What to Look for in Your Next Promo Review Tool – Part 1

Note: This is a two-part series, and this post is part 1 of 2.

If you’re in life sciences, every day can feel like Groundhog Day in the Promotion Review Committee (PRC) world. It can be even worse if the tool you use to support your promotional review process doesn’t meet your organizational needs. Still using paper, email or Sharepoint for reviews? You’re not alone. There are still many organizations who haven’t taken the plunge into streamlining their review process by adopting an electronic tool to bolster the process.

When your company is ready to take the leap into a new promo review tool, we’ve put together some important characteristics to consider and include in your RFP:

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Does it have a DAM component? A DAM is one place where you can store all your content associated with promotional reviews. The DAM allows you to find any content that are in draft, review, or approved. You also can find source files, such as images, and other important documents, like references, that can help support the creation of your content. Make sure the tool has a DAM or can integrate easily with a DAM so you can access all of your content in one place.

Out-of-Box vs. Custom Offerings

Do you need a tool that’s essentially out of the box, or do you have unique workflows that may require some customization? First, determine your process needs. Customization can seem like a scary word tied to $$$, but that’s not always the case.  Consider whether you need to alter any internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) before buying a new system. Many PRC tool vendors or PRC-specific consulting firms, such as Framework Solutions, can provide you with consulting support to evolve your SOPs and understand if you need a custom or out-of-box solution.

File Type

Does the tool support all of your file type needs? In today’s ever-changing world, you need a tool that embraces every file type. Whether your teams submit PDFs, PPTs, videos, web pages or apps, be sure you evaluate not only if the tool supports them, but also that the tool allow users to leave comments and annotate directly on all files during the review process.

Versioning

Can you track versions of content? Consider a world where you can easily see the last version of a piece going through review and approval in addition to any comments made by the content creator or other reviewers. You should be able to easily compare the current version of a piece side by side to the previous version. Many tools handle this differently, so be sure to inquire about it.

Referencing

How does the tool handle referencing? Maintaining and managing all the claims that marketers make in their marketing collateral can be a tedious task. Understanding that organizations use the same references over and over again, it’s ideal to find a tool that stores and reuses references so that you aren’t maintaining multiple copies of the same reference every time the reference is used. Additionally, your tool should make it simple y for a reviewer to understand how a claim in a marketing piece is— cited by making it easy to navigate between the cited reference source and marketing piece.

Globalization

Can the tool support globalization? If you’re an organization that does business in multiple countries, you’ll most likely need to support PRC reviews for every region. Determine if it is important that your entire organization be on the same system. While it will be more challenging to roll out a system globally, time and money will be saved in the long run and you’ll gain the benefit of being able to maintain brand consistency worldwide.

DAMs, out-of-box vs custom offerings, file type, versioning, and referencing are all good features to consider when you start your evaluation of bringing in   a new promotional review tool. To assist in your efforts, we’ll supply an RFP template in Part 2 of this series and also discuss other features that you should consider on your journey for purchasing a new promo review tool.

If you’d like to learn how Pepper Flow can streamline your promotional review process,  contact us at hello@vodori.com.