In addition, the templates can be used to make small changes, without having to consult a graphic designer or an advertising agency. Customers can also make customized materials. “Dynamic templates is a very smart tool,” Salmela says.

Good cooperation

When Petteri Kalaoja asks what it is like to work with the people of Gredi, Petteri gets his eyes glowing. “Risto is great! Always as cheerful and helpful. We always have a good feeling in our meetings,” Petteri says.

Paulig appreciates Gredi’s active approach to developing the system forward. In the everyday business the is hardly any time to think about how the system could work better and the development proposals from Gredi’s side have been welcome. Many of Gredi’s suggestions have been implemented, and the system has been made more user-friendly step-by-step. Keeping the materials up to date and, for example, entering metadata, requires activity from the users. Paulig product managers are responsible for the timeliness of the materials for their own products. However, managing large volumes of materials is always challenging. “Without a good tool, material management would be really difficult. The Brand Tool has proved to be a good tool here,” says Salmela.

New interest in artificial intelligence

What are the needs of Paulig in the use of artificial intelligence? For example, how would Paulig’s thousands and thousands of still images, or videos, be recorded and searched for by utilizing their metadata automatically with artificial intelligence?

“We’ve already seen the demo! We have the intrinsic wish to introduce machine learning, and now we know that it is possible with Gredi. We have been missing naming conventions, that is, how we could name and tag the material. We hope that AI will make it easier for us to get naming data directly from our product image into the Brand Tool. We are also a multilingual organization, and we are interested in utilizing artificial intelligence for language versions,” says Petteri Kalaoja.

Valuable digital assets recovered

CASE: Ponsse

Ponsse Oyj is the world’s leading company specializing in the sales, production, maintenance and technology of cut-to-length forest machines. The company was founded in 1970 by Einari Vidgrén, a forest machine entrepreneur, and has been a pioneer in logging solutions based on cut-to-length methods throughout its history. All PONSSE forest machines are manufactured in Vieremä, Finland. The Ponsse Group consists of 11 subsidiaries and 26 resellers worldwide.

Ponsse’s valuable digital assets are managed by Gredi’s digismart solution

Ponsse is a strong international group with subsidiaries and distributors around the world. Marketing, sales, branding, and communication related digital material must be stored in one place. The brand look must be managed as the material is distributed to all markets. After the request for tenders, Ponsse chose Gredi’s Digismart solution for modular digital asset management. The choice was due to the additional features offered by Gredi’s solution, modularity and a easy-to-understand user interface.

Challenges

Ponsse has a huge variety of digital information to manage: corporate and brand materials, brochures, images and videos, and related guides and documentation. Managing such amount of information and material on the company’s servers and distributing them to different channels by using email was a challenge. The volume of Ponsse’s content marketing activities was constantly increasing and international operation expanding. The solution had to be proven to be workable and secure, and one that only authorized users have access to.

Solution

Gredi implemented digismart Content Hub solution, which consolidated digital material for Ponsse’s marketing communications. The goal was to make marketing activities more efficient through better brand management. Another goal was efficient sharing of material and other information to different channels, in all markets and to selected users. Ponsse administrators and representatives of the subsidiaries were trained to use the service in accordance with the Gredi rollout program. With the introduction of smart dynamic product templates, local material is easily available with brand-specific lay-outs.

Benefits

Gredi’s intelligent solution has brought extensive benefits to Ponsse’s marketing and sales in both the home market and the entire reseller network globally:

The digismart Content Hub has brought more efficiency when digital and up-to-date materials are now in one centralized system and available to Ponsse’s global organization. Saving, searching, managing, sharing and publishing the right information is now easy and simple. With a modular solution, you can prepare for the challenges posed by expanding operations and the needs of new user groups.

Resourcing is straightforward and easy to manage thanks to clear workflows and dynamic product templates. The customization and automation of marketing materials have made it easier to customize and distribute the material.
Access rights with user groups can easily and safely manage the entire information library. The user experience of the service has been good, and through the functionality of the user interface, users have quickly adopted the service into their own everyday use.
“Gredi’s modern digital asset management solution serves us as an international company excellently. Our distribution processes have become more efficient when there is one place where our digital assets are intelligently stored, always ready for use by all our users. The next step in streamlining is to integrate it to our other systems,” says Eveliina Pölkki from Ponsse’s marketing.

Effective Digital Asset Management -
the lifeblood of a global organization

CASE: Sako

Sako was founded in Helsinki on April 1, 1921. Since the year 2000 Sako Oy has been owned by Beretta, the oldest industry family company in the world. Since 1989 Sako has also produced Tikka rifles. Sako and Tikka bullets are made to withstand the toughest conditions and combine traditional weaponry skills with modern technology. Finnish sustainability, accuracy and quality, as well as know-how, are also highly respected abroad. Sako has a turnover of EUR 95 million and employs 315 people.

