By David MacLaren
It’s such a fundamental, yet mundane, task – finding that video you licensed the rights to, created in-house or paid to have created. No matter the acquisition scenario or when you received the video, when you’re dealing with millions, thousands or even hundreds of rich media assets, this seemingly simple task is significantly more difficult and time consuming than it should be. This is especially true when you have to hunt through various storage means – sticks, disks, drives, LANS, WANS – you name it. There has to be a better way, right?
The Digital Revolution isn’t making things any easier
In 2013, companies spent $118.4 billion (eMarketer) on content marketing, video marketing, and social media and in the US alone; 27 million pieces of new digital content was shared online every day. The onset of content marketing over the last decade – to meet the voracious demands of real-time consumers, who want content when they want it, on the device and channel of their choice – means marketing departments are amassing gargantuan amounts of digital assets; thus the challenge of finding a single video amongst this chaos. Simply put, the storage and management of the assets we’re collecting (as consumers and marketers) has become a major pain.
Implementing a digital asset management solution (at home and at work) is no longer a “nice to 
have” but a “must have” – for everyone. There is one caveat, though, the DAMS has to be a cloud-based system as the cloud brings many new benefits to the realm of digital asset management that simply weren’t available before.
Managing your assets – 4 ways DAMS benefits marketers
- Saves time and money. At its core, a digital asset management system (DAMS) provides a secure location for storing and organizing all your digital assets. No more searching for hours to find that darn video or, heaven forbid, having to create it again because you simply just can’t find it.
- Increases productivity. Organizing your assets in a DAMS helps reduce the time to build marketing assets for individuals and increases team productivity, as assets are easier to find and share by all users – among team members, and externally with agencies, partners and vendors.
On an individual basis, users can rest assured that only the current versions of assets are used, so there won’t be any copyright infringements or outdated assets. Given the ready accessibility of assets, the use of a DAMS encourages designers to repurpose assets, or using components of assets, to build entirely new marketing assets, increasing the ROI of those assets.
Users in the DAMS ecosystem can help themselves to the right video or image for their presentations and materials, without having to wait around for marketing to send it to them.
- 3. Adds control. A DAMS provides companies with absolute control over their assets in order to safeguard them and how they’re used. Rest easy that all users will have the correct versions, formats and access to assets that they have material rights to. DAMS have settings to ensure compliance, approval and security controls are set for all the right people to gain access to approved material – when they need it.
- Ensures peace of mind. This is where the cloud really “hums”. Accessibility, as already discussed, is one part of this, but the other part is security. Knowing that every asset is backed up no less than six times in different locations around the world, means that marketers never lose or “misplace” an asset ever again.
Implementing a digital asset management system can not only make your life easier, it can also make your team’s and your vendors’ lives easier.
David MacLaren is chief executive officer of MediaValet.
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