Digital Asset Management

Brand portals and DAM: A single source of truth for consistent, scalable campaigns

You’ve invested weeks perfecting your latest campaign – refining the message, aligning visuals to brand identity, segmenting audiences. But as launch day approaches, cracks appear. Outdated assets are activated. Mismatched content is sent to the wrong region. Teams scramble, unsure which version is the right one.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t just a workflow hiccup – it’s a brand governance issue. When teams lack clarity or access, brand consistency falters. And with today’s hyper-aware consumers, inconsistencies aren’t just noticed – they’re never forgotten.

Papirfly statistical asset noting that 71% of businesses say that inconsistent branding causes confusion for customers - Source: Renderforest

To avoid missteps, modern marketing teams need more than storage. They need structure, access, and context across every campaign, region, and channel. That’s where the integration of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution and brand portal makes all the difference.

What is a DAM and brand portal hybrid?

At its core, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is your centralized asset library. It stores, tags, organizes, and distributes every visual your brand relies on – so teams everywhere have fast, secure, and compliant access to the assets they need.

Papirfly infographic highlighting 4 benefits of Digital Asset Management - centralized asset storage; simple distribution; greater brand consistency; marketing efficiency and productivity

But a DAM is just the foundation.

A brand portal brings essential context: it houses your guidelines, strategies, and campaign direction – all in one place. When combined, the result is a unified brand hub that enables brand governance, empowers autonomy, and brings clarity to every piece of content.

Having a bespoke brand portal for every region, sub-brand and campaign means:

Papirfly infographic presenting 3 benefits of bespoke brand portals - less risk of irrelevant assets being used; more targeted, personalized campaigns; better understanding of brand among users

How a DAM and brand portal hybrid powers stronger marketing campaigns

We’ve looked at the theory of DAM and brand portal hybrids. Now let’s see what they do in practice for your marketing campaigns.

Local clarity, global control

Managing global campaigns across markets is challenging. Language, culture, and strategy vary, but brand consistency must be maintained.

By creating a dedicated brand portal for each region, you can ensure teams only see what’s relevant to their audience. No more confusion. No more risk of using the wrong content. Just localized marketing, activated with global confidence.

Papirfly statistical asset highlighting that 84% of campaigns experience revenue growth when they localize the marketing content - Source: Unbabel

Campaign-specific pages for streamlined execution

Simultaneous campaigns create overlap. Without structure, the wrong asset in the wrong campaign can dilute your impact or derail your results.

With custom campaign pages in your brand portal, teams access:

  • Up-to-the-minute information about campaign progress and workflow
  • Latest approved versions of every asset
  • Useful details on campaign story, strategy, duration and more

This ensures every team understands the purpose and flow of the campaign they’re supporting – and has the tools to keep it on track.

Papirfly statistical asset demonstrating the importance of marketing storytelling - storytelling in campaigns boost conversion rates by 30% - Source: Search Engine Watch

Smart categorization for smarter content use

Your DAM should do more than store content – it should guide users to the specific assets they need. Best-in-class solutions allow you to categorize every digital file in your library with helpful tags. For example:

Papirfly infographic presenting 8 possible categories to tag assets with a DAM system - campaign name; language/location; brand/sub-brand; subject matter; asset type; marketing channel; visual identity; demographics

Combine this with access permissions and version control, and you’ve got a system that ensures only the right content is seen and used – no manual policing required.

Clear presentation of a rebrand or campaign refresh

When you launch a rebrand or refresh a campaign, clarity matters. With a DAM and brand portal hybrid, you can:

  • Update your portals to reflect new branding or visual identity
  • Make updated brand guidelines and campaign strategies instantly accessible to all
  • Easily categorize and tag assets that have been fully rebranded and approved
  • Substitute old assets for their new-look equivalents through version control

In fact, a rebrand is a great opportunity to introduce Digital Asset Management to your marketers and wider employees. It quickly immerses your teams in this new presentation and allows them to handle typical rebrand challenges.

Empower teams to act with speed and confidence

When local teams have the tools and structure they need, they respond faster and with greater precision.

Imagine this: one of your regional teams identifies a local trend and wants to capitalize on it with tailored content. If they have to wait for brand education and approval from central marketing, the opportunity might well be missed.

With a DAM and brad portal hybrid, however, they already have the context they need. Combine it with time-saving content creation tools, and they are empowered to develop their own localized campaign materials – without risk of going-off brand.

Papirfly statistical asset highlighting how 70% of employees want to feel empowered to take action - DAM systems & brand portals empower users to manage campaigns themselves - Source: SHRM

DAM & brand portal hybrids in action: BMW NE

BMW Northern Europe faced a familiar challenge – multiple countries, diverse audiences, and distinct campaigns, coupled with a growing need to stay unified.

The team tried to solve the challenge centrally from HQ. But this approach was slow, inefficient and prone to human error. That’s where a DAM and brand portal hybrid proved to be game-changing.

By establishing a regional brand hub for each division, BMW NE made it easy to people to:

  • Translate assets into local languages
  • Understand their area’s specific brand guidelines
  • Follow the progress of ongoing campaigns
  • Access all relevant content for their dealership

Papirfly revolutionizes how BMW NE 
manages its marketing campaigns:

Papirfly infographic illustrating how their Digital Asset Management and on-brand content creation suite has improved how BMW Northern Europe manage their marketing campaigns

No more missed updates. No more manual distribution. Just one connected system that enables every dealer, employee, and agency partner to fully understand the brand vision and identity – and access the campaign materials they need.

Build campaigns with clarity. Execute with control.

Your campaigns are a reflection of your brand – how clearly and consistently they deliver messages shapes how audiences perceive you.

But great campaigns don’t happen by chance. They require structure, agility, and control. Papirfly’s integrated DAM and brand portal solution gives your teams the foundation they need to build trust, reduce inefficiency, and deliver campaigns that connect and convert.

Interface of a brand portal with headline “Brand adoption needs everyone on the same page” promoting brand showcasing and faster execution
Digital Asset Management

How to choose a Digital Asset Management system

Digital Asset Management software (DAM) has become integral to modern-day branding and marketing operations.

With marketing teams now responsible for more digital assets than ever across an ever-growing number of channels and platforms. To ensure end-to-end brand consistency, campaign efficiency and company-wide collaboration, discovering how to choose a Digital Asset Management system is essential for your organization’s ability to compete in your target markets.

Papirfly infographic demonstrating key statistics about Digital Asset Management systems - Sources: MediaValet, Straits Research

A capable DAM solution enables you to:

  • Bring all digital assets into a single, comprehensive library, rather than scattered on desktops, servers, emails, Dropbox and beyond
  • Prevent unnecessary file duplications, versions deviations and GDPR breaches, saving your team’s time, locking down consistency and guaranteeing compliance
  • Establish different access rights across your team, ensuring that people only see the digital assets relevant to them
  • Improve overall efficiency, with everyone knowing where to store and search for files
  • Share assets across your marketing ecosystem in a controlled, managed environment

The need for DAM software is clear. But, which is right for your company? As DAM technology has become increasingly important, the choice of solutions has naturally exploded, presenting many possibilities for potential buyers.

While choice can be good, it makes selecting the best DAM software for your organization a real challenge. Not all DAM solutions are created equal, so it’s important you know what to look out for before seeking a system or upgrading your platform.

That’s where this essential guide comes in. Here we’ll outline what features and qualities you should prioritize in your DAM selection process to help guarantee a decision that benefits your creatives, marketers and beyond for a long, long time.

6 essential features defining how to choose a Digital Asset Management system

Understanding the features that separate the best Digital Asset Management tools from the rest is key to meeting the needs of your stakeholders. Below we’ve highlighted some of the most crucial to seek out – some obvious, others less so:

1. Compliance and privacy features

Did you know that in the first quarter of 2024 alone, 20% of marketing assets reviewed were flagged for potential regulatory compliance violations?

Managing consent and compliance to use assets in your content and campaigns is a vital, yet often overlooked, aspect of Digital Asset Management. Approached manually, it’s time-consuming, resource-intensive and prone to human error. The right DAM system ensures the GDPR compliance of your assets is never questioned.

Prioritizing a DAM solution with an in-built consent management tool confirms that:

  • Consent for digital assets is captured from QR codes, physical forms or emails
  • Assets awaiting consent are flagged as “pending approval”, preventing them from being used until they get the green light
  • Assets that lose consent or compliance are automatically revoked from the asset library, removing any risk of these featuring in future content
  • Users can exercise their “right to be forgotten” after receiving self-service links to any assets they feature within

By selecting DAM software with dedicated compliance and privacy features, you gain peace of mind that no requests for asset removal will slip through the net, eliminating the risk of costly fines or damage to your brand’s reputation.

Statistics related to Digital Asset Management compliance - Sources: PerformLine, Statista

2. A great user interface and usability features

Put simply, a DAM system is only useful if people use it. If the software is too complicated or confusing, users will abandon it, leaving you with nothing but a vacuum of wasted time, resources and potential.

To ensure the effort and investment you put into ensuring your assets are organized, shareable and compliant, it’s critical you purchase a truly intuitive DAM – one that seamlessly fits into the workflows of your marketing managers, content creators and frontline employees.

  • Drag-and-drop uploads for easy file storage
  • AI-assisted tagging for quick, efficient searches
  • Version control to ensure access to the latest assets
  • Access control to prevent misuse of assets
  • Automated workflows to streamline approvals and distribution

Not overly complex for non-technical users. Not too basic for enterprises seeking total brand governance. That is the perfect balance for a DAM system.

Another key consideration for usability is choosing a DAM with a built-in brand portal. This “front-end” DAM can give your users immediate access to brand guidelines, campaign information and beyond, confirming that everyone understands how and why to use the assets they have access to.

In other words, a brand portal offers a “single source of truth” that informs your users, making it simple for them to manage assets and maintain consistency at every touchpoint.

3. Metadata and categorization

Above all else, a DAM system must make it easy for users to find assets they need when they need them. Therefore, the ability to define metadata tags for each asset – from color scheme and included products to asset type, dimensions and location – is essential for users to search for relevant assets.