Effective Digital Asset Management – the lifeblood of a global organization

98% of Sako’s rifle production is exported to several different markets. Sales, marketing, and communications in the export markets are done locally according to company’s guidelines. It is also adapted to local market conditions, legislation and other requirements in each country.

In addition to their own sales and marketing organization, the materials are handled by numerous importers, traders and media representatives. In order for this to be efficient and according to brand guidelines, these materials must be intelligently. They also have to be digitally archived and easily and quickly distributed.

Gredi’s solution offered number of features, modularity, user-friendliness and the ability to customize the solution. These were the key factors that influenced Sako’s decision to choose Gredi as a supplier of digital asset management.

Challenges

Visual communication plays a key role in Sako’s industry and many different image and video materials are used in marketing. The challenge of marketing and communicating in a global marketplace in today’s multichannel marketing environment is to produce consistent customer and brand experience regardless of market and channel. To make this possible, marketing and communication content and related digital material must be easily found, locally editable, and distributed to different channels in accordance with branding guidelines.

Old image bank solution no longer met the requirements of internationalization and the company was looking for a modern Digital Asset Management solution that would offer further development opportunities in the long term. The need was to get one user-friendly digital asset management solution that would be easy and quick for the company’s own experts and external importers to take in to use.

Solution

Gredi customized Digital Asset Management solution for Sako and for both the importers’ and company’s own marketing and communications needs. Gredi’s solution enables the intelligent archiving of Sako’s digital assets, as well as efficient finding and distribution of various marketing communication materials following the brand guidelines. Local import partners have been given the opportunity to localize texts, but the brand image is always in line with the brand guidelines of Sako.

Benefits

Gredi’s digital asset management solution has brought benefits to both Sako’s marketing and communications as well as to importers in different markets.

  • Intelligent material bank and new operating models have brought more efficiency as digital and up-to-date materials are now in one centralized system and available for the global organization of Sako.
  • The customizability of marketing materials and the local customization have made it easier for importers to carry out marketing communications under the Sako brand.
  • The entire digital content base can be easily and securely managed with different levels of access rights and user groups.
  • The user experience has been good, and through the intuitive user interface, users have quickly taken the service into their own and everyday use.
  • Gredi’s Digital Asset Management solution provides an excellent platform for future development.

“Gredi’s modern Digital Asset Management solution serves our international company very well. The logic and ease of use of Gredi’s solution has made it an excellent daily tool for a wide range of users. In addition to basic operations, we can easily introduce new functionalities when needed,” says Suvi Leinonen, Marketing Manager, Sako Oy.

Gredi archives Sanoma's Crown Jewels

CASE: Sanoma

Newspaper digitizes quickly. Many have already switched from a printed magazine to an electronic user device. In addition to the user habits, content and production processes have also changed. In addition to traditional news, for example, personal profiles, data journalism and adventurous articles have multiplied. Along with traditional news, stories that last a long time are produced as well.

Sanoma Media Finland’s brands reach almost every Finn on weekly basis. News are produced around the clock. Hundreds of articles, pictures, stories and news from all around the world are created daily. In support of it, Sanoma needs a reliable archive that helps authors and readers find the right content.

120 years of Finnish history

Sanoma’s Digital News Archive is integrated into editorial systems that deal with the content published in the Group’s magazines. Digital News Archive serves hundreds of journalists every day. In addition, the Helsingin Sanomat archive is available to hundreds of thousands of subscribers on the Aikakone website www.hs.fi/aikakone.

Digital News Archive has unique information and pictures of the times from Finland for 120 years. Its value is significant not only production wise but also for cultural history reasons.

In 2015, Sanoma decided to renew its Digital News Archive. In the digital renovation, over 3 million pages, 5 million images and 5 million files were transferred to a new platform.

Sami Majaniemi from Sanoma participated in project management as a content technology manager. He describes the content stored in Digital News Archive as Sanoma’s Crown Jewels. Many of the news stories that have startled Finns and the great investigative journalism have their origin in Sanoma’s editorial offices.

Passion for data management

Digital News Archive is a critical part of the daily production of Sanoma brands. Robust platform provides information for 24-hour use. It includes easy-to-use data management tools that allow journalists to find the information they need. For administrators, the service provides a constantly evolving, cost-effective and secure environment.

“The application must be easy to use, but at the same time a comprehensive information source. Because search results are often long lists, you need to keep browsing smooth and make additional searches easy. And of course, the information must be available regardless of the time of the day.”

Reliable and secure platform

Gredi has supported and developed Sanoma’s archive services since the 1990s, so cooperation in the reneval was a natural thing. At the same time, the data center of DataCenter Finland, part of the same group as Gredi, was selected as the location for Digital News Archive,

“ The transition to the new platform was done without major problems. The project was well designed and prepared.”

The new solution also brings Sanoma significant cost and time savings when 700 users were given faster search functionality and improved usability.

