From content chaos to global consistency: How Beaphar transformed marketing operations across 86 countries

The challenge: When global growth outpaced systems

With more than 2,800 SKUs sold in 86 countries, Beaphar is a leading pet care brand offering health, nutrition, and hygiene products for cats, dogs, birds, and small animals. When Marlies Nijmeijer joined as Global Brand and Marketing Manager in 2020, however, she quickly discovered that the way her team stored and shared marketing assets couldn’t keep pace with the company’s global scale. 

Each region of the company managed content differently, leading to scattered files across email threads, regional servers, and buried in team drives. Marlies saw her six-person in-house design agency overwhelmed by constant requests. Designers had to dig through SharePoint folders just to email assets internally, while distribution partners often lacked access altogether. 

The inefficiencies didn’t stop there. Customer service teams spent up to 30 minutes fulfilling single asset requests — logging into servers, navigating folder structures, checking versions, then crafting emails. Sales reps carried printed folders to client meetings, shuffling through outdated paper materials. Meanwhile, distributors in Asian and African markets struggled to access current brand guidelines at all. 

“We really wanted to centralize all those efforts,” Marlies explains, “because that’s the only way to be more effective with marketing resources and achieve brand growth.” She recognized their disjointed approach was holding back their global brand ambitions.

Building the right solution

Instead of making assumptions, Marlies assembled a decision-making team of marketers, designers, product managers, and digital specialists. The collaborative approach was crucial to the project’s success, helping the team focus on what end users truly needed.

After evaluating six vendors, Canto emerged as the clear winner. “With Canto, you get a lot more worth for your money,” Marlies says. “We saw really nice and fancy DAM systems, but they came with hefty price tags. Canto offers the same advanced features at a reasonable cost. You don’t need to break the bank.”

The management presentation was straightforward and successful, with leadership quickly approving the investment based on the thorough evaluation and clear value proposition.

Creating structure from chaos

Marlies leveraged Beaphar’s product-centered structure — organized into health, care, and nutrition categories — to create an intuitive folder system users would immediately recognize. With support from Canto’s implementation specialists, she and her team also layered on filters for markets, asset types, and campaigns, creating a flexible foundation that could grow with their needs.

For a smooth launch, Marlies invited European marketers to test the platform with sample content. Their feedback helped refine the system to better align with the daily workflows of marketing and design groups.

Transforming daily operations

Canto quickly became Beaphar’s single source of truth for more teams beyond just marketing. The impact was immediate and widespread.

Empowering sales teams

Canto lets sales reps trade printed folders for tablets, transforming client interactions. They can now bring promotional materials directly into meetings and showcase new products instantly, positioning themselves as trusted partners rather than vendors handing out static brochures.

This change lets Beaphar’s sales teams respond quickly to questions, present relevant content on the spot, and close deals faster by showing strong marketing support.

Revolutionizing customer service

Canto drastically reduced the burden on Beaphar’s customer service teams. What used to be 30-minute tasks were reduced to 2–5 minute interactions through simple URL sharing and portal access.

With about 50 weekly requests across four major markets, this saves roughly 1,200 hours — or 50 full workdays — annually.

Streamlining creative operations

Beaphar’s design agency experienced immediate relief from repetitive requests. “With Canto, we’re easily 20-25% more efficient in terms of time saved for marketers, graphic designers, and customer service,” Marlies explains. “We save a lot of time, and time equals money that can be spent on other priorities.”

Previously, designers spent a quarter of their time manually distributing assets. Now, freed from administrative tasks, the creative team can focus on high-value work like campaign development, packaging updates, and retailer programs. Canto gave them the structure and autonomy to be both more efficient and creative.

Achieving global brand consistency

Marlies also fully utilized Canto’s Portal feature. Country-specific Portals show only relevant assets in local languages, while key account Portals provide customized collections for major distributors like Dogman in the Nordics and ZooRoyal in Germany. Leveraging Portals eliminated overwhelming users with irrelevant content and simplified the asset retrieval process.

This targeted approach created an “aha moment” for marketers, who can now share simple, beautifully branded asset microsites instead of managing complex email chains with multiple attachments.

Brand templates and guidelines

Beaphar implemented Canto’s editable brand templates for straightforward assets such as social media posts and seasonal campaigns. This gives regional teams creative autonomy while maintaining brand integrity with approved colors, fonts, and layouts.

Equally important, Beaphar centralized all brand guidelines using Canto’s Style Guides, creating a single source of truth accessible via one URL. “Canto has made a world of difference for our distributors,” Marlies says. “If they want to double-check colors or fonts, it’s easy. One URL, no confusion.”

Cross-market inspiration and client recognition

Beyond operational efficiency, Canto fostered unexpected cross-market collaboration. With all assets visible in one central library, teams began learning from each other’s campaigns. Spanish marketers can now adapt successful French sales materials instead of starting from scratch, strengthening international alignment while dramatically improving efficiency.

Clients have noticed the transformation. Major customers like ZooRoyal and ZooPlus praise Beaphar’s asset-sharing approach, noting that Beaphar is “at the forefront of using tools like this” in the pet sector. This recognition has become a competitive differentiator, positioning Beaphar as an innovative, easy-to-work-with partner.

Looking ahead: Integration and global scale

As Beaphar continues expanding globally, they are exploring ways to connect Canto with their product systems to push content directly into e-commerce platforms and retail channels. Their vision is a connected content ecosystem where digital assets and product information flow smoothly, allowing updates once and publishing everywhere.

The transformation complete

Today, Beaphar operates with streamlined efficiency that once seemed impossible. Teams across 86 countries access current, brand-compliant assets instantly. Customer service requests that took hours now take minutes. Sales teams engage clients more effectively with real-time asset access.

“Canto isn’t just a tool for us,” Marlies concludes. “It’s become part of how we work.” For a global company managing thousands of SKUs across diverse markets, that integration has transformed not only operational efficiency, but also how Beaphar connects with partners and customers worldwide — setting the foundation for continued growth and global brand leadership.