The right DAM system must accommodate the unique taxonomy of your organization, establishing a common language that allows people to find the right assets.

Furthermore, selecting DAM software with a multi-level category system means you can create a logical hierarchy for everyone in the company – not just a single department or person.

Papirfly infographic demonstrating examples of metadata to categorize branded assets in a DAM solution

4. Access and version control

DAM solutions with access control and user permissions ensure that only valid users can access relevant materials. It prevents users from mistakenly using assets intended for certain regions or campaigns, supporting your internal and external (agency) users.

Similarly, version control and file expiration management confirm that users only see the most up-to-date version of an asset, so outdated content never makes it to your channels.

5. AI-driven search and capabilities

You don’t want to manually fill in all the metadata and tags attached to your digital files, especially as you create more content to satisfy your audiences. That’s why you should pursue DAM solutions that harness AI technology.

For example, faceted search using generative AI can help users find assets faster by understanding context, recognizing objects and interpreting intent. AI-centred DAM solutions can also analyze digital assets to generate suitable metadata and tags based on your taxonomy guidelines.

As AI technology grows more sophisticated and its influence grows in the DAM space, you want to attach yourself to a vendor at the forefront of these innovations.

Statistics illustrating the value of AI-driven solutions in DAM software - Source: Aprimo

6. On-brand content creation and adaptation

Finally, when there is a growing need for local teams and frontline workers to produce content for their specific audiences, choosing a DAM system with on-brand content creation tools enables you to fulfill that obligation.

Rather than simply being a home for your digital assets – putting pressure on your in-house creatives or agency partners to fill that repository – on-brand content creation empowers users to develop branded, quality assets themselves, regardless of their design skills.

Plus, this functionality enables users to download assets from your DAM library and localize/personalize content for their target markets – increasing the accessibility and return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns. 

Other notable features to look out for in any prospective DAM system include:

  • File previews
  • Automatic file transcoding
  • Predefined file formats and uploads
  • Cloud storage
  • Smart cropping tool

Looking beyond features to find the best DAM systems

Focusing on the key features listed above will be pivotal in your pursuit of top DAM solutions. However, selecting the ideal DAM system for your organization extends beyond the features they do or do not include.

Many providers deliver the same technology and features. What often separates the best from the rest is the DAM software’s characteristics and the vendor’s reputation.

With this in mind, and your aim to acquire a solution that will benefit your whole company and deliver a healthy ROI, make sure you consider the following:

Papirfly infographic highlighting 7 crucial qualities that an effective DAM system should possess for a prospective buyer
  • Scalability: Will the DAM system you select comfortably grow and evolve at the same pace as your company? Does it harness cloud storage to make this attainable yet cost-efficient?
  • Integration: Can the DAM solution agreeably integrate with your existing MarTech, or enable you to reduce your dependency on multiple systems? Will it complement your current ecosystem?
  • User-friendliness: A DAM system is only valuable if people use it – is the software you’ve identified simple to operate, intuitive and accessible to all users? Is it something you can imagine your teams turning to every day?
  • Reliability: You can’t risk your files suddenly becoming unavailable – can you ensure that your DAM system will perform 24/7 for your global teams? What is the platform’s average uptime and responsiveness?
  • Security: Does your chosen DAM software incorporate best-in-class security features and protections? Does it include SSO encryption, disaster recovery plans and dedicated managed services?
  • Brand governance: Does the DAM solution ensure that every piece of content is 100% compliant? Does it help you fulfill regulations, stay up-to-date with consent rights, and enable seamless sign-off across your assets?
  • Future-proofing: Is the DAM vendor behind your selected system consistently looking to improve and innovate its solution? Do they have a development roadmap that signals the evolution of their product?

mentioned in the WP, an assurance that every piece of content is 100% compliant – for specific regulatiory needs (not well phrased), has up-to-date consent for anyone featured in a digital assets, and signed off as good to use as on-brand content.

These qualities and intangibles, combined with a strong track record and reputation for a prospective DAM vendor, must be appreciated alongside a DAM system’s core features to ensure you receive the most rounded, comprehensive solution.

Want to choose the best DAM software? Read our complete buyer’s guide

We hope this article has given you plenty of insight into selecting the most suitable DAM system for your requirements. With the abundance of choice in this market and the central role this technology can play in your ongoing marketing operations, you should know what features and qualities to prioritize in your search.

However, this article merely scratches the surface. If you want to know more about how to choose the right DAM software for your needs, and the process of locating and deploying this technology, get hold of our free, comprehensive DAM Buyer’s Guide:

  • Discover all the essential features you should look for in an optimal DAM system
  • Know the crucial qualities of a sustainable, future-proof DAM solution
  • Understand the key attributes to seek out in a reputable, quality DAM vendor, from managed services to innovation roadmaps
  • Explore the critical steps to identify, purchase and install your ideal DAM software, from creating an RFP document to the all-important deployment phase

Whether you’re investing in a DAM system for the first time or seeking to upgrade your existing solution, our complete DAM Buyer’s Guide will help put you on the direct path to the right system for your exact requirements.

Want to know how to choose the best DAM software for your marketing operations? Check out Papirfly’s comprehensive DAM Buyer’s Guide

FAQs

What is a Digital Asset Management system?

A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is software that stores, organizes, and distributes digital files such as images, videos, and brand assets from one secure location. It helps teams maintain consistency and control across every campaign.

How do I know if my organization needs a Digital Asset Management system?

If teams waste time searching for files or using outdated visuals, it’s time for a DAM. A centralized system keeps assets compliant, current, and easy to find—empowering teams to stay on-brand and efficient.

What features should I look for when choosing a Digital Asset Management system?

Look for powerful search and filtering, metadata tagging, user permissions, version control, and seamless integrations. The best DAM systems also offer branded portals and AI-driven asset organization.

How do I compare Digital Asset Management vendors?

Define your priorities first—such as asset control, collaboration, or brand governance. Then assess each vendor’s usability, integrations, scalability, and customer support. Focus on adoption potential, not just features.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when selecting a Digital Asset Management system?

Avoid choosing purely on price or storage capacity. Many organizations overlook user adoption, taxonomy setup, and brand governance—leading to low engagement and poor ROI.

How much does a Digital Asset Management system cost?

Costs vary by company size and requirements. Mid-market DAM solutions typically start around €25,000 annually, with pricing based on users, storage, and integrations.

What makes Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management different?

Papirfly combines asset organization with brand visualization. Teams don’t just store assets—they experience the brand. Its modular DAM and brand portal architecture ensure assets are accessible, compliant, and always on-brand.

How long does it take to implement a Digital Asset Management system?

Implementation timelines depend on complexity. With a structured onboarding plan, migration, and user training, most organizations achieve full adoption within a few months.

Can a Digital Asset Management system integrate with my existing tools?

Yes. Leading DAMs connect with tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Product Information Management (PIM) systems for smooth workflows.

What ROI can I expect from a Digital Asset Management system?

Brands using enterprise DAMs often see up to 35% faster creative production and a 20–30% reduction in duplicated asset spend (Source: Forrester, 2024).

Digital Asset Management

DAM LA 2025: AI innovations are redefining Digital Asset Management

Another incredible DAM LA 2025! AI innovations emerged as the theme across two dynamic days.

We explored cutting-edge innovations, engaged in thought-provoking discussions, and gained valuable insights into the evolving world of Digital Asset Management (DAM). From AI-powered efficiencies to the growing demand for brand consistency, here’s what stood out at DAM LA 2025.

How AI is transforming digital asset management

Artificial intelligence was a dominant theme at this year’s event, underscoring its growing role in optimizing Digital Asset Management software. From AI metadata tagging in DAM solutions to intelligent asset organization, AI makes it easier for marketing teams to manage, find, and personalize content at scale.

Industry leaders shared how AI-driven workflows streamline DAM operations—reducing manual effort, enhancing accessibility, and ensuring greater efficiency. The takeaway? AI isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental shift in DAM strategy, driving scalable digital asset management for enterprises.

The challenge of brand consistency

Ensuring brand consistency across global teams remains a top priority—and a significant challenge. As marketing operations scale, content can become fragmented, leading to inefficiencies, off-brand messaging, and version control issues. Many attendees shared frustrations about the struggle to maintain alignment across channels and regions.

At Papirfly, we showcased how a DAM system for brand consistency empowers teams to create, manage, and distribute content seamlessly—keeping every asset on-brand every time. With centralized asset management, marketing teams can ensure all content aligns with their brand identity.

Breaking silos with DAM solutions

Siloed teams and disconnected workflows are still significant hurdles for many organizations. A lack of visibility in marketing, creative, or product teams slows down production and leads to inconsistent branding. Many attendees were eager to explore solutions that enhance collaboration, streamline approvals, and improve version control.

Elisabeth Knulst, Managing Consultant at EMM Consultancy, highlighted the growing need for DAM and Product Information Management (PIM) systems to work together. Her session, Powering the World of Content – Implementing Agile DAM to Adapt to Constantly Changing Content Needs, explored how integrating these two systems helps brands managing real consumer products streamline product data updates and content distribution. With the right DAM workflows, brands can ensure a seamless content ecosystem that keeps assets accurate, accessible, and aligned with marketing needs.

At our booth, we demonstrated how Papirfly’s modular DAM suite enables cross-functional teams to work more efficiently—ensuring brand governance without bottlenecks. Our DAM workflows for global teams provide structure, allowing marketing teams to operate with agility while maintaining brand integrity.

Why DAM is critical to marketing success

If one message resonated throughout DAM LA 2025, it was this—DAM is no longer a background tool. It is central to marketing technology stacks, ensuring content operations’ efficiency, consistency, and compliance.

As brands navigate rapid digital transformation, an enterprise DAM solution is critical for maintaining seamless content workflows at scale. Whether it’s organizing marketing assets at scale or streamlining marketing operations with DAM, the right system helps brands stay competitive and agile.

Goodbye DAM LA 2025 – Hello New York!

We’d love to continue the conversation if you missed us in LA. And if you’re heading to DAM New York this fall, visit our booth and see us on stage at the 2025 Great DAM Bake-Off! Expect more hands-on demos, insightful discussions, and industry-leading innovations.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth and shared insights. We’re excited to keep pushing the boundaries of DAM and helping brands take their content strategies to the next level.