Agile partnership

According to Sami Majaniemi, Gredi’s know-how in digital asset management complements well Sanoma’s content expertise. The new service model includes Gredi’s agile mini-development model that improves usability and provides additional benefits at a steady pace. Sanoma does not have to reserve technical resources to development as Gredi takes care of the whole implementation.

The platform’s information security and compliance with EU requirements were validated during the commissioning audit.

 

“Our idea was to have a digital asset management professional helping us so we can focus on developing our own business. The mini-development model makes our work easier. Gredi is a strong and development-oriented expert in their own field.”

The project also included the development of metadata for images and texts. They help users get more relevant search results. Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, but some of the information still needs to be entered manually, such as image rights. The machines are not yet able to recognize the context or location of the image very well. Therefore, for example, captions will continue to provide important information about the content of the image.

Top-class project expertise

Comprehensive and up-to-date metadata as well as classification make it easier to personalize the data to bring out the most important, relevant and desirable content for each reader. The digital versions of Helsingin Sanomat already personalize the content.

The share of cloud services is likely to increase in the future. Then you need a partner who can combine the best parts of the digital asset management and cloud platform.

“Digital News Archive is a critical content service that must operate in all situations. The platform is stable and the benefits of faster usage are already apparent. That’s why I recommend the Gredi operating model.”

Sanoma Media Finland

Sanoma Media Finland is a multi-channel media house in Finland. It reaches almost all Finns daily with newspapers, magazines, television, radio, online as well on mobile.

Sanoma Media Finland publishes the largest newspaper in the Nordic countries and the pioneer in paid digital journalistic content Helsingin Sanomat and Finland’s largest news media Ilta-Sanomat. The range of media includes Sanoma Lifestyle, the magazine brand, Kids Media, a children’s and youth content publisher, Nelonen Media, the leading television and radio operator, and Sanoma Digital Finland, the developer of Finland’s most popular marketplaces.

More efficient asset management:
dynamic, multichannel and integrated

CASE: Sinebrychoff

Sinebrychoff is Finland’s leading brewery, which produces beers, ciders and soft drinks and energy drinks. It also offers a comprehensive range of international beers and through partners a wide range of other alcoholic beverages. Sinebrychoff started brewing in 1819 and is today the oldest brewery in the Nordic countries and the oldest food company in Finland. Sinebrychoff manufactures Coca-Cola drinks in Finland. Sinebrychoff is part of the international Carlsberg Group.

Keywords for more efficient asset management: dynamics, multichannel and integration

Sinebrychoff offers its restaurant customers the opportunity to produce tailor-made advertising materials for their needs. In order for this to be possible and to ensure that all materials are controlled in accordance with the brand guidelines, the solution must be dynamic and provide multi-channel publishing. Having studied the various options, Sinebrychoff selected Gredi’s asset management solution to replace two previous solutions.

Challenges

Sinebrychoff has thousands of restaurant customers in Finland, who need various local advertising and marketing materials. To be able to deliver these materials quickly, flexibly, personalized and brand-managed, the only working solution is to provide customers with a digital asset management service that enables customers to produce and publish their own materials in a controlled manner. In order to serve a diverse clientele, the solution had to be easy for customers to use and quickly adoptable and deployable.

Solution

Gredi delivered to Sinebrychoff a Digital Asset Management solution that enables dynamic production of various marketing materials, multi-channel publishing and integration with different systems of customers. With the Gredi digismart solution, Sinebrychoff’s restaurant customers can make separate drink lists, price offers, and other promotional materials. They can be printed as needed, published in the restaurant’s digiscreen or even in various social media channels.

Benefits

Gredi’s solution has brought several benefits to Sinebrychoff’s marketing:

• Cost savings, increased efficiency and improved file management. Gredi’s service replaced two previous systems with one easy-to-use solution.
• Dynamic asset and information management can now be provided to a wide range of customers And in full accordance with the brand management and Sinebrychoff guidelines.
• Marketing materials and information can be produced and published on a multichannel basis, for example, in printed materials, for digital displays and in social media channels.
• Access to the service can be managed easily and safely. User support and customer service are quickly available when working with Gredi.

“It is of paramount importance to us that the material management solution for our customers is easy to use. Also that it is suited to the ever-changing needs of our various customers. On the other hand we want to ensure that all such materials is in line with our brand guidelines. We explored different options in the market. We selected Gredi’s solution, which replaced the two previous solutions, and which in practice has proved to be a workable solution for a brand house like us,” says Maija Mäkirinne, Key Account Director, Sinebrychoff.

Integrated digital asset management and clear processes

CASE: Suunto

Suunto Oy is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of sports instruments. Its products are known for their design and durability and are sold in over 100 countries. Suunto is part of Amer Sports, the group including Salomon, Atomic, Wilson, Precor and Mavic.

