Alan Beiagi, Chief Product and Expertise Officer at Canto |

Canto’s AI-powered platform for digital asset administration (DAM) and product data administration (PIM) is more and more a cornerstone for lodge and resort manufacturers that should handle dozens or a whole bunch of properties, international advertising and marketing campaigns, and localized content material workflows. From guest-facing web sites and cell apps to signage and in-room shows, accommodations face a tidal wave of visible and knowledge property. Canto helps flip that chaos into readability.

On this Highlight Interview, Alan Beiagi, Chief Product and Expertise Officer at Canto, displays on how his engineering and product management background shapes the corporate’s strategy to hospitality innovation. He shares how unified DAM + PIM systems are serving to lodge operators streamline content material governance, speed up campaigns, and ship a constant visitor expertise throughout channels and areas.

You’re a software program engineer turned product chief. What points of that journey have most affected your strategy at Canto?

My engineering background taught me tips on how to suppose in methods. Not simply how instruments perform, however how folks work together with them at scale. Through the years, I’ve led product technique for corporations throughout digital media, martech, and location-based providers. That selection gave me an appreciation for constructing readability into complexity, which inserts very well into the digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software program world. At Canto, I attempt to construct with empathy for each the artistic lead engaged on a marketing campaign and the IT crew answerable for governance. My aim is to design platforms that scale cleanly, keep out of the way in which, and assist groups do their finest work.

For lodge manufacturers managing ever-larger volumes of images, movies, menus, signage, and marketing campaign supplies, what are the most important dangers or inefficiencies you see at present?

One of many largest inefficiencies is the fragmentation of content material management and content material fact. Within the hospitality enterprise, digital content material continues to be usually saved throughout particular person exhausting drives, native folders, or e mail threads, which results in model management points, licensing errors, and quite a lot of wasted, pissed off time. We frequently come into conditions the place accommodations are utilizing dated imagery on public web sites or companions are selling expired affords as a result of they merely couldn’t discover the precise asset. When people throughout totally different groups are spending hours every week simply finding content material, that’s time they’re not spending on strategic, artistic work.

That’s the place DAM and PIM are available, by bringing construction and management to content material that’s in any other case scattered throughout methods and slowing down execution and development.

How can lodge advertising and marketing groups use a unified DAM+PIM platform to streamline operations throughout a number of properties, languages, and model tiers?

Combining DAM and PIM is about eradicating silos. As an alternative of juggling a number of instruments or manually syncing picture libraries with the information layer behind the rooms/packages/and so forth. that accommodations promote, a unified platform provides each stakeholder entry to the present authorised content material, from promotional images to room particulars. Localization turns into smoother, approvals are sooner, and distribution to companions, OTAs, and franchises is extra managed. That alignment interprets straight into stronger campaigns and higher guest-facing experiences.

Lodge teams usually juggle inside groups, artistic businesses, and franchise operators. How do instruments like Portals, obtain presets, and interactive model guides assist Canto maintain all these gamers aligned with out slowing them down?

We designed these instruments particularly for distributed advertising and marketing ecosystems. With Portals, for instance, a hospitality model can curate self-service libraries by lodge area, viewers, or marketing campaign. Fashion guides be sure that logos, fonts, and utilization guidelines are baked into the expertise. Obtain presets imply that even non-designers can seize a picture within the actual spec wanted for Instagram, a billboard, or a digital kiosk, all with out making a request to the artistic crew. That autonomy means lodge teams and their companions can transfer shortly whereas staying tightly on model.

For groups that have to route content material by way of reviewers, we’ve constructed structured approval workflows straight into the platform (we name it Approval Hub). Inventive groups can assign reviewers, examine variations, and depart visible feedback, all with out switching instruments or shedding observe of suggestions. That autonomy and alignment imply lodge teams and their companions can transfer shortly whereas staying tightly on model.

Inns proceed to focus extra on delivering customized visitor experiences to face out. Does centralized content material administration contribute to that aim?

Completely. Personalization requires precision. Whether or not it’s selling spa packages to return guests or displaying region-specific imagery on a reserving web page, you want quick entry to the precise content material. A centralized DAM+PIM system ensures that groups and platforms — from reserving engines to e-commerce instruments like Shopify — can pull from a single supply of fact. You want a single place the place you could be assured that what you’re getting is present, correct, and enriched with metadata. That consistency makes it potential to scale personalization with out sacrificing high quality or compliance.