Digital Asset Management, Pharma/Healthcare

Why Digital Asset Management is non-negotiable for pharma marketers

As suppliers of medicine to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and the wider public, pharmaceutical companies must meet stringent codes of conduct in the UK and abroad. 

These regulatory requirements do more than set standards for product safety – they also dictate what pharmaceutical marketing can and cannot include. However, compliance isn’t the only hurdle companies in this industry have to face. 

Maintaining brand consistency across a growing number of channels. Scaling content to meet the expectations of global audiences. Standing out to top candidates in a competitive market. These are all essential duties any promotional team must accomplish.

Challenges that pharmaceutical marketers face - Rules, budget, time, consistency, identity, assets and collaboration - Papirfly infographic image

To help you keep on top of these challenges as a pharma marketing leader, Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools can help you and your team work smarter, not harder. 

But what exactly is DAM software, and how can it support your corporate branding, distributed marketing and employer branding efforts? In this article, we’ll explore these questions in more detail and explain why DAM platforms are a critical investment for modern pharmaceutical marketing teams.

What is Digital Asset Management?

Digital Asset Management is the practice of properly managing your digital assets, so teams in your organization can easily find, share and retrieve the content you’ve invested time and money creating. 

This is key to keeping your marketing efforts structured and your operations efficient, but managing this responsibility manually can be a huge burden for your teams. 

Digital Asset Management software acts as a centralized repository where you can store and organize your entire library of sales presentations, digital files, videos, artwork and more in one accessible location.

This single source of truth for your pharmaceutical brand simplifies the process of coordinating content, maintaining brand consistency and meeting compliance. 

4 core principles of DAM software for marketing content creation, storage and access

Want to learn more about Digital Asset Management and the helpful features these platforms provide? Check out our comprehensive guide on DAM.

6 reasons why DAM tools are an essential investment

Now you know what DAM platforms are, let’s explore why they should be a core part of your marketing toolkit.

1. Streamlines compliance-critical processes

From hefty legal fines that squander distributed marketing resources, to reputational damage that undermines both customer and candidate trust – the cost of non-compliant pharmaceutical campaigns can be substantial

The marketing materials your pharma company shares must meet strict regulatory compliance to ensure your corporate brand, distributed promotions and talent acquisition efforts are effective and appropriate.

This means more than creating content with the right disclaimers, warning labels and side effects. It’s essential that finished assets are delivered to the right audience at the right time.

But with potentially hundreds of pieces of content to coordinate between dozens of regional marketing teams and a growing roster of platforms, it can be easy for mistakes to emerge.

3 ways a bad advertising campaign rollout can breach pharma marketing regulations - Papirfly

This is why a dedicated DAM for marketing is an essential solution for professionals across the pharmaceutical sector.

Rather than requiring your people to spend hours trawling through messy servers to find the promotional materials that fall in line with the latest advertising standards, DAMs’ centralized repository makes locating compliant, up-to-date materials easy.

High-quality DAM solutions also come equipped with version control. This helpful feature ensures you and your teams can only access the newest version of a file, further reducing the potential for compliance-breaking mistakes to rear their head. 

In addition, some regions require brands to regulate their own pharmaceutical marketing. As part of this process, regulatory bodies may occasionally request to see copies of your content.

In these situations, DAM can also prove a valuable tool. By making every digital file instantly accessible and appropriately tagged, you and your teams never have to let these ad-hoc duties slow down your marketing operations.

2. Boosts pharmaceutical marketing efficiency

From recruitment assets that attract top talent and distributed marketing campaigns that make sales worldwide, to corporate branding initiatives that communicate trust and consistency, pharmaceutical brands today are expected to deliver a huge amount of marketing content.

With no signs of this trend slowing down, getting the most out of your limited marketing resources is becoming more important for teams around the world.

However, as pharma compliance tightens, improving the efficiency of your operations shouldn’t mean cutting corners or doing less marketing. Instead, it’s about streamlining processes, improving productivity and reducing costly bottlenecks.

A powerful Digital Asset Management platform is essential in your bid to unlock true marketing efficiency.

A DAM’s centralized library drastically reduces the number of hoops your people have to jump through to find the marketing collateral they need. This can save your internal team countless hours in the long run – time they can spend on work that really matters.

Digital Asset Management - It takes teams 9 hours per week to search and find files and assets - Source: ProProfs

If you coordinate promotional material with teams in multiple regions, you’ll also know first-hand how much time and energy it takes to organize this huge volume of content. That’s on top of the hours spent scouring email chains and setting up file sharing links to ensure marketers abroad have access to the materials they need.

This isn’t just a huge distraction for your people. Relying on systems like email clients and messaging platforms to manually coordinate asset delivery can bottleneck the launch of campaigns and open the door to efficiency-sapping errors.

Thankfully, most well-equipped DAM software feature brand portals. These customizable hubs can be structured to include key information about a particular campaign, or serve up localized materials on a silver platter.

This can drastically minimize the likelihood that mistakes creep in when collaborating with your people and reduce the number of steps involved in getting campaigns out the door. This added capacity lets your personnel focus on reaching candidates, making sales or strengthening your overarching brand.

3 ways DAM can boost marketing efficiency for pharmaceutical companies

3. Lays the foundation for complete brand consistency

When healthcare professionals (HCPs), customers and candidates feel they can no longer trust you, they won’t hesitate to look elsewhere for products or jobs.

Achieving complete brand consistency should be high on your list of priorities to protect your bottom line, optimize your talent acquisition efforts and safeguard the reputation you’ve invested so much time and energy building. 

Brand consistency stats - Why consistent branding is so important - Sources: Marq, ExplodingTopics & WiserNotify

But as a brand that operates in dozens of regions, promotes countless products and employs hundreds of people, you know that aligning every sales presentation, letterhead, logo and asset – both internally and externally – is easier said than done.

With an endless stream of global campaigns to deliver, recruitment efforts to support and an international identity to nurture, your team probably doesn’t have time to check every asset going out against the latest brand guidelines. 

Thankfully, the right DAM software can help you deliver truly unified marketing. Not only can these solutions give your teams instant access to your latest on-brand marketing assets, but when integrated with a dedicated brand portal, they can house everything that defines your brand identity in one accessible location.

From style guides and mission statements to templates and more – these customizable hubs can serve as a single source of truth for anybody in your organization, allowing them to truly understand what makes your company unique and reflect these values in every asset you produce and share.

4. Helps deliver rebrands with greater efficiency

Refreshing your pharmaceutical company’s identity is an incredibly lengthy and costly undertaking. 

Done well, a successful rebrand can grow your business and pave the way to good fortune. But if poorly executed, you risk alienating customers, confusing candidates, hurting sales and damaging your all-important corporate image.   

In an industry that witnesses more rebrands than most, any solution that can lay the foundation for positive outcomes and save your marketing department precious resources can’t be ignored.

The pace of pharmaceutical company rebrands - 31% rebranded after a merger or acquisition between 2014 & 2018 - Source: FiercePharma

Dedicated DAM systems play a crucial role in simplifying the coordination of these materials. Firstly, by having a central repository where every new asset is stored, you make it much harder for outdated collateral to re-emerge during the all-important rollout. This can minimize confusion among professionals and prospective customers, and lay a solid foundation for your new brand to grow. 

On top of this, access control allows you to lock old branding away after a refresh or make certain items accessible only to certain regional teams. This ensures only your refreshed identity is promoted across your marketing channels, so you can achieve complete brand consistency without complication.

When you combine the many benefits of a DAM with on-brand content creation tools, you’ll have everything needed to ensure your next rebrand rollout sticks the landing.

5. Overcomes asset overload

Whether your marketing efforts focus on professionals looking to buy medicine or top candidates searching for new opportunities – you know that modern audiences expect more content from brands than ever before. 

Content demands stat - 85% of brands create more content year on year - Source: MarketingWeek

While delivering this amount of marketing collateral is tough, effectively managing these materials is a challenge that only gets harder as your content libraries grow.

With hundreds if not thousands of sales presentations, recruitment adverts, brand videos and more to manage, keeping this mountain of collateral usable for your team is an overwhelming task for even the most orderly departments.

To ensure every marketing material you share is compliant and can reach your target audiences as quickly as possible, Digital Asset Management systems are an essential investment for today’s pharma marketers. 

DAM platforms feature smart upload functions that make it possible to upload digital files in bulk. As a result, your creatives don’t have to waste time getting the content they create into company repositories.

On top of that, smart tagging features and powerful search tools reduce the effort and complexity associated with finding files internally, even if you have teams located abroad. 

When you combine these features with a customizable brand hub, getting localized recruitment and market materials into the hands of your overseas colleagues becomes much more straightforward.

6. Fosters international collaboration

Finally, if your pharmaceutical brand operates in multiple territories, chances are you have teams in those regions to localize and distribute your core marketing materials.

This is a fundamental part of building trust with recruits, HCPs and other types of customers in different countries. But for your efforts to truly succeed, effective collaboration is essential.

When internal communication is unclear, it doesn’t take much to imagine how this could result in marketing materials that breach regional laws. Or how poor collaboration could lead to off-brand recruitment assets going live across the wrong channels.

To help your teams bridge this divide and foster the spirit of collaboration internally, DAM software can be a game-changing tool:

  • Brand portals act as a single source of truth for your brand, allowing you to get everyone across your organization on the same page when it comes to marketing
  • Having a centralized repository of assets breaks down the barriers attached to sharing materials, streamlining the process of collaboration 
  • Access restrictions allow leaders to control what materials can be retrieved, giving everybody complete confidence in what they share
  • Version control presents teams anywhere with the latest version of an asset, making it easy to work on projects between divisions 

It doesn’t matter if you cooperate with other departments on recruitment materials, distributed marketing content or corporate branding assets; in our view, DAM software is fundamental to great collaboration across pharmaceutical marketing teams.