NEW DIRECTION FOR SUUNTO

Sharing a diverse range of digital material in reseller network has long been part of company’s’s operations. Sales and marketing organizations, service centers, and media representatives from different countries are constantly receiving a lot of material such as footage, guidelines and presentations. Previously, there were a higher number of solutions in use, but Suunto wanted to clarify and unify the distribution of digital material to outsiders. “Gredi’s service was best suited to our needs,” says Janne Kallio, Head of Digital Marketing at Suunto.

In the spring of 2012, Suunto started cooperation with Gredi and Suunto has been very pleased. Gredi Haven image bank stores all Suunto’s imagery, such as product images, logos and other visual elements. In addition, the fonts, colors, and general target of catalogs, posters, banners, and other materials are defined using dynamic templates. With the solutions, all marketing material is always up-to-date, brand-managed and shared with just a few clicks across the globe.

Gredi’s solution is also used for actively managing communication towards end users. When all digital media distribution is managed through a single service provider, Suunto does not have to worry about the cost of maintaining multiple solutions, additional work or compatibility issues. Safety is also guaranteed. “The sharing of digital material is now possible for different user groups without the risk that the information would go to the wrong parties,” Kallio sums up.

FAST AND RESPONSIBLE BRAND MANAGEMENT
OF HEALTH SERVICES IN ONE HUB

CASE: Terveystalo

Terveystalo is a public limited company listed on Nasdaq Helsinki, and the biggest health care company in Finland in terms of partner network and turnover. The company provides a wide range of primary health care and specialized medical care services to corporate and private clients as well as to the public sector. In 2019 Terveystalo had operations in 300 locations across Finland. The company also provides digital services for its customers. In 2019, 1.2 million individual customers did business with Terveystalo, and 3.7 million doctor visits were made. In Terveystalo works more than 13,000 health care professionals, about half of whom are self-employed. Terveystalo services have the Key Flag Symbol and the company is a member of the Association for Finnish Work.

Why did Terveystalo switch to Gredi Content HUB?

“We aimed for centralizing the materials and an easy-to-use service that works with a web browser,” begins Satu Laurila, communications expert at Terveystalo. “It was also important to us that no one in Terveystalo needs to login with separate user IDs but can access the service directly with a single sign-on (SSO).”

The Brand and Digital Asset Management service created by Gredi includes a brand manual, logos and images, instructions, office materials and, of course, a search function among other features. Searching massive amount of material is quick. “Anyone can use the search, and also find material, it has now been made easy”, Satu says.

Brand compliant material deliveries guaranteed

“We have several large service entities and a lot of materials like images. A good search function is an important feature for usability and availability”, says Satu. Visual designer Marina Lönn and Satu tell us that Terveystalo marketing and communications team gets lots of enquiries for pictures and logos for the most diverse uses.

“In addition to external marketing these are used internally by other offices and in all business segments. Previously logos and images had to be emailed as large attachments that didn’t always reach the destination mailbox. Now we can ensure good brand management by sending quick links to images and logos directly from the system, and the latest versions of the materials are always available”, Satu and Marina explain.

Secure lifecycle and version management

Terveystalo’s Digital Asset Management solution has a clear structure. Materials are easy to circulate internally and share with partners. Material lifecycle management is possible from drafts to the finished version and eventually to the archive. Version and lifecycle management of materials is important to Terveystalo and there are common procedures for that. The image usage policy is also clearly defined.

“We want the images to have our brand colors and the images to represent Finnish healthcare. The photographers take pictures, we select from these, and upload the desired pictures to Gredi solution. In this way we ensure that all images are up-to-date, we have the rights to use them, and that they are available for everyone”, says Marina.

“In the healthcare business, there are strict rules what can be shown in the pictures! Our own people are really careful with this. For example, nurses must not wear rings on their fingers, not even in the pictures. That is why we cannot always use pictures from public image banks, instead we need our own image production”, Satu reveals.

With the growing number of new locations, new people will be employed by Terveystalo all the time. “Images of a specialist who has left the company must be deleted in the image archive so that the images would not be used accidentally”, Satu points out.

The service scales flexibly together with customer needs

From 2018 to 2019, the number of Terveystalo locations increased by more than 40, and the number of people by more than 3,000. What are the needs for brand management in relation to acquisitions? “When new locations are incorporated, Gredi’s solution will immediately provide us with specific materials, such as logos and instructions for the general look & feel of the new location. One example is the instructions for wall signage. When the partners come to make the wall graphics, it is easy for them to follow our brand”, Satu illustrates.

Satu and Marina note that the start has been good. “The target is to expand the utilization of the service. We immediately realized how much material we have and how we can now easily make it available to all teams. Now we are expanding the usage further”, says Satu. “I can’t imagine what we would do without Gredi?  It’s extremely valuable for everything related to use of images”, Marina says.

Satu has good advice for new customers. “Getting started requires some planning. Once you get started I think there will be lots of opportunities to use it for any feasible way, after you just initially upload your stuff! For example, companies of our size can have a lot of materials on network drives and that’s not the best way to store them, let alone share them. A browser-based solution is much better.”

