Digital Asset Management: Revolutionising in-house creative workflows

Unleashing the potential of Digital Asset Management (DAM) means seeing it as more than just a vault for completed projects—it's the starting block for a more efficient and integrated creative operation. Despite this, findings from the In-House Agency Leaders Club Benchmarking Survey reveal that DAM integration's full power is seldom achieved. How can we change this narrative?

The unsung hero of creative workflow: DAM

No surprise, then, that the role of DAM may not always be top of mind for non-technical leaders!

From my extensive experience working as an in-house agency leader, ranging from large complex agencies to setting up smaller creative production teams, I believe that we need to shift our perspective.

Far too often, DAM is viewed as the end rather than the beginning - the place where published assets go to rest after navigating a bumpy journey through work management and approvals platforms.

The current state of DAM in creative agencies

According to the In-House Agency Leaders Club Benchmarking Survey, 77% of in-house agencies have a DAM in place. However, there’s a significant lack of integration between DAM systems and other internal platforms, with only 25% achieving such integration. This disconnect prevents the DAM from becoming what it absolutely needs to be - the central source of truth within the organisation.

The vital role of metadata in DAM

A recent conversation with a production team, who worked from shared artwork files as an overflow for a client's in-house team, unearthed that the DAM was neither fully up-to-date nor correctly meta-tagged. This revelation underscores the need for managing metadata in Digital Asset Management.

User-friendly DAM interfaces matter

Moreover, some interfaces of DAM systems aren’t user-friendly, leading busy teams to claim that it takes too much time and effort to find the assets they need. As a result, teams resort to saving assets locally or using inefficient methods like email, which takes us further away from the central vision.

The aspirations of in-house agencies

The remit of in-house teams continues to evolve, with aspirations for almost half of them (47%) to grow into lead agency status. However, many teams currently lack the capabilities and processes required for tier-one brand work. It’s interesting why these teams are aiming to reach higher up the marketing funnel instead of focusing on becoming experts in their current domain. This was a surprising insight from the IHALC Survey.

The increasing demand for multi-format digital assets

Given the explosion of always-on content, there’s an increasing need for expertise in creating high-volume, multi-format digital assets.

The integral role of DAM in production thinking

To achieve more with less, in-house leaders must align their people, processes, and technology. By integrating production thinking into the start of the creative process, brief reception can be improved, leveraging existing assets for reference and optimisation. AI and Machine Learning in DAM continue to play a pivotal role.

Innovation and future trends

In-house teams must strive to integrate their processes as their remit expands and their output becomes more sophisticated. The ability to create modular content and embrace automation necessitates support from DAM

systems. Global collaboration and localisation strategies will also be crucial for teams operating in a global landscape.

By prioritising DAM integration and streamlining creative services, in-house agencies can elevate their efficiency, enhance collaboration, and unlock their full potential in the ever-evolving creative landscape. We look forward to seeing what insights DAM Europe 2024 brings.

Are you ready to take your creative services to the next level? Discover how integrated Digital Asset Management can streamline your process and elevate your outputs. Explore the future of DAM and step into a more connected, capable, and compelling world of in-house creativity with LOOP Agencies. Contact us now and reach out to our founders by emailing vicky@loopagencies.com or ed@ loopagencies.com.