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The challenge: RevAir struggled to organise their growing library of visual content in Google Drive. It was super disorganised which made it difficult to find anything. They couldn’t make the most of photoshoot assets and often projects were pushed to the side because nobody could find what they needed.
The solution: RevAir got Dash, our affordable digital asset management (DAM) solution, which transformed their content organisation. Dash saved the team 20 hours each month, streamlined the asset approval process with content creators and freed up time so they could get back to being creative.
RevAir, short for 'reverse air', is not just any hair dryer—it's the world's first and only reverse air dryer. Launched in 2018, this innovative device gently dries and smooths hair by closing the cuticle, working in a third of the time a traditional blow dryer takes.
Kim is RevAir’s Corporate Cheerleading Officer (COO). She was one of the first employees of RevAir and has seen the company quickly grow. She was the driving force behind the implementation of Dash - a tool that the team can’t live without. 🙌
The challenges
First, let’s look at some of the challenges Kim and the team experienced with their previous cloud solution, Google Drive.
Expensive photo shoots were underutilised
Visual content is crucial for RevAir. With a price point of around $400, it’s vital for customers to see the product in action on various hair types to fully understand the benefits. Being primarily an ecommerce brand, they heavily rely on their images and video content to demonstrate those benefits.
"$400 is a big consideration for folks to make," Kim explains. "Having a good understanding is very important and that comes down to content."
By late 2022, RevAir’s growing visual content became overwhelming to manage in Google Drive. The team invested a lot in photoshoots, but Kim worried that the content was getting lost or underutilised.
“I felt anxious knowing how much money had been spent on the photoshoot, only to struggle to find the images in Google Drive. I couldn’t show them to team members who weren’t at the photoshoot. I wanted to create wonderful things from the content, but it was impossible with Google Drive.”
Google Drive was stopping the brand from growing
Google Drive is very limiting for managing visual content. As Kim found, team members were creating multiple folders for different purposes, and then saving different versions of their assets across various folders. If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is! 😭
“You start with one folder structure, but as you grow and create more folders, the structure becomes outdated. Only two or three people know where anything is. Co-workers ask you to find images for them, and you waste a lot of time searching through folders.”
This is a common problem that many marketing teams have with shared drives. You can read more about how DAM stacks up against Google Drive and Dropbox.
Projects were being put on the back burner
RevAir is a remote company. They need to have systems in place that allow them to work effectively from anywhere in the world. Kim says they had some great platforms in place, but the one area letting them down was the management of their visual content.
“We had some of the best platforms, including our CRM or our ecommerce site. They all did a great job bringing us together, but we always had issues with visual content because Google Drive just didn’t work like we needed it to.”
This halted the progress of projects. When colleagues couldn’t find or access the content they needed from Google Drive, some projects inevitably fell to the bottom of the to-do list.
“It can be debilitating. It becomes a project you put off until you have more time to dive into your folders.”
Kim decided it was time to find a solution. And that’s where Dash comes in. 👋
The solution
Here are some of the ways Dash is helping RevAir improve their marketing operations and grow as a brand. 🚀
Finding a DAM that matched their budget
Kim researched several digital asset management (DAM) solutions, finding many to be very expensive—a common issue for smaller DTC brands looking for new software. (Brandfolder, for example, can cost around $1600 per month. 🤯)
“I looked at the price points for some other DAMs and knew there was no way I could get my finance team to include it in our 2023 budget.”
Determined to find a better solution for her team, Kim looked to Dash. Starting at £79/$109 per month, Dash had a price the team could afford.
“It made perfect sense, and I was ready to show our finance team how much productivity and time we would save, which would translate into cost savings.”
Earning back return on investment
As Kim predicted, the return on investment from Dash has been fantastic for RevAir. She says:
“I truly believe Dash has saved us at least ten times its cost.”
Across the team, Kim says they’re saving about 20 hours per month because they’re not trawling through Google Drive. This means they have more time for creative and strategic work. These hours add up to significant savings over the year. 🙌
You can work out how much time you could save with Dash using the calculations in our article about DAM return on investment.
Sharing content with agencies and partners
Many DTC brands work with agencies and external partners. They’re like an extension of your team so it’s important they have access to all the content they need. This is where Dash portals come in. 🌌
Portals allow you to create a separate, publicly accessible version of your Dash. Agencies can use this portal to search, browse, and download the assets they need without having to hassle you directly. You can choose which folders they can see and even add a welcome message to their home page.
“We’ve set up multiple Portals for our different agencies. What’s really great is that we can choose exactly what to give them access to, whether that’s an entire folder structure or just specific sub-folders.”
Portals are also ideal if you work with retailers. You can set up a Portal with the product images they need to sell your items.
Learn more about how Portals help your retailers sell more products.
Collecting user-generated content from customers
RevAir works with various content creators, including customers who send in user-generated content. Dash’s guest upload feature plays a vital role in getting that content approved and posted on RevAir’s social channels.
Guest upload in Dash is a unique link you can generate and send to external content creators. They can upload content to the link without needing a login. Dash admins can view the uploaded content in a holding area to approve or reject it. You can also select the folder where the content will go once approved. Here’s what Kim says about it:
“Some of our customers generate outstanding videos and reviews for us. Before Dash, one person might send it via Dropbox, another via Google, and another in a text. Having one link that notifies us when content is sent feels more professional, and I feel like we don’t lose anything.”
Managing influencer relationships
In addition to collecting UGC, RevAir works with influencers on a retainer basis. These creators produce image and video content for the brand to share on their socials. It’s crucial for the team to monitor usage rights to maintain a good relationship.
In Dash, it’s easy to add expiry dates to assets. When an asset reaches its expiry date, anyone who has downloaded it will get a notification that it’s no longer available. You can also add notes on assets to inform users of specific licensing agreements. Kim says:
“We always want to honour our influencers and affiliates. Without a tool like Dash, it’s difficult to monitor that one piece of content is licensed for six months while another is licensed indefinitely. We can also ensure it’s no longer available for download in any of our portals, so we don’t have to worry.”
Finding inspiration for marketing campaigns
In Kim’s words, she and her team like to go “shopping in Dash”. This is like browsing through products in an online store but instead scrolling through their visual content. With all their product images and videos displayed in a clickable, easy-to-use interface, they can focus on finding the best content for their campaigns.
“It’s so lovely to go ‘shopping in Dash’ because I can type in different search terms and tags and sort by file type. It not only returns the things I’m thinking of but also shows me other options that might be even better. Sometimes there are assets I didn’t even remember! Dash just makes us work better.” 💕
How RevAir structures their Dash
If you’re thinking of getting a Dash for your brand, you may want some inspiration on how to structure your folders. Here’s a sneak peak of how RevAir has set up theirs.
Folders are organised by RevAir’s different product types.
They also have folders for branded model shoots which often contain raw footage. This is ideal for when the team is looking for inspiration. For example, after a large photoshoot, they might have images where the model's eyes are closed. Later, when creating an email campaign with a theme like 'hush' or ‘sleep’, they might go back to the raw image and find an image they didn’t expect to use. 💡
Here’s Kim showing us around her folders in Dash.
RevAir’s recommendations for other DTC brands
Finally, we asked Kim if she would recommend Dash to other brands.
“I would absolutely recommend Dash. For what it costs per month, I easily get ten times the return in productivity from my team members, in addition to happier team members and better quality work. I encourage anyone, especially anyone working with agencies, to look at Dash and think about how they could do things differently.
We spend so much money on visual content. It shouldn’t be in folders. It should be easily accessible and displayed like a beautiful photo album.”
Want a Dash of your own? You can take out a 14-day free trial, no strings attached.