From 2018 to 2019, the number of Terveystalo locations increased by more than 40, and the number of people by more than 3,000. What are the needs for brand management in relation to acquisitions? “When new locations are incorporated, Gredi’s solution will immediately provide us with specific materials, such as logos and instructions for the general look & feel of the new location. One example is the instructions for wall signage. When the partners come to make the wall graphics, it is easy for them to follow our brand”, Satu illustrates.

Terveystalo manages its brand and digital assets

Satu and Marina note that the start has been good. “The target is to expand the utilization of the service. We immediately realized how much material we have and how we can now easily make it available to all teams. Now we are expanding the usage further”, says Satu. “I can’t imagine what we would do without Gredi?  It’s extremely valuable for everything related to use of images”, Marina says.

Satu has good advice for new customers. “Getting started requires some planning. Once you get started I think there will be lots of opportunities to use it for any feasible way, after you just initially upload your stuff! For example, companies of our size can have a lot of materials on network drives and that’s not always the best way to store them, let alone share them. A browser-based solution is much better.”

“After all, no one wants to go back to network drive folders after using Gredi’s mobile and browser-based solution! The service works well, and it’s exactly the same whether you work remotely or in your office”, Satu explains.

“We plan to start using dynamic templates in the future to make things easier for our people. In addition, we want to handle the reviewing of the materials in the future through Gredi”, Satu contemplates.

“Pretty quickly I realized that Gredi is much more than just an image bank! We need a solution that expands according to customer needs. It feels like there are endless possibilities for different uses and the scalability is great!”, Satu says. Marina agrees: “This is a really good thing for us. The more you use it, the more you get!”

EFFICIENT TRAINING AND SALES VIDEO MANAGEMENT

CASE: TRAINERS´ HOUSE

Jussi Koivusaari, Managing Director of Suksee, says that Gredi Content Hub was introduced to distribute hundreds of videos and digital video content to customers wisely. Corporate customers include successful trainers and media personalities like Anna Perho, Jari Parantainen and Trainers´ House founded by Jari Sarasvuo.

Sales materials for Trainers´ House personnel

Jussi Koivusaari’s team has produced hundreds of videos for its customers, such as Brightening up the corporate image in the market, Making the corporate culture visible, Speeding up recruitment, and Training the sales force. Johanna Kiviranta, Product Manager for Digital Products at Trainers´ House, says that Suksee has produced over 500 videos for them. The goal has been to enable Trainers´ House change management consultants to use digital content effectively.

“We work in close collaboration with Suksee. Holvi, created into Gredi Content Hub, enables us to retrieve and distribute materials easily to every employee,” says Johanna Kiviranta. “We use videos in sales, as training tools, as well as for our own learning. It is of paramount importance to us that the videos are easily accessible.”

The story how that sells

“Today, storytelling is the key to the most powerful communication. To this end, Suksee has a team of experts who has experience in, for example, reality TV, such as “Miljonääriäidit” and “Jutan superdieetti” reality shows. Stories play important role in business, not only in personal life,” says Jussi Koivusaari.

The dialogue with Gredi works

“Our employees thank Holvi for its ease of use and suitability. Gredi has done a great job for us, because our development suggestions and wishes have been listened to and the necessary modifications have been made quickly,” says Johanna Kiviranta.

“Gredi’s personnel treat their customers with respect and hospitability” says Jussi Koivusaari. “The process with Gredi has been straightforward from the beginning. We appreciate that the people of Gredi are easy to reach and our dialogue works.”

“In the future, we will consider expanding Gredi Contect Hub’s extensive video content to other channels,” says Jussi Koivusaari. “In addition, we will begin to test how the new artificial intelligence in Gredi’s solution would help us in recording, retrieving and managing video footage.”

Suksee wants to attract those customers that are growing fast and recruiting actively. “Companies that value high-quality, fast results, I can tell you that we can produce, for example, a 15-minute mini-document on two video shooting days.”

For more information, see top types:

Jussi Koivusaari, Managing Director, Suksee Oy
+358 40 829 7228, jussi.koivusaari@suksee.fi
www.suksee.fi

Johanna Kiviranta, Product Manager for Digital Products, Trainers´ House
+358 40 668 6929, johanna.kiviranta@trainershouse.fi
www.trainershouse.fi

Risto Pasanen, Managing Director, Gredi Oy
+358 40 849 2620, risto.pasanen@gredi.fi
www.gredi.fi


Stronghold Suksee designs and implements digital communications, designed to influence people’s knowledge, feelings and activities. The company is doing online training, webinars and podcasts. Over three years, over 5,000 customers have purchased online training for over 1.5 million customers.

