How COAT found the perfect design-led DAM

Ecommerce brand, COAT, sells luxury (but affordable), planet-friendly paint. In fact, they’re the only Climate Positive Certified paint company in the world.

Since launching in 2020, sustainability has been at the core of their brand identity. Their paint is made to order so nothing goes out of date and thrown to landfill. And they’re about to launch a pick-up recycling service - so you’ll be able to recycle your paint tins, no matter what brand of paint you want to get rid of. 

But as Nichola, COAT’s senior marketing manager, told us: although brand aesthetic and a good-quality product is important, people primarily buy paint based on colour.

They buy paint based on the colour selection available. She says: 

“As well as our sustainability ethos, we’re also about curating timeless colours. We don’t follow the trends. We want people to have colours that are going to last and that they’re going to be proud of for years to come.”

You only have to look at COAT’s website, Instagram or Pinterest channel to see that visual content is super-important to appealing to their aesthetically-driven audience. 😍

Google Drive wasn’t doing their visual content justice 

But what happens when all that gorgeous imagery is scattered across a shared drive? 
Before Nichola found Dash, the team used Google Drive to manage and share all this content with internal teams as well as outside agencies. 

If you use Drive, you know how hard it is to find a specific image. As Nichola told us:

“We were growing and expanding into different countries and working with teams that weren't with us in our office every day. It just wasn't feasible for one person to know where all these assets live.” 

The problem with Google Drive is that you can’t search for the actual content of an image. For example, if COAT’s social and creative lead needed to find an interior shot featuring a specific colour, they’d need to know the exact file name and folder it was sitting in. That’s no easy task when you’ve got thousands of images to sift through. 

That’s why the team at COAT were ready to invest in a digital asset management (DAM) tool. 

Searching for a design-led DAM

Nichola was clear on two things when she started searching for a DAM. It had to be affordable and it had to do their visual assets justice.

 “I shopped around a lot. Most DAMs that I demoed felt really old-school and made for big, corporate companies. Plus, some of the prices out there aren’t realistic or obtainable for a start up brand. Luckily, Dash was user-friendly and affordable. It also felt like a design-led tool which is perfect for us as we are a visual-led brand.“ 

As you can imagine, COAT had loads of assets in Google Drive. So when making the move to Dash, Nichola was concerned about how long it would take to migrate all their images over. 

But, she soon found out that she didn’t need to worry. 

“My advice would be: don't think it's overwhelming. It took me about a week to organise everything in Google Drive and get it set up in Dash. But once you put in the leg-work it’s definitely going to help in the long run. That initial set-up is a one off, but your life will be simpler from then on.” 

Dash makes digital asset management as easy and as simple as possible. So if you’re worried about implementing a new DAM, you’ll be pleased to know that our team can migrate your assets from Drive, Dropbox or another DAM free of charge. This way, you can get set up as soon as possible. 

In Dash, Nichola found everything she was looking for: an affordable tool that did her visual assets the justice they deserve. And boy, it looks good - just take a look at what COAT’s Dash homepage looks like. 😍

Searching for brand-specific visuals in Dash

 Once they’d picked Dash, it was time to get tagging. 

COAT has loads of product lines,  all of which have different names (like ‘Hello Vera’, their new range of green paint). This is specific to their brand and isn’t something that Google Drive can organise.

“Colour is subjective. What you might see as green, I might see as blue. So we needed Dash to help us group colours in a super-searchable way - leaving no confusion across our teams.”

But Dash can do just that. 🙌

By using tags and fields, Nichola can assign primary and secondary colours against different product lines. Here, we can find all the ‘green’ colours from the new 2023 range. We can also take a look at the ‘hero’ images that are approved to feature on the website. 

This makes it easy to search for content for a marketing campaign, or for the images to drop into your Shopify product listing via Dash’s Shopify integration. ✨

Managing UGC and influencer content 

The marketing team hugely rely on user-generated content (UGC) and influencers to help them collate their visuals. Not only because they don't have access to an endless supply of beautiful homes, but because they want to connect with their audience.

“The main reason we work with influences is because we’re a visual brand. We’re also a premium brand but we’re accessible. We want to build a community which means our content has to be relatable.” 

Nichole uses an influencer marketing platform to source influencer and user-generated content. Once she’s found the perfect creator and received the visual content, she’ll upload it to Dash. For the rest of the team it couldn’t be easier to find new and approved UGC. 

The team can select the relevant UGC folder, apply tags and filter through different colours, product lines and file types. 

Sharing visual content with the press 

COAT has big plans for the future. They’re not content on just being “another paint brand”. They want to push their brand even further which they’ve already been doing through partnerships and innovation.

"We consider ourselves a lifestyle brand. So we're pushing for coverage in more national and lifestyle publications, as well as PR opportunities. Whilst collaborations, like our recent partnership with Laura Jackson, provide beautiful content and press interest, we're also focusing on sustainability initiatives and technology which is changing the paint game."

As an example, COAT just partnered with the delivery company, Bodo, to offer same-day delivery. This creates an even more personalised experience for the customers and means no more last-minute trips to the DIY store!

Having a tool like Dash makes the process of getting images over to partners and agencies so much smoother. Nichola can use tags and filters to find press-ready images. She then collates them into a collection and shares them with her agency. 

“When we used Google Drive, there was just no logical way to share our assets with outside teams. Nothing was organised. It was a mess. But, the filter and tagging system in Dash has made my life so much easier.”

Finally, would she recommend Dash to other growing ecommerce brands?

“One hundred percent. The speed is incredible, it's really user-friendly and your team is always on hand to support. It feels like a really personable experience.” ✨