Need for Speed: Delivering Great Content at Greater Velocity

Creative connections are what drive quality content at scale — and speed. But a missing or lackluster digital asset management system can seriously slow things down.

The modern customer is insatiable. They want content constantly. For you, that means you need to create an endless stream of new and personalized images, video, audio, and interactive elements, all tailored to whatever platform they’re on. As soon as one piece of content is consumed, they’re busy clicking for the next — and that “next” needs to be served up instantly.

For brands, the nonstop demand for content represents endless opportunities to connect, delight, engage, and sell. But it also places incredible demands on creative teams powering the content experiences.

“Creative teams are being called on to create tons of content to supply many different channels and different initiatives,” says Elliot Sedegah, group manager for Adobe Experience Manager strategy and product. “But what we’re seeing is that those additional demands don’t come with additional budget. You’re not getting more people to create that content.”

Getting your digital asset house in order

To manage the need for faster content delivery, teams need to get a handle on their digital assets.

“We heard it from customers all the time. ‘We know that we made a bunch of stuff, but we’re not sure where it is. We didn’t tag it. We can’t find it. We’re not sure where our ads or videos are,’” says Steve Gustavson, executive creative director of Adobe Studio. “If marketers want specific teams to have access to apps more quickly, they can’t always wait on the creative team. They need access to a DAM.”

A digital asset management (DAM) system is key to making content move faster. An effective DAM allows creatives, marketers, and other internal and external stakeholders to have access to content, files, and key digital assets anytime, anywhere.

Once “in,” people can access, edit, and upload assets, without fear of deleting or duplicating versions, and without waiting for someone a few floors — or a few time zones — away to answer a simple request. That means more content can get created even faster — there’s no waiting, no searching, and no recreating the wheel. When you need content, everything you need to create that content is in the DAM.

“Digital asset management is not a new concept,” says Steve. “But larger organizations or heavily matrixed companies can have a tough time getting an efficient system in place.”

As a result, many companies wind up stitching together solutions using a free or low-cost cloud-based platform and complicated naming conventions to indicate versions. Then, when an asset “disappears,” the process stops while people search for old versions or, even reshoot, rewrite, or redesign something that likely is still in the cloud.

Overcoming the digital asset grind

An effective DAM can overcome these challenges while accelerating content velocity.

“For global brands, the right cloud-based DAM system can mean the life or death of content delivery,” says Steve. “Team members reach out because they heard someone from another office mention a new campaign they’d never even heard of. Now they want to know where the assets are.”

It’s not just global enterprises feeling the strain, either. Between web, social, marketing, creative, and campaign teams, any company can easily become siloed, limiting people’s access to critical files and creative elements.

When it comes to creating content and getting it out the door quickly, each of those missing pieces, hard-to-find assets, and lack of access is a speed bump — each slows you down in your attempts to accelerate your content velocity and deliver the instantaneous experiences that customers demand.

With a DAM, everyone can easily access what they need, when they need it. There’s no shouting across the floor, waiting for the LA office to open, or booking a reshoot because you can’t find the images. Everything is right there, front and center — no matter your team, your office, or your content needs.

This instant, universal access is just part of the power of DAM. For example, Adobe Experience Manager Assets layers on top of a simplified workflow, making it easier to see and secure appropriate approvals surrounding asset delivery. That means not only a simplified path to creating content, but also more streamlined quality control that ensures faster delivery and supports this velocity push.

This acceleration is critical to delivering on customer expectations — and this acceleration at scale isn’t possible without a DAM. “Asset management isn’t a thing that most people get excited about,” says Steve. “But if you want to solve the content velocity problem and connect cross-channel themes to use the same assets, you have to embrace this practice.”

Learn more about how to use Adobe Experience Manager Assets to maximize content development and experience delivery.