“Quickly put these images on your C-drive. I’ll store them safely later. Is this the right version of the logo? EPS, JPEG, PNG, OMG?! Where are the images for the new winter campaign?” We give you 5 tips for keeping your media neatly structured, so you can work more efficiently and establish your brand more clearly.
Making chaos of your media files is already simple on your own, let alone when you are working in the same Digital Asset Management system (more commonly known as a media bank) with 10, 100, or maybe 1000 colleagues. A collection of thousands of media files is no exception, and it soon becomes difficult to retrieve the right files.
But how to create order in the chaos? And equally important: how do you keep it structured, so not only you, but all your colleagues can find that logo or those images of the campaign? This need not be troublesome, as long as the basis is good. These 5 tips will help you keep your media base free of digital litter, preventing yourself and your colleagues from getting lost in the media labyrinth.
1. Archive: all neat and tidy
A clutter-free desk creates a clutter-free brain, as the saying goes. This is also true for a clutter-free media base. So keep it clean and do a major clean-up periodically. Consider which images you want in your DAM and make them accessible to users.
It doesn’t stop there, though; you also have to consider when images need to be archived. Is it really relevant to store all images in the DAM? Or is it better to archive those campaign photos since the product has been discontinued?
Think of quit claims: you want to store them properly, so you won’t get a claim. If you store the quit claim immediately with the photo, you can retrieve it easily. A benefit that is just as important: you need not be bothered with the major clean-up every time, and you will get the opportunity to focus on more important and fun things.
2. Apply a clear and, above all, appropriate taxonomy
Taxono-what? A well-thought-out and logical classification and grouping of assets, which is what taxonomy implies. The intended result is to make assets retrievable, for instance, by using logical filters. But what is convenient for one group of users may be awkward for another one.
For example, a marketer working on a new product would naturally look for relevant media based on market segments. An HR professional looking for images for his vacancy will have little use for this arrangement of assets. He would benefit more from an arrangement based on the organisation’s departments.
So map the stakeholders thoroughly when arranging or rearranging the media bank. Do you want to do it perfectly? Develop user personas for each user group and investigate their specific needs. This gives you a good basis for applying a smart taxonomy. A good start is half the work.
3. Make it a co-effort, but keep control
An important benefit of a Digital Asset Management system is, of course, that you can access assets easily. Not only colleagues, but also external parties, including firms and photographers, will have access. Give them the option to upload their files to the DAM. This means it is not all your responsibility, and as a result, ‘I will temporarily store this on the C-drive’, the behaviour will occur less often.
How do you prevent a proliferation of resources? For instance, by having a photographer immediately upload his images and enrich them with metadata. Think of: relevant search terms, the campaign for which the images were created and when the user rights of the images expire.
By making several metadata fields mandatory, you will have greater control over metadata quality and thus the retrievability of your media. You only need to review the uploaded files and, if needed, make corrections.
4. Have Artificial Intelligence tag images for you
The future is here, so why not benefit from all the good technology has to offer? We noticed that some customers do not like the process outlined in Tip 3 for adding appropriate search terms to media. Still, it is important to do this: you want to easily find assets within your media base.
But the process takes time and thinking power, and we have so many other things to do, don’t we? Enough reason to deploy the power of artificial intelligence to simplify this task. Our thinking power hails from, how could it be different, Google (Cloud Vision). The help of IBM Watson, the computer that beat its human opponents at the American quiz Jeopardy in 2011, can also be invoked to tag your files.
We have noticed that Watson is a real team player. You can combine various AI services to achieve the best result. If your DAM integrates one or more of these services, you only need to upload your media, and the system will present you with suggestions that match the image. Do you already have a well-stocked DAM system? Then you can use it to boost quality further.
5. Show relevant media ONLY
Why would you bother your employees in the facilities management department, who predominantly use the DAM system for downloading pictogram stickers, with materials from the marketing communication department? These materials are often intended for publication on social media and the other way round. This may sound obvious, but it often goes wrong.
By showing content only based on relevance to internal or external users, you keep the DAM well-organised for them and prevent the improper use of resources. In practice, this means that the technical assistant logs in to the same media base, but is only shown a specific set of media files linked to his job and information needs.
Brand consistency and efficiency
The aforementioned tips are a good foundation for using your media base as efficiently as possible. Together, you build a strong, consistent brand and ensure the system meets the needs of the people who use it daily. The marketers, communication professionals, firms, and even the external project manager. If you succeed in attuning the media base to its users’ needs and make the assets retrievable, you really add value in terms of brand consistency and efficiency.
The next step: creation
Now that you know how to structure your Digital Asset Management system and keep it well-organised, you can think of the next step. Managing the media is one thing, but you also have to work with them. The next step is to create and publish materials straight from the system. With solutions such as Publishing on Demand, every marketer or communication professional can make fine materials that meet the visual identity guidelines of your organisation.
There will undoubtedly come a time when we can also use AI to develop personalised content based on user profiles. A personalised flyer featuring images perfectly attuned to the recipient. An automatically adjusted tone of voice that perfectly matches the wishes of the individual members of a target group. How long will it take before Watson will be able to assist you with that?