DYNAMIC TEMPLATES AND ALL BRAND MATERIALS IN
THE SAME CLOUD SERVICE SPEED UP WORK

CASE: University of Jyväskylä

Dream. Dare. This is a wonderful invitation from the University of Jyväskylä on their website! The University of Jyväskylä, founded as a teacher seminary in 1863, is in the top 3% in the rankings of all universities in the world and represents the world’s top in many disciplines. The University of Jyväskylä serves 14,000 students, employs 2,600 professionals, offers more than 100 programmes and has produced thousands of publications. The university has the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences, Educational Sciences and Psychology, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sports Science and Information Technology, as well as the School of Economics. For continuous learning it provides Open University, for example.

A lot to deal with in terms of brand management. To tackle the challenge, the University of Jyväskylä introduced digital brand and asset management service Gredi Content HUB to make the job easier for the whole community.

Why did you start to use Content HUB?

Gredi Content HUB is a secure cloud service, one platform on which all materials are put together in a brand-controlled way for users to easily find and utilize them. The University of Jyväskylä started to utilize the service at a rapid pace.

“Dynamic templates were the most important thing for us. It was felt that they could facilitate internal workflows. Our goal was to be able to offer customizable materials to everyone, without the help of a graphic designer,” says Miikka Kimari, Communications Manager at the University of Jyväskylä.

“We are recruiting hundreds of people annually, and there are often dozens of recruiters at a time,” says Tarja Vänskä-Kauhanen, spokesperson for the University of Jyväskylä. “The most important partners in making dynamic templates for recruitment communications are the people in our HR department. We have found the dynamic templates to be very versatile! We are also noticing more needs all the time as we get better feel of Gredi’s service.”

“In distribution channels such as social media and elsewhere, dynamic brand-controlled templates support our distinction, discovery and visibility”

What does the Content HUB of the University of Jyväskylä contain?

The HUB created by Gredi bears the name “The University of Jyväskylä Data Bank”, and a lot of valuable material has been stored there for hard use!

Public materials can be browsed freely by anyone who is interested without any user identification. This material includes a guide for university applicants, for example. Photos of the personnel, annual reports and brochures are available to the media, all of which are freely available for journalistic purposes.

The internal service contains logos and graphic guidelines. There are ready-made templates for Word, PowerPoint, posters and brochures to make the work easier. Infographics can be found there too. There are pictures of people and different faculties. The service has plenty of dynamic templates for social media and recruitment ads. There you will also find presentations and brochures with language versions.

Search term video lists 55 items as a result. “In the world of marketing and communications, videos and rich content have come to stay. Gredi’s service is very good for storing large sized video files during filming, and for sharing finished videos as links,” says Miikka.

Who are the different users of the service?

To begin with, the marketing and communications people are the obvious users. Next, the faculties. Does it sound right?

“Currently the majority are internal users, i.e. employees from all over the university. And we already have some partners using the service. And of course the representatives of media,” Miikka lists.

Tarja extends the list of users. “The maintenance of our website is decentralized in terms of event production and subjects. The people responsible for them are able to take advantage of the features in Gredi’s service, such as cropping images which is possible without image editing programs.”

“In addition to the media, our external stakeholders also include large organisations with whom we work a lot, such as educational institutions in the area, the city and the hospital district,” says Tarja.

Tarja emphasizes the importance of taking user-friendliness into account already in the data storage phase. “Good archiving to ensure easy retrieval is an important ongoing project. Likewise, enriching the content with solid and relevant metadata.”

“The establishment of our new service and the transfer of data was a frictionless process. We have got great customer service from Gredi, and the service itself works well.”

Tarja continues to thanking Gredi. “It’s pretty smooth and witty! Gredi replies to our messages quickly and things move on as planned. They have given us new ideas about using new features, for example. We have also got ideas for new dynamic templates.”

“Our brand has to be managed so that the quality remains solid and desired, and that the content is diverse and rich,” Miikka and Tarja conclude.

“It is unique thing that we can admire the great campus designed by Alvar Aalto here in Jyväskylä! We have photographed our red and white brick buildings and the city from the corner of Seminaarinmäki on our campus in all four seasons,” says Tarja. Miikka reveals that the University of Jyväskylä area is currently being applied for as European Heritage Label, the first in Finland! “Respectively, this goal is also reflected in the quality and quantity of the images in our service,” Tarja smiles.

DYNAMIC TEMPLATES MAKE THE WORK EASIER FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

CASE: University of Oulu

The University of Oulu is an internationally functioning science university founded in 1958. This community of 13,000 students and 2,900 employees includes 8 faculties: Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Medicine, Oulu Business School, Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering.

In the University of Oulu both student and staff communities are international. “We have over 90 nationalities in our community which is a tremendous asset. Science is a global thing”, begins Raisa Juntunen. Raisa works as a Marketing Planner in the communications, marketing and public relations team at the University of Oulu. Additionally, the team includes communications experts, as well as professionals in fundraising, public relations, alumni activities and applicant marketing.

