by Janus Boye
Tracking down imagery for campaigns can be quite time-consuming and it’s a real challenge in many organisations with photos, videos and other material spread out across different systems.
In our recent member conference call, London-based digital asset management (DAM) expert Theresa Regli shared her insights on the topic and opened her talk by getting to the core of the problem:
When re-use or re-purposing doesn’t happen, more money gets spend on re-creation.
According to Theresa, the biggest barriers to solving the problem are governance and ownership. Specifically, Theresa mentioned that many organisations are missing a MarTech governance group.
With a focus on DAM for the last 15 years, Theresa advises marketing leaders on digital strategy, data design, and MarTech stack product selection. In our call, she shared from her recent work on DAM and integration points, specifically to the MarTech ecosystem.
Below you’ll find my notes and highlights from the presentation, including on DAM 2.0, headless DAM and a few recommendations. Finally, you' can find the slides and the recording from the call.
Turning files into assets
Yes, it sounds a bit like turning water into wine and to be fair, it’s not an innovative new idea. For the past two decades, many software vendors have talked the talk about enabling re-use, using metadata and getting more value out of the files.
What’s happening right now in the marketplace is what Theresa describes as DAM 2.0: It’s not just describing and enriching the assets (like images and video) with metadata, it’s the evolution of asset value, by looking beyond what’s on the image. This could be by adding campaign attributes, use, targeting and other valuable marketing attributes that makes the asset easier to find, re-use and much more valuable.
Theresa used the below slide to illustrate how metadata is no longer just about the “what”.
It’s not just what’s on the image - salad - but potentially also marketing information for campaign usage
Introducing Headless DAM
Headless is a big buzzword, also when it comes to digital asset management. Some call it DAM-as-a-service, and it’s all about making a services layer available to power your marketing efforts.
As illustrated on the “Headless” DAM slide with an ‘Asset Services Layer’ that holds the assets and then other services like a Web CMS or email management that can pull the required assets.
In our call, Theresa used the example of a news media site. The headless DAM should be available to pull out the latest image when required.
If you have several applications that rely on the same digital assets, headless could be the way to go.
How does DAM fit in the MarTech ecosystem?
MarTech continues to rise and according to Theresa, DAM technology is applied in an increasingly broad way across many different use cases.
She presented a diagram as shown below to illustrate DAM’s place in the MarTech ecosystem. DAM at the core is a repository with metadata, but it’s evolving into a major player in the MarTech ecosystem.
Theresa described this slide on DAM’s place in the MarTech ecosystem as her most important slide of the past year
The usual reaction Theresa gets to this slide, is that it's "overwhelming." Her advice is to take it slowly, step by step using a phased approach. In other words: It's basically a picture of a 3 to 5-year roadmap!
Learn more about managing media in 2021
Theresa is the author of the definitive book on managing media and digital marketing assets: Digital & Marketing Asset Management: The Real Story of DAM Technology and Practice.
For more on headless benefits and obstacles, you might enjoy the notes from our call earlier in January on The Hurdles To Headless CMS Adoption - And How To Overcome Them.
If you are interested in more about MarTech, then a good place to continue reading is this 2018 interview with Scott Brinker who coined the term over a decade ago: The Democratization Of MarTech: New Possibilities And Challenges.
Finally, you can also download the slides (PDF) or enjoy the entire 29-minute recording below.