Journal of Digital Asset Management

A conversation between Michael Moon (MM) and Matthew Gonnering (MG) discussing marketing, sales, and creative operations and the changing processes as a result of new technologies. Marketing teams become sponsors of the change shaping the behaviors of sales operations and contributing to the creative workflows. Michael and Matthew discuss the roles and trends of sales, marketing and creative teams and the effect Web 2.0 has had on the process. In their conversation, they isolate how Widen has advanced their marketing services and product line to include screen cast video production and expansion into an on-site digital embassy complementing the hosted platform.

For those of us in the Marketing and Advertising space, we have the distinct pleasure of working with a unique colleague known as the “Creative”. BBDO is known as a creative agency and the creative group is responsible for the concepts and ideas that will make or break the company. The client has the ultimate say as to whether a concept will be used or not, but if an ad agency is worth its salt, it will make a strong case so that the client sees that these concepts will work to tell the message they want to get over to the customer. And, I have to say, not self-servingly, that we at BBDO do a remarkable job at that. Considering that influence, what kind of say do the Creatives really have in paving the way for adoption of digital asset management systems that will improve the way the work gets done, and can DAM truly benefit the Creative?

More and more organizations are discovering the value DAM adds to their branding and marketing execution. DAM-based tools such as online brand and house style guides, perhaps with an image library and some downloadable materials, are becoming commonplace. Yet our experience at Randstad is that DAM can be and do so much more when you treat it not as a database or IT system but as a process tool or way of working — a kind of Office Suite for marketeers. By enabling us to implement a single, global brand in a local, decentralized organization, DAM enables us to achieve a higher return on investment than we otherwise could.

Lean systems is a well-established methodology for reducing waste, increasing efficiency and increasing the professionalism of the people employed. In this paper, the author argues that marketing is poised to move from implementing individual systems such as DAM or marketing segmentation towards managing the whole of marketing along Lean principles. He believes that the growing number of successful case studies, plus pressures created by increases in Below The Line marketing, demands for regulatory compliance as well as the demands on CMOs to deliver better reporting are major driving forces. Surveys show that significant numbers of companies intend to make this move by the end of 2007, while at the same time the leading marketing systems vendors are announcing products which now are directed at total marketing.

The growing number and complexity of digital assets is making it increasingly difficult for organizations to locate and retrieve specific assets using traditional DAM systems. Companies that fail to solve this problem risk the erosion of brand consistency and communications with customers, partners and employees. OTB Solutions Group has developed a new approach to digital asset management that provides a flexible solution, which enables users to locate, retrieve and reuse specific assets more efficiently and with more precision.

An interview with Al Falaschi, Audio/Video Product Manager for Widen Enterprises Inc., providing a look into the production and use of screencast videos, particularly screencast demos for the purpose of educating audiences about the functionality and user interface with software applications. Screencast videos are not only a new and emerging type of digital asset, but are also a perfect use case for digital asset management systems to catalog and publish assets to new media channels and social media outlets for maximum use and discoverability.

The current situation in digital rights management (DRM), particularly DRM interoperability, is described as it relates to the field of digital asset management (DAM). In particular the emergence of a few large “content ecosystems” which have their own specific attributes in DRM and other areas such as business rules is described. While full interoperability of these ecosystems at the consumer level may not happen for many years, interoperability of key back-end infrastructure such as DAM systems is possible and desirable now. A proposal is put forward on how DAM systems should evolve architecturally in such a way as to maximize both their scope of application and their level of content security — and thus their value. It is argued that such evolution is valuable from a product agility perspective even for DAM systems which do not interact with the world of consumer media.

This paper documents the evolution of one company's asset management system from a filing cabinet, into a 500Gb capacity, multiple site, global system, allowing instant access for their employees to any of the assets from anywhere in the world.

According to a recent IDC report (Gantz, J and Reinsek, D. The digital universe decade – Are you ready? IDC Iview, May 2010) between now and 2020, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to an almost inconceivable 35 trillion gigabytes as all major forms of media – voice, TV, radio, print – complete the journey from analog to digital’. This means that in 2020 the digital universe will be 44 times as large as it was in 2009. Public, for-profit and cultural heritage organizations are being deluged with rich media digital resources, while facing fiscal challenges. Digital asset management (DAM) professionals provide the skills needed to find efficient solutions for storage, retrieval and dissemination of these files. Most learn the profession on the job and through informal education such as webinars, podcasts, blogs, white papers and conferences. There are programs and courses emerging in schools of higher education. This article discusses the development and teaching of a course in DAM offered through the Columbia University Information and Digital Resource Management program of the School of Continuing Education. The author describes how the syllabus was developed, content of the course, assignments, readings and the use of collaborative tools to simulate the way that professionals learn from each other.