Digital Asset Management: A foundational tool for today’s pharma marketers

Resonating with customers worldwide. Appealing to 21st-century talent. Building a reputable corporate brand. With strict pharmaceutical advertising standards and an ever-changing world of marketing to navigate, achieving success in the pharmaceutical industry is no easy feat.

To help you navigate this complex web of marketing challenges, DAM software is quickly becoming a core part of many pharmaceutical brand’s toolkits.

With the ability to streamline compliance-critical processes, maintain brand consistency worldwide, unlock pharma marketing efficiency and more – we hope this article has helped you understand what Digital Asset Management is, and why this form of brand management software is fundamental to achieving your goals both now and in the future. 

Discover the ultimate Digital Asset Management & Content Creation platform at Papirfly
Digital Asset Management

Delivering brand assets on a silver platter

No matter how many features and how big a capacity a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system has, the only really relevant question is: How good is it at making effective use of the assets?

Procuring Digital Asset Management software usually begins with drawing up a list of requirements. Sometimes this is laid out in the form of a number of use cases about what is expected in different situations. A “Request for information” is then sent out to a number of possible suppliers for an initial selection.

The obvious goal of a central DAM solution is that it should constitute a “single source of truth”. But that requirement is only a declaration of intent that can be solved with technical functionality. It says nothing about ease of use, complexity in the configuration of the technology, etc.

From my own experience with over 20 years as a consultant and supplier of DAM solutions, the majority of the requested information has focused on functions and technology that are mainly aimed at the work to be performed by those, often rather few, who shall manage and maintain the system, the DAM editors or librarians. This is work done in what most call ”our DAM”. I say that this is just one part of the DAM, the backend.

Pretty much all leading systems today have a good “backend” in the form of an interface for uploading and maintaining assets. The variations between different systems are mostly about details and some special functionality. 

But a DAM’s most important function is to make the content available to anyone who shall see and consume the material.

A DAM project should therefore have the overall goal of finding the system that is easiest to use and most efficient in supporting the needs of mainly the end users.

The DAM editors must of course have a strong tool for their work, but regardless of which solution is chosen, they will learn their new tool. For the backend you naturally must ensure that all important basic requirements are met in order to manage assets throughout their entire life cycle.

But for the end users, the requirements are completely different. Most are infrequent users. They have different wishes at different times. They want to get hold of the right material from different units and in different contexts.

Therefore, it must be possible to make the navigation simple, obvious and inviting. A goal for the DAM project can e.g. be defined as the possibility to… 

Delivering brand assets on a silver platter

By that I mean that it should be super clear and obvious to find the relevant assets. And it should be possible to communicate and present how the assets can and should be used for best results.  Also there shall be ways to present assets in different views, with logical filtered groupings, very visual and clear navigation, tailor made to suit each organization’s needs.

A similar requirement could be to find a system that enables a relevant selection of assets to never be further than two or three clicks away. 

Assets always within reach, 2-3 clicks away

I’ve seen great examples made by clients where instead of having the user do searches and try to find the right stuff, the DAM editors have presented all materials belonging to e.g. a specific campaign, on one long page. 

To communicate the campaign, a link is sent, one click and the end user has all needed information and ready to use assets on the screen.

And it should be just a few clicks away for the editors to achieve this, without needing to hard code anything. 

DAM as a brand portal

A very difficult question to handle is where to find what you need. All companies have lots of different system solutions. A new DAM system is another one to keep track of and could be lost in the wind.

Therefore, the DAM project should aim to establish a place for all the DAM assets of the business, that is easy to remember. The most important way to achieve this is by making the brand portal – a brand hub for everyone – really useful and inspiring to navigate. But also, just by naming the brand portal smartly, could have a huge impact on remembering where to go. 

All leading DAM systems have some form of end-user portal aimed at regular users. However the quality varies when it comes to digital asset sharing and brand education  – giving context to the assets you are delivering.

For this you have to set high standards and test:

  • What are the possibilities to create a solution exactly the way you want it?
  • Is it easy to modify and maintain?
  • Is it consultant-intensive?
  • Can it facilitate communication around assets?
  • Can it facilitate searching, sharing and downloading?
  • Can you add on functionality afterwards?

DAM integrations: access assets from applications

If you are to fulfill “Assets always within reach, 2-3 clicks away”, you also need to give end users direct access from the applications they use.

Connect the DAM to Powerpoint, Word, Google Docs, etc. This is where the absolute largest number of users will get a better everyday life by having direct DAM access. Just by installing a connector.

For a smaller group, the Adobe connection is important. Make sure it supports Indesign image links. Explore the possibility of creating a creative process with agencies.

Other users who also benefit from simple DAM access are web creators who work with Figma and web editors should have direct DAM access from the CMS.

DAM access via API

For PIM systems and web shops, a connection to DAM is a big advantage. Investigate if it can be solved with connector or direct DAM linking via API.

Showcasing your brand identity to all users

By focusing on the delivery of assets to end users in the most comfortable way possible, you will ensure that a new DAM solution will not be just another system but an essential tool for, especially, all in marketing and sales.

But it will reach further into other parts of the organization as well. In almost all parts of any business there are assets waiting for a better home.

So to get the most out of the huge investment and effort put into creating brand and marketing assets, they really should be… served on a silver platter.

Learn more at DAM NY

At Papirfly, we are dedicated to revolutionizing digital asset management with innovative solutions that streamline content creation and management. We’re thrilled to be participating in DAM New York , where we’ll dive into the latest trends and advancements in the DAM landscape.

Visit our booth to discover how Papirfly’s solutions can enhance your asset management and support your content creation needs. We look forward to engaging with you at the event and exploring the future of DAM together, and how you can be delivering brand assets to every stakeholder in no time.

For more information about how Papirfly is driving the evolution of Digital Asset Management, discover the full Papirfly Suite.

Want to see some a DAM solution in action? See how Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer might use a Digital Asset Management system to serve assets on a silver platter:

Digital Asset Management

How DAM software can keep you on-brand in 2025

Staying on-brand is no small feat – especially for global enterprises.

As well as managing digital assets, you’re handling an intricate brand ecosystem of audiences, regions, identities, distribution channels, campaigns, creative teams, and external partners. The pace is relentless. Expectations are rising. And brand visibility has never mattered more.

This is where Digital Asset Management (DAM) becomes a powerful advantage. For busy brand and marketing teams, DAM isn’t just a storage solution – it’s a central engine for efficiency, consistency, and compliance.

Here are seven ways a Digital Asset Management system can help you stay on-brand in 2025, whether you’re focused on scaling content creation, improving asset distribution, or reducing the manual processes that slow teams down.

1. Centralize your digital assets in one secure library

DAM helps you stay on-brand by… giving all team members access to pre-approved assets, ensuring consistency and accelerating speed to market.

A DAM provides a single, secure platform for all your digital assets, whether that’s campaign photography, product videos, approved artwork, or final marketing collateral. Without it, assets are often lost in silos: hidden on local drives, buried in inboxes, or split across tools and agencies.

Without a Digital Asset Management system, brands often struggle to find and use their digital assets. They can be scattered across the organization and external agencies, hiding on desktops, departmental drives, and intranet sites. This creates major risks: from accidental use of outdated or restricted assets, to costly delays and rework.

By centralizing everything in one global library, you eliminate those risks. A powerful DAM enables you to bring thousands, even millions, of assets together in one brand portal. Now creators can easily access the assets they need – with smart search, version control, and metadata built in. Usage rights and consent tracking also ensure compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.

And by making it easy to find, reuse and repurpose assets, you reduce duplication, save time, and cut creative costs.

Your DAM buyer's guide cover

2. Establish a one-stop destination for brand guidelines and assets

DAM helps you stay on-brand by… giving everyone access to up-to-date brand guidelines and approved assets

A Digital Asset Management system is more than storage – it’s a distribution platform. Through branded portals and shareable links, you can securely share assets with anyone who needs them, inside or outside your organization.

DAMs are often used to create a brand hub. This becomes a one-stop destination for guidelines, templates, imagery, logos, and tone of voice resources. It also provides a powerful tool for brand education, enabling teams to understand and apply your brand vision the right way, whether they’re internal designers or third-party vendors.

Because it’s structured, searchable, and user-friendly, it’s far more accessible than static PDFs or outdated SharePoint folders.

And it doesn’t stop at branding. You can create portals for any function or purpose. For example:

  • A sales enablement hub for dealers and distributors
  • A media portal with press-ready assets
  • An employer brand space for HR and internal communications

3. Empower local teams with Templated Content Creation

DAM helps you stay on brand by… giving teams the ability to create localized content without straying from global brand standards

Local marketing teams need flexibility. They often face market-specific demands – from retail promotions to localized brochure – that require rapid turnaround. Without the right tools, these teams are likely to go rogue. The result? Off-brand materials that weaken overall brand equity.

The best Digital Asset Management systems integrate with Templated Content Creation tools. This gives local teams access to editable templates—pre-approved, pre-designed, and fully on-brand. They can customize them using approved imagery, copy, and layouts, without needing design expertise. Advanced, AI-powered DAMs will even offer automatic translation into different languages.

This unlocks true efficiency. Local markets get the autonomy they need. The central team maintains quality control. And your brand remains consistent across every region and channel.

Does everyone create content that’s on‑brand, every time?

Find peace of mind with
better brand governance.

Does everyone create content that’s on‑brand, every time?

Find peace of mind with
better brand governance.

Find peace of mind with
better brand governance.

4. Simplify GDPR and compliance management

DAM helps you stay on-brand by… automating compliance and consent processes to ensure every asset that goes out of your organization is safe to use

Navigating the ever-changing landscape of GDPR and compliance is complicated, time-consuming and fraught with risk. But a modern Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution can make it much quicker and easier, ensuring every asset released is compliant and ready for use, whether it’s an image, video, voice clip or quote.

Some DAMs have built-in consent management features that do everything from capturing permissions via QR codes, emails or printed forms, to instantly flagging assets based on consent status. Assets without proper clearance remain restricted to admin-only access, reducing the risk of accidental misuse. And if someone revokes their consent? The DAM automatically withdraws every related asset across your ecosystem, including timed expirations for short-term approvals.