Inns are additionally ramping up AI-driven personalization and content material era. How does Canto assist manufacturers keep construction, accuracy, and model management amid the content material surge?

Lodge entrepreneurs are flooded with content material, which has been each a blessing and a problem. What we proceed to listen to from clients within the business, although, is that whereas AI can create shortly, it doesn’t handle content material, implement model requirements, or guarantee something aligns together with your precise technique. Canto’s DAM system makes use of structured metadata, good tags, and governance workflows to make sure that what will get created is definitely usable (which means rights-cleared, brand-compliant, and discoverable). With out construction, visitor and viewers personalization turns into chaos. With it, groups can transfer quick and keep in management.

Are you able to give an instance of how a lodge or hospitality model has used Canto to considerably enhance marketing campaign effectivity or asset reuse?

As an affiliation model representing a curated assortment of impartial luxurious accommodations, The Set confronted a typical problem: managing a rising library of visible property throughout a number of properties and groups. Previous to implementing Canto, content material was saved throughout numerous native folders and cloud drives, resulting in inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and model management points.

Since adopting Canto, The Set has created a centralized digital asset administration hub that streamlines how property are saved, shared, and accessed globally. Groups throughout model, lodge advertising and marketing, and company companions now profit from clear tagging, utilization rights visibility, and sooner search capabilities. With a single supply of fact, The Set ensures model consistency throughout all touchpoints, whether or not it’s international campaigns, hotel-level communications, or partnership activations.

With so many digital touchpoints in hospitality, from reserving engines to cell check-in to in-room shows, how does Canto guarantee content material is each constant and context-appropriate?

It’s an excellent query, and definitely an enormous problem on this business. Our strategy is thru construction and suppleness. As talked about, every asset in Canto can carry metadata about utilization rights, regional match, and efficiency. Meaning content material could be deployed confidently throughout any touchpoint, whether or not it’s a foyer display screen or an e mail supply. Sensible tags and model management be sure that the precise asset reveals up in the precise place, in the precise format, on the proper time. As a result of that construction scales throughout all customers and integrations, it provides groups the liberty to maneuver shortly with out second-guessing whether or not one thing has really been authorised or applicable.

World lodge manufacturers have to navigate localization, copyright legal guidelines, and region-specific promotions. How does Canto assist compliance and content material governance in these eventualities?

By supporting granular person permissions, asset-level rights metadata, and expiration dates, our hospitality clients can limit entry to imagery that’s licensed solely in sure areas or deactivate promotional property as soon as a suggestion ends. Groups can work in a number of languages throughout the similar platform, and interactive model guides make it simpler to implement consistency even when campaigns are executed domestically.

Along with your acquisition of Picture Relay and the launch of Canto PIM, what have you ever discovered concerning the challenges hospitality manufacturers face when integrating product and advertising and marketing knowledge?

The largest problem is that product knowledge and advertising and marketing property usually stay in completely separate methods. That separation slows every little thing down. By combining DAM and PIM, we’re giving groups a single place to handle each (so that you don’t must copy-paste particulars or observe down the newest pictures). What we’re seeing is that this unified strategy isn’t simply extra environment friendly, it additionally unlocks higher storytelling, as a result of product accuracy and model messaging are lastly related.

Composable structure is getting quite a lot of consideration in enterprise tech, however how do you see this idea making use of to accommodations that need flexibility with out overcomplicating their stack?

Composable structure means selecting best-in-class instruments and connecting them seamlessly, moderately than shopping for a monolithic suite and attempting to make it match. That’s precisely what we’ve constructed for. Canto integrates with CMS platforms, artistic instruments, reserving methods, and extra, by way of each native and API-based connections. For accommodations, this implies you may tailor your stack to your wants whereas sustaining a centralized content material hub that retains every little thing aligned.

What recommendation would you give lodge model and advertising and marketing leaders who’re re-evaluating their content material technique and tech stack to remain aggressive over the subsequent 2–3 years?

Begin with construction. Earlier than layering on new instruments or techniques, be sure that your content material operations are grounded in a system that may really assist development. Meaning not simply at present’s campaigns, however tomorrow’s personalization, localization, and AI use circumstances. Select instruments that make it simple to reuse what you’ve already created, collaborate throughout groups, and transfer sooner with out shedding management. The visitor expertise is on the heart of every little thing a hospitality enterprise is determined by, and that focus completely extends to how digital content material is created, managed, and shared.

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