CHILI publisher: Create marketing materials the smart way

What is CHILI publisher?

CHILI publisher is the Universal Graphics Engine for Enterprise companies.

What does that mean exactly? Think of it as software to create smart artwork and marketing materials.

CHILI publisher can help improve the process and workflow of creating lots of graphic files with slight variations like dimensions, language, or even more complex elements.

It will provide peace of mind, save time, and keep the quality of graphics high. And on brand.

I met the Chili publish team at the MarTech Conference in San Jose last year and was impressed with their platform. Now we are joining forces for this sponsored write-up to spread the good word to the MarTech Wiz community.

Let’s start with a simple use case of CHILI publisher. Say you need to create business card designs for a batch of 50 new employees. The format will be the same but each will have different contact information. Instead of having your graphics team painfully create 50 new files individually, you could simply upload a spreadsheet with the 50 different sets of contact information and let CHILI publisher do the heavy lifting since the style blueprint is the same for each one. Simple.

Or say you are creating 20 new product labels. They are all for the same product but for a different country. The style will stay essentially the same but the text needs to be translated and different elements have to be added per country regulations. This example is a bit more advanced but no sweat for CHILI publisher to handle!

CHILI publisher will automatically resize text and switch out icons as necessary all while being mindful of the relationships between the other elements within the document and the size of the graphic as it changes.

CHILI publisher can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Often in the MarTech world, users have to sacrifice ease of use in order to do something a bit more advanced than the standard use case. On the flip side, you may have to sacrifice a cool advanced feature because a product prioritizes ease-of-use over functionality.

With CHILI publisher, you don’t need to choose. 

Background of CHILI publish

Founded in 2010, the company CHILI publish is based just outside of Brussels in Belgium. They have offices in Chicago and Singapore as well.

Growth is strong. CHILI publish has over 330 customers including some top companies like McDonalds and P&G.

CHILI publish started out catering to web2print clients but over the last few years its clientele has shifted more to software, brands, and packaging as its solution has evolved.

CHILI publish services 4 markets: Labels, print, packaging, and digital. Clients fall into 4 categories: brands, print, agency, labels & packaging.

CORE: create once, repurpose everywhere

Let’s dive into how it works a bit more.

CHILI publisher converts graphics into intelligent templates that can be more easily customized.

It deconstructs graphic documents into their component parts and determines the relationships between all graphical elements. Components could include fonts, text, images, vectors, and colors. This is called Advanced Document Intelligence.

A flexible template is created, which is known as a CHILI document. This is a smart document that can be customized or localized using variables, logic, and restraints. Smart CHILI documents allow you to create once, repurpose everywhere (CORE).

An example of a variable could be a phone number in the business card use case.

Logic could tell the document ‘if the customer is located in the US, show the .com web address. If the customer is in the UK, show the .co.uk web address.’

If the country changes, it automatically updates the graphic with the correct phone number, regulatory elements, URLs, etc.

Use restraints as guidelines. A restraint could be ‘only allow images to be moved within the top 20% of the document’ in order to stay brand compliant.

Restraints can be applied to certain users based on permissions. So a full admin can change the restrictions but an end user wouldn't even see the restriction settings.

However, regular users can make as many changes as needed within the restrictions, like moving a logo within a certain area of a document or choosing a color from an approved palette.

This results in a more efficient graphic design lifecycle.

CHILI publisher Integrations

CHILI shines in integrations. CHILI publisher is a best of breed tool that integrates with other best of bread tools.

Very open, CHILI publisher has a robust API and partnership systems for integrations. Connection to a myriad of different data sources is possible.

CHILI publisher integrates with all the main DAM (Digital Asset Management) systems as well as e-commerce platforms such as Magento and Woocommerce. Need to connect with an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CMS (Content Management System), or PIM (Product Information Management) system? That is possible. You could even connect a dynamic QR code on a document to a marketing automation tool. The cool part is that changes in the data sources dynamically update in the smart document in CHILI publisher. 

Of course, CHILI publisher works seamlessly with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign (plugins available for both). Not only does it integrate, CHILI publisher ROUNDTRIPS.

Roundtrip means you can easily transport your graphic file from AI, to CHILI, and back to AI to do what you like. This will increase efficiency due to less manual work, more control, and less errors.

CHILI publisher has the convenience of middleware but the flexibility to be used as a standalone base design product. You don’t necessarily have to use with another program.

Technology of CHILI publisher

CHILI publisher is constantly sharpening its product’s technology backend.

Recent performance improvements and versions include

• Use of smaller pdf files for faster engine speed  
• Browser based (cloud-based) HTML5 functionality
• Cross-platform compatibility

Keep tabs on https://www.chili-publish.com/chili-publisher/whats_new/ for the latest

Things we love about CHILI publisher

Here are a few of the many features we love about CHILI publisher:

• Intelligent barcodes automatically update with any changes made to the graphc
• Guidelines using variables and logic to help you stay on brand
• Reusable blocks called Snippets can be dropped into your graphics as needed
• CHILI publisher can automate a slew of tedious graphic design production tasks which in turn reduce human errors
• Both professional designers and non-designers can and do use CHILI publisher
• Make inline, one-off edits as needed. Automation makes the job easier but you still may need to make some individual tweaks. No problem.

Use Cases of CHILI publisher

CHILI publisher is a flexible tool so there are several use cases for it. Here are a few:

• Dynamic Variant Production: a manufacturer needs to produce different graphics for a mass customized production process
• Bulk Label and Packaging Editing: a brand needs to update a product description across 40 versions of labels
• Collateral Creation: a nationwide sales force needs individualized collateral with localized information and images
• Document approval process optimization: a multi-national is reducing approval cycles through faster document creation
• Graphic and artwork automation: window displays for a new marketing campaign are needed for 200 store windows of varying sizes

Further resources

So that is an intro into the power of CHILI publisher. Here are some further resources to learn more and try it for yourself:

Read CHILI publish Whitepapers
Demo CHILI publisher