By providing automated tools for managing privacy and consent requirements at scale, the best Digital Asset Management solutions enable teams to focus less on complex legal checklists and more on the quality of their creative output.

5. Automatically archive out-of-date assets

DAM helps you stay on brand by… flagging outdated assets that need retiring or replacing

The use of out-of-date assets is one of the biggest risks to your brand identity. Old logos. discontinued product images. Visuals from the last campaign but one. They all do immediate damage to your brand.

DAM software helps you eliminate this risk through lifecycle management and automatic archiving. Set expiry dates, flag outdated content, or trigger reviews based on usage.

You can also use built-in analytics to inform decisions. If an asset is underused – or looks out of step with your current identity – you’ll know it’s time to retire or replace it.

In this way, a DAM makes managing digital assets simpler and safer than ever.

6. Protect embargoed assets

DAM helps you stay on-brand by… streamlining digital asset management workflows and safeguarding assets against premature use

Speed matters. But so does control. If you’re launching a new product or campaign, you want creators and partners ready to go – without risk of letting unreleased brand assets fall into the wrong hands.

A Digital Asset Management system gives you advanced permission controls and usage rights, so you can restrict asset access by team, role, region, or project. For example, you can allow a graphic designer download rights but a marketing manager view-only access.

You can even set timed releases, so assets automatically become available at launch. This keeps your brand protected and your workflows streamlined.

7. Apply brand treatments at scale with AI

DAM helps you stay on-brand by… automatically editing digital assets to match your brand visual identity

Automation has always been one of the key benefits of Digital Asset Management systems. As DAM software grows ever more sophisticated, that automation is taking ever more forms – including AI marketing automation.

Many Digital Asset Management solutions now include AI marketing tools in one form or another. The best AI tools for marketing enable organizations to automate and scale a wide range of what were once manual tasks. For example:

  • Photography treatment – the AI marketing tools in your DAM can automatically apply brand treatments to images, so all photography is in the brand style.
  • Resizing – modern DAMs use AI marketing automation to resize assets on demand for different web, print, and email templates.
  • Tagging – the AI in your DAM can automatically identify the content of uploaded assets and tag them with meaningful metadata, saving you hours of mindless effort.

How DAM software helps you build and maintain brand consistency

The all-in-one Papirfly Suite combines Digital Asset Management and templated content creation to help teams showcase, manage, and create on-brand content – consistently and at scale.

Learn more about how our suite of solutions can help you protect and strengthen your brand, now and in the future.

FAQs

What is Digital Asset Management (DAM), and how does it support brand consistency?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a central platform that stores, organizes, and distributes digital assets. DAM solutions like Papirfly help brands stay consistent by providing controlled access to approved content, reducing duplication, ensuring compliance, and enabling faster, on-brand content creation across teams and regions.

How does DAM software help global teams create on-brand localized content?

DAM systems with integrated templated content creation allow local teams to adapt pre-approved assets while preserving brand integrity. This makes localization faster and more cost-effective, and creates regional flexibility.

How does DAM software simplify compliance with GDPR and other regulations?

DAM software automates consent tracking and compliance management. It restricts access to assets without the correct permissions and can revoke or archive content if consent changes. This minimizes legal risk and helps brands protect their reputation.

What risks does Digital Asset Management prevent in brand marketing workflows?

DAM helps eliminate the use of off-brand content, outdated visuals, and unauthorized assets. With features like lifecycle management, permission controls, and embargo settings, it safeguards brand identity while streamlining asset usage across teams and campaigns.

How is AI used in modern DAM software to maintain brand consistency?

AI in DAM automates tasks like tagging, image treatment, and asset resizing. It applies brand styles to visuals, categorizes content with metadata, and ensures assets are formatted for each channel.

Digital Asset Management, Employer Branding

7 reasons Digital Asset Management is essential for employer branding teams

Employer branding is under pressure. Hybrid work models, shifting employee expectations, and a global talent market mean organizations must work harder than ever to attract and retain top talent

But building a consistent, engaging employer brand across multiple channels and teams is easier said than done. With content demands soaring and resources stretched thin, it’s no surprise many employer branding teams are feeling overwhelmed.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone – and you’re not out of options.

Why is employer branding getting more complex?

Today’s candidates expect more from employers – not just great benefits and work-life balance but meaningful work, authenticity, and societal impact as well. For this reason, a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a prerequisite for attracting people who align with your company culture and mission. 

Yet delivering that EVP consistently across platforms, teams, and markets is a challenge. From careers sites to social media, employer branding has gone digital – and the assets that power it have multiplied. Managing them with spreadsheets and shared drives simply doesn’t work.

Managing digital assets: key risks and challenges

Photography, campaign videos, brand templates, social content, regional adaptations, internal communications… the list of assets produced and managed by employer brand teams grows daily. And when those assets are scattered, hard to find, or inconsistently used, it’s not just frustrating. It’s risky.

Key challenges of managing digital assets include:

  • Wasted time Searching for assets that are in the wrong place or hidden behind obscure file names.
  • Wasted money – Recreating assets from scratch because the right ones can’t be found in time.
  • More risk – Using outdated assets or restricted assets because it’s unclear which are correct.
  • Inconsistency Because people are frustrated with the current system and just start doing their own thing.
  • Missed opportunities to localize – Because there isn’t time to optimize materials for different markets.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is here to solve all these issues.

What does a Digital Asset Management platform do?

A Digital Asset Management system provides a centralized, searchable home for all your brand assets – one that’s accessible to everyone who needs it, but secure and governed by clear permissions.

Employer branding teams use DAM software to:

  • Store and organize campaign materials, brand guidelines, and multimedia assets
  • Share files with internal and external partners instantly
  • Protect against misuse with version control and access rights
  • Empower global teams to stay on-brand without bottlenecks

Here’s how that translates into real results…

1. Eliminate wasted time and cost 

Digital Asset Management brings structure to asset chaos. Teams no longer lose hours searching for files or recreating content. With a single source of truth, materials are always where they should be, and always up to date.

2. Free up space for strategy

Using DAM software dramatically reduces time spent on ineffective processes, so you can focus on what really matters – like strategically shaping your Employee Value Proposition and getting creative about how you communicate it.

3. Make localization easier – and smarter

From messaging written in local languages to photography that reflects regional demographics and cultural norms, localized content performs better. But without the right tools, changing assets takes too much time. A Digital Asset Management system makes adapting materials much quicker and easier. Distribute them via your brand portal, and you can also ensure each region only accesses the assets meant for them.

4. Guarantee employer brand consistency

Consistency is key to successful employer branding. A strong and recognizable visual identity increases brand recognition and supports objectives around global talent acquisition, recruitment, and engagement. With a DAM, you ensure every asset stays on-brand by providing everyone with access to pre-approved templates, imagery, and messaging – from HR to marketing to regional leads.

5. Respond faster to new opportunities

Whether it’s a viral hiring campaign or a last-minute event, a DAM gives your team the agility to act – without compromising brand standards. Users can locate, modify, and repurpose digital assets at speed. Your business can respond promptly to emerging opportunities, building even stronger connections with candidates and employees.

6. Reduce risk and improve compliance

Outdated logos. Withdrawn imagery. Unauthorized use. These risks disappear when assets are clearly tagged, permission-controlled, and automatically versioned in a DAM.

7. Empower employees to become brand ambassadors

Your people are your most authentic storytellers. A Digital Asset Management system helps them take their stories out into the world, by giving them easy access to on-brand content they can share – from job ads to ‘new position’ celebrations to personal success stories.

How DAM software empowers your employer branding team

The future of employer branding demands scale, speed, and control. DAM delivers all three. With Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management and Templated Content Creation suite, you can transform how teams create, manage, and distribute the content that shapes your employer brand. Result: consistency, compliance, and maximum impact at every candidate and employee touchpoint.

Discover what’s possible with DAM

See how leading teams create and control their employer brand at scale.

Discover what’s possible with DAM

See how leading teams create
and control their employer
brand at scale.

See how leading teams create and control their employer brand at scale.

FAQs

Why is Digital Asset Management important for employer branding teams?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) gives employer branding teams a centralized platform to store, organize, and distribute brand content. It ensures brand consistency, saves time, reduces risk, and supports localized content creation across regions and departments.

What challenges do employer branding teams face without a DAM system?

Without DAM software, teams struggle to manage employer branding assets and waste valuable time searching for the content they need. This can lead to work being duplicated and outdated or off-brand materials being used by mistake.

How does DAM software improve localization for employer branding content?

A Digital Asset Management solution like Papirfly enables employer branding teams to adapt brand assets for local markets and share them easily. Local teams can also use templated content creation tools to rapidly produce their own studio-quality content, without risk of going off-brand.

In what ways does DAM support employer brand consistency and compliance?

DAM ensures everyone uses approved, up-to-date content by controlling asset access and versioning. It reduces the risk of using outdated logos or expired imagery and guarantees that all employer branding materials meet brand and legal standards.

How does DAM software empower employees to contribute to employer branding?

With DAM, employees can easily access on-brand templates and content to share authentic stories, celebrate milestones, or promote new roles. This enables them to become brand ambassadors while ensuring consistency across shared content.

Brand Management, Digital Asset Management

Your Digital Asset Management guide to complete content control

If digital asset chaos is making your teams less productive and your brand less consistent, it’s time to look at Digital Asset Management (DAM). Our Digital Asset Management Guide is here with the full lowdown.

Discover how the best Digital Asset Management software can help you:

  • Organize, protect, and scale content
  • Streamline campaign execution
  • Accelerate workflows and reduce bottlenecks
  • Ensure brand-compliant assets every time

What is Digital Asset Management?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a structured and secure way of managing all your organization’s digital content. It eliminates the chaos of misplaced files, outdated visuals, and inconsistent messaging, delivering brand assets to your teams on a silver platter.

What are digital assets?

Digital assets are more than just files. They’re all the visual, audio, and design resources your business invests in creating – and which in turn create value for your business. From images to videos, campaign artwork to sales documents, every asset shapes how your organization looks and sounds. Managing them effectively protects your investment and your brand.

