So, marketers use at least one Marketing Resource Management platform to make their lives easier huh? Big shocker there. Those marketers … always trying to find the easy way out! Seriously, how could they not? In a world with ever increasing technical possibilities and a content hungry media landscape, it’s a no brainer. MRM software is software specifically designed to help marketers efficiently collaborate and manage campaign workflows and assets from campaign briefs through to PIR. Whether you’re using a bespoke Marketing Resource Management platform tailored to your business or a mash-up of stand alone unrelated software – keeping up with the best tech on offer to optimize resources is a must.

So what can we expect to see in MRM software in the coming year? It’s all about integration and automation. We hope you find these trends insightful.

1. The Shift to One Platform

If you take one thing away from this article it’s this – there is a shift away from using several separate software tools to one integrated MRM system. There are a few reasons why…

The Tech is Advancing:

Marketing Resource Management software development is improving and expanding to seamlessly manage entire campaigns from planning to post analysis without having to leave the platform.

Previously, large brands had a DAM (Digital Asset Management Platform) that fulfilled a singular function, i.e. the management and distribution of their creative assets. DAMs now thread into a much broader, sophisticated marketing workflows. These wider, end-to-end Marketing Resource Management platforms incorporate brand management tools that are rich in automation and self-serve functionalities and steer everything from entire campaigns to one off tasks super efficiently. Here are a few practical examples:

• Marketing and agency teams can seamlessly collaborate on every step in the creative process – from briefing to ideation, proofing, mark ups, version control and approval tracking.

• Administrative tasks such as budget control, scheduling and post campaign ROI measurement can all be done under one ‘hood’ and stored for easy retrieval. There’s also the ‘fan favorite’ tool that highlights languishing projects to boost turn around time.

• Advanced MRM platforms such as IntelligenceBank allow marketers to connect to and work with third party software such as Adobe, Getty Images, Salesforce and Microsoft all from within the one system. This puts an end to the mind-numbing and time wasting task of having to login and transfer files between team members using several unrelated programs.

Image: IntelligenceBank’s version comparison proofing tool

It’s financially prudent:

The subscription savings made by switching to one system vs multiple software are one thing…but they are a drop in the ocean compared to the efficiency of using one comprehensive traceable platform. Lost time context switching lurching from one platform to another for assets, timelines, budgets, quotes and approvals chews up an enormous amount of time and often leaves the question of versioning hanging in the air.

Another way Marketing Resource Management software adds to the bottom line is via smarter briefing practices. Briefs that springboard off a sound strategic central master brief and are accessible to all can save a fortune in bad or, frankly, crap briefing as this article by featured in Mi-3.com.au shows. It estimates $200bn is wasted on poor, incomplete or unratified briefs each year.

The need for a company wide Single Source of Truth:

Having a single source of truth with advanced tools to control and collaborate across multiple campaigns, departments and teams saves time, reduces errors, and leaves one footprint of versions, mark ups and approvals. Team members have more agency to help themselves as well as the confidence to keep informed and be decisive.

Integrated Marketing Resource Management platforms knock down silos making them infinitely more productive and cost effective than linking several stand-alone solutions.

2. Automation takes care of the minutiae

With advances in artificial intelligence (AI), 2023 will see Marketing Resource Management systems increasingly incorporate automation into their platforms. AI makes assets themselves intelligent. It removes tedious tasks by helping marketers do anything from finding assets faster to auto editing images or making assets more accessible. IntelligenceBank Marketing Resource Management tools already make good use of machine learning with more to be revealed in 2023. Some current functionalities include:

Image Recognition

This tool saves hours of tediously manually tagging individual assets as it instantly detects logos, objects, faces, colors, demographics, emotions, context and more. You not only save hours tagging, but a lifetime searching, categorizing and checking for compliance.

SmartCrop and Autofocus – enhances assets automatically

SmartCrop uses AI to work out the best way to fit the key hero of the images into different formats. Say you have an image of a beach with a sunset. Now say you want to crop that image for a LinkedIn Post, Website Banner, and a square Tile. Traditional cropping templates would not know the sunset was the hero and might end up cropping out half the sun.

Accessibility tools

IntellienceBank has a number of tools to help clients comply with accessibility standards by automating and highlighting any potential breaches. Additionally, the recently released Closed Captions makes it easy to auto transcribe a back catalog of video and audio files to ensure they adhere to WCAG 2-Ac1.2.2 Accessibility Standards.

Automated Inbox

If this doesn’t get you, nothing will. Setting up an ‘Ask Marketing’ inbox allows the marketing department to automate repetitive tasks and answers every day questions. No more sending out your logo or brand guidelines 50 times a week!

3. Creative Templating for Scale

One of the biggest growth areas next year will be the continuing emergence of creative templating. IntelligenceBank uses sophisticated tech that allows marketers to pre-create and pre-approve an unlimited amount of creative templates. 2023 will see companies gain confidence with this workflow and generate multiple brand approved assets at once. IntelligenceBank MRM client Tabcorp recently produced 9,500 assets from 150 templates using only 6 designers in just 10 weeks. A truly phenomenal result that not only reduced their workload 30% but enabled them to get to market faster. Read how they did it in this Case Study:

Image: Read how IntelligenceBank Creative Templates revolutionized creative turn around from 7 days to 20 minutes.

4. Automated Brand Compliance

Many IntelligenceBank clients operate in highly controlled sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, government, banking, finance and wagering. By using pre-approved, pre-set disclaimer options integrated into their workflows, they’ve been able to dramatically reduce breaches related to human error and save as much as one Legal FTE.

2023 will see increasing privacy and regulatory codes of conduct. Having an efficient approach to compliance that leverages available Marketing Resource Management is a smart move.

Image: IntelligenceBank’s Disclaimer Engine automates regulatory requirements 

5. MRM includes Brand Guidelines

The continuing rise of online Brand Guideline portals such IntelligenceBank’s BrandHub will make it easier for creative teams to thread mandatories into briefs. By having these style guides online there is the opportunity to embed rich media to embellish brand stories e.g. videos and pods.

Image: IntelligenceBank’s BrandHub integrates brand guidelines and elements into the marketing workflow.

Over the last 13 years, IntelligenceBank has been pioneering the shape of MRM software. We strike a balance between innovating for innovation’s sake, and innovating robust tools that unlock efficiencies and help organizations do better work.

In 2023 the industry will have a multitude of Marketing Resource Management options to help take control and consolidate operations, cull inefficiencies and bolster compliance.

We’d welcome the chance to show you our 2023 roadmap and discuss how we can help bring your team along with us. You can review us in prestigious buying guide Forrester WaveTM Report for MRM software or click here to tee up a demo.