Acquia DAM (Widen), including the Assets, Insights, and Portals applications.
total assets
users from the sales team
total uploads in the last 12 months
Founded in 1935, Heaven Hill Brands is the sixth largest distilled spirits producer and marketer in the U.S. They are home to over 20 iconic brands, including Evan Williams Bourbon, Elijah Craig Bourbon, Lunazul Tequila, and Deep Eddy Vodka — and they ship products to more than 100 countries worldwide.
Heaven Hill’s sales team and extensive distributor network need access to current and approved content to sell and promote their products.
Before Heaven Hill had a digital asset management (DAM) platform, all of their marketing and sales content was saved on a local server and shared via an FTP site. Laura Crahan, Heaven Hill’s Creative Services Manager, recalled, “We like to refer to the FTP system we had in place prior to the DAM system as a dinosaur.”
It only housed a subset of their assets, and because it lacked search functionality it was difficult to use. In addition, only the marketing department could access the files on the local server, so they were bogged down with image requests.
The Heaven Hill marketing team knew this workflow couldn’t keep pace with their business growth. So they launched a request for proposal (RFP) process for a DAM system — and ultimately selected and implemented Acquia DAM in 2017.
“When we were doing the RFP process and trying to decide which company to go with, what really stood out to us about [Acquia] was the customer service,” Laura shared.
Acquia’s support — especially through implementation — virtually eliminated the need for Heaven Hill’s IT team to help get the system up and running. “We were just really, really pleased with how much hand-holding [Acquia] did as we prepared to launch our system. It was clear that [Acquia] wanted to ensure our success.”
Heaven Hill’s DAM system quickly became the single repository for content that supports their internal marketing and sales teams. But they also wanted to share a selection of these assets with their external distributor network. With the Portals application, they’re able to provide access to these files via a link, without requiring users to log in to the DAM system.
“When we first launched our DAM, our focus was on housing current marketing assets for our internal sales team to easily view, download, and share,” Laura said. “We quickly learned that our distributor partners would also benefit from having access to a subset of these assets, so we built portals for each of our different brands, for them to access directly.”
These portals are so popular that many of the Heaven Hill sales reps and distributors pin the URLs to the home screen of their mobile devices, so they have immediate access to the content they need when they are in the field with customers.
In addition, her team has simplified the maintenance of each portal by using the dynamic gallery feature, which updates content based on specified search criteria. “Now my team doesn't have to populate the portals — it's all done automatically based on the search terms that we've set up.”
Shortly after implementing Acquia DAM, Heaven Hill migrated their current marketing and sales assets from their local server to their DAM system. Until recently, they continued to use the server for other content, like creative and historical files.
But in an effort to consolidate tools and reduce storage fees, they decided to eliminate this server and move the remaining content to their DAM site, using a separate “Archive” asset group.
It’s a big project. “Given our company’s 85-year history, we have a lot of assets that help preserve our company’s story,” Laura shared. They started by eliminating duplicate and nonessential files. And then, with the help of Acquia’s Managed Services team, they will migrate the assets to the DAM system and apply metadata.
Once this project is complete, all of their brand, marketing, and archival content will be in a single, searchable repository. “From internal communication videos to photos of our employees and facilities, our DAM system provides a central hub for assets that help connect our various locations to each other and to the corporate goals we are trying to attain together,” Laura shared.
By storing all of their content in a single, searchable repository, all teams and partners know where to find current assets — with just a few clicks. There’s no longer the need to route file requests through the marketing team, or share files through email or FTP. This streamlined access has transformed how their marketing team manages and distributes content. “It's hard to remember a world without the DAM system,” Laura noted.
Investing in Acquia DAM allowed Heaven Hill to eliminate the local server they previously used to store all of their content — along with the associated storage and maintenance fees. This cost savings can now be used to support new content creation, expand their DAM software utilization, or advance any other marketing priority.
“The assets in our DAM system serve as critical content that our sales team needs to drive our business,” Laura said. “From sell sheets that show our products and specs, to overview brochures that tell the stories and unique selling points of our brands, they arm our sales team with the tools they need to sell our products.” With immediate access to this approved and current content in
Acquia DAM, the Heaven Hill sales team is able to bring new products to market with confidence and speed.
