VMware by Broadcom
VMware relies on Adobe's end-to-end content supply chain to centralize their massive content-creation workflow for their global annual conference, VMware Explore.
Frame.io helps VMware Explore come to life.
Challenge
Based in Palo Alto, California, VMware by Broadcom knows what it’s like to create at scale. Their annual conference, VMware Explore, is their largest in-person marketing opportunity. With 10,000 attendees in Las Vegas alone, their reach across additional locations in São Paolo, Tokyo, Singapore, and Barcelona extends to 60,000 customers.
Creating the required assets for VMware Explore involves an in-house team of 24 creatives—along with third-party vendors—to handle the demands of some 2,000 internal clients and stakeholders from around the world. Managing as many as 400 project requests at any given time for videos, animations, digital signage (and more) and tracking the volume of assets involved is a huge challenge, both logistically and creatively.
Solution
Adobe GenStudio is an end-to-end suite of tools that allows teams to efficiently move through the planning, creation, delivery, and analysis phases of the content creation process. Each project begins with a request in Adobe Workfront that serves as the creative brief and roadmap that keeps them moving forward. VMware uses it to assign resources, evaluate workloads, and guide them from point to point along the way. Frame.io enables creatives to exchange assets with each other and to get specific notes from stakeholders as they work in many of the Adobe Creative Cloud applications. With integrations in Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Frame.io Camera to Cloud, their video and photo workflow is streamlined from camera capture to final delivery. And with the ability to also leave or gather feedback on design files in Frame.io, it’s their one-stop creative collaboration hub.
Results
For VMware Explore in Las Vegas, the Brand Experience team successfully produced nearly 1,000 assets from animations to signage. Because they create libraries of assets and can share them easily through Frame.io globally, they were also able to repurpose much of what they created for North America for use in the international events. Most significantly, using the end-to-end content supply chain helped them save almost 60 percent of the time they once spent on tracking logistics and to cut revisions by 20 percent—which leaves them more time to be creative and saves them tens of thousands of dollars per year.
If you’re trying to run a global brand and you’re trying to do it with a lot of different tools, you’re doing a lot of extra work. We can’t do our jobs without Adobe.
See how Adobe GenStudio and Frame.io help keep VMware Explore on course creatively.
A detailed roadmap
Every creative project at VMware begins with a request in Adobe Workfront. Because VMware creates so many different kinds of deliverables, they have developed customized templates for each variant. The process of filling out the Workfront request guides the user through project requirements, which means they're less likely to overlook critical details. By the time the request is completed, the Brand Engagement team (who are responsible for project management and workflow) has a clear understanding of what resources will be required to bring it to completion.
Because every project has its own Workfront request, the project managers have an overview of all available resources and can easily assign internal staff—or determine whether a third-party vendor will be required. As the project progresses, Workfront acts as a routing system with a series of checkpoints that move the client through the process. And because the history of each request remains in Workfront, it also provides insights into similar projects to get a sense of what it took to achieve, how much it cost, and what could be done more efficiently.
A creative intersection
The Brand Experience team depends on Frame.io to stay on course creatively. Relying on virtually all the applications in Adobe Creative Cloud, the Frame.io and Workfront integrations with Premiere Pro and After Effects are especially critical to speeding reviews, garnering approvals on video content, and managing resources. The Camera to Cloud integration with the FUJIFILM X-H2S enabled the team to capture video and photographic content during VMware Explore in Las Vegas, turning around their daily recaps and social media deliverables on the same day to drive excitement and engagement—rather than 12 or 24 hours later. Frame.io also functions as a secure way for the team to share assets with in-house (as well as third-party) creatives globally so they can ensure a consistent look across all collateral.
A clear way forward
The powerful combination of all the tools within the content supply chain equals far more than just the sum of its parts. It’s a holistic workflow environment where all applications intersect so that project managers and creatives alike can work in lock step, smoothing the journey for everyone. Project managers can work faster with Workfront automating much of what used to be done manually, allowing them to focus more on brand strategy than on process. Creatives can collaborate more fluidly and rapidly, allowing them to stay focused on creating a timely experience for conference attendees. Most importantly, the integrated ecosystem helps the VMware marketing teams represent the $20 billion brand to a global audience more effectively and efficiently.
*All stats are accurate as of September 2023.
As content demand rises, Adobe GenStudio provides the right tools to help you scale.
