There’s an old saying that goes something like “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
It came from the earlier days of tech where, maybe rather than taking a chance on something new or different, you could always just buy IBM products and trust they’d work well enough to get the job done. And if it got the job done, well, you wouldn’t get fired, would you?
But you probably wouldn’t get promoted, either.
And that’s because you wouldn’t really stand out. IBM got the job done, but it was also exactly what was expected, and the results were predictable. Then again, if you had taken a risk, saved some significant money for the company, or selected a solution that delivered unexpected beneficial results, well then you might be the company hero.
It’s no different in digital asset management. Today, you could use a similar saying for some of the legacy vendors out there. You know exactly what you’re going to get, but it’s been the same for years and years.
Or, you could choose a modern DAM platform, take a little risk sure, but know you’re selecting an innovative solution that could yield previously unrealized value for your business. And that could truly define your career as someone with vision who delivers great results.
Here are some of the things you can bring to your organization through modern DAMs like Tenovos, that will help define who you are in your company.
Productivity Gains
It goes without saying that DAM platforms (good ones, anyway) provide a boost to your productivity. It’s one of the main reasons why people buy DAMs in the first place. But modern DAMs go further than legacy solutions to boost productivity across teams, in multiple ways.
Traditionally you would expect a DAM to increase productivity by centralizing content and assets, and making them easily accessible to users. But where some DAMs still use outdated folder structures and static content tags (which, admittedly, can ‘do the job’), modern platforms go way beyond with things like:
- Automated AI content tagging
- AI image and video recognition
- Modern and optimized UI for ease of use and speed navigating the library
- Advanced search functionality (configurable search filters, user-based permissions, rights-based content access)
- Automated metadata application during content ingestion (individual and bulk uploads)
You can also bring in a DAM that acts as a central part of your marketing tech stack. Integrations with workflow software and creative suites make it incredibly effective at automating processes, keeping your users in the DAM, transferring approved files between systems to speed up content creation processes, and so on. Your creative and marketing teams will thank you for connecting approved digital assets directly with the systems they use every day.
The results of these workflow connections alone are impressive:
- Reduce missed deadlines by 50%
- Achieve 150% productivity boost
- 25% faster project completion
Imagine being the person responsible for more than doubling a creative team’s productivity? That looks strong on any resume, and forces your current leaders to take notice of the impact you’re having to the organization.
Partner Engagement
If you’re supporting a marketing team that needs to share content with external partners, then choosing the right DAM can have a significant impact on the success of those partner programs.
Marketing teams often have to ask their IT departments to provide system access to external parties, whether those are agencies, resale partners, or any other third-party. It creates delays, bogs down IT teams, and creates more paperwork than is necessary.
On the other hand, modern DAMs like Tenovos have built-in functionality to create secure access points to the DAM that don’t require IT intervention, and gives admins the ability to restrict third-party access to only the content they need or are allowed to use.
How long does that take? While in the past you might be looking at a week or two to get access for your partners, Tenovos admins (that’s you!) can do it in a matter of minutes. It takes a few clicks to create these access points, full of the content your partners need (and nothing they don’t!).
That ability alone significantly reduces time to market for partner related activities, letting you get your best and most recent content into their hands in record time. If you want to give them the ability to customize content using your approved brand assets, you can do that too.
This takes a load off your creative and marketing teams, while empowering your partners to succeed towards whatever goals they may have.
To recap, that means your creative and marketing teams are free to do more in other areas, while your partners are moving fast because they have your best and newest material the moment it’s published. That’s the kind of impact traditional DAMs aren’t known for, but you can be.
Tracking Content and Measuring Performance
Chief marketing officers (CMOs) only really care about a handful of things, one of which is the return on investment for their marketing spend, including brand, creative and content programs.
Traditionally, marketers have been very good at measuring ROI across their various channels, like paid and social. But at the content and asset level, that transparency into what’s paying off and what isn’t just doesn’t exist. Why? Because once an asset is used, or content gets published, it gets lost in a black hole.
Sure, teams have visibility into how a social post is performing, but the image attached to that post doesn’t have its own analytics to measure, nor can it be tracked in an automated way. So, as far as the CMO is concerned, was that image ever published at all? Who can say?
Well, you can if you choose the right DAM.
Modern DAM platforms are starting to publish content directly to channels like social, and can track where assets live today. They can tell you how the asset is being used, where it’s published, and how it’s contributing to the bigger picture of social channel performance, lead generation, and buying behaviors.
Those are the building blocks of being able to truly measure content and asset ROI.
Add to that the ability for creative teams to see what’s working and build more of that stuff, or easily identify opportunities to reuse content that’s working on new channels, and you have a truly powerful tool sure to increase the value of your assets by an order of magnitude.
Yes, you could buy the IBM of the DAM world, but then you wouldn’t be able to provide an ROI breakdown of your content and brand assets to the CMO. Or, you could be the person who helps to change the way your teams measure and think about content performance.
Reduce Risk to the Brand
Global brands spend millions of dollars each year acquiring the rights for various creative assets to use in ad campaigns, digital marketing channels, and social media. It’s almost staggering the number of licenses some of these companies are managing, and the sheer volume of content those licenses apply to.
It’s not really surprising, then, when someone gets in trouble for breaching a license. In 2014 (yes it’s an old example, but it’s a good one), Monster Energy was forced to pay the Beastie Boys $1.7 million for using a song without permission. It happened because one of Monster’s employees wanted to use an asset but didn’t realize they no longer held a valid license for the song.
Today, with brands taking to social media channels like TikTok and Instagram and moving so quickly to keep up with social trends, the risks are even higher.
Many organizations have a manual and complex process whereby anytime an asset is to be used, it needs to go through a legal check (among others). That just slows you down, and it’s prone to human error nonetheless as you need to trust the user at the end of the process to take the right actions.
Modern DAMs like Tenovos build in rights management directly to the platform, and can tie license agreements and restrictions to the asset itself. It makes it nearly impossible for users to pull the wrong asset (like the Beastie Boys example), because content can be filtered by license parameters like territory for use and media.
Are you going out with a marketing push in Europe? You can quickly see what licensed assets you can use in that region. If you’re creating a TV ad campaign, your creative team can see immediately what they can use for that media type.
Going back to the ROI discussion from earlier, it also gives you the ability to see what licenses are being used, where assets are being published, and then adjust what rights you purchase and license terms are worthwhile for you to invest in.
Make Your Career-Defining Move
Traditional DAMs (the IBMs of the DAM world) are background players. They centralize and organize content, and act as a repository for your assets. They don’t go much further than that, and often are just taken for granted as tools that ‘do the job’.
Today’s modern DAMs, like Tenovos, are more dynamic systems that offer significant value beyond the storage of content. They bring major productivity boosts, let you engage partners with content immediately, give your leaders a full view into content and asset ROI, and reduce your risk in today’s complex digital media environment.
Choosing the safe DAM may not get you fired, but choosing the right DAM can define your career. For help on how to do that, read our Vendor Evaluation Guide.
