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Creative assets – 4 tips to improve campaigns

by Casey Schmidt  |  November 5, 2019

3 min. read
Teams of different departments united.

The process of campaign building is solidified through successful organization and utilization of creative assets. It’s vital you understand exactly what creative assets are and how to manage them. Here’s a detailed guide to help you out.

What are creative assets?

Creative assets are files like images, videos and other media. They’re linked to marketing because they advertise to target audiences. Assets are typically digital files that are used to build creative marketing campaigns and projects.

Creative assets are organized and sorted with some type of asset management system. This is software that automates different functions of assets for companies, including organizing, searching and sharing. Software like this manages the overall function of files within a company workflow.

Here are four tips to maximize your company’s use of creative assets when building campaigns.

1. Implement supportive software

The first step in creating a strong campaign is organizing and storing creative assets. Therefore, it’s vital to find creative asset management software that handles digital assets accordingly. Teams work efficiently when they use management software that automates processes, organizes files and improves search functionality.

A computer software system illustrated.
The right creative asset management software helps teams reach their potential.

Digital asset management has the tools teams need to utilize creative assets efficiently. It automates otherwise time-consuming processes. This allows team members to focus on building creative projects. Furthermore, It centralizes digital assets into a library for easy access and builds sharing and search functionality so team members can quickly find important files.

2. Open sines of communication

As different departments create and use assets, it’s important that communication stays afloat throughout the building of a project. Communication prevents breakdowns in the process, which results in errors and mistakes. The best way to ensure assets are used correctly is through sufficient discussion and availability between team members.

It’s important to provide a space where asset communication is available to necessary parties. Software integrations allow teams to communicate within the systems they already use. Look to add communication-boosting integrations to company systems to ensure communication flows throughout a project with no blunders.

An illustration demonstrating communication.
Keep lines of communication open to optimize creativity.

3. Organize creative assets using advanced metadata

After storing creative assets into a central location, teams need easy access to them. They also need the ability to quickly find them based on specific features of the asset. This is where metadata changes the dynamic of a campaign. Metadata is data about other data. It places keywords on files to help specify their contents.

Metadata helps build campaigns with digital assets because teams can find stored assets with search terms related to a file. For example, if a project called for pictures of elephants, the team could search the assets library using metadata. It could look for things using keywords relating to elephants such as ‘animals’, ‘pachyderms’ and of course ‘elephants’.

A man walking on a 'keyword' staircase.
Metadata accelerates the retrieval time of assets.

4. Periodically review assets

Remember that assets are tied to different important enterprise components. If your collection of assets grows stale, there’s a butterfly effect that could have a lot of negative consequences. The first way this harms a company is through inefficient brand images. If you review your assets and realize they no longer fit the ideals of your business, it’s time to make some changes.

Because assets are so intertwined between different departments, they can disrupt and delay numerous projects. Have a system put into place using things like calendars, schedules and reminders to ensure all necessary files are available on time.

The stronger the accessibility of assets to all departments, the better the results of the company campaigns. Fortify your company’s management of creative assets to achieve success.