CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) is one of the largest and fastest-growing retail mortgage lenders in the U.S., with over 600 branches and 7,000 employees nationwide. A year after onboarding Bynder’s best-of-breed digital asset management (DAM) platform, Tina McGee, Creative Production Manager, reveals the transformation it has brought to their content operations.
The catalyst for change in an ever-changing market
Like many companies during and after the pandemic, CrossCountry Mortgage needed to adapt to an increasingly digital-first economy. The company also underwent a brand refresh in 2022, including new logos and a “Loan Officer First” Model—a unique concept in the mortgage industry. To ensure the company could maintain its rapid growth in the midst of all this change, CCM aimed to transform and optimize its digital ecosystem for better operational efficiency.
We wanted to bring more of our content production in-house and really optimize our creative operations. It was about prioritizing the efficiency of our resources so we could adapt to an ever-changing market.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
Seeking a new approach to content operations
When Tina McGee joined CrossCountry Mortgage, she quickly recognized the following key issues:
- Lack of brand consistency across consumer-facing content.
- Disorganized digital assets with no clear system or naming conventions.
- Heavy reliance on external agencies for content production.
Tina knew that a best-of-breed DAM solution would be crucial for solving these challenges. This would enable CCM to maximize the ROI of its digital assets, go to market quicker, and promote a consistent, strong brand presence that could attract more customers and cement its position as an industry leader.
Selecting Bynder as the DAM of choice
On behalf of CrossCountry Mortgage, Tina attended the Henry Stewart DAM Conference to meet with the biggest players in the field and short-list a selection of providers.
We viewed demos, we picked apart all the different tools, and ultimately we selected Bynder for our DAM of choice.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
Having selected Bynder, Tina and the team got to work with Bynder’s experts to create a tailored digital asset management solution that could operate as a scalable single source of truth for its marketing and content operations.
We went through a really seamless 12-week implementation process working hand in hand with Bynder. It was an incredible experience. They were so fantastic.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
Embarking on the DAM journey
CCM’s fundamental goal from Bynder was to enable marketers to have better brand governance and control over their digital assets. With Bynder’s robust access and usage rights, they can ensure ensure every piece of content is accurate, up-to-date, on-brand, and personalized to the right channels and audience.
From there, the marketing team could position Bynder as the go-to location for others to quickly find and use relevant brand assets. By equipping employees with the materials they need to do their jobs effectively, Bynder enables CCM to speed up time to market and get maximum value from its content library.
Bynder’s Collections feature has been particularly valuable for content distribution, enabling employees to group similar assets together for quick and easy sharing. This has significantly improved content ROI and reuse.
We have over 12,000 different headshots. Implementing Collections allowed us to really streamline the process and not only save them in a way that everyone could have access, but also set automations to automatically sync with email accounts and websites that feature these images.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
How Bynder is supporting CCM’s unique sales strategy
Bynder has been critical in providing a central location for efficiently sharing existing assets with CCM’s loan officers and streamlining the production of new sales materials. Bynder’s Print Brand Templates module offers content creation capabilities directly within the DAM environment, allowing CCM’s marketers to create a high volume of on-brand marketing materials in record time.
We're able to templatize our sales materials and repurpose and reuse logos and headshots from the DAM directly within Bynder’s Print Brand Templates.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
CCM has drastically shortened production timelines, reduced creation costs—and most crucially—equipped its loan officers on the ground with the right resources to support and nurture customers throughout the buyer journey.
Integrating with Shutterstock to enhance content ROI
CrossCountry Mortgage’s teams frequently use Shutterstock’s stock photography collection across its customer-facing materials. Before Bynder, the licensing and purchasing fees were spiraling – often repurchasing the same asset multiple times due to the lack of a single system of record.
With the Bynder x Shutterstock integration, CCM’s teams can access Shutterstock images they’ve purchased directly in Bynder, eliminating duplicate purchase costs and maximizing the value and usage of its stock library.
Having this integration really allowed us to capture the licensing and purchasing information, and store it in a collective environment where it could be reused and repurposed for several different projects.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
What’s next for CrossCountry Mortgage?
Bynder’s AI Search capabilities are offering a lot of potential for the next phase of CCM’s DAM journey. From searching by image and text-in-image detection to automatic duplicate removals, Bynder’s pioneering AI-powered features will transform how CCM’s teams use the platform, automating manual processes and making it easier than ever to harness the full potential of its content library.
We're looking to expand the use of our vaults [Bynder] and increase the number of users and creative assets in the system. We hope to integrate with AI and avoid duplicate searches or find similar images so that we can be more efficient with our stock photography.Tina McGee
Creative Production Manager at CrossCountry Mortgage
Ready to embark on your own DAM journey with Bynder? Book a demo today
Bynder’s best-of-breed digital asset management platform powers 4000+ of the world’s most iconic brands to conquer content chaos and deliver exceptional content experiences. Recognized for its usability and wide range of integrations, Bynder’s AI-powered DAM enables our customers to transform their digital ecosystem and drive more value from content operations.
