Wawa Selects the Widen Media Collective for its Digital Asset Management (DAM) Needs

MADISON, Wis. - July 9, 2013 - PRLog -- Wawa, Inc., a regional convenience and fuel retail chain with built-to-order food and beverage options, has chosen the Widen Media Collective for its Digital Asset Management needs. As an extensive user of both print and digital signage, Wawa adopted Widen DAM to organize its digitals assets and streamline collaboration with ad agencies while providing company leadership with convenient self-service access to critical brand files.

“We have an extensive library of brand images and searching for an image to meet an exact need was time consuming” ,” said Steven Gamble, marketing services manager at Wawa. “We recently implemented a digital signage program that was requiring us to create digital assets at a much higher rate. Given the difficulties we had and this new influx of material, we knew the problem was going to get much worse.”

Gamble’s team reached out to ad agency partners for recommendations on file management solutions and soon began an extensive review of 10 digital asset management systems.

“At the end of the day, our choice came down to the user interface. Our need for simplicity in the front end was the most important criteria,” said Gamble.

Wawa chose Widen for its accessible user interface with plans to provide access to Wawa’s marketing team and multiple advertising partners, which include traditional, interactive, packaging, and printer agencies. Each agency will be able to upload assets onto the Widen DAM system, simplifying delivery, review, and overall project management.

"From a brand standpoint, it's imperative to provide agency partners with a window to the correct assets,” said Nina Brakel-Schutt, Widen Brand Strategist. “Widen's DAM system provides a single point of reference for assets, so all external communications will share a common thread and Wawa will be presented with consistency to the marketplace."

In addition, the Widen DAM system will provide Wawa’s senior management with self-service access to digital assets they need for presentations. Ultimately, the DAM system will hold native and retouched photos along with all final projects including photos, signage, videos for digital signage, and online flash videos for emails and the Wawa website.

About Wawa, Inc.

Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, PA, in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and “certified” process. As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960’s, Grahame Wood, George’s grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for dairy products. Today, Wawa is your all day, everyday stop for fresh, built to-order foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services, and surcharge-free ATM's. A chain of more than 600 convenience retail stores (300 offering gasoline), Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida. The stores offer a large fresh food service selection, including Wawa brands such as built-to-order hoagies, freshly-brewed coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, built-to-order Specialty Beverages, and an assortment of soups, sides, and snacks.

About Widen Enterprises, Inc.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Widen has honed its more than 60 years of experience in premedia services and color management specifically for assisting customers with building brand equity and supporting consistent brand representation across print and Web communications. Through its inventive suite of Web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provide marketing networks with real-time, Web-based access to clients’ digital asset libraries, subsequently eliminating manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that cannot be located, and added costs for hardware, software and upgrades. For more information, visit: http://www.widen.com.