In 2020, 85% of businesses use video as a tool in their marketing strategy. That’s because video works — it can increase traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding. But, it only works at an enterprise level if you store and distribute your videos strategically.  

Video content continues to grow in popularity and importance among marketers. According to research from Wyzowl, 89% feel video marketing results in positive ROI — up from 33% in 2015 — because it has the ability to increase traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding. Further, faster connection speeds and improved hardware make daily video consumption the norm.

Because video assets are increasingly vital to current marketing strategies, this content needs to be managed effectively throughout its lifecycle. Let’s take a closer look at how the right technology can extend the reach and value of video content across phases — including archiving.

For over a decade, video has been the rising star of marketing. First gaining speed back in 2005 alongside the launch of YouTube, video has managed to climb the ranks to near-celebrity status with enterprises around the globe. With 87% of businesses now using video as a marketing tool — up from 63% in 2017 — it begs to question why video is so popular.

Are businesses just blindly following trends or are their investments in the creation, management, and distribution of video assets more deeply rooted? Let’s have a look. 

By now, it’s no surprise that video is a popular marketing tool for brands. The numbers are staggering. YouTube has over 1.9 billion users. A whopping 87% of businesses use video content. And, here’s a fun one — Cisco estimates that by 2021 it will take an individual over 5 million years to watch all the video that’s uploaded to the web in a single month.

So yes, video is popular. But, just because brands use it and people watch it, doesn’t make all video effective. Video for the sake of video won’t cut it, which is why the savviest of marketers have set their sights on what’s called “branded video.” 

Media asset management (MAM) is sometimes used interchangeably with digital asset management (DAM). They both help manage assets, but are they really the same thing? Sort of…

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?”

Creating engaging videos that support business objectives is a challenge. And working with videos doesn’t get any easier after they are finished.

Videos are massive files which makes sharing and viewing them using email attachments essentially impossible. Cloud-based DAM systems like the Widen Collective® support video storage, sharing, and viewing. But treating videos just like images and other assets doesn’t provide the best experience for these powerful assets.

What’s the difference between YouTube and a digital asset management (DAM) system (in our case, the Widen Collective^®), and how should you utilize each?

The Collective is a video management system with publishing capabilities, and YouTube is a search engine where all the results are video. You shouldn’t think of them as one OR the other. I suggest you use both.

In this article, we’ll be diving into the YouTube part of the equation. To learn more about DAM, visit Widen's What is digital asset management (DAM)? page.