Bumkins provides easy self-service access to imagery for retailers worldwide
Few things are cuter than baby superheroes. Bumkins is perhaps most widely known for their signature waterproof bibs with superhero stamps, recently in partnership with DC comics and Disney, in addition to all things baby. From silicone dishware to cloth diaper products, their mission is to provide fun, functional family products to a growing base of loyal customers.
Leyna Segal, Bumkins photo editor and designated on-set peek-a-boo expert, works with the Bumkins team to capture and produce lifestyle and product photography for the Bumkins brand, which is used for marketing and retail collateral. Between photography shoots of cute Bumkins babies and Batman-branded waterproof bibs, Segal’s superpower is the ability to make images available on-demand to licensors, retail partners, and the marketing team.
The goal
The brand needed an easy way to provide imagery to their retailers and distributors around the world.
The result
Bumkins has virtually eliminated image requests through Canto portals.
Goal
Before implementing a DAM, the Bumkins team was using a patchy combination of servers, Dropbox, and tribal knowledge to locate and share assets. “We had all these assets in different places, and we were looking to put them in a single place so we could have more control over who gets what,” Segal says.
“The problem with cloud storage and servers is that things are hard to find and they’re not very visual. Most of the time, the team would get frustrated with searching and just come ask me because I knew where everything is.”
When distributors needed product or lifestyle photography, they would send image requests to the Bumkins sales department, who would then reach out to the marketing team. Segal would then set up zip files or WeTransfer links to share the images. When the Bumkins team realized this cumbersome process wasn’t working well across retailers, distributors, and marketing team members, they began the search for something better to enable each part of the business to self-serve.
Bumkins’ public Canto portal
Enter: Canto
“When we found Canto, we were so impressed by how intuitive the system was and how easy it was to work with,” Segal says. Other systems were lacking a visual element, which made lifestyle and product images difficult to find, especially without the ability to preview easily. When a lifestyle or product photoshoot has been completed, Leyna’s team edits the photos and uploads the ones that are ready to publish into Canto for distribution to the marketing team, and tags them so they’re easy to find.
Getting organized
The Bumkins library is divided into categories of lifestyle and product imagery first, and then into folders by product type: dishware, bibs, placemats, pacifier clamps, etc. Within that structure, each product type is divided into categories based on the license (Disney-branded products, Nintendo, etc). This makes it easy for distributors and retailers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
When the post-production photos are uploaded into Canto, they also get tagged with product type, and even SKU numbers and pattern codes. “Sometimes if there’s food in the photo we get down into exactly what food it is just to make sure. So if someone is looking for a photo with strawberries, they can find a photo with strawberries,” says Segal. Photos are also tagged depending on how they should be used, from public photos for the website to specific images for catalog purposes.
“While we were getting set up, we were very happy with how easy it was to get in touch with the Canto team for help when we needed it. Everyone was wonderful and that’s huge for us because we’ve worked with many other tools where it’s difficult to get the support you need quickly.”
Our team loves Canto because it has streamlined our process: we’ve cut out the middle men and the stress of having to search for the images that are needed.
Leyna SegalPhoto Editor
Results
With Canto public portals, Bumkins provide on-demand access to imagery for licensees, consumers, and retailers. “Canto allows us to keep everything nice and organized and makes it easy to search through our large library of product, model, and lifestyle images,” Segal says, “It’s been an absolute game changer. Our team loves it because it has streamlined our process: we’ve cut out the middle men and the stress of having to search for the images that are needed.”
