Digital Asset
Management
A Digital Asset Management system makes creative processes quicker, easier and more cost-effective. Discover how DAM works and can benefit your business.
Digital Asset Management demystified
What is Digital Asset Management?
Digital Asset Management is the strategic process of managing digital files like logos, images, video, audio, artwork and more.
As organizations create, publish and curate more content, their library of digital assets grows. At a certain point, these unmanaged digital assets become a business risk.
- Searching for them causes loss of time and productivity
- Unclear usage rights increase legal exposure
- Assets are siloed and not available to other teams
The answer is a Digital Asset Management system.
What is a Digital Asset Management system?
A DAM system is used for strategic digital asset management - to create business value by improving creative processes.
Digital Asset Management is the strategic process of managing digital files like logos, images, video, audio, artwork and more.
What is a digital asset?
A ‘digital asset’ is any digital file that an organization can use to create value. A file becomes a digital asset when it is added to a DAM system.
’Digital asset’ - let’s break it down. The ‘digital’ part means the file exists in a digital format. And the ‘asset’ part means it is valuable to the business.
Because ‘digital asset’ is a term that’s typically used in relation to publishing and content creation, an example of a digital asset is:
- a photo
- a video
- a logo
- an InDesign file
- a Word document
- a PDF
Basically, any constituent part that a business can use or combine to create value.
For example, by combining photos, text and an InDesign file, a business can create a catalog. That catalog can be shared as a PDF. And that can help the business generate revenue.
The term ‘digital assets’ is used specifically in relation to Digital Asset Management.
This is because it’s DAM that converts a humble file into a valuable digital asset - because a DAM system makes it possible for an organization to find and re-use those files to create value.
What can DAM do for you?
Faster time to market
Slash the time it takes to get creative content to market - so you can get there faster than competitors.
Workflow automation
Let software do the manual work so your people can focus on adding value through their human ingenuity.
Cost-efficient processes
Plug the leaky gaps in your content supply chain that are costing you time and money.
Your teams are losing days each month without DAM - searching for assets instead of getting creative with them.
When digital assets - like photos, logos, video and artwork - are hidden away in folders around your organization, you can’t easily use them in new projects. Which means your creatives waste time playing ‘find the asset’ or waste money creating them from scratch.
A DAM system centralizes your creative assets and applies meaningful metadata - so your teams can find them in just a few clicks. Even if they don’t know what they’re called, where they’re stored, or even if they exist!
Visual previews make it easy for creatives to select the right asset for the job. And integrations with design software and web CMS mean they don’t even have to leave the window they’re working in.
This means more time for adding value with their creative genius - and faster time to market for your materials.
You hired your creative talent for just that… their creativity and their talent. You didn’t hire them for data entry and pointless manual processes. So why are they wasting their time on it?
A DAM system can free your team from the processes that don’t actually need their time, so they can focus on tasks that do. Like brainstorming brilliant campaign ideas and creating killer artwork.
Meanwhile, your DAM system does the important-but-boring stuff like…
- Adding metadata to files to make them findable.
- Or automatically resizing and renditioning digital assets for different formats.
- Or syncing with the data from other software so everything’s always up-to-date - no duplicate data entry needed!
Not only that but integrating your DAM with other software lets you automate whole workflows - like automatically populating design templates in Adobe CC.
If your business is looking to become more cost-efficient, DAM can help.
Firstly, there’s the time you’ll save by finding the creative assets you need first time.
Then there’s the hours you’ll claw back by automating previously manual processes and workflows.
These alone represent huge time and cost savings.
But there’s more. Implementing a DAM system can help digitally transform your content processes from a leaky sieve to a well-oiled machine.
For example, allowing creatives to access digital assets from within their design software and place them straight into designs in the right file format - instead of finding them, downloading them, reformatting them, and manually adding them.
Or letting colleagues share files easily online with the click of a few buttons - instead of downloading them, zipping them, emailing them…
There’s more to DAM than you might realise…
Global collaboration
Collaborate easily with external and offshore suppliers - without email ping-pong or fiddly FTP sites.
Connected teams
Empower your teams to work better together - whether that’s in the office or WFH.
New business models
Unlock new revenue with DAM? Yes, you can. Discover how a DAM system can boost your bottom line.
Want to create a world-class content supply chain? Why not work with the best global talent?
DAM makes it possible - thanks to secure, reliable, remote access to digital assets, from anywhere with internet access.
Want to share the latest PDF brochures with your sales team overseas? Send them a share link and they can access it instantly.
Need to receive new artwork from your design agency? They can upload it to your DAM for your approval.
