What Does DAM Stand for in Marketing?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) refers to a software that encompasses the collection and management of an organization’s digital assets, such as images, videos, documents, audio files, and text. A DAM is typically managed by the marketing team. The assets stored in the DAM are used by various teams throughout an organization and its partners.

For marketing teams, DAM meaning is about centralizing brand assets to streamline access, ensure consistency across all channels, and maintain brand consistency. A quality DAM system provides a systematic framework to facilitate the effective and efficient storage, organization, retrieval, distribution, and general management of digital media assets across every facet of an organization. 

What Is a DAM Tool Used For?

Digital asset management tools allow organizations to centrally store, manage, and share a broad spectrum of digital files. A DAM is often used internally across multiple departments within the business, as well as externally with contracted agencies, third-party service providers, and other channel partners.

Because it must serve a diverse range of users and purposes, a single DAM software system can include any number of helpful DAM tools. Specific features within a DAM system, these tools offer capabilities that range from uploading to verifying to retrieving files.

Early DAM systems, such as 1992’s Cumulus by Canto Software could already do all of these things quite well, but it took the rise of internet technology in the early 2000s before the widespread sharing of documents through DAM systems became practical at any significant scale. Modern DAM systems include tools that range from thumbnail preview to metadata indexing. They also have extremely advanced and nuanced search engines that allow users to locate and access files using a range of relevant search filter criteria.

Organizations that employ the power of DAM reap benefits that include reduced operational costs, improved resource allocation, consistent brand messaging, more consumer conversions, and increased customer retention. DAM can also enhance regulatory compliance and organizational transparency. By providing instant access to key digital assets both inside and outside an organization, it makes team member and stakeholder collaboration extraordinarily easy.

Is Google Drive a DAM?

While Google Drive provides basic digital asset storage, it is far from a fully functioning DAM system. While it may be able to handle some fundamental DAM tasks, it simply lacks the depth of capacity and the number of tools that even the most rudimentary DAM system provides. When it comes to digital asset management solutions, Google Drive scarcely scratches the surface of a DAM platform like those provided by Lumavate.

For example, Google Drive has little of the operational functionality that is commonly expected by DAM users. Google Drive users cannot tag files or automatically update files across all internal and external locations. It also may struggle when saddled with massive amounts of data. Furthermore, Google Drive is designed and formatted specifically for text files and its operational processes are largely incompatible with the management of images, videos, and other forms of visual content.

For all these reasons and more, the vast majority of organizations of any substantial size and complexity rely upon a software system such as Lumavate’s to meet their DAM needs. In fact, many organizations that start out with Google Drive rapidly upgrade to a dedicated DAM system as the number and size of their digital asset files begin to increase.

What Is the Best DAM Software?

No two organizations are exactly alike, and each organization comes with its own distinctive set of unique wants and needs. Therefore, the right DAM software system for you might not be the right one for your closest competitor. But, if you want to get the most value for your dollar, you may want to look beyond giants of the industry such as Adobe.

While it enjoys widespread brand name recognition, Adobe digital asset management is often prohibitively expensive and typically requires extensive implementation times. Like other prominent standalone digital asset management companies such as Canto, Bynder, and Brandfolder, Adobe also requires users to employ third-party solutions and/or outside development agencies if they want to craft effective digital user experiences.

Unlike average DAM vendors, Lumavate not only offers a powerful and comprehensive DAM system, but other capabilities in areas such as Product Information Management (PIM), Product Experience Management (PXM), and user experience optimization through our Digital Experience Platform (DXP). In fact, Digital Asset Management (DAM) functionality is just one built-in component of a holistic and seamless Lumavate system that includes full PIM and DXP integration that is ideal for all types of business users. Furthermore, digital assets in Lumavate’s DAM can be associated with product records in a few clicks and used in digital experiences created with no need for specialized technical resources.

Its exceptional ability to simultaneously pull data from the PIM and digital assets from the DAM have made Lumavate one of the best DAM systems on the market today. The full suite of PIM, PXM, DXP, and DAM tools within the comprehensive Lumavate system is specifically designed to meet the requirements of marketers in the manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, and medical device industries.