When I think of digital assets, I become quickly overwhelmed. Just the volume of digital assets is mindboggling, without even accounting for how many individuals touch each digital asset before it is complete. Added complexity comes from organizational factors, such as legal review and standards, other internal departments' needs, multiple locations, subsidiaries, third party consultants and external partners. All this complexity is a fact of life in today's digital world, and fortunately we have best practices emerging for digital asset management.

One effective way is to take a multilayered approach of managing the entire digital asset process, which ranges from creation to distribution and entails using and reusing digital assets such as graphics, advertisements, photos, video and multimedia files. For me, it's very much like making lasagna from scratch - many steps that yield a worthwhile result. This multilayered approach also helps to strike a balance between creative license and upholding corporate standards and approvals, and both need to be kept in mind to make the process work. Organizations that can master this complexity seemlessly and in the right portions get the greatest rewards, and their digital asset management process enhances their overall marketing goals.

The role of digital asset management as a key part of integrated marketing management has been validated by Gartner, which ranks marketing operations management among the top three missions for corporate marketing organizations to accomplish over the next few years. And digital asset management is core to effective marketing operations. So to explore this subject even further, you might want to read this white paper titled " Digital Asset Management: An Integral Part of an Overall Marketing Operations Management Strategy".  It will answer some of your questions and give you pointers for where to begin, including:

• Why digital asset management increases marketing effectiveness.
• The most important features to look for in a digital asset management system.
• The efficiencies you'll gain in marketing and enterprisewide.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to that next lasagna, as well as your comments.  And thanks for following me!