The funny thing about the digital asset management competitive landscape is that we talk about making it easy for users to search and download images, video and other types of digital media. Once users locate the appropriate digital assets it makes sense for them to download so they can be placed on a web site or used in desktop software applications.

The funny part is coming.

Isolate the digital assets used in web sites across marketing channels for a moment. Think of every file that is owned by corporate marketing teams and used throughout the internet for promotional purposes. This could be product images used by distributors or dealers, training videos, recordings of executive speeches, or high-definition promotional videos. Every time someone wants to use one or all of these digital assets they download them from the digital asset management application and place the branded files into the appropriate internet location (e.g. web site, blog). On the surface, the digital asset management system accomplished the objective.

Here is the funny part.

You have surrendered control over your entire marketing library because you just let everyone that needed to place your branded material on their web site to download a file from your DAM system. Something that you were told you would have more control over just went out the window. When you want to change or remove that file you trust everyone will check back to make sure they are using the most current version. You could also send an email notice (or have the DAM provider do it for you) to let the user community know a new digital asset exists. How many users do you think will change the file on their web site to the most current version because you asked them to?

Here is a funnier part.

Imagine this is a video file — you have just burdened the infrastructure and I.T. department of your marketing channel by giving them a cool new video to help promote the product but they cannot use it because it would cripple the entire web structure if more than 10 people watch it simultaneously. A cool new video that cannot be repurposed by your channel partners is an expensive shame.

Now we can get serious.