Dietz & Watson | Image Relay

The Challenge

No consistent access to up-to-date brand images
Expired images out in the market
Slow creative workflows
Time wasted on non-skilled tasks
High risk of losing important assets

The Solution

A centralized, accessible location for all approved brand assets
A consistent brand message in the market
Improved workflows and asset control
More time spent on creating
Peace of mind

The Numbers

23 team members
4,500 assets
80 years of history

About Dietz & Watson

The iconic brand, Dietz & Watson, has been producing deli meats in Philadelphia since 1939. Started by a German sausage maker, the company has grown from sausage-making to providing hundreds of deli meat, cheese, and condiment products to retailers across the country. The family-owned operation continues to expand and has experienced rapid growth over the past decade.

In 2019, Dietz & Watson aired one of the most talked about Super Bowl commercials for a new product called “Dietz Nuts.” With such a long history and a rapidly expanding brand they also have thousands of valuable assets to manage. Existing without a digital asset management system was no longer an option so they began to research the possibilities.

Before Image Relay - "In Shambles"

Prior to Image Relay, Dietz & Watson relied on a number of solutions to manage their brand imagery. These included Dropbox, an internal server, external hard drives, and thumb drives. Lynsey Lehr, Dietz & Watson’s lead graphic designer described the former state of creative assets as “pretty much all over the place.” Having no central location meant that individuals on the creative and marketing teams would save their favorite assets to their desktops.

Lehr says this caused teams to use different assets and sometimes different logos. There was a lot of inconsistency that slowed things down and put the Dietz & Watson brand at risk. She shared that sometimes they “would see images that were 5-10 years old out in the world.”

Dietz & Watson Needed An Improved Workflow

The growing team and increasing content demands required a solution that provided accessibility for team members across the nation and to third parties working closely with the company. Internal servers and existing company solutions were simply not an option. Not having a centralized, secure, and easy-to-use option was a frustrating bottleneck in Dietz & Watson’s workflow.

Consistent Brand Experience

Centralizing Dietz & Watson’s brand assets also provides control over a consistent brand story. The team in charge of leading Dietz & Watson’s brand experience manages the company’s Image Relay platform and provides access to up-to-date, approved assets. Team members know which logos to use and where, and Image Relay’s expiration date tool ensures that old images do not go out into the market beyond their life expectancy. This results in a more consistent brand experience for consumers and easier to manage processes by the central brand team.

“Using Image Relay takes the weight off my shoulders.”

Intuitive User-Interface

Dietz & Watson’s team finds the design of Image Relay “welcoming and not overwhelming.” That welcoming design ensures higher adoption rates for Dietz & Watson’s team and is “easy for not tech-heavy users.” Lynsey Lehr says her team is “really satisfied” and loves that users can ask support questions directly to Image Relay’s support team through in-app live chat.

“Easy for not tech-heavy users.”

Smooth Implementation

Lehr describes the implementation process as “quick and painless” and “easier than I thought.” James Fox, Image Relay’s DAM Librarian and Implementation Specialist led the implementation process over the course of six weeks in 2018. The process included collecting all 4,500 assets from the various sources, building a clear folder structure for organizing the assets, adding contextual metadata, and creating permission groups to provide the right materials to the right users. Lehr describes James Fox as “extremely helpful and well-versed” and overall that “everyone has been really satisfied” with the implementation program.

“Quick and painless”

Image Relay Allows Dietz & Watson to Ensure Consistency Across their Growing Brand