Karlsruhe, October 05, 2010 +++ BrandMaker, Europe’s largest provider of Marketing Resource Management (MRM) Software, has acquired the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC) as a new client. With headquarters in Tromsø and its world-wide establishments the NSEC is the common economic and marketing organ for the Norwegian fishing industry and promotes interest in Norwegian fish products both nationally and internationally. The NSEC has a marketing budget of approximately 50 million Euros. In order to optimise their marketing processes world-wide and increase marketing efficiency, the NSEC has decided to implement the web-based modules Marketing Planner and Media Pool from the BrandMaker MRM solution suite. “BrandMaker offers not only a wide range of functionalities, when required the software can be expanded in a flexible modular manner”, comments Merete Kristiansen, Marketing Director at NSEC, when explaining the decision. “With BrandMaker we are in the position to optimise our marketing process in a holistic way from the planning and budgeting stage through to implementation and evaluation of the steps taken. And as all information and documentation is made available centrally, we can really increase the efficiency of our marketing.

After a pilot phase during which the NSEC tested the BrandMaker modules and simulated various marketing measures for Germany, Sweden, Japan and the Ukraine, the complete international rollout will be finalised at the end of 2010. As a central platform, the BrandMaker Marketing Planner will then deliver an up-to-date overview of all measures and budgets to around 50 users word-wide. The implementation of the modules will be accompanied by BrandMaker’s Norwegian distribution partner Media Asset Management AS. After the system implementation, the NSEC will use the Marketing Planner for the planning, budgeting and analysis of over 600 marketing activities that are carried out on a yearly basis. So that invoices that are entered into the accounting software Visma Accounting do not have to be entered manually into the Marketing Planner, BrandMaker has implemented an interface that enables the automatic import of bills. From this, invoices from the accounting software can be directly allocated to the relevant project in order to compare the actual costs incurred to those in the planning budget.

The NSEC will use the media database BrandMaker Media Pool to manage all media objects – images and videos as well as brochures and advertisements. Beyond authorised NSEC employees, after registering, also fish exporters have access to a publicly available area of the Media Pool where they will be able to download and use approved images. So that web editors can also benefit from photos, the Media Pool will be linked to the Content Management System eZ Publish. Web editors will therefore be able to access the Media Pool directly from the CMS and upload photos for use on the internet – including a function that automatically converts the photos to the correct format. “For an institution that operates world-wide such as the NSEC, having marketing information and materials available on a central location is immensely important,” comments Mirko Holzer, CEO of BrandMaker. “What is even more important is how up-to-date the information is. When all involved parties are on the same level, transparency increases and leads to better teamwork and thus inevitably increases marketing efficiency.”


About BrandMaker
BrandMaker GmbH, headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, is Europe’s leading supplier of marketing resource management (MRM) systems and employs about 150 people throughout Europe. Founded in 1999, BrandMaker is a pioneer in the area of marketing-process optimization. Since 2001, it has been selling its MRM system, also called BrandMaker, which addresses the needs of marketing and communications departments in large, decentralized organizations. BrandMaker is a comprehensive, modular MRM solution that optimizes the entire marketing process chain, removes burdensome aspects of marketing operations, and significantly increases marketing productivity. There are BrandMaker modules for, among other processes, automated ordering of online and print media (the latter via web-to-print), for media asset management, and for software-supported marketing planning and marketing strategy. The second key product is the BrandMaker Marketing Planner SaaS, the first completely web-based marketing planning software system in Germany (www.marketing-planner-online.com).

Among the well-known firms that use BrandMaker solutions in their marketing departments are Commerzbank, DekaBank, Domicil Möbel, Ernst & Young, EnBW, G+J EMS, Opel, and Tirol Werbung.

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