BTW, what are Brand Assets?

Some people think ‘brand assets’ = ‘your logo.’ But as you undoubtedly know, it’s a lot more than that: logos, style guides that provide direction for the use of your logo in various media, graphics, photography, font style guides, approved taglines, key animations that put your logos and taglines into motion, maybe even theme music or sound effects. We could go on, but you get the point — the assets that allow you to manage your brand are numerous, diverse — and easy to lose track of.

The Fix

Make your DAM a one-stop shop

Communicate to your organization that the DAM is the single source of truth for your brand, the one place that all new versions of your brand assets live. Make sure your team does not save new or iterative versions of any brand asset to local computers.

Develop and reinforce the organizational habit of pulling even ‘everyday’ assets from the DAM, to ensure the most updated version is being used. Team members will rationalize saving copies of assets that they use on a regular basis on local computers, but even this behavior creates a slippery slope. Minor updates can be missed and pretty soon you have a ‘version control’ mess on your hands. 

Archive past or obsolete versions in the DAM, too, for reference — again, to avoid any slippery-slope behavior. But make sure to clearly label the folder they’re kept in as ‘not-for-use.’

Good metadata and tagging is critical

If your people are frustrated when they search for something, they’ll quickly revert to the bad behavior we’re trying to eliminate. Make sure it’s super-obvious which ones are the current versions, and provide a contact if someone has any questions.

For more about good tagging, check out these blogs: 
Why Can’t I Find Anything in the DAM?
How Do I Make Sure Metadata is Cataloged Correctly?
Why Should I Care About Rights Management?

DAMs are not just for media assets