Visual assets including images, documents, video, and audio representing digital asset management content types

Files like images, video, audio, and artwork are digital assets. Anything you can use and combine to deliver strategic goals for your business. For example, by creating marketing collateral, employer branding materials, or ecommerce listings. 

Why is Digital Asset Management important?

Your digital assets represent your intellectual property, creative investment, and brand identity. Without the right system, they’re vulnerable to loss, misuse, and inefficiency. And that puts your investment – and your reputation – in jeopardy.

With DAM, assets are securely stored and easily accessible, so everyone uses them correctly every time. Result: faster workflows, stronger governance, and greater brand equity.

What does DAM software do?

A DAM platform provides a single, centralized location to store, organize, and share your brand’s digital files. It replaces fragmented systems – like shared drives or departmental folders – with one intelligent hub built for marketing operations.

Key features include:

  • • Centralization for easy access across teams and regions
  • • Metadata and taxonomy for powerful search and discovery
  • • Permission controls to protect sensitive assets
  • • Workflow automation to accelerate review and approval processes

Four types of software for Digital Asset Management

Digital Asset Management software comes in several forms, each suited to different business needs and technical setups. Here’s how to tell them apart.

1. On-premise DAM

An on-premise DAM is software that you manage in-house and that’s installed in your organization’s IT infrastructure. You maintain full control over the system, handling updates, security, and performance internally. It puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, but can be beneficial for organizations with strict compliance requirements.

2. Cloud-based DAM

A cloud-based DAM (or cloud DAM) is hosted and managed by the software provider. You access it securely through the internet, while your vendor is responsible for all upgrades and maintenance – ideal for teams looking for flexibility and easy scalability. (We compare on-premise and cloud-based DAMs in more detail below.)

3. Enterprise DAM

An enterprise DAM is built for large, complex organizations that need advanced scalability and global brand governance. These systems typically include enhanced digital asset storage, global permissions, and localized support for multiple regions or teams. While the core functionality mirrors standard DAM systems, enterprise versions are optimized for performance and control at scale.

4. Headless DAM 

A headless DAM is designed to operate quietly behind the scenes. It does not have a front end for accessing and managing digital assets but instead connects directly with other business systems, like Product Information Management (PIM), ecommerce platforms, or content delivery networks.

Why Digital Asset Management matters more than ever

Here are four key trends that are prompting modern businesses to switch to Digital Asset Management systems.

1. Demand for digital content has skyrocketed

From websites and social channels to intranets, third-party platforms, and traditional print – brands are producing more content in more formats than ever before. Without an intelligent way to organize and categorize assets, it’s easy for teams to lose track, duplicate work, or dilute the brand.

A global Digital Asset Management system brings structure to multichannel content creation, so your teams stay productive and your brand stays consistent.

2. Remote work and collaboration have become standard

It is now common for global teams, freelancers, and partners to collaborate across time zones – and they can only do so effectively if they have easy access to the same assets.

A cloud-based DAM enables exactly that. Teams can find, share, and update approved materials anytime, without compromising compliance or version control.

3. Competition for people’s attention is getting fiercer

Digital content is exploding while attention spans shrink. In this world, you only have a few seconds to make an impact on consumers – and consistency and recognizability are two of your greatest brand assets.

DAM acts as your brand consistency software, giving every employee access to approved visuals, templates, and guidelines.

4. Cyber threats are growing more frequent and sophisticated

DAM platforms are built with encryption, permissions, and audit trails to keep digital assets protected. Teams have full control over who can access, edit, or share files.

Unilever’s success story - how digital asset management with Papirfly empowered global employer brand collaboration

Six essential features of Digital Asset Management – and how they benefit your business

1. Centralization and organization – one home for every asset 

A DAM system serves as a single, centralized digital asset library. Instead of files being scattered across drives, inboxes, and third-party platforms, everything lives in one secure, searchable location. Automatic version control ensures everyone is working with the latest file. Built-in audit trails capture every edit and approval.

Key benefits: Control brand assets, eliminate duplication, and reduce usage errors.

2. Search and discoverability – find what you need, fast

What use is a digital asset library software if nobody can find their way around it? DAM uses metadata, taxonomy, and visual search to make every asset instantly discoverable.

Metadata adds context so assets can be found through multiple search routes – for example through product names, campaign tags, regions, or usage rights. Taxonomy gives your library logical structure. Visual thumbnails make searching easier by allowing users to preview files at a glance.

Key benefits: Boost productivity by saving many wasted hours spent searching for the right file.

3. Security and sharing – protect and control your brand’s IP

Brand assets are valuable intellectual property – and DAM protects them accordingly.

Granular permission controls ensure only authorized users can view, download, or edit specific assets. Encryption safeguards data in transit and at rest, while secure link sharing replaces risky transfers and expired downloads.

Key benefits: Ensure assets can be accessed by the right people – and only the right people.

4. Brand compliance, GDPR and regulatory obligations

Beyond security and sharing, a DAM plays a vital role in maintaining brand and regulatory compliance. With privacy laws and advertising standards tightening worldwide, brands need centralised control over how assets are stored, accessed and used.

By embedding consent information, expiry dates and usage rights directly into asset metadata, a DAM ensures teams only use approved, compliant content. Automated restrictions prevent expired or unlicensed materials from being published, while detailed audit trails capture every action for complete transparency.

Benefit: Reduce regulatory risk, ensure DAM GDPR compliance, and maintain customer trust through controlled, compliant asset management.

5. Collaboration and automation – work smarter, not harder 

Today’s DAM systems are built for collaboration. Cloud-based access connects internal teams, agencies, and freelancers, enabling real-time feedback and faster approvals across time zones.

Automation features take efficiency even further. From AI-assisted tagging and automatic file conversions to fully automated workflows for publishing content, DAM removes repetitive manual work so your teams can focus on creativity and strategy.

Benefit: Enable seamless collaboration, reduce bottlenecks, and speed up time to market for every campaign.

6. Analytics – insight that drives smarter decisions

DAM analytics reveal which files perform best, who’s using them, and where gaps exist. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about future content investment and creation.

Benefit: Get clear visibility into asset performance, so you can continuously optimize your brand strategy and content spend.

BMW’s success story - how digital asset management with Papirfly supports brand consistency across seven countries

Integrations – connecting your DAM to the tools that power your brand

Virtually any system that needs access to digital assets can integrate with your DAM – and your DAM can feed images, video, documents, and data directly to that system. Here are four of the most common types of DAM integration:

DAM + CMS

Integrating DAM with your CMS gives web editors advanced search and filtering tools – so they can quickly find the perfect assets to bring your website to life.

DAM + design software

Enable designers to browse, drag, and drop approved visuals directly from your DAM – without having to leave the window they’re working in.

DAM + PIM 

Using a Product Information Management (PIM) system? Linking DAM and PIM lets you automatically pull product images into catalogs and ecommerce platforms, accelerating time to market.

DAM + CRM

Integrating with your Customer Relationship Management system allows teams to create brand-compliant assets faster, with content being automatically formatted for each channel.

Who uses DAM systems?

Marketing

Marketers use DAM to centralize, organize and categorize assets, ensuring everyone involved in campaigns can collaborate efficiently. Marketing asset management software gives creatives access to up-to-date assets and artwork, allows for rapid distribution to end users, makes it easier to manage event collateral, and enables you to automate workflows. 

Creative agencies

Agencies use DAM to streamline and accelerate production processes and to protect and manage assets for different customers. Some even offer DAM services to customers as an additional revenue stream. Learn more about digital asset management for agencies 

Content creators

For publishers and content creators, speed and accuracy are everything. A DAM provides a central hub to store, tag, and retrieve written, visual, and multimedia assets instantly.

Ecommerce and retail

Consumers buy with their eyes. By organizing product images, videos, and marketing visuals in a DAM, ecommerce and retail teams can ensure accurate, consistent, and high-quality presentation across websites, marketplaces, and campaigns.

Employer brands

DAM provides an employer branding platform for teams to manage recruitment campaigns and materials in one centralized asset library. It ensures every message, visual, and video reflects your company’s culture and helps create a unified candidate experience while also acting as an internal communications management tool.

Corporate brands

Consistency builds trust — and trust drives growth. That’s why corporate brands use DAM. By providing a single source of truth for brand guidelines, logos, templates, and visual assets, the system empowers people to represent the brand accurately, wherever they operate.

Make sure the right people access the right assets

Create bespoke hubs for your teams.

Make sure the right people access
the right assets

Create bespoke hubs
for your teams.

Create bespoke hubs for your teams.

Papirfly's Brand hub portal

When is the right time to invest in Digital Asset Management?

Every organization reaches a point when managing digital assets manually is no longer sustainable – and when a DAM goes from being a “nice to have” to business-critical. Here are eight signs you may have reached that point.

1. Your systems are slowing your teams down

Disorganized files, outdated systems, and endless searching are draining productivity. A DAM centralizes all your digital assets in one secure, searchable place, so everyone can get what they need – fast.

2. You need to cut costs, without cutting corners  

A DAM accelerates and automates workflows, helping you increase operational efficiency and save precious time.

3. Your assets need stronger protection

A DAM’s granular access permissions will help you ensure only authorized users can view, edit, or download assets.

4. Your brand consistency is slipping

By providing a central source for approved brand assets, logos, and guidelines, a DAM helps every department stay on-brand.

5. You have remote working issues

A cloud-based DAM allows freelancers, agencies, and teams to collaborate seamlessly from any location.

6. Your current digital asset storage systems can’t keep up

Switching to a DAM enables you to handle thousands (or even millions) of assets without slowing down. The DAM scales with you, no matter how complex your operations get.

7. You need to raise your content game

A DAM system will enable you to create, distribute, and publish higher-quality content – at speed and at scale.

8. You’re digitizing your processes

Putting DAM at the center of your digitization strategy creates a foundation for smarter, faster, more connected operations.

The business case for Digital Asset Management

From reducing costs to accelerating go-to-market speed, DAM delivers benefits you can quantify and scale. Here’s how it pays off:

1. Greater operational efficiency

DAM streamlines processes across the board – from automating repetitive tasks like image resizing and file conversions to enabling seamless collaboration between global teams. No more duplicated effort, lost files, or “where’s the latest version?” messages. Everything lives in one organized, searchable system, ensuring assets move quickly from creation to delivery.

