Why Image Relay Was The Right Fit For A Growing 1% For The Planet

Allyson Bartlett

Director of Brand & Marketing

"Image Relay has been so helpful in how we show up as a brand. If you're an organization that has a lot of stakeholders to satisfy and a brand that you want to manage tightly I highly recommend Image Relay."

The Challenge

Lacking a unified location for internal asset storage
Sharing brand assets with external stakeholders and monitoring usage
Finding a platform that could accommodate rapid scaling

The Solution

Safe and intuitive internal organizational solution
An efficient method to share campaign assets with external partners and track subsequent downloads
A flexible platform that performs equally well with 50 assets or 50,000

The Numbers

25,000+ assets
IR customer for 4+ years
Chapters in 2 countries: USA and France

1% For The Planet's Story

In 2002 Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, started 1% For The Planet. As the story goes they were on the Madison River in Montana, fly fishing, discussing the details of their respective brands making environmentally motivated donations. The deeper they dove into the details they wondered, why were these one-time donations? Where did the money go? Where exactly did the money come from, sales or revenue? Who was keeping track? Inspired by their passion for the outdoors and bonded by their desire to protect natural resources, they sought to create a way for companies to give back.

1% For The Planet was born from the idea that “because companies profit from the resources they take from the earth, they should protect those resources”. It didn’t take long for this message to resonate with individuals and organizations around the world. Today, over 5,000 1% For The Planet members donate their time volunteering and funds to protect natural resources. 1% For The Planet counts companies such as New Belgium Brewing, Ilia, OXO, Caudalie, and Klean Kanteen, among their thousands of partners.

Before Image Relay

one-percent-for-the-planet-purple-mountains

Allyson Bartlett, 1% For The Planet’s Director of Brand and Marketing, joined in 2018. When she arrived, the team was small and they had yet to implement a company-wide digital asset management solution. That’s not to say they didn’t need one.

1% For The Planet creates a tremendous amount of assets; seasonal campaigns, photography, custom graphics, brand videos, annual reports, and branding assets. Since 2018 they have grown dramatically and so has this stream of new content. Luckily, Image Relay has been by 1% For The Planet’s side, scaling as they did, and providing a reliable and safe digital asset management solution.

What 1% For The Planet Needed

At the core, 1% For The Planet needed a reliable, safe, and easy-to-use space to store their valuable brand assets. Beyond those basic requirements, they needed an organized method to collect photography from network photographers, an efficient method to share campaign assets with external partners, and a way to monitor and analyze downloads as a method of evaluating campaign success. All this, and more, they found with Image Relay.

Managing 1% FTP’s Asset Library

Before implementing Image Relay, Allyson shared that the asset management system was, quite frankly, a little wild west. Image Relay likes to see your digital assets in-line which is why there a host of in-platform features built just for wrangling any digital content that comes your way. From tagging, designed to keep your Library of assets easily searchable and organized, to custom permissions, built so that content will only be visible and usable to those who need to it.

"I used to go into folders, and just get lost for days. And now it's really clear. There's lots of tagging opportunities that help us just make any search really quick and easy."

Evaluating Seasonal Campaign Success

1% For The Planet regularly shares seasonal campaigns and reports with their partners designed to help spread the word about their work as a global network. It’s important to have a safe and organized system that allows for assets to be shared and downloads to be measured. Allyson shared that the download tracking feature has been “really helpful in understanding if it’s worth all of the efforts that go into putting these campaigns together.”

"Image Relay has allowed us to be a lot more organized in phasing the development of a project, and sharing it at the right points, with the right people."

A Scalable Solution For Growing Brands

Despite 1% For The Planet’s tremendous growth over the past four years, Image Relay has been able to comfortably scale up alongside them. A range of pricing plans and tools that function just as effectively with 50 assets or 50,000 ensures that the needs of growing customers are always met.

"Image Relay has been so helpful in how we show up as a brand. If you're an organization that has a lot of stakeholders to satisfy, and a brand that you want to manage tightly, and evolve in a beautiful way, I highly recommend Image Relay."

Set Up For Success

Image Relay takes each client’s unique needs seriously. To ensure customers get off to the best start possible, Image Relay Librarians work to develop organizational strategies based on customers’ needs. Allyson shared that besides the platform itself, “one of the biggest benefits is access to fantastic customer service. Right out of the gate, we worked with one of Image Relay’s librarians… And immediately developed this great rapport.”

Librarians lay out potential folder structures, work with clients to develop tag sets, and educate users on best metadata best practices, along with aiding with general onboarding questions. Not only do the Librarians facilitate smooth onboardings, they continue to be available for support regardless if a customer has been using Image Relay for five months or fifteen years.