I'm telling you, Gilmore Girls is a masterpiece of a show. It's one of those shows that you can watch over and over and keep noticing new things and a large part of that is the references. Just today I watched 3x02 for what was probably the 30th time since I first watched the show 15 years ago.... and I figured out a reference I had never caught before. I'd heard it but I guess I just assumed that Michel had named the rat that was running around the Independence Inn. Now after having watched the "Michael" biopic and really starting to go down the Michael Jackson discography rabbit hole... I finally get this reference. There's a 1972 film called "Ben" that is about a rat named Ben and Michael Jackson wrote the title song... which is a great song and I recommend everyone go listen to it (especially the live version) because Michael sings with all the passion and emotion in the world about a rat lol. But getting back to Gilmore Girls, some people act like they went overboard with the references but it really gave this show layers. It's like an onion, fam! 😆😉❤️
Babs, Buster and a sled named Rosebud whoosh down the snow covered hillside, on this production cel, from a scene I animated for, the opening of “It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special” 1992.
Lukewarm lemon juice was served to each guest in large foam cups. All guests gathered at the dining room table to dig into their cup of lemon juice in absolute silence. Trepidations were absent as each and every guest had but one thing on his or her mind: art.
When the lemon juice consuming was finished, the aspiring artists were ushered down into the basement of the house where they were given…
Going Global? How To Localize Content Without Giving Up Centralized Control
By Michael Gerard, e-Spirit
Companies serving a diverse global audience today face a dilemma. What is the best way to ensure that content, messages, images and overall brand are consistently presented across multiple channels, while giving regional offices the power to localize content for different languages and cultures? This is the classic push-pull of absolute central control versus the need for local flexibility. It’s a nuanced digital experience dance that corporate marketers perform every day with their counterparts in the field.
The good news is that there is a new approach to managing digital content known as Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) that lets both corporate and field marketers publish content on demand that meets everyone’s needs — particularly the customer. Think of CaaS as more like a digital content hub or virtual content repository than a pure-play content management system. Content is pulled together for the right customer in the right context at the right touch point at the right time and assembled on the glass. That means the screen or display, regardless of what (or where) the display actually is. In this way, marketers can develop and publish channel-agnostic, localized content, providing a relevant digital experience to customers around the world, thereby increasing the opportunities for sales and customer loyalty.
If you are looking for a solution that supports centralized control with global flexibility, here’s what to look for:
The ability for content and media to be centrally stored and flexibly delivered based on user group, device, theme, or country.
Intuitive operation, robust master templates and automated tools for blending corporate content with local content to reduce editorial workload and ensure global brand consistency.
Highly customizable workflows that enable content developers from any internal department or discipline, any regional office or any external partner/agency to automatically and securely work within established practices and corporate guidelines.
Support for multilingual content and digital marketing with simplified translation processes via structured export and import of content.
Predefined templates in multiple languages so that a company’s regional offices can easily tailor content for their users without turning to IT staff at the home office.
How Urban Decay Powers Its Global Content Strategy
L’Oréal Luxe’s fast-growing color cosmetics brand Urban Decay (UD) has a brand presence in the U.S., Europe, and is expanding into Asia and the Middle East. UD launched a new content-driven web site using this approach. The new “UD All Access” site:
Doubles the size of the company’s web site;
Complements Urban Decay’s thriving e-Commerce site based on Salesforce Commerce Cloud; and
Gives the brand’s dedicated fans a richer, more immersive and interactive experience than what’s possible on a commerce site alone.
Adding to the challenge of managing and maintaining such a rich set of content, Urban Decay is in the midst of a rapid global expansion and needed a way to keep its brand presence absolutely consistent in every country as it expands from the U.S. to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It also needed a way to maintain consistency across its Salesforce Commerce Cloud site and the content side. By moving to a central system for managing and publishing content, Urban Decay is in effect creating a digital experience hub for managing its brand globally.
Final Thoughts
With the world becoming more connected every day, it’s vital that your content management system or digital experience hub simplifies localization processes and supports your globalization goals while simultaneously protecting your brand. This gives your local offices the flexibility they need while keeping control of what matters: your corporate brand. And CaaS is a great way to get started. What are you waiting for?
Michael Gerard is the Chief Marketing Officer of e-Spirit Inc. He has 20+ years of marketing experience in the tech space, 10 of which were spent at IDC managing its CMO and Sales Advisory Practices. Gerard is responsible for leading the global marketing strategy for e-Spirit. He is a sought-after speaker and has presented at leading industry events, such as IDC’s annual Directions event, MIT Sloan School of Management's events, and Sales 2.0 conferences. He joined e-Spirit in early 2017.