What’s in the HUB?

Gredi has created a branding and content management service for the University of Oulu. The HUB was renamed to UniOulu Material Bank by the local users. In the service, all the content and materials are categorized into clear entities. “It is now easier to visualize the content entities and search and find them,” says Raisa. Images, logos, instructions, document templates, and dynamic or customizable templates all have their own distinct places.

“Universities create a lot of content and organize a huge number of events. One of the core roles of our communications and marketing professionals is to support the university staff working in different roles to communicate with the best quality. Especially for visual communication in different channels we needed a tool that manages photos and other visual material, and can be used by everyone to easily produce the material they need”, says Marja Jokinen, Director of Communications and Marketing at the University of Oulu.

“Different users need very different materials in everyday work”

The University of Oulu has granted access to all 13,000 students and 2,900 employees to the service. Different user groups have been created: students, employees, administrators, as well as advertising agencies and photographers belonging to the ecosystem of the University of Oulu. “Everybody gets in, welcome! Our organization is really big, and a huge number of people use the service every day. Understanding and motivation to use the service are the main things we communicate to people,” says Raisa, who has a wonderful service attitude. “It’s convenient for all photographers to directly upload the photos to the service and name them by themselves, and we can easily find the images.”

 “Disclose the know-how of Science Communities”

The number of videos is growing in the marketing of the University of Oulu. “I believe in the power of moving image, especially in student marketing, because it is a great way to build brand. Our academic community uses videos to highlight their scientific work and expertise. The faculties are very independent and use the service as they want. They have access to logos and pictures so they can produce both print and online content,” says Raisa. “Sometimes the material from the scientific community comes to us for our review and we work together the best way for implementation. We manage a lot of language versions, at least Finnish and English are the languages ​​we always use,” says Raisa.

What were the problems and bottlenecks at work before Gredi created the service? “We are always busy. Version control of the content was always a challenge, the latest versions had to be available to everyone at once. And we have a massive amount of material. As well as different user groups with different needs. How did we ever survive before Gredi? Fortunately, we no longer have to look back. Now it is so convenient to work with dynamic templates, for instance, ” says Raisa.

With dynamic templates, only sky is the limit for ideas

What are the benefits of using the service created by Gredi in the everyday work? Raisa praises the dynamic templates for making the work easy. They are customizable templates based on brand guidelines, for example for brochures, posters and ads. “With our dynamic templates, the whole staff can independently combine materials – text and images – with ready-made logos to branded templates,” Raisa illustrates. “We have a lot of content. We have a huge number of photographs in our 60 years of history alone. We have brand, person and science images. Gredi service provides clear structure for all images and other assets which speeds up everyone’s work. It is easy to save and search the material.”

“The faculty people are happy to use the dynamic templates. This is understandable, because researchers are very busy, so their assistants are also using dynamic templates.” Collaboration is power! “Our different units, not just the faculties, are also using dynamic templates. They create independently brochures and posters among other things. These units include Language Center, Information Management, Property Services and Alumni Activities for former students,” Raisa illustrates.

Are dynamic templates easy to work with? “Getting started requires fortitude but when the authors see their own work directly in the service, success will encourage them to continue,” Raisa has noted. “Doing it yourself makes it fast to create visually quality material, and you can test different title versions, for example.”

How does the dream asset management service look like in the future?

Raisa has a wild idea. “We could have more dynamic templates in use in the future. And if they could read the mind of the authors, while still making sure that brand guidelines are followed, that would be a dream come true. In addition, it would be great if the service would suggest to the author directly whether the content is for print or digital and then scale the images and other elements to the right size. And that would be real AI when artificial intelligence could even read your mind!”

INTEGRATIONS MAKE POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS EASIER FOR EXPERTS

CASE: Varma

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company is a Finnish labor pension insurer. Varma is a solvent investor in the funds it manages and a forerunner in work ability management and sustainability. Varma has 900,000 insurance customers and pensioners and 550 employees. The value of Varma’s investments is EUR 43.6 billion. Varma’s corporate values ​​are: With joy and passion, reliably, sustainably and bravely. Following its primary mission, Varma is responsible for ensuring that customers’ pension assets are secured. Varma earns customers’ trust by being the most solvent, efficient and effective employment pension insurer.

What was the biggest need for Varma to start using Gredi’s digital asset management solution?

Gredi’s brand and digital asset management solution for Varma collects all materials in a format that is easy for users to find and edit. Varma’s solution has a public view for the media, for example, and a closed internal view for its own experts.

“Varma is a house of experts, and we do a lot of PowerPoint presentations. The most urgent need was to integrate all the images into PowerPoint, intended for use by Varma’s experts. And make it easy for the experts to grab images for PowerPoint presentations directly from the digital asset management service,” says Tarja Jurmu, Varma’s communications coordinator. “Now it’s easy for our experts to grab images for presentations, and most importantly, use images in the right size. The service ensures the use of the right size images so that the file sizes do not become too big,” explains Tarja.

