The answer: by effectively marshalling the brand  assets at their disposal. But corralling a vast array  of digital assets – including photos, logos, PDFs,  PowerPoint presentations and DTP documents, as  well as audio and video files – can be a bamboozling  task, which is why an industry has sprung up to  provide digital asset management (DAM).

  Still in relative infancy in the UK, the industry is  doing its best to convince heads of communications  that they should invest in DAM and add to their  long list of service providers. But according to Phil  Morton, operations director of Freestyle Interactive,  the return on investment is clear. For him, the real  task is to explain just how useful DAM can be. 

“Most people think DAM is just a logo  distribution tool, or image library,” he says. “But that’s  missing the point. It is about the sharing of assets.  It’s very easy to demonstrate the saving of time and  money.” 

One company to latch on to its potential is  Alstom, the French multinational conglomerate in the  power generation and transport markets.

  “Alstom is a very large organisation with thousands  of employees working across multiple global sites so  effective communication is crucial,” says Alstom’s  director of internet and brand, Elaine West. “Through  our DAM infrastructure we now have unprecedented  levels of control and consistency over the way we  store, collate and distribute the entire organisation’s  digital collateral.” 

She describes its streamlining effect as  “fundamental to the way we manage, control and  make secure extremely valuable content”. At Alstom,  DAM underpins communication operations, saving  time and money by speeding up activity, removing  duplication and minimising wasted effort. 

But, West adds: “It also enables far closer  collaboration and sharing between different people  across all the different departments and external  third parties, like the agencies we work with. Key  communication tasks happen quicker.”

  Jason Wehling, CEO of DAM provider  NetXposure, argues that the best indicators of the  value of DAM are the ability to efficiently handle  large volumes of data and, often more importantly, to  facilitate and improve workflow. 

“Today, workflow encompasses not only the  creative process,” he says, “but also automated  delivery strategies to corporate websites, to social  channels like Flickr, YouTube and WordPress, and  to partner sites and workspaces that allow secure  collaboration, as well as publishing and streaming to  distributers, dealers and retail partners.” 

. Digital agency Bright Interactive has its own DAM  tool, Asset Bank, which is used by, among others, BT.  Asset Bank implemented and hosts the BT Brand  Image Library, a repository of digital assets relating  to product, brand and TV adverts. It provides BT  employees and trade partners with 24/7 access while a download approval process and clear  copyright information ensures that users know how  an asset should be used.

  Bright Interactive director Martin Wilson believes  that the time it saves is one of DAM’s key benefits.

  “Until a comms team starts using a DAM  application, they usually have one or two people  managing their digital assets,” he says. “These people  archive assets as they are produced and deal with  requests for assets from other employees. In large  organisations, it is often a full-time role. A DAM  application enables employees or suppliers producing  assets to add them straight into the application, and  allows employees needing assets to find and download  them directly.” 

DAM tool Brandworkz also positions itself as a  benefit to corporate communicators. “It transforms  productivity by freeing up time and resources,” says  CEO Jens Lundgaard. “Assets are stored and managed  in one easily accessible online system so third party  users go direct to Brandworkz to download them  (using password permissions), not to the corporate  comms team.” 

Password-protection means that journalists can  access only the information the comms team wants  them to see. Sensitive information stays confidential. 

Lundgaard adds: “The Approval Workflow  functionality streamlines the production of  communication materials and enables those working  on projects to see at a glance what they or their  external agencies need to do and when. Brandworkz  can speed up marketing production times by 80%.” 

According to Martin Wilson, DAM allows  organisations to wring maximum value from their  assets. “Many organisations have a wealth of digital  material without realising it,” he says. “Without a  DAM application to make them searchable, most  archived digital assets are never found and therefore  might as well not exist. This is wasted investment.” 

In fact, searchability is widely regarded as one of  the chief boons of digital asset management. DAM  specialist Third Light has a system of its own, known  as Third Light IMS, which is used by 250 local  councils around the UK.

  “Rifling through thousands of thumbnails is a  wasteful practice,” says managing director Michael  Wells. “Helpfully, though, the underlying searchable  intelligence about your files is a rich resource when  it comes to reuse, and when you have software that  makes it easy to add annotation and history, you build  an even better base for your searches.

  “The issue with digital assets is their uncanny  ability to become fragmented, lost or hoarded,” he  adds. “It’s not just a problem of inefficiency but some  genuine cost and risk when digital content starts to  sprawl. Keeping track of how the content is used and  being absolutely certain about the status of files used  is part of every day interaction with the press.” 

Wilson is palpably excited about the future  possibilities of DAM. 

“We expect to see automatic tagging and searching  of images. At the moment, effective image searches  rely on appropriate metadata having been associated  with each image. This process is still very humanresource  intensive. We expect to see image recognition  software and learning heuristics begin to play a much  bigger part in commercial DAM applications.”

  He also foresees a move away from viewing a  DAM application as a searchable archive to seeing  it as a dynamic tool for discussing, creating, sharing  and managing digital resources. “In other words,  a merging of some of the ideas from current DAM  applications, social networking sites and Wikis.”

  For Freestyle Interactive’s Phil Morton, social  media is already a key driver in the development  of DAM. “Social, search, content are inextricably  tied together – but user-generated content isn’t  authoritative,” he says. “If you want to engage in  social media activity, digital asset management has  a role. As a brand, you have reams of authoritative  content. So we’re looking at ways to access content  quickly so that brands can respond to trends taking  place in social media channels.”

 Sounds useful then. In which case, all corporate  communicators need to do is convince senior  management to buy in to digital asset management.  Michael Wells knows how to put it: “Digital asset  management isn’t just an IT project. It’s about  improving our working lives.”