The Importance of Brand Strategy in Relation to DAM

By Gabriella Pirrone

September 26, 2018

Brand Strategy, Brandfolder, Branding, Cloud, cloud storage, content, content marketing, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Digital Marketing, Growth Strategy, Personal Brand, SaaS, Video Content

When it comes to digital asset management, there are several ways that it can relate to your business, whether it is incorporated into your customer experience (CX) platform or just simply having a central location for your brand assets to be easily shared or maintained – yet, how does this relate to a business’s brand strategy one might ask?
 
To help answer a couple of my questions, I reached out to Luke Beatty, the CEO of Brandfolder, a comprehensive, cloud-based digital asset management and SaaS solution that I came across. Brandfolder helps large organizations such as Salesforce, Slack, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, TripAdvisor, and more to better manage their digital assets. From logos and bios to product imagery, promotions and videos, these assets are a major part of a company. 
 
Before Brandfolder, Luke served as the President of Media Brands at Verizon and as a Managing Director at TechStars. In 2004, Luke founded Associated Content, which was sold to Yahoo in 2010. In fact, it was in the wake of Yahoo’s corporate rebranding that ultimately inspired Luke to create his company, Brandfolder.
 
Having said that, with Luke’s strong background in corporate branding and having a great track record in the industry, I decided to reach out to him to get some deeper insights on DAM and how his experience in corporate branding relates to his role with Brandfolder.
 
“As a GM and CEO responsible for many global media brands over the last 15 years (at Yahoo and Verizon / Oath), I uncovered the need for Brandfolder. It became evident to me that the huge B2B and consumer brands that I was responsible for were understandably assigning huge value to their brands, but yet the execution, logistics and measurement of brand development was missing a necessary process and platform.” 

Do Brand Strategy and DAM go Hand-in-Hand?

There’s no question that brands need a strategy not only for their long-term goals but to help customers realize who that organization or brand is and what it stands for in that particular marketplace. A brand strategy can include an organization's, say, marketing support, so it’s key to understanding an organization’s audience, preferences and expectations for its brand. 
 
As I mentioned above, digital asset management systems isn’t thought of as quickly as it should be when it comes to brand strategy so I was curious to hear Luke’s opinion on this and why he thinks it’s so important:
 
“Brand managers are moving to DAMs in order to drive brand consistency, measure results and formalize processes. It is also becoming increasingly important because:  1) the volume of brand creative is exploding - email, social, branded content, sales enablement, etc. 2) brand execution is becoming less organic and more formally choreographed and this requires platform execution 3) CMOs are becoming more data-driven and need to show brand engagement KPIs.” 

With a ton of information on the internet with guidance on how to select a better fit platform for you organization, I asked Luke what the true qualities of DAM platform are that companies should look for when selecting a digital asset management system:
 
“Beyond price, as you evaluate DAMs it is important to understand the dramatic range of providers out there. We see commoditized, featureless cloud storage like Dropbox in the consideration set and at the other end we have deeply complex enterprise DAMs, and there is much in between. I recommend looking at your vertical use-cases and examining which vendors have traction in your space. Those brands have tested the systems. Look for modular DAMs that will allow you to add features and functionality as your needs change. The DAM should grow with your business and marketing demands. Lastly, keeping an eye out for unpredictable service fees for training and customization.”
 
Not only are businesses developing new marketing and branding strategies as they shift from placing tremendous value in recognizable and enduring logos, but also becoming intentionally dynamic with logos that are often temporary is a major pain point in the industry. I asked Luke his thoughts on why he thinks brands are doing this and what he would say is the biggest take away value:
 
“Dynamic branding is an effective trend for many reasons.  It attracts brand awareness at a low cost, it conveys a certain sense of innovation and speed and it is increasingly becoming a clever way to launch new products.” 

Ending Notes

When selecting a DAM, it really resonated with me when Luke mentioned that you should try to select “modular DAMs that will allow you to add features and functionality as your needs change”. Being in the tech industry, I don’t think this could be more bang on. I can quickly relate to this statement in relation to when customers try to select a WCM for their business.
 
Sure, out of the box functionality is great and easy to use, but if a platform can’t scale to your needs and grow with you alongside your business is it really the better fit? When trying to select the best DAM for your business, it all comes down to accessing what your current business challenges are in regards to managing your digital assets. Discuss the specific workflows that will help solve the current challenges you're facing and don't be afraid to bring those ideas to the digital asset management companies that you’ve selected.

Moreover, the increased spending on digital marketing is considered as a vital factor behind the driving growth of this market and is said to grow to 5.66 Billion USD by 2022.
 

Gabriella Pirrone

Gabriella is the Digital Marketing Assistant for CMSC Media. She brings a wealth of knowledge from not only a CMS perspective but also content, SEO and eCommerce. She enjoys everything social media and staying ontop of the latest trends in the digital marketing world.