Background images in Content Builder

Question

I am working on a new template, which includes a table with background image and a text block in front of the image. This is how it's supposed to look:

Question: Is it possible - and if yes - how, to make both content areas (the background image AND the text) editable for my end-users, people who are not too much familiar with HTML and who are supposed to use the Content Builder,e.g. with nested content areas, one for the td-background image and one for the text cell?

That's my HTML so far:

    <td background="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/07bd21aa24d5e934b4fa9daa6/images/ee84590d-a92b-45ad-b89f-873252791e2f.jpg" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="598" height="270" valign="top" style="background-repeat:no-repeat;">
      <!--[if gte mso 9]>
      <v:rect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:598px;height:270px;">
        <v:fill type="tile" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/07bd21aa24d5e934b4fa9daa6/images/ee84590d-a92b-45ad-b89f-873252791e2f.jpg" color="#ffffff" />
        <v:textbox inset="0,0,0,0">
      <![endif]-->

        <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="40" class="em_side"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
        <td align="center" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
      <tr>
        <td height="129"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="45" class="em_side"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
        <td align="center" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
      <tr>
        <td height="21" class="em_spc_20"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td class="em_font" align="center" valign="top" style="font-family:'Source Sans Pro', Arial, sans-serif; font-size:36px; line-height:39px; color:#383838;"><span class="em_black">Its time to invest <br />in something solid.</span></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td height="21" class="em_spc_20"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td class="em_gap" align="center" valign="top" style="font-family:'Source Sans Pro', Arial, sans-serif; font-size:18px; line-height:21px; color:#383838;"><span class="em_black">Subtitle talking about the header and Funding Circle.</span></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </td>
        <td width="45" class="em_side"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </td>
        <td width="40" class="em_side"><img src="http://image.email.domain.com/lib/fe871372776d0d7a71/m/1/68b75f1c-330f-4b14-98b5-bbd499256026.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=" " style="display:block;" border="0" /></td>
      </tr>
    </table>

      <!--[if gte mso 9]>
        </v:textbox>
      </v:rect>
      <![endif]-->
    </td>

Thanks in advance Jakob

Answer 1

No, it's not possible in SFMC.

There are several ways to approach this. The best way I've seen is to break up the email components into Content Areas.

You could do something like this:

1. Upload all of the background images you'd want to use to the Portfolio and record the URLs of each
2. Create a HTML-only Content Area for each background. Make the Name and Customer Key something descriptive (e.g. winterSnowflakes). Include only the image URL in the content area, nothing else (e.g. https://media.giphy.com/media/87xihBthJ1DkA/giphy.gif)
3. Then in your template, create named Content Area placeholder: <custom type="content" name="init">. Put it at the very top of the email code.
4. Create an email based on the template.

5. Edit the content area. Make it HTML-only and add this code:

   %%[ /* Modify this to set header background image */

   set @hdrBgImg = ContentBlockByKey("winterSnowflakes")

   ]%%

6. Then set the background image as the AMPScript variable

   <td background="%%=v(@hdrBgImg)=%%">

The person creating the emails would just need to know the content area keys for the background images and then update the value in the AMPScript block.

If you don't want to use Content Areas, you can just use the AMPScript init block and the image URLs.

%%[ /* Modify this to set header background image */

set @hdrBgImg = "https://media.giphy.com/media/87xihBthJ1DkA/giphy.gif"

]%%

<td background="%%=v(@hdrBgImg)=%%">

You can also store the image URLs in a Data Extension and retrieve them with AMPScript.

All of these options depend on how much you want to engineer it versus the skill level of those maintaining the emails.