“Managing our brand is close to my soul. Our experts follow our brand guidelines well when we serve presentation templates and images in a brand-specific way.”

“It was also important to get a decent search functionality for the materials, so that the images can be found with different keywords. The search functionality in Gredi’s service is okay – it is fast, and all the desired keyword metadata can be entered into the service. With a good search, we wanted to enable our experts to find images easier and faster, ” says Tarja.

An open public and closed internal service ensure the responsible use of brand materials for different needs

“Varma’s service has an open public side which can be accessed without a password and ID. It contains logos, pictures of the management team and experts, a brand manual and, of course, graphical guidelines.”

“I’ll give a practical example. When the design competition for Stora Enso’s new building was announced, we put pictures of the candidates in our service for the media. Once the winner was selected, I added the winner pictures to the service”, tells Tarja.

With a registered user ID, on the other hand, you get access to Varma’s closed internal side, where there is the search functionality and all the necessary brand materials. There you can find Varma’s visual look, logos, images, presentation materials, videos, business cards and dynamic customizable templates for social media use, for example.

The service includes various image themes that are relevant to Varma, such as people, real estate and responsibility. The service has also created handy shortcuts for Varma users.

Varma uses videos in many ways

According to research, the already large number of video materials in social media and marketing in general will increase in many organizations in the future. This development has been noted by Tarja at Varma. “We have help videos that have been popular on varma.fi. We make a lot of internal videos and, among other things, public annual report and interim report videos,” says Tarja.

The service is, of course, used by Varma’s marketing and communications staff and experts. In Varma’s ecosystem, photographers and videographers can put the material directly into the service. Media representatives, in turn, can download the material themselves directly from the service.

From Gredi’s service, it is also easy to send videos as links by e-mail, and there is no need to include large attachments.

Responsibility is actions

Brand materials are used responsibly by Varma, and Tarja and a well-designed brand and digital asset management service are taking care of that. Responsibility is widely visible in Varma, from good ideas to good actions.

“We have our own responsibility manager and corporate responsibility program. The priorities of corporate responsibility are mitigating climate change, promoting work ability and a good working life, ethics of operations and open communication, and last but not least, responsibility for the people of Varma,” says Tarja.

Thanks for the customer service

When Tarja is asked what else she would like to say about Gredi and our service, the answer comes definitely and beautifully: “It has to be said that when we have a problem we always get a quick response. The problem is solved immediately or at the latest the next day. All the people of Gredi are so wonderful! I’ll give the biggest thanks to Annika, she has been the most visible person to us when we developed the service, ” smiles Tarja.

Daily tool for marketing and communications

CASE: YIT

YIT is a major European real estate, construction and industry service company. In addition to the Nordic countries and Russia, the company operates in the Baltic countries and Central Europe. In 2010, YIT’s turnover was EUR 3.8 billion and the number of employees was approximately 26,000. Company’s share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.

A tool for daily use in YIT

YIT uses the Brand Toolbox provided by Gredi to manage its brand and marketing materials. “Brand Toolbox is a very important tool for our marketing and communication people,” says Kristina Broman, Brand Manager at YIT. YIT is an international one-brand house and the Brand Toolbox, as its name suggests, is a daily brand management toolkit. “Most of the image and documentary material we need at work can be found from Brand Toolbox,” Broman says.

All the materials in one place

Brand Toolbox includes, among other things, YIT’s logos and official brand images, as well as ready-made product templates for various forms and presentations. Units operating in different countries can use the templates and make their own language versions that look the same. “The biggest advantages are that the materials are in one place, they are in line with the brand and, for example, there are different versions for different channels. The work is getting more efficient when the materials are not scattered and they are always in the right format,” says Broman.

YIT and Gredi have been cooperating for over a decade. Gredi’s predecessor Brandwind provided YIT with an image bank solution that then served a company operating in the domestic market. In ten years, the company has grown into an international group and Brand Toolbox has evolved with it. Today, the system is used by over 500 people in 14 countries. “It is very important for us that YIT look is the same everywhere. Brand Toolbox is almost a necessity for maintaining a common line. For example, in connection with international acquisitions, the new employees will be introduced to the system,” says Broman.

Over the years, the Brand Toolbox has been developed to meet customer needs and the changing needs of YIT. Both Gredi and YIT have been actively involved in the development work. “Based on user feedback, Gredi has improved the user interface and logical paths of the service so that materials are better found and the hierarchy of the site better supports our work processes,” Broman says. The Brand Toolbox has also been expanded along the way, thanks to its modular design. “The Brand ToolBox was last updated with a productized newsletter,” Broman says. Cooperation between Gredi and YIT on Brand Toolbox has been long-lasting and functional. “We are very pleased to cooperate with Gredi. We have grasped our wishes and the Brand Toolbox has been built to fit the needs of YIT.”

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