Deer Valley Resorts Select Widen Media Collective to Manage Visual Assets

MADISON, WI --(Marketwired - April 19, 2016) - Deer Valley Resort and Solitude Mountain Resort chose the Widen Media Collective for their digital asset management (DAM) needs. The two resorts, based in Utah, will use Widen's cloud-based DAM solution to organize thousands of photos and videos, streamlining workflows within a shared marketing team.

Given the variety of activities and services a ski resort offers -- from lodging and dining to lift tickets and instruction -- it didn't take long for the sheer volume of digital assets to become overwhelming. The marketing team was using an older system, hosted on an internal server, but it wasn't user-friendly, and therefore was seldom used. When Deer Valley acquired nearby Solitude Mountain Resort, they knew they needed a new system, and fast. Not only did they now have two entirely different sets of assets and the need to keep them separate, but they were running out of storage space.

Emily Summers and Lara Brucker of the Deer Valley Resorts communications team took on the responsibility of researching solutions, with help from their IT department. IT got them started with a list of hundreds of companies, which they narrowed down by searching online for user reviews, and making phone calls to request demos. The process also helped them develop a list of what an ideal system might look like for the resorts.

"We didn't know what we were looking for initially, and didn't have a budget," Summers recalls. "We thought the system we had would be okay … but then we ran out of room."

Summers was impressed by Widen's customer service staff, and was happy to not feel pushed into her purchase. "I also knew Widen would help walk us through the educational steps," she says. "The response time was good, and I felt like we could ask a lot of questions and they were really prepared."

Being able to easily separate and organize the assets of the two resorts was essential for Deer Valley's communications team, along with bulk uploading and batch tagging to make everyone's job a little easier. Summers says she didn't even realize the value of the ability to attach documents -- like contracts, model releases and image use rights -- to assets until she had a conversation with her customer service representative, and now calls that feature a "must have."

"It was what we had in our head when picturing a DAM system," Summers says of Widen's product. "We'll easily be able to train the rest of marketing department how to use it." She says her team will start by uploading photos and videos, and eventually will create an archive of communications collateral to use between the two resorts. They'll also use the solution to distribute assets to the media.

"From our initial conversations, the Deer Valley team was clear on their need to provide a centralized library but allow for two galleries of content meeting needs for each brand," stated Brenna Hale, senior advisor at Widen. "The asset group and permission structure in the Widen Media Collective will easily help the team accomplish this goal and much more."

About Deer Valley Resort
Deer Valley Resort revolutionized the ski industry by providing the first-class service one would receive at a five-star hotel. The resort offers 21 chairlifts, 101 ski runs, six bowls, 12 restaurants, 300 annual inches of powder, three elegant day lodges, 2,026 acres of alpine skiing, hundreds of luxury accommodations and a renowned Ski School and Children's Center

About Solitude Mountain Resort
Solitude, a Deer Valley Resort, is a pure, authentic and untarnished Utah territory. Serene or extreme, there's nothing between you and the perfect mountain day. Located in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, the resort offers eight chairlifts, 77 runs, three bowls and 500 annual inches of snow spread over 1,200 acres for skiing and snowboarding.

About Widen Enterprises, Inc.
Widen is a marketing technology company that powers the content that builds your brand. Leveraging cloud-based resources, Widen delivers configurable, scalable, and cost-effective digital asset management solutions to help you easily store, search and share your digital content. Organizations of all sizes use Widen's SaaS DAM solution, the Media Collective, to streamline their marketing and creative workflows and make their content work harder. Widen is trusted by hundreds of thousands of users around the world at organizations like LG, Roche, Trek, Cornell University, New Orleans Tourism Marketing, The Atlanta Falcons, Red Gold Tomatoes, Electrolux, and Yankee Candle. To learn more about Widen, go to http://www.widen.com.