How DAM works
Is DAM worth it?
At a Glance
Free up resources
You've got great teams, but menial tasks that could be taken care of by the right DAM system keep them from doing great things. A DAM solution can cut time spent on asset delivery, search, conversion, version control, and other activities, leaving your company with more time to engage in tasks that actually relate to your mission and bottom line.
Creatives spend an
average of 10% of their time on file management. Search alone accounts for a third of that time.
Prevent loss and redundancies
When you need to get an asset to someone else, most DAM systems enable you to send them right from the DAM UI. There’s generally no need to spend time downloading and uploading assets just to share them.
76% of DAM user respondents to an AberdeenGroup study reported re-using assets to cut licensing costs.
Track use of the system and your assets
Many DAM providers will also put mechanisms in place that help you track the use of your assets and the DAM system itself. This information can be invaluable in adjusting workflows and designing your strategies for optimum performance.
DAM systems improve workflow speed, efficiency and consistency.
Deep Dive
This area is, as its name suggests, for those who are looking to get a little deeper into their research on digital asset management. While we’d still encourage you to explore the rest of the site, we’ve used this page to aggregate content that’s most relevant to executives like you.
First, there are some white papers we recommend you take a look at. They deal with issues that especially important to you others responsible for ensuring the overall effectiveness of your brand’s campaigns.
Why DAM Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2011 from Widen Enterprises
The exponential growth in digital content has created bottlenecks and inefficiencies in managing this content and difficulties in measuring campaign performance and maintaining brand consistency. DAM technology can overcome these problems by automating the process of ingesting, archiving, searching, managing, repurposing, sharing and publishing content in a seamless and collaborative environment. Learn how DAM adopters achieve substantial return on investment including reducing time to market, improving the performance of marketing campaigns, reducing marketing costs and improving brand consistency.
I know what you didn't do last summer and other reason to invest in digital asset management systems by John Horodyski of dameducation.com, Lee Stadler and Nicolás Jiménez
In today's media environment, any marketing worth doing is multichannel marketing. The fact that consumers are connected on dozens of social networks, paying for TV subscriptions that get them more content than they can ever watch, and using keyword news feeds to get their information from sources in cities they've never even heard of—well, all that means is that, if you want to reach them, you need to be in all those places, too. To the consumer, it's one picture, one video clip, one slide show, one Web site, one catalog. That is to say: one brand.
How Digital Asset Management Can Help Achieve Top Marketing Priorities from Widen Enterprises
Anderson Analytics recently performed a study that measured the importance of various marketing trends to top marketing executives in 2010. The survey showed that the top priorities of the marketing executives are: Marketing ROI, Customer Retention, Brand Loyalty, Positioning/Differentiation, and Branding. Learn about the impact Digital Asset Management has on each of these priorities by providing a central repository for digital media files and a set of tools to store, manage the approval of, find and convert these files to increase their value in the marketing process.
Of course, we know some of your colleagues, especially the creatives, might be a bit more concerned with how this all relates to their work. To help you get them involved in the discussion, send a copy of this one their way:
Best Practices for Metadata in DAM Systems from Widen Enterprises
DAM systems rely upon metadata (descriptive information) to direct users to the specific assets they are seeking. The key to fast and thorough identification of digital assets that fit a particular requirement is implementing best practices within your organization that ensure the right metadata is attached to every asset that enables the asset to be appropriately called up in search results. This white paper will provide an overview of the role of metadata in a DAM system and prescribe best practices that will improve your marketing effort by enabling users to quickly find the content they need to build lasting relationships with customers.
For access to other useful white papers, click here.
There are plenty of people out there blogging about digital asset management software. We’ve put together a few poignant posts to get you started:
DAM as a Service for the Modern Marketer
Friday, January 14, 2011 by Widen Enterprises
Does Your Company Need DAM Software?
Friday, May 13, 2011 by Widen Enterprises
Our resources section has some great tools for figuring out whether a DAM system is right for you and, if so, how to go about choosing one.
ROI Calculator - Use this to make sure you’re not going to put more into DAM than you get out of it. For the right organization, DAM can be a saver of time and money—but it’s not for everyone.
Authoring an RFP - Draw from this guide when put your RFP together to make sure you’re requesting all the right information.
Finally, try test driving a DAM system for yourself before you make a final decision. Click here for two different ways to get behind the wheel
of DAM software.
