Digital asset management in advertising agencies

Abstract

This paper reviews how some advertising agencies in the USA and Europe — Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Grey Worldwide, BBDO, Leo Burnett Worldwide, Euro RSCG, Publicis' Capps Digital and TracyLocke — chose and implemented a flexible, scalable digital asset management (DAM) system that allows them to collaborate via the internet with hundreds of agency offices and clients, worldwide. Executive, creative and production people from each ad agency describe how they approached their return on investment (ROI) research before choosing their DAM solution, and how they implemented the solutions to deliver lucrative business results. Agency staff explain how a coherent DAM system allows advertising agencies to do more work with fewer staff by ensuring speed to market, productivity savings, increased agency and client revenues, secure client branding and a 24-hour art studio. The paper also tells readers how to handle the critical issues of file-naming criteria, load balancing and ensuring a cultural buy-in within the agency.