YMCA England and Wales creates communities where young people can truly belong, contribute and thrive. Each of the 116 YMCA locations share a common mission, however, they have struggled to present the YMCA England and Wales brand consistently across their marketing initiatives.

It’s often said that branding is an essential aspect of marketing. Branding refers to the emphasis and efforts placed on the symbols, names, logos, slogans, designs, and other attributes associated with a company or product. Brands use emotional and functional elements, such as digital assets like images, videos, and other content, to establish and nurture relationships with their consumers. The better the relationship, the better the brand recognition.

We're big advocates for DAM administrators. After all, admins play an essential role in the success of any digital asset management (DAM) system. They lead technical system maintenance; marketing global processes and procedures; metadata creation and consistency; training; and user support.

Businesses are creating more content to meet the demands of new channels, products, and markets. More content means more challenges. Marketing and creative teams are dealing with questions like: What content do we have? Where is it stored? Can I reuse it? Do we have it translated in German? Is this graphic available in PNG format? Is this the most recent version? While file storage tools can work as a temporary fix, more and more businesses are using a digital asset management (DAM) system to centralize, organize, govern, and distribute content.

Which trends are marketing-driven organizations focused on? Inquiring minds want to know! If you said artificial intelligence, actionable data, customer experience, and building the right technology mix, you’re spot on. Connecting digital asset management (DAM) to these trends needs to be a priority for all marketing teams who want to maximize content value, create deeper emotional connections with their audiences, and improve the overall customer experience.

When a t-shirt is no longer wearable, is your instinct to throw it away or to turn it into a dust cloth? When you cook bacon, do you toss the grease or save it for your favorite chili recipe? Repurposing is a smart and effective way to get more use out of your resources while preventing waste.

The choice to incorporate a digital asset management (DAM) system into your business’s repertoire of invaluable technological resources is a decision that will have a significant impact on marketing strategies. The DAM is the central source of truth for assets. With it, you can improve cross-functional collaboration, automate manual tasks, simplify asset searching for everyone, and deliver a consistent brand across all channels.

With so much at stake and so many vendors selling DAM systems, carefully consider what your business values.

Your brand is the culmination of every experience a person has with your organization – which leaves a perception in their mind. Digital assets are behind many of those experiences including in-store signage, social media posts, advertisements, packaging, and sales materials. And more teams, devices, and channels are forming those experiences than ever before.