When implementing a digital asset management (DAM) system, you begin by adding the typical mix of marketing assets, such as images, logos, pdfs, documents, etc. Most of these file types are familiar to the average marketer, until you get to video. Because video files are much larger and more complex than other media files, we are frequently asked, “What’s the best video format to upload into my DAM?”

While most marketing teams are creating video content, storing it in a way that’s accessible and usable across multiple platforms is a challenge. Your website, a shared folder, YouTube, Facebook, and other channels all have their challenges. That’s why many businesses are using digital asset management (DAM) systems to manage their video content alongside their images and documents.

In this article, we’ll lay out different metadata you can apply to your videos to make them searchable within your DAM system.

Do I wait two weeks for a photograph request? Or do I use the same one I’ve already been using? That was a question many at the University of San Francisco (USF) faced.

When we interviewed Tressa Crozier and Candice Pinault Novak, you could feel the pride and importance behind the USF brand. Unfortunately, the cost of providing the assets that embodied the brand came at a cost of time and chaos.

As organizations realize the usefulness of video as a sales and training medium, they will begin to create more and more of it. This does however create an issue of what to do with all of the footage. Video is significantly larger in size than other digital media files. You'll need to organize and store it all, including video and media you need to hold onto for business or legal reasons.

If this sounds familiar, it might be time to consider a video archive solution. Let's discuss!

Katherine Knight is responsible not only for marketing but also for the love lives of hundreds of thousands of relationships all over the world. As director of marketing at Zoosk, a leading online global dating platform in over 80 countries, her work powers a platform that over 33 million people rely on to find true love. She oversees all of Zoosk’s digital marketing and advertising and uses the Widen Collective to house all of their creative assets.

Sharon Doan considers herself the “Jane of all trades” at Poly-Wood, a manufacturer of fine outdoor furniture based in Indiana, but she’s also one of the global admins of their digital asset management (DAM) system. Anything that deals with content, whether it be digital or print, goes through both Sharon and their DAM.

A Google search for “digital asset management” will give you hundreds of vendors. Where do you start? Which vendor has what you need? What makes Widen different than other software solution providers? Why should I choose Widen? Our advisors field these questions every day, and our marketing team wanted to help answer them too. So, we embarked on a journey to capture the Widen Experience:

Nikki Lebenson Angulo is a digital communications manager at the Institute of International Education (IIE), which is one of the largest and oldest global nonprofit organizations that administers and manages programs to support international exchange, like The Fulbright Program. They also work with governments around the world to promote the benefits of exchange.

Nikki’s position is critical in helping communicate the value of these programs with visual content that is published on the web, social media and through more traditional methods like newsletters.

Pioneer Balloon is a global company that offers balloons, promotional products, and partyware. In preparation for their 100th anniversary in 2017, they hired Teri Truesdell to research and implement a digital asset management (DAM) system to organize all of their historical assets and to offer a better distribution method for the thousands of products they sell globally.

Serving more than 100,000 students, Indiana University (IU) provides broad access to undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education for students throughout Indiana, the U.S., and the world, as well as outstanding academic and cultural programs and student services. We recently had a chance to sit down with Eric Rudd, art director, photographer, and producer with the IU’s Communications and Creative Services department. Eric is one of the global admins for IU’s DAM site, and he shared with us their journey of replacing an old DAM system with the Widen Media Collective.