Adobe’s integration of Content Hub with AEM Assets marks a significant step forward in how brands manage their creative resources. By combining robust asset management with AI-powered tools, the platform promises to reshape the content creation process.
With content overload becoming a pressing issue for many organizations, Content Hub aims to streamline workflows, ensuring that valuable assets are easily accessible, while upholding brand consistency. As we delve deeper, we’ll explore how this platform could redefine the way brands approach content creation, distribution, and management.
Mark Szulc, Principal Product Manager and Regional Evangelist (APAC) at Adobe discusses specific challenges that Content hubs’ integration with AEM assets aims to address for brands managing large volumes of creative assets and more.
Content hubs’ integration with AEM assets seems like a significant step towards streamlining creative workflows. Can you elaborate on the specific challenges this integration aims to address for brands managing large volumes of creative assets?
First, we need to consider the current state of the creative space. The acceleration of content creation is overwhelming. Organizations must cut through the noise to create resonant and attention-grabbing content. With the rise of generative AI, the challenge is how to ensure on-brand content stands out and tells a compelling story. To achieve this, we need to consider the entire process from idea generation to communicating the message across various channels and personas.
We refer to this as a “content supply chain” problem, focusing on how content moves through the organization. The asset piece is central to this process. Traditionally, creatives are viewed as artistic individuals using tools like Photoshop. However, everyone is creative and has ideas. The challenge is identifying each person’s role in the process.
When creating a brand or campaign, technical assets are essential. However, as marketers need to respond quickly to current events on social channels, the ability to swiftly create and distribute content is crucial. Asset management is evolving from merely storing and archiving to being at the heart of real-time communication, enabling fast content creation and distribution.
How will Content Hub leverage generative AI to enhance the creative process for brands? Can you share any specific features we can expect?
Adobe has been at the forefront of AI innovation for over 10 years, not just in research but in integrating AI into our products. For example, within the asset’s product in Experience Manager, one of the first challenges was that people often couldn’t find their content once it was in the asset management tool. This is similar to the challenge of managing personal photo collections, where file names don’t describe the images.
Traditionally, asset management relied on manual metadata entry to describe and tag images. For instance, naming a file “1234.jpg” as “a person walking down the street in Bangalore on a rainy day” is impractical. As a result, businesses often end up paying to recreate content they already have but can’t locate. One of the first AI solutions we implemented was auto-classification of content, which automatically tags and adds metadata to assets, making them searchable by keywords, colour palettes, and other rich information.
Generative AI in Content Hub is taking this further by enabling more people to use AI in their creative processes. Often, brands have images that are almost right but need minor adjustments. For instance, if you’re running a social campaign with a biking theme but need an image of a single rider instead of two, generative AI can help. Instead of manually editing the image in Photoshop, you can now open it in the asset tool, select the second person, and delete them with a click.
This approach democratizes Photo manipulation, allowing a broader audience within an organization to make quick adjustments without needing specialist skills. Content Hub shines as more than just an archive; it’s a dynamic tool for finding and tweaking brand-approved assets in real-time, empowering users to make necessary corrections on the fly.
Content governance and maintaining brand consistency can be complex tasks. How will Content Hub empower brands to manage access controls and ensure their creative assets align with brand guidelines?
The first thing to note is that Content Hub operates within an asset management environment, which inherently includes governance. Users must be authenticated to access the assets. We can restrict access to different areas, ensuring that only authorized individuals can use specific assets. The assets in the Content Hub are pre-approved, so there is a governance framework in place to ensure brand assets are used correctly from the start.
Beyond the technical aspects of brand governance, the human element is crucial. People need to get things done efficiently. If they can’t find the assets they need, they’ll find shortcuts, potentially leading to off-brand content. In the past, users might bypass the asset management system entirely, using unapproved images and going rogue.
Content Hub addresses this by providing a repository of approved images that users can access and use. This ensures that even when alterations are needed, they are made on a foundation of brand-approved assets. Depending on the organization’s needs, you can either trust your users to make these changes or implement workflows that require approval before the altered assets are used.
Beyond storage and management, can Content Hub play a role in the creative brainstorming or ideation process for brands? If so, how does Adobe envision this future integration with Gen AI?
Knowing what you already have and using that as a starting point, rather than beginning from scratch, is crucial. Many of our customers in India, for example, don’t have the luxury of starting with a blank slate for a new photo shoot. What used to be a lengthy campaign process involving extensive planning and ideation has now become more immediate.
Having a robust content library and efficient tools allows for quicker visualization and discovery. For instance, typing in “biking” immediately filters the content. Narrowing it down by region, such as India, and then further by conditions like a sunny day, helps achieve faster and more precise results. This approach ensures you start from a strong point rather than from scratch.
Integrating tools with GenAI is part of this evolution. This integration, which is a core component of our approach, addresses the issue of compromise. Organizations often face trade-offs between speed and quality, speed and volume, or volume and quality. By making content more discoverable and accessible, and by streamlining the workflow, high-quality work can be produced more efficiently within tight timelines.
Moreover, the customizability of assets now supports diverse needs, such as activating campaigns across various channels for agencies, sellers, and retailers. This comprehensive platform approach enables finding, remixing, and activating content seamlessly.