VisitScotland Case Study
_{A united front for Scotland thanks to Brandkit™}

About VisitScotland

VisitScotland is the national tourism organisation for Scotland. Its purpose is to grow the country's presence in the global tourism marketplace. A large organisation with over 500 employees, VisitScotland is responsible for a wealth of activity from marketing, partnership initiatives and events, to scheme implementation and quality assurance.

Renowned as an economic driver for the country, VisitScotland works closely with private businesses, public agencies and local authorities to ensure that visitors experience the very best of Scotland.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a whole new meaning to VisitScotland's role; now a key player in helping bolster the countries’ tourism recovery.

A legacy DAMned with limited functionality

Despite already using a digital asset management (DAM) system, VisitScotland faced a core challenge that prompted the migration to Brandkit; it was tasked with consolidating Scottish Government, Visit Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International, University of Scotland and Talent Scotland's digital assets and brand management into one, user friendly multi-media library.

The project was to connect these organisations' assets and create a collective indistinguishable brand library that was interchangeable between them all.

The end goal was to make a central media hub about living and working in Scotland, studying in Scotland, visiting Scotland and investing in Scotland.

However, the current DAM system was nearing the end of its lifecycle and had limited functionality when it came to organising assets, streamlining content management, and creating integrated brand portals.

Eager to achieve the right result for VisitScotland, Grant Paterson, Production Editor and Digital Library Manager began investigating available solutions to migrate to and soon found Brandkit.

A single multi-media library made easier with Brandkit

The desired outcome of the project was to create a single multi-media library for the above listed government entities so they could all easily maintain and manage the Scottish brand. 

Grant explains that while many brand and digital asset management solutions were considered, none had the level of functionality and customisation as Brandkit, including multiple portals, asset syndcation and multi-lingual support.

The way Brandkit could achieve cohesion across both its customers' portals and libraries felt unparalleled. "Brandkit has wonderful examples of how they do this. In particular, the work they did with New Zealand Tourism", says Grant.

A flexible DAM to manage Scotland's digital assets well into the future

The overall reaction and response from users of VisitScotland's Brandkit system have overall been really good. 
"Our users have been really pleased with the system", says Grant. "I think it's an interesting feature to have feedback reporting in the Brand Portal allowing us to directly understand what our users think of our DAM system, and I think that's great." 

From initial set up to continued support Grant and the team at VisitScotland have been really pleased with the result. "The Brandkit team took us through the whole process well, helping us where and when we needed and supplying very comprehensive material to help get us started", says Grant. "The amount of work, files, advice and overall governance has been exceptional."Given the magnitude of the project the VisitScotland team has been relieved at how simple the Brandkit system has been to use and how accommodating and helpful the Brandkit team have been".  

Having had Brandkit in place now for a the last 3 years, Grant explains they've made use of the functionality available and are frequently impressed at Brandkit's candour to collaborate and develop new features.

"One of the things I would really like to highlight is the media centre", says Grant. "We only had five weeks to put it together and there were a lot of customisations we wanted. What David and the Brandkit team managed to put together and build in that short time-frame was exceptionally good."

Having one consolidated digital asset management system has made managing the Scottish brand easier for all users. "It's provides one single source of the truth," says Grant. "As a toolkit for brand Scotland it has been fantastic and being able to link other brand kits together as just been fantastic."

In addition to a more controllable asset library, a second challenge Brandkit solved for VisitScotland was their ability to control the copyright, licensing and usage rights of all their different assets.

Grant says. "It's been an excellent value package…the niceties that come in the portal site make it look indistinguishable to our website and our core brand, we now have complete control and one single source of the truth."

Excited to implement more Brandkit functionality

Eager to make the most of Brandkit's increasing and new functionality, Grant explains he is looking forward to implementing the new syndication and social media features.

"The new syndication feature in Brandkit 2, looks fantastic. "The idea being that if someone syndicates with you. and they've got their own Brandkit, they look after their own assets, and share with us, and vice versa", explains Grant. "That cuts out a lot of problems with getting forms signed and making sure rights management is in place. It just make the whole process easier."

A partnership both parties are eager to continue to explore. Grant says it's a solution he can see working for VisitScotland for years to come, and with a new multi-year contract in place Brandkit is confident it will continue to deliver for the VisitScotland team.

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Digital Asset Management software is paramount to managing and distributing a destination brand's visual story. If you're interested in learning more about how Brandkit could help your organisation, get in touch or request a demo.