Want to outsource photo editing to an off-shore provider? A DAM can create an automated end-to-end workflow.
Remember, a DAM system isn’t just somewhere to store and access assets internally.
It is a way to provide secure online access to external collaborators, so you can leverage global talent to your advantage - and all without having to use DropBox, FTP or awkward email.
Empower your teams to work better together - whether that’s in the office or WFH.
If your business suffers because different teams don’t collaborate, you can correct that with DAM.
A DAM system provides a centralized space for all teams to store their digital assets. This improves visibility and breaks down barriers between people who should be working together…
So your product team can share their latest photoshoot with the brand team, and your ecommerce team can check out what the marketing team are doing with their designs.
It adds up to less duplicated work and better brand consistency.
And in the new world of hybrid and remote work, a DAM system keeps individuals more connected too - by providing access to the same tools and workflows wherever they’re based.
If you’re looking for new ways to increase revenue in your business, DAM can help. It’s not just about saving money and protecting profit margins. DAM can actually MAKE money too.
Agencies can white label and re-sell DAM services to their clients.
Publishers can unlock value from their archive materials by repurposing it into new products.
Ecommerce brands can…
Who needs a DAM system?
By sector
If your business derives the majority of its revenue from creating and publishing content MUST have a DAM to stay competitive. A DAM system streamlines content creation and unlocks new revenue models for agencies, publishers and other media-rich businesses.
But any sector that creates and publishes a lot of content - online, in print or via an app - needs a DAM system. Especially the ecommerce and CPG sectors.
A DAM system keeps your digital assets secure, accessible, and instantly recognizable so you can find and use them quickly and confidently - even if you have millions to work with.
Organizations that delay implementing DAM are missing the opportunity to digitally transform their business - and will quickly fall behind competitors.
By role
If you need to manage, access or use digital assets to deliver your KPIs, you need a DAM.
Marketers and content creators love how DAM puts creative assets at their fingertips - so they spend less time searching for them and more time working their magic.
Brand managers enjoy increased control over the brand collateral - even if global enterprises - thanks to self-serve access to brand assets.
Whilst archivists appreciate how easy DAM makes it to store, classify, retrieve and provide access to historic archives.
DAM for Publishers
How Der Speigel eliminated print and digital silos with DAM for publishers
DAM for Brands
How Bavaria beer improved global brand management with DAM
DAM for Agencies
How Medium Rare scaled and streamlined with Digital Asset Management for agencies
How does DAM work?
A Digital Asset Management system works by providing a central place for organizations to upload, enrich, search, discover, share, use and reuse digital assets.
Centralize
Centralize all of your assets in a single source of truth for the whole organization. Eradicate silos and duplication.
Upload
Upload assets easily with bulk ingest and AI-assisted metadata application
Enrich
Add metadata - like keywords and usage rights - and assets can be found and used with confidence.
Search
Search, browse and discover the perfect asset for every project - made even easier with visual search results.
Access
Provide access to assets for people who need it. Download or embed assets directly into projects.
Share
Share assets securely with collaborators using shared folders, share links, and brand portals. No more FTP!
Secure
Minimise your exposure to cyber risk by storing and sharing digital assets within a secure online system.
Integrate
Combine DAM with other tech to automate processes and achieve more efficiencies in your digital content processes.
Archive
Securely archive important assets, knowing you can still access them when needed.
Flexible DAM systems for every business need
WoodWing Swivle
A streamlined cloud-based DAM - for SMEs looking for an out-of-the-box advantage.
- Sign up and start using
- No complex customization
- Secure and simple to use
- Store, search and share files easily
- Apply your brand
- Low per-seat pricing
- Free trial - no card details needed
WoodWing Assets
A comprehensive and customizable DAM - for bigger brands with bespoke DAM needs.
- Digital asset management at scale
- AI-enabled ingest and metadata
- Store, search and share files securely
- Protect assets and control access
- Customize to your unique use case
- Build bespoke automation and workflows
- Extensive API and iPaaS integration
DAM - connecting the content supply chain
A Digital Asset Management system isn’t a standalone solution anymore. It’s the beating heart of the content supply chain. Integration with adjacent technologies - like Adobe CC, multichannel publishing software, CMS, PIM and more - creates cross-departmental workflows and transformative automations.
WoodWing Assets offers built-in integrations, as well as a powerful platform to create bespoke software integrations using APIs and next-gen tools like iPaaS.
Continue your DAM discovery
You might find these Digital Asset Management resources useful…
ARTICLE
How - and why - to integrate your DAM with other software
INTERVIEW
Tips from Kristina Huddart: Digital Asset Management expert
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