Editorial Approval Process

1. Scope

This editorial approval process applies to all content and assets generated, sponsored, commissioned, or distributed by the marketing function regardless of who creates them or their role in the production process. This includes any content that represents, references, or could reasonably be associated with the company’s brands, products, services, market position, or messaging.

The scope covers owned, earned, and paid media, including but not limited to:

• Blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, research reports, and industry insights
• Webinars, events, presentations, and speeches
• Email campaigns, landing pages, and website content (open and gated)
• Product collateral, comparison guides, ROI calculators, and sales enablement materials
• Articles, guest articles, press releases, and media statements
• Promotional material across social, digital, and advertising platforms
• Joint, co-branded, or partner-led communications

This process applies to all employees, contractors, external individuals, partners, customers, and affiliated organizations.

Any employee or contractor acting as the primary point of contact (POC) for a project, collaboration, or partner relationship is responsible for ensuring that all external parties involved fully comply with this editorial approval process.

Any employee or contractor acting as the primary owner of a project or third party relationship is responsible for:

• Ensuring all internal and external contributors comply with this editorial approval process
• Submitting approval requests in a timely manner
• Preventing publication, distribution, or reuse of content prior to approval
• Escalating risks, exceptions, or non-compliance to Marketing

Lack of direct Marketing involvement does not exempt a project or asset from this process.

2. Roles & Responsibilities

The Content Specialist is responsible for managing and reviewing content to ensure alignment with the brand vision, value proposition, and content strategy. This includes ensuring clarity, quality, tone of voice, structure, style consistency, and editorial best practices.

The Global Marketing Director ensures corporate alignment, verifies messaging accuracy, confirms correct market positioning, and assesses brand and reputational risks.

The Content Specialist must escalate any editorial approval-related requests to the Global Marketing Director particularly in cases of dispute, exception or sensitive content, such as assets involving customers, owned research or sensitive data, as well as all re-purposing requests (see 4.)

3. Approval Rules for Distribution and Re-Use

Distribution or reuse of content requires formal approval unless the content falls into one of the following categories:

• Public-facing website content describing features, capabilities, market vision, or core messaging
• Open or gated content published on the official company website

These materials may be distributed exclusively by sharing the direct public-facing link to the content. No copy/paste, modification, extraction, or reformatting is permitted without approval.

For the distribution or reuse of any other type of asset, including any accompanying text, imagery, audio, or video—and for any placement beyond simple link sharing—a request must be submitted to Marketing via the Content Distribution and Re-Use Approval Form: Content Distribution and Re-use Approval Form

Approval must be obtained prior to distribution.

4. Approval Rules for Re-Purposing

Content repurposing refers to the controlled reuse of existing assets through adaptation, including but not limited to changes in wording, format, design, context, product offering, pricing, or economics, across different channels or audiences.

Repurposed content must not alter the original meaning, intent, positioning, or factual accuracy of the source material. Any and all repurposing activities require prior approval from Marketing. Requests must be submitted via the Repurposing Approval Request and most include:

• Link to the original asset
• A draft of the proposed adapted version

Unauthorized adaptations or derivative content are not permitted.

5. General Rules for editorial approval

Respecting these general rules can aid the approval process. Anyone should review their drafts before submitting to make sure the following points apply:

• No vague promises
• No oversimplification
• No buzzword inflation
• No claims that contradict product, service, or delivery limitations
• No unapproved legal, regulatory, or compliance-related claims
• No customer names, logos, quotes, or testimonials without documented consent
• No forward-looking or speculative statements without explicit approval

All content must be reviewed by the submitter prior to submission. Submission does not guarantee approval, and content may not be published, distributed, reused, or repurposed until formal approval is granted.

Failure to comply with this process must be escalated to Marketing and may result in delayed publication, required revisions, or withdrawal of the asset.