It's the Little (Big) Things: Digital Asset Management for Brands


I recently presented to a room filled with communications students, professors and industry folks. And when I brought up "digital asset management," I was met with dozens of blank stares, as if I had asked everyone what they knew about the island nation of Nauru. But digital asset management (DAM) is a key communications tool in the 21st century that everyone show know about - especially brand managers. 

Graphic credit: Widen Media Collective


At IIE, the non-profit I work for, we have used a digital asset management system run by an awesome company named Widen since about 2008. A few weeks ago, I got to go to a day long conference hosted by Widen on making the most of our digital asset management system. The range of brands and organizations there was impressive: Bulova and the Brooklyn Public Library, the Tyco and Cornell University. No matter what the organization, their mission, or their clientele, digital asset management was key to their operations. 

Why? At the conference we learned about innovations in digital asset management, but also  our shared challenges. The last twenty years or so have been a messy move from paper to digital records. We all live in and struggle with this strange, murky transitional period - but this struggle has been particularly hard on brand managers. 

If you work for a large company with multiple offices, or a brand with franchises, or basically any organization that relies on creative content (read: all companies) how do you make sure everyone is using the right content? How do you keep logos consistent, how do you make sure that when your team members go to conferences they represent your organization in the right way? You could send a company wide email with attachments or directions to a dropbox folder with all the "approved" branded content. And then six months later, you make updates or changes to that content and do your best to keep everyone informed, but well intentioned people keep using the old stuff you sent them. And soon, you have a gross hodgepodge of brand content scattered across the globe, with some people using up to date content and others using stuff from 1998.

How do you fix this? Through a digital asset management system, A digital asset management system allows you to load and tag files - any kind of file, really. People inside of your company can log in and find what they need, and so can people outside of the company, depending on how you have configured your system. Bulova used their digital asset management system to make sure that vendors around the country all had consistent store signage; the Brooklyn Public library was going to upload and organize their paper archives; Cornell University had an impressive system for housing all photography and video related to the school and allowing students and the public to find and use images through the system. The DAM becomes the single source of truth for all branded content. With the right DAM, you can also track who uses your content, how and how much. 

So am I just a geek who likes processes and systems? No, thank you very much, I am not. Advertising agencies and brands need to be just as process oriented as they are creative. As content marketing becomes more and more important, having an awesome system for managing that content is key. And if you don't believe me, listen to Ad Age. Brands need to think about the logistics that go into telling a consistent brand story.  If you are reading this, and it's the first time you've ever heard of digital asset management, then it's time to start playing catch up. 

At IIE, my summer project is to work on making our DAM the best damn DAM it can be. We have 19 offices and affiliates around the world and my hope is that we can get to a point where no matter what office you walk into or what team member you interact with, your experience with IIE's brand is the same globally. Our DAM can be a tool for telling our brand's story,  communicating our vision and stating mission better than ever before. 

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