The impact: Accelerated digital asset management workflow, fewer manual interventions, and campaigns that launch on time and on brand.

2. Smarter resource optimization

DAM eliminates inefficiencies by giving teams instant access to approved assets. That means creatives spend more time creating, marketers spend more time strategizing, and every contributor focuses on work that drives business growth.

The impact: Greater productivity, higher engagement, and stronger returns from every role in your marketing, internal communications, and brand ecosystem.

3. Tangible cost savings

DAM doesn’t just help you achieve time and efficiency gains – it also directly reduces operational spend. For example: 

  • Team members can find and repurpose existing assets, so they don’t have to create them from scratch
  • Enhanced visibility into your asset stock reduces the risk of duplicated work or purchases
  • DAM minimizes your risk of costly legal exposure

The impact: Real savings, reduced waste, and smarter reinvestment in content that performs.

The ROI of Digital Asset Management

Based on typical deployment and usage patterns, an average Papirfly customer achieves:

  • 212% Return on Investment (ROI)
  • $1.17 million Net Present Value (NPV)
  • 80% reduction in effort required for asset creation
  • $200 average agency spend avoided per asset
  • Payback period: under six months

Understanding the costs

We’ve included some typical DAM costs below. When planning your investment, it’s important to weigh these up against the cost of not having a DAM. How much time and money will your organization continue to lose by having disorganized assets?

  • Upfront costs Mostly just for on-premise licenses and infrastructure setup
  • Subscription fees Cloud-based models usually charge per user per month
  • Storage – Additional fees may apply for higher volumes
  • Number of assets – Some pricing models consider how many assets you need to store
  • Features and customization Some advanced capabilities, customizations or integrations may incur extra cost
  • Maintenance and support You may need to pay a monthly fee for technical support and training
  • Migration – You may choose to pay the vendor or a third-party to migrate your assets to the new DAM
  • In-house costs – Don’t forget to factor in-house costs like the time it will take to research and implement the system

How to choose and implement a DAM system

Selecting a DAM system is a major decision that should not be rushed. Here are some pointers to help you make the right choice – and make it count.

1. Define your requirements

DAM works best when it serves the whole organization, not isolated departments. Identify who will use the system, how they’ll use it, and what challenges it needs to solve.

Ask key questions:

  • What goals will the DAM support?
  • What types and volumes of assets will it manage?
  • Which workflows need automation?
  • Which existing systems (CMS, CRM, PIM, etc.) must it integrate with?

2. Research your options

With hundreds of DAM platforms available, research is essential. Don’t just rely on paid ads or surface-level comparisons. Instead:

  • Look for vendors with proven success in your industry.
  • Read independent analyst reports like The Forrester Wave™.
  • Check user reviews on trusted sites such as G2 or Capterra.

And remember – the best DAM for your organization isn’t necessarily the most expensive. It’s the one that fits your processes, culture, and future vision.

3. Test and compare

Once you’ve narrowed your list, arrange product demos and hands-on trials. Compare each system against your requirements document. Assess usability, performance, and overall fit for your teams.

You should also invite key stakeholders to join the demo sessions. Their input will ensure the system you choose supports every corner of your organization.

Cover of Your DAM buyer's guide (by Papirfly)

What to look for in a DAM platform

Beyond pricing and features, key elements to consider when assessing potential DAM solutions include:

Functionality

Start with the essentials: centralized storage, advanced search and filtering, permissions, and asset version control. Then look at more sophisticated capabilities such as automation, templating, and AI-assisted tagging. If you need your DAM to double as brand portal software or to connect with ecommerce systems, ensure those features are built in, not bolted on.

Scalability

DAM scalability is critical. Look for a solution that will effortlessly expand as your teams, regions, and content volumes grow. You should be able to add users, storage, and integrations without disrupting operations or budgets. 

User experience

Even the most powerful DAM won’t deliver ROI if people don’t use it. The interface must be intuitive, visually clear, and easy to navigate. A good user experience encourages adoption and helps teams make the system part of their daily routine.

Integrations

A DAM should fit seamlessly into your existing tech ecosystem. Look for integrations with your CMS, design tools, CRM, or PIM systems to connect workflows and prevent duplication. This ensures assets flow smoothly between teams and channels.

Vendor support

Strong vendor support makes all the difference during setup and beyond. Ask about onboarding, self-service resources, and response times for technical issues. You want a partner – not just a provider.

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered.

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered.

Papirfly DAM - All you need in one single place

On‑premise vs cloud‑based DAM

Which is better? It all depends on how much control you need – and how much responsibility you’re willing to take on. Here’s a snapshot of how the two models compare:

On-premise DAMCloud-based DAM
AccessRestricted access Anywhere access 
ScalabilityLimited by your in‑house storage capacityIn theory, unlimited storage, but with costs attached
Maintenance and updatesYou are responsible for upgrades and maintaining the systemThe provider is responsible for upgrades and maintaining the system
Security and control Direct, maximum control Reliant on provider 
CustomizationCustomization options via your in‑house team – maximum flexibility but limited by IT capacitySome customization usually availability via support request – may incur additional cost
IntegrationsVia your in‑house teamSome available out‑of‑the‑box and others via your own team using APIs
Upfront costsBigger upfront costs – you buy the platform outrightLower upfront costs – you buy subscriptions (seats) 
DeploymentSlower due to need for infrastructure set upFaster as minimal infrastructure needed – simply deployed online
Data sovereigntyGreater control over geographic location and data sovereigntyLess control over geographic location and data sovereignty

Access

On-premise DAM:
Restricted access

Cloud-based DAM:
Anywhere access

Scalability

On-premise DAM:
Limited by your in-house storage capacity

Cloud-based DAM:
In theory, unlimited storage, but with costs attached

Maintenance and updates

On-premise DAM:
You are responsible for upgrades and maintaining the system

Cloud-based DAM:
The provider is responsible for upgrades and maintaining the system

Security and control

On-premise DAM:
Direct, maximum control

Cloud-based DAM:
Reliant on provider

Integrations

On-premise DAM:
Via your in-house team

Cloud-based DAM:
Some available out-of-the-box and others via your own team using APIs

Deployment

On-premise DAM:
Slower due to need for infrastructure set up

Cloud-based DAM:
Faster as minimal infrastructure needed – simply deployed online

Five best practices for Digital Asset Management

Implementing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is a big deal for your organization – a cultural shift in how everyone creates, manages, and protects content. Following these proven best practices will help you get the most out of your investment.

1. Be strategic from the start

Your DAM initiative should directly support your wider business goals. Whether you’re focused on improving efficiency, enhancing collaboration, maintaining brand consistency, or driving digital transformation, use your objectives to guide every stage of implementation.

2. Audit your assets and workflows

Your DAM provider will have a LOT of questions. Come prepared with knowledge of how many assets you have, where they live, how they’re used, and who needs access to them, as well as information on file types and workflows.

3. Don’t just replicate – innovate

This isn’t about digitizing the status quo. It’s about creating the kind of system you’d love to have. Speak with the teams who create, approve, and distribute content. What challenges do they have? Where do bottlenecks occur? What could be improved? You should also ask your DAM vendor how other customers use the software to see if there are any innovations you could adopt.

4. Plan for onboarding and training  

However intuitive your new DAM system, users will still need training and support to use it effectively. Requirements will vary between user groups. For example, admins are likely to need hands-on workshops while casual users should be able to learn through video tutorials or quick-start guides. Create a communication and training plan to help you roll out your new software and get people excited about using it.

5. Commit to long‑term governance 

Without regular maintenance, even the best-designed system can become cluttered and inefficient. Establish clear governance practices – and if your asset library is extensive, consider appointing a DAM manager or librarian. Their responsibilities should include:

  • Archiving outdated or redundant assets
  • Reviewing metadata and taxonomy for accuracy
  • Managing user access and permissions
  • Overseeing security and software updates
  • Monitoring usage and optimizing performance

The future of AI‑powered Digital Asset Management

DAM systems speed up manual, time-consuming processes – and, with intelligent automation, they’re doing it faster than ever. Here are three ways that AI is shaping the next generation of Digital Asset Management.

1. Smarter metadata through AI auto‑tagging

Modern DAM systems handle one of the most important yet repetitive asset management tasks automatically via AI metadata tagging. AI asset management software can instantly recognize an image, video, or document and apply meaningful tags that describe its content, even during bulk uploads of thousands of files.

The impact: Faster uploads, consistent metadata, and a stronger foundation for content discovery.

2. AI-powered search and recommendations

Search within DAM is evolving from reactive to predictive. AI algorithms now analyze user behavior – from search patterns to content engagement – to deliver smarter, personalized recommendations. Instead of typing in the perfect keyword, users are guided to the assets most relevant to their role, project, or past activity. This means less searching, more discovering, and far greater productivity.

The impact: Assets find you – not the other way around.

3. Generative AI within DAM

Generative AI is the next frontier. While some DAM systems already use it to make light edits, the technology is rapidly expanding in scope. Soon, users will be able to create new assets directly within their DAM environment. Imagine using a brand video maker or image generator to generate campaign variations and localized content in seconds.

The impact: A future where DAM doesn’t just manage content – it helps create it.

Beyond this Digital Asset Management guide – take control!

If digital asset chaos and constant approval bottlenecks are slowing your organization down, a next-generation DAM like Papirfly could be the solution. Organize and showcase your brand, create content on-demand, and scale global governance.

Papirfly's Digital Asset Management
Digital Asset Management

3 essentials for a global Digital Asset Management system

Managing digital assets is challenging – even more so when you’re doing it across global teams, multiple markets, and countless channels.

The reach of modern brands has never been greater, and neither has the complexity of keeping digital content organized, on-brand, and ready to use.

That’s why a global Digital Asset Management system is so essential for modern and forward-thinking brands, as it solves all the challenges of managing digital assets by centralizing content and making it easy to find, share, and protect.

Introduction to global Digital Asset Management systems

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a system for housing digital content. It brings all your assets together in one searchable location – everything from images, videos, and presentations to campaign documents and brand guidelines.

