Working with DAM: South Australian Tourism Commission Experience

Can you tell us a little bit about the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC)?

The South Australian Tourism Commission’s (SATC) role is to make South Australia a destination of choice for international and domestic visitors. The SATC is committed to growing South Australia’s visitor economy to $12.8 billion by 2030, and the latest tourism results show that South Australia’s tourism sector has hit an all-time high, with a record $7.8 billion being spent by tourists in the state.

What is your role at the SATC, and what does this entail?

My role is Brand Assets Manager and includes the collection, storage, marketing and distribution of a range of marketing communication assets including the South Australia Media Gallery’s stills and video footage. The role aims to ensure that the content of the material supports and builds consumer awareness and encourages preferences for South Australian products and experiences in line with our tourism brand.

What does Fotoware mean for you? How does Fotoware make your life easier?

The Media Gallery needs to service not just the department but also the wider industry both in Australia and internationally. This requires a site that is reliable, easily accessible, user-friendly, responsive and scalable as we continue to grow our visual assets.

Fotoware integrates with the SATC’s existing cloud-based subscription and also implements a high degree of automation that can approve registrations and orders based on rules and regulations set out by the SATC.

Why is visual content – photos and videos – important for the SATC?

The South Australia Media Gallery is an important asset for the South Australian Tourism Commission’s marketing activities as it facilitates the distribution of the SATC’s visual assets to internal and external users as well as housing all archived assets too.

These images and video capture the depth and diversity of South Australia’s experiences, operators and landscapes helping showcase the state as a destination of choice.

What is the main purpose of Digital Asset Management at the SATC?

The main purpose of the South Australia Media Gallery is to provide a Digital Asset Management solution that allows users to quickly and easily register, search, select, share, order and download assets; provide sophisticated search, filter and metadata capabilities, manage large files sizes and types during upload and within the system and utilize leading-edge technology and features.

Who are the main users, and how many people have access to it?

The main users of the site are SATC staff. Implementing SSO (Single Sign-On) for all SATC staff has been extremely useful (particularly for new starters) and avoids having to constantly enter your account details.

You cannot access the South Australia Media Gallery unless you are a registered user. The user also needs to have a tourism-related project in order to gain access. We currently have a wide cross-section of users including staff, tourism industry, media, events, government and creative agencies. Based on the industry a user is in, there is a hierarchy to the level of access they will be granted.

SATC Staff including our SATC Creative Agencies have a higher level of access and can view, order and download additional images and video that are for SATC Staff use only.

How many files are currently stored in Fotoware? And what are your future plans with media content?

We currently have over 13,000 assets on the live gallery including images and videos. In addition to this there are also over 25,000 archived items.

The South Australia Media Gallery is a constantly evolving platform. We regularly audit assets to refresh with new content and continue to grow and expand the quality of assets that we have available as well as educating those working with us on our brand and visual style.

What are some of the functionalities that the SATC have found useful in the Fotoware platform?

An important function we have found is having the ability within the DAM to approve registrations and orders based on rules and regulations created by the SATC, creating a highly automated system and greater efficiencies.

Some assets have certain restrictions attached to them – for example, if a user registers and the information they provide in their request is not clear or they are in an industry that is not directly tourism-related, the platform will identify this and their registration will sit in pending until it is followed up and we are provided more information on their intentions for accessing the Media Gallery. Likewise, if a user orders an asset that has a restriction attached to it then it will sit in pending to be assessed by someone in the team.

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