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FORD ON CUTTING EDGE OF DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENTNEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2002 – At the Visual Communication – Infoimaging at Work Executive Summit, organized by Future Image and Forbes Magazine, Ford demonstrated that it is using new and developing infoimaging technologies to make photographs and other images of Ford products available for multiple uses. Called MediaBin, the system develops and maintains brand management asset systems designed to allow corporations to promote products in multi-channel marketing programs and protect brand integrity. “In this image-driven age, a picture is probably worth even more than a thousand words, to borrow a phrase,” says Chuck Sullivan, Ford e-Marketing manager. “But not if that picture’s too hard to find, too expensive to create or only available in a single format that limits how and where it can be used. “The managed collaboration system we’ve developed with MediaBin allows us to warehouse all the Ford Division images anyone might need. Now, our agencies and our internal departments all have access to the most up-to-date, usable images for a huge variety of applications,” he says. MediaBin has electronically stored Ford’s images for the last three years. The MediaBin server holds the most recent, product-correct images of Ford’s products. The images are available to Ford Division’s advertising agencies and numerous internal departments, such as Marketing, Public Affairs, engineering, Education and Training, Fleet operations. Ford owns the rights to and controls all the images and their dissemination. “What we call repurposing is probably the key to this database,” says Sullivan. “That means that an image stored in a high resolution format can be converted ‘on-the-fly’ to a lower resolution for a slide presentation on our high speed sever. This eliminates the need to massage an image by hand to adapt it to more than one application or output. “The person simply goes online, selects the image and asks the server to process the image for the desired application. It’s then delivered exactly as needed.” Sullivan says MediaBin also saves Ford money through elimination of arranging costly shoots to make photography identical or similar to existing work; sharing of images between departments and agencies; eliminating production of compact discs for image retrieval and storage. Through our new managed collaboration model, our 50 agency partners have ability to download images as well as "upload" or "push" new images directly into the database – saving time and and money by eliminating costly CD burns. Additionally, the hundreds of repositories that once held approved images are now rolled into one. This saves time and costs for both agencies and company employees looking for photography. “This is merely working smart,” says Sullivan. “Now, we have a centralized way to ensure that high-quality, up-to-date and product-correct images are available for any use – from ads to print to Web. This will help protect and strengthen the Ford brand and ensure approved images appear in every application.” The Ford MediaBin currently stores images, .pdf’s of dealer catalogs and QTVR movies. Ford Division is in the process of upgrading to allow streaming video functionality and e-mail links of assets via the Ford email system. MediaBin was established in 1999, and currently houses approximately 70,000 Ford images, up from 15,000 just two years ago. Talks are under way to expand its uses to other Ford Motor Company brands, as well as toward eventually making Ford’s images in MediaBin even more widely available. # # # Contact: Media Information Center
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