How to easily transform and deliver your images and videos using APIs

Brands do not only have to handle an increasing number of media such as images and videos, they also need them in different variations in terms of quality, formats, sizes etc. in order to fit the technical specifications of devices, websites or mobile applications. Another important aspect is the distribution of this content on various other channels such as marketplaces, social media platforms and many more. Without the right media, brands are not able to maximize the effectiveness of their marketing or achieve their business results. Smart solutions like Wedia’s Digital Asset Management and Media Delivery and Digital Experience enable you to generate the right format for each and every image in an easy and fast way, automating the transformation of your images, as well as their accelerated distribution. Check out our newest tutorial to find out how you can transform your media thanks to APIs.

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Why do you need to transform and optimize your images and videos in order to deliver them different channels?

(Visual) content creation and adaptation can be a complex and time-consuming process. When the work of your creative team is done (which includes the briefing, shooting etc.), these files are uploaded to your media center, such as a Digital Asset Management solution, which also acts like a so-called “Single Source of Truth”.

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In most cases, you’ll get only a few variations and sizes of your media (raw file and or original size), which cover a bare minimum of use cases. Already your brand’s website requires way more variations (think of thumbnail, circle image, the list goes on) and WebP formats for your images to be fully responsive in order to provide an interesting and appealing customer experience. But this is only one part of the whole story: If you want to provide high quality digital experiences on different channels as part of your omnichannel strategy, you need to consider different requirements for different channels. Obviously, in this context, you don’t want to compromise on the quality of your images and keep them consistently high despite compression. And did you know that already 100ms of additional page loading generate 10% less conversion? As you can see, there are many reasons why an automated transformation of your media is key to your overall business success.

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How do APIs help you to transform your images and videos fast and easily?

You’re maybe already familiar with APIs, but in case your technical knowledge needs a little touch up, and you would like to understand why APIs are a key component in our digital world today, here’s what you want to know:  API stands for “Application Programming Interface” which means basically that an API is a software intermediary that allows two applications to communicate. In other words, an API is the messenger that delivers your request to the provider that you’re requesting it from and then delivers the response back to you.  

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So far, so good. But how do APIs now help you to generate different types and variations of images? The two parties talking to each other in this scenario are your CMS and the DAM (including our Content Picker). This makes it possible to transform your images only by using their URL structure. All you have to do is to change the URL parameters according to your requirements. No need for professional help, fancy tools or even your standard image editor programs anymore – a real game changer! So, after the theoretical part, let’s discover how all this works in practice:

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Wedia’s Digital Experience Management & Content Picker

With Wedia’s Media Delivery and Digital Experience feature and its Content Picker, the generation of different formats and variations of your images is fast and super easy. Simply choose and research the image you need to generate different versions from. Then open another window with its URL:

Replace the word “original” with the format you want to generate, like “thumbnail small” or “thumbnail big” for example, and voilà…the required format is generated:  

Do you need a circle image? No problem, just proceed as stated before:

And the good news is that once you created different variations of the same images, they are automatically saved in your DAM solution. You just have to look up the right URL and again copy and paste it to download or modify:

The Wedia solution supports your brand in transforming your images and videos fast, easily and without the help of graphic designers or other editing tools. The required versions are ready in seconds for you to use and then implemented on your brand website, its mobile version and other channels. Automate the transformation of your media and accelerate their distribution thanks to Wedia’s content picker!  

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Complex times demand intelligent tools for mastering new marketing challenges and ways of working. The Wedia solutions offer various functionalities to support global players in achieving their business goals.

Wedia provides a SaaS solution for digital asset management and digital experience management. Our solutions are focused on the management and omnichannel distribution of media, so that companies can deliver rich and personalized customer experiences across all communication channels.

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