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Meet the 2026 Best in DAM winners

by Canto July 16, 2026 4 min. read

At Canto, nothing gets us more excited than seeing what our customers build with the platform. That’s why we created Best in DAM, our annual customer awards program celebrating organizations that are pushing digital asset management forward through smarter workflows, stronger collaboration, and more creative use of content.

This year’s submissions came from organizations around the world, each with a unique story to tell. As we reviewed them, one thing became clear: our customers continue to find remarkably innovative ways to use Canto. Whether streamlining workflows, empowering new storytellers, or transforming content operations, the creativity and ingenuity on display made selecting this year’s winners incredibly difficult.

After review by a panel of Canto leaders, we’re proud to recognize our 2026 Best in DAM winners and honorary mentions.

Workflow Innovation

Grand Prize winner: Savaria Patient Care

Transforming content access through self-service.

Savaria Patient Care built an ecosystem that serves employees, dealers, partners, and customers alike, removing bottlenecks and making critical content available whenever it’s needed.

With more than 5,000 assets, 17 customized dealer and partner portals, a Salesforce integration, and a network of internal content champions, Will Cruz and his team have built a system that largely runs itself. Dealers find what they need without waiting on anyone, outdated files stay out of circulation, and the marketing team spends more time creating instead of tracking down assets.

Honorary mentions

• Parents as Teachers: Built a WordPress + Canto integration supporting nearly 4,000 parent-facing resources while simplifying version management with Canto Connect.
• BVK: Created an innovative rights management workflow to track talent, music, and voiceover usage expirations with confidence.
• Selena FM S.A.: Drove global adoption through an intuitive library structure and AI Visual Search, making even highly specific assets easy to find.
• Abilene Christian University: Reduced image requests by approximately 80% with a self-service hub powered by AI search, facial recognition, and creative integrations.

Storytelling Innovation

Grand Prize winner: Fairtrade Foundation

Empowering authentic storytelling by putting content creation into the hands of farmers.

Fairtrade Foundation has shown that digital asset management can do more than organize content. It can change who gets to tell the story.

Farmers across Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and beyond upload content directly from their farms using Canto upload links, adding metadata and confirming consent along the way. That content flows into custom Storytelling Hubs for partners including M&S, Sainsbury’s, BBC, and Sky News, where it becomes part of campaigns with real-world impact. From chocolate packaging to influencer campaigns reaching millions, Nick Cowles and his team have built a storytelling ecosystem that brings authentic voices to audiences around the world.

Honorary mentions

• Project HOPE: Built a global content operation spanning more than 54,000 assets across 30+ countries, enabling rapid response storytelling during emergencies while preserving powerful human stories.
• City of Cape Town: Created an AI-powered content library supporting 60 content partners and expanding the city’s global reach, all managed by a team of two.

Content Operations Innovation

Grand Prize winner: Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland

Scaling brand consistency through smarter content distribution.

Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland transformed Canto into a powerful distribution engine that delivers the right content to the right people at exactly the right time.

Purpose-built portals give franchisees access to the assets they need without exposing the complexity behind the scenes. Teams can localize materials independently, embargoed campaigns stay securely managed until launch, and integrations with Monday.com keep work moving across the organization. Ed Lonsdale and his team have built a system that helps franchisees move faster while keeping every customer touchpoint consistently on brand.

Honorary mentions

• MED-EL: Connected Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, Showpad, and live website asset delivery through Canto as a single source of truth, with website assets updating dynamically from Canto.
• Associated Engineering: Combined AI facial recognition, Adobe and Microsoft integrations, and a developing API to automatically keep staff photography current across the organization.

Congratulations to our 2026 winners

Congratulations to all of this year’s Best in DAM award recipients! Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry and gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how your team uses Canto.

We’re proud to celebrate this year’s winners and grateful to every customer who helped make the 2026 Best in DAM awards such a memorable program.