With your brand being your number one asset, a centralized repository for local teams to deliver the global brand is a must to speak to every audience.

The benefits of using DAM software include:

  • Faster access to the right files
  • Stronger brand consistency
  • Fewer duplicated or lost assets
  • Reduced time and cost of content production

But not all Digital Asset Management systems are the same. How to choose a digital asset management system suitable for all teams across all markets requires three key considerations, helping to guide your decision.

3 questions to consider when choosing a DAM solution

1. Will the DAM make it easy for users to find and use assets?

Your DAM software should provide an effortless user experience, especially when it comes to searching for digital assets. If the system is slow, confusing or hard to navigate, people will avoid it – and you’ll be back to makeshift storage solutions like Google Drive or Dropbox.

Ask yourself:

  • Is the navigation intuitive?
  • Can you tag and categorize assets using your organization’s terminology?
  • Are there filters available by tag or category to help you search faster?
  • Is the interface clear across desktop, mobile, and tablet?
  • Is it easy to share assets with teams in multiple locations?
  • Can the system be translated into other languages for global teams?
  • Does it prevent duplicate uploads?
  • Are only brand-compliant assets available, applying GDPR and rights management?
  • Can assets be exported in a variety of file formats?

Intuitive DAM software is only half the story – the other half is disciplined asset management. Clear labelling and consistent terminology make content even more searchable – and help turn your DAM into a true productivity engine.

2. Does the DAM enable both global and local activation?

Local marketing matters – 71% of consumers prefer advertising tailored to their location or situation. That means teams need global assets they can adapt for language, culture, and market-specific campaigns without reinventing the wheel.

With a centralized global DAM system:

  • Brand assets are always available and on-message
  • Local teams can access culturally relevant imagery and copy
  • Campaigns can be created faster, without external agencies.

Papirfly takes this further with Templated Content Creation — a solution that allows any approved user, regardless of design skills, to create on-brand, localized materials instantly.

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered.

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered.

Papirfly's Digital Asset Management system - All you need in one single place

3. Can you control user access through the DAM system?

While accessibility is critical for effective Digital Asset Management, unrestricted access can create problems. The wrong asset in the wrong hands can lead to off-brand content, compliance breaches such as GDPR, or costly mistakes.

Your DAM software should:

  • Provide usage statistics to measure ROI on specific materials
  • Allow admin-level permissions for approving, uploading, or deleting assets
  • Restrict access to certain files by user role, team, or location
  • Track who is adding, editing, or downloading assets
  • Enable teams to build bespoke brand portals for specific campaigns or user groups

Take control with digital asset library software

A global Digital Asset Managment system isn’t just a storage solution – it’s a strategic tool for protecting your brand, speeding campaign delivery, and empowering your teams.

With Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management software and Templated Content Creation suite, you get:

  • Unlimited asset storage and intelligent categorization
  • On-brand asset creation with intuitive templates
  • Global brand education tools
  • Campaign management with full visibility

If you’re ready to activate your brand on a global scale while keeping every asset consistent, accessible, and secure, find out about the Papirfly Suite today.

FAQs

What is a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system?

A DAM is a centralized platform where all your digital assets – images, , videos, documents, guidelines, and more – are stored, organized, and made accessible to approved users. It ensures your teams can quickly find the right files, maintain brand consistency, and avoid duplication or lost content. Read more in our guide.

Why is DAM important for global brands?

Global brands operate across multiple teams, markets, and channels. DAM provides a single source of truth for all assets, enabling faster campaign delivery, reducing wasted resources, and strengthening brand governance across every location.

What are the key considerations when building a global DAM system?

There are three essential to consider when building a global DAM system:
1. Prioritize navigation and user experience so assets are easy to find and use.
2. Support both global and local marketing needs with adaptable, on-brand content.
3. Control access and permissions to prevent misuse and maintain asset quality.

What makes Papirfly the best Digital Asset Management system for global retail brands?

Papirfly gives retail teams instant access to brand assets, with tools to localize content and stay consistent across every market. Whether a centralized or franchise model, it’s built for scale, supporting speed, control, and brand integrity in every store and channel.

How does Papirfly ensure ROI from a Digital Asset Management system?

Papirfly cuts costs by reducing agency spend, speeding up campaigns, and eliminating asset waste. Retailers benefit from faster execution, stronger brand control, and better engagement in every region.

How does Papirfly enhance Digital Asset Management?

The Papirfly suite combines DAM software with Templated Content Creation, enabling any approved user to create localized, on-brand materials instantly. It also includes features like “add to basket” downloads, permission controls, and campaign management tools.

How can a global DAM system support localized marketing?

By storing globally approved assets alongside market-specific resources, teams can quickly adapt content for language, culture, and campaign goals – all while ensuring brand consistency worldwide.

Digital Asset Management

GDPR explained: A guide for global marketing teams

25 May 2018 was a wake-up call for the marketing world.

Since that day, when GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was introduced, every organization has had to rethink how it collects, uses, and protects data from people in the EU. It doesn’t matter where you’re based – if you have customers in the EU, GDPR applies to you. And if you break the rules, the penalties can be eye-watering.

Marketing teams have felt the impact of GDPR more than most. Whether building a prospect database for email campaigns or creating personalized customer portals, they are often the ones responsible for capturing and managing personal data. And yet most marketers are not compliance experts. How can they be sure they’re getting GDPR right?

This guide is here to help, providing insight into why GDPR matters, what it means for your marketing activity, and how you can make compliance second nature.

If you would like GDPR explained, read on.

Why GDPR matters in marketing

Personal data is the currency of modern marketing and digital content creation. It fuels:

  • Personalised, relevant customer experiences
  • Smarter, data-driven campaigns
  • Sharper targeting and higher ROI

But with great value comes great responsibility. Fail to follow GDPR, and you’re not just risking your company’s reputation and eroding brand trust. You also risk fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global turnover (whichever is greater).

And these fines are no idle threat. British Airways was forced to pay over €26 million for a 2018 data breach affecting more than 400,000 customers while H&M was fined €35.3 million for illegal surveillance of employees.

The international reach of GDPR

Just because GDPR is an EU regulation does not mean it only companies within the EU. If you collect data from EU citizens, then GDPR applies to you, no matter where your organization is based.

This was underlined by a 2021 EU Court of Justice ruling, which found that big tech companies with European headquarters in Dublin can be taken to court by any national data protection authority if there are cross-border data processing activities.

Marketers targeting UK citizens aren’t off the hook either. Despite quitting the EU, the country has retained GDPR regulations in domestic law – so the same rules still apply.

In short: if your campaigns interact with customers from the EU or UK then your company is impacted by GDPR.

What is personal data and when can you use it?

GDPR defines personal data as anything that can identify someone directly or indirectly. This includes everything from names, phone numbers, emails, and home addresses to IP addresses, ID numbers, and online pseudonyms.

Under GDPR, there are six lawful bases for collecting and processing personal data. These are:

  • Consent (you have the individual’s consent to process the data for a specific purpose)
  • Contract
  • Legal obligation
  • Vital interests (to protect someone’s life)
  • Public task (because it’s in the public interest)
  • Legitimate interests

Consent is the most common basis for marketing teams – and, crucially, consent must always be given freely and never assumed. In other words, it has to be the consumer’s choice to share their personal data with you – or not.

This means:

  • No pre-ticked boxes or default opt-ins
  • No confusing privacy policies
  • No bundling multiple permissions into one tick box

You must also make it just as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it, for example by including an unsubscribe button in email newsletters.

5 tips for marketers to secure GDPR compliance

1. Be transparent about data collection

You need to make it crystal clear what data you collect from people and why. Consider:

  • Is your website’s privacy policy up accurate and up to date?
  • Do contact or download forms contain links to your privacy policy?
  • Do you make it clear you use cookies to collect personal data and give people control over what they share?

2. Establish clear opt-out systems

The right to be forgotten is a key principle of GDPR. Make sure customers can easily manage what they receive from you. Every email you send should have a visible unsubscribe link.

3. Audit databases regularly

Check marketing or website databases once a year or even once a quarter to verify you are maintaining best practice. This is an opportunity to remove outdated or unconsented data, and to identify any holes in your approach before they escalate into costly breaches.

4. Report data breaches immediately

With GDPR, honesty is the best policy. Report any data losses, theft or accidental transfers as soon as possible. Any attempt to cover up breaches will likely lead to maximum financial penalties and heavy damage to your brand reputation. 

5. Focus on employees as well as customers

Just like customers, employees have rights over the personal information. If using employee-generated images or videos in your marketing or employer branding, you must ensure you have each employee’s consent.

The easy way to ensure GDPR Compliance for global marketing teams

Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution helps global marketing teams safeguard every aspect of privacy and consent by automating compliance when managing digital assets. Our DAM software includes a GDPR consent manager tool to ensure:

  • Images with identifiable people are only used with permission
  • Content is automatically withdrawn the moment permissions expire
  • People have the ability to review and revoke their content anytime

Bottom line: GDPR isn’t going anywhere. And neither is the need to earn and keep customer trust. The sooner GDPR compliance becomes second nature in your processes, the stronger your brand reputation will be.

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered

Not sure what to look for in a DAM?

We’ve got you covered.

We’ve got you covered

Papirfly DAM - All you need in one single place

FAQs

Which organizations does GDPR apply to?

GDPR applies to any organization that collects personal data from people in the EU or UK – regardless of where the company is based. If your campaigns interact with these customers, you must comply.

What counts as personal data under GDPR?

Personal data includes anything that can directly or indirectly identify an individual, such as names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses, ID numbers, home addresses, and even online pseudonyms.

What are the potential penalties for non-compliance with GDPR?

Fines can reach up to €20 million or 4% of a company’s global annual turnover, whichever is greater. This is in addition to the reputational damage that can be caused by illegal data breaches.

How can global marketing teams simplify GDPR compliance?

Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution includes a GDPR consent manager tool that automates compliance across all digital assets. This ensures:
– Images with identifiable people are only used with permission
– Content is automatically withdrawn the moment permissions expire
– People have the ability to review and revoke their content anytime