Coke unveils e-library of marketing material

Coca-Cola Enterprises is putting its marketing and communications materials online, with the creation of an internet-based library that will include high-quality pictures of products and an archive of ads.

The library is designed for use by CCE marketing staff and also by partner advertising and marketing agencies, and is expected to include at least 3,000 brand images.

The asset management system was developed over the past seven months by Edinburgh-based online applications specialist Company Net. It includes systems for monitoring who is uploading documents or images to the library as well as for ensuring that only authorised users gain access to the archives.

The library is currently for use by CCE staff in the UK and France and their business partners, but it will soon be extended to cover the Netherlands and Belgium, with other countries planned for the future.

The company says CCE GB will recoup its part of the project spend within one year. Savings will come from eliminating what CCE calls “considerable costs” involved with managing and circulating marketing collateral.

Users can browse items stored in the library, or search by keywords; once they have found the individual items they want, they put them in an online “shopping basket” for downloading when they have finished their session.

Large international companies are increasingly turning to the Net for managing and distributing their communications materials and advertising collateral. It offers significant cost-savings over traditional methods of storage and distribution, and near-instant distribution of new materials.