UW’s institutional marketing department crafts outstanding content that exudes the university’s values and messaging. But creating impactful content is only half the battle.
“A big priority for me is making sure my team’s work is going somewhere,” says Associate Director of Creative Services Emily Edgar. “Are those assets getting to all the people on campus who amplify our brand? Are they being seen by the audience they’re intended for?”
Before UW started using Canto, making brand assets available to marketers, departments, and other partners was a challenge. Visual content got buried in an outdated database that was hard to navigate. People would spend hours looking for images, only to overlook the best options or be unable to find what they need. As a result, UW’s creative services team was bombarded with requests to help find or recreate content.
With Canto, creative workflows are up to 83% faster
Emily soon realized that a more functional content library was the key to empowering partners across campus — while simultaneously freeing her team from asset requests so they could focus on higher-value creative work.
In Canto, she found the perfect solution. UW’s staff, departments, and administrators now have curated collections of on-brand images at their fingertips in a searchable, user-friendly Portal. Metadata like keywords and Smart Tags make it easy to find the perfect visuals in UW’s library of 15,000+ digital assets. If someone needs an image of student athletes playing basketball, they can just type in “basketball,” and they’re all right there. To narrow things down, they can filter results to see just images in landscape. Or just images from the latest season or game. Or even use facial recognition to find a specific student athlete.
The creative team is no longer spending most of their time fielding requests from other departments. And they benefit from Canto’s powerful search features as well — workflows on the creative services team are now up to 83% faster. “Before Canto, I would spend about an hour per design project just procuring photos,” Emily recalls. “Now it takes about 10 minutes. With 200+ design projects a year, that really adds up.”
Other departments are more efficient, too
It’s not just the institutional marketing team seeing productivity skyrocket. Easy access to amazing visual assets helps staff, academic departments, and administrators accelerate their own project timelines. Instead of requesting images — or creating new content themselves — they can just grab what they need from Canto and go.
“Instead of angry emails from people asking where their images are, I’m receiving emails of gratitude from other departments,” Emily says.
A built-in brand guide makes it easy for anyone creating content to stay on brand. And because users can download images in the exact dimensions they need, UW’s designers don’t have to step in to keep them from getting squished or stretched by resizing attempts gone awry.
With impactful brand assets at everyone’s fingertips, content creators and distributors at UW aren’t just more productive. They’re also able to craft content that better supports strategic goals — like enrollment and retention, student engagement, and public relations.
With the right visuals, campaigns are more effective
Asset discoverability isn’t just about speed. Because all the content in UW’s Canto library is tagged with metadata, it’s easy to find visuals that are perfect for any project.
Targeted materials appeal to different audiences
With everything organized and searchable in Canto, departments can easily create targeted materials, powering more effective campaigns that speak to specific groups with tailored visuals and messaging.
“With the metadata in Canto, you’re not hoping to find someone who looks kind of like a business student,” Emily explains. “You know this is a business student. And you can feel confident including that image in materials for that audience.”
Content reflects UW’s diversity and values
Canto also makes it easier to create content that reflects UW’s DEI values, showcasing the full diversity of the UW campus community.
“I couldn’t find diverse photos in the old database,” says Casidy Mittelstadt, a graphic designer on Emily’s team. “I’d search for every keyword under the sun and still not find what I needed. But now with Canto, I can easily find photos that represent a diverse student body for our campaigns.”
Repurposed content reduces costs
Canto has also cut down on unnecessary content creation costs at UW. If marketers need images of international students, specific facilities, or a visiting fellow in the lab with students, they can easily check Canto to see if it already exists before investing in new photoshoots.
As great images and videos get rediscovered and used again, they keep creating value for the university. And UW is no longer spending money to recreate content that already exists.
Over time, that means a greater return on investment for every dollar spent on content creation.
The creative spark is reignited
No longer bogged down in frustrating content management tasks, content creators and marketers at UW are now enjoying a renewed creative spirit.
With morale at an all-time high, designers are bringing new ideas to the table and producing some of their best work yet. Photographers and videographers are motivated too, jumping on spontaneous opportunities to grab the perfect shot. Upload links make it easy to submit new content when inspiration strikes — and they know their work is now likely to be used.
“When you find a tool that creates those efficiencies, you start to feel more alive in your work,” Emily explains. “People are inspired, and they’re creating some really outstanding content.”
