Table of Contents
Why photo management becomes a challenge for agencies
In marketing agencies, photos are not just archival material. They are part of daily production: for social media, campaigns, PR, recruiting, events, presentations, and design.
The problem starts when the photo collection grows faster than the folder structure. What initially works with project folders, date-based logic, and manual keywords becomes hard to navigate over time. Teams spend more time searching, rely heavily on colleagues for help, and underutilize existing photo assets.
The three biggest challenges for agencies are:
- Searching for photos costs production time
Anyone looking for a specific photo often has to browse folders by date, project, or occasion. This slows down social media posts, campaign launches, presentations, and press work. - Only a few people know where the right photos are
In many agencies, certain team members know exactly where specific photos are stored. For new employees, colleagues covering for someone, or other departments, this knowledge is hard to access. As a result, there are more questions, dependencies, and unnecessary interruptions in day-to-day work. - Usage rights are not stored with the photo
Especially for event photos, staff photos, or client material, it is crucial to know which photos can be used internally, externally, or for press purposes. If photo credits, approvals, or usage information are not stored directly with the file, coordination becomes more time-consuming.
The webnetz case study shows how quickly a growing photo archive can become a bottleneck. Over the years, the online agency created large volumes of photo material for social media, events, recruiting, and press work. Finding the right photos became increasingly time-consuming.
webnetz case study: Photo management software for marketing agencies
How the online agency webnetz now finds the right photos much faster with AI.
Industry: Marketing
Department: Public relations, social media & graphic design
Location Lüneburg, Germany
As an online agency, web-netz GmbH provides consulting in all areas of online marketing and web development — from strategy and concept development to final implementation. The agency has more than 180 employees and has successfully completed over 300 client projects.
Large volumes of photo content are created through the agency’s day-to-day work. This is exactly where one of the biggest administrative challenges used to lie.
The starting point: Searching for a needle in a haystack
Since the agency’s founding in 2009, its photo archive has grown massively. New content is created almost daily for the agency’s own social media channels. In addition, numerous events continuously generate photos that need to remain easy to find, even years later.
The core problems before introducing Excire were:
- Rigid folder structures: Photo files had been stored by folder name and creation date. For the public relations team itself, and especially for new employees, it was extremely difficult to find the right photos for recruiting or promoting new events.
- Manual searching: To find a specific photo — such as a shot of the distinctive slide at the webnetz campus — employees had to click through folders one by one.
- PR team as bottleneck: Employees and management had to ask the PR team for photos whenever they needed visual material. These constant requests took up valuable time for everyone involved.
- Photo credits: Photo credits were not always stored directly with the photo. This complicated the process and sometimes made it impossible to use certain photos at all.
The solution: AI-powered photo management on the company network
A tip from a colleague drew the PR team’s attention to Excire Foto Office Edition . Two key criteria drove the decision to implement the photo management software:
- Intelligent AI search: AI-powered photo selection and integrated keyword search make it easy to find photos quickly, without needing to know the exact creation date or folder name.
- On-premises security: As it becomes increasingly important for companies to keep sensitive photo data within their own network, local, on-premises installation on their own servers was a major reason for the decision.
Emily Döbbelin from the webnetz PR team says:“After a short learning curve, the user interface is very easy to navigate. An important success factor was internal communication and training the team so that everyone can confidently use Excire in their daily work.”
The result: Higher efficiency and faster campaigns
Introducing Excire Foto Office has significantly improved PR and marketing workflows at webnetz. Lengthy searches are now a thing of the past.
- Searching in seconds instead of hours: Whether team photos or shots of the office building, the right photos can now be found immediately with targeted search terms.
- No more folder chaos: The time-consuming process of collecting and copying photos from ten different folders is no longer necessary.
- Faster campaign launches: Social media campaigns for agency events can start much more quickly, and press inquiries from media partners can be answered faster.
- Easier onboarding: New employees no longer have to struggle through nested folder structures. Instead, they have immediate access to the full photo library.
Conclusion
“With Excire Foto Office Edition, we have finally brought structure to our constantly growing photo collection. Thanks to smart keyword tagging and the AI-powered search function, we find the right photos for our social media channels, event promotion, and press inquiries much faster. That saves us a lot of time and makes teamwork significantly easier.”
(Julia Peckmann, Head of PR at webnetz)
Save time with efficient image processing!
Typical challenges in agencies — and how Excire Foto Office solves them
The webnetz case study clearly shows the challenges many marketing agencies face when working with growing photo archives: new photos are created every day for social media, events, recruiting, press work, and design.
Without centralized, intelligent photo management, searching for the right photos quickly becomes a time sink.
The overview below shows how Excire Foto Office solves typical agency problems — and what concrete benefits this creates for teams in their everyday work.
Challenge for marketing agencies | How Excire Foto Office helps | Your benefit |
High demand for content in social media, PR, and recruiting | AI-powered photo search by subjects, themes, and keywords | The right photos for posts, campaigns, and press inquiries are available faster |
Folder structures that have grown over years of agency work | Central photo database instead of scattered folder storage | Old event, team, and office photos become usable again |
Photo knowledge is held by individual team members | Team-ready photo management with a shared database | Fewer questions, fewer interruptions, more autonomy within the team |
New employees are unfamiliar with legacy folder structures | Intuitive search instead of folder knowledge | Onboarding becomes easier |
Sensitive internal images and customer materials | On-premises use in your own network or on local servers | Image data remains under your own control |
Photo archives become productive agency assets
The webnetz case shows that in agencies, value is not determined only by the amount of photo material. What matters most is how easy it is to find. A photo no one can find does not help PR, social media, or recruiting.
AI-powered photo management software makes existing photos productive again. It reduces search time, takes pressure off central points of contact, and helps teams access suitable material more quickly. For agencies, this creates a lean alternative to complex digital asset management (DAM) projects — especially when photo data needs to stay within the company’s own network.
FAQs – Frequently asked questions about photo management software for marketing agencies
Why do marketing agencies need professional photo management software?
In marketing agencies, new photos are constantly created for social media, campaigns, events, press work, and recruiting. Without centralized photo management, searching quickly becomes tedious: teams click through folders, ask colleagues, or fail to make use of existing material. Professional photo management software makes photo libraries easier to search and improves how teams use them.
What problem does Excire Foto Office solve at webnetz?
Excire Foto Office helps webnetz find photos faster. Instead of browsing folders manually, the team uses a central photo database with AI-powered search and keywords.
How does AI-powered photo search support agencies in their daily work?
AI-powered photo search makes photos searchable by content, subjects, and keywords. Agency teams can find the right photos more quickly for social media posts, event communication, recruiting content, or press inquiries.
Why was on-premises use important for webnetz?
With on-premises use, photo data remains within the company’s own network or on local servers. This is particularly relevant when agencies work with internal photos, photos of people, event material, or sensitive client data.
What benefits does Excire Foto Office offer PR and social media teams in agencies?
Excire Foto Office helps PR and social media teams put together photo material more quickly — for example, for event announcements, campaigns, press inquiries, or recruiting content. In the webnetz case, the right photos no longer need to be collected from different folders. As a result, social media campaigns can start sooner and external photo requests can be handled more efficiently.
