A future beyond DAM

One of the biggest takeaways from the Forrester Wave™ report on DAM systems is that the modern DAM needs to be more than a DAM. 

It’s no longer sufficient to manage assets and files – they have to be at the foundation for more comprehensive brand management. At Papirfly, we have always envisioned DAM as a much broader, more powerful solution – one that changes the way we see these systems altogether.

Below, we explain further why DAM needs to grow and evolve beyond its conventional role, and why platforms like Papirfly represent the future of DAM.

Does DAM need to stretch its boundaries?

The traditional DAM is limited to a repository; a place where a brand holds its images, videos and wider assets. At one point in time, that was sufficient, but those days are very much over.

DAM is growing, extending beyond expectations because customer needs today are so much wider and more complex. It’s not just about the storage of assets – it’s how assets are being used, where they’re being used, and how consistently they are used. It is about the role DAM plays in delivering personalised, on-brand experiences.

For Papirfly, evolving DAM to include more strategic brand management capabilities is not just an option; we view it as a necessity.

DAM may be the foundation for creating digital experiences. But we must go beyond that. As we dynamically manage audiences, campaigns must be coherent and consistent with a brand’s identity. That’s where the challenge lies, and that’s where Papirfly is aiming to go.

Changing the definition of DAM

The value that Papirfly brings to our users goes beyond core DAM functionalities. While we are incredibly proud to be among the few global DAM vendors recognised by Forrester Wave™, we think bigger – we want to be the pioneering force in brand management technology.

We know how challenging campaign execution is, especially for worldwide brands with hundreds of target audiences. Every asset must be tailored to individual customer preferences and varied marketing channels, but also consistent with the overarching brand identity. Achieving this is a tall order, and demands the right technology.

We treat our platform as a suite of products that are all integral to the brand management journey. DAM is part of this, but just one part. Rather than treat these in isolation, we have sought to bring them together into one powerful, all-encompassing platform. A platform built for saving time and making life easier through advanced automation and workflows.

What Papirfly offers is a core ecosystem that manages every aspect of the brand lifecycle. A single location where you:

• Hold all of the guidelines and parameters at the core of your brand identity (Point)
• Maintain, store and control all digital assets for your campaigns (Place)
• Create and alter assets fast and consistently, with efficient approval workflows in place (Produce)
• Oversee the progress of a campaign across departments and teams (Plan)
• Measure the performance, metrics and ROI of your brand management operations (Prove)

This is no longer DAM as a sole solution; it’s DAM as part of your overall brand journey. Through technology that is only improving with artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, we are creating a one-stop package for delivering brand success, unlocking new standards of design and strategic creativity and maintaining absolute brand consistency.

Brand management is the future of DAM

The future of DAM is a future beyond DAM. A single solution for storing and sharing assets is no longer sufficient for the demands of modern marketing. Now, the focus is on managing a brand across its entire lifecycle – creation to execution, and potentially through to retirement.

DAM can’t achieve this in its current definition. The DAM of today and tomorrow must extend to deliver the level of brand consistency and engagement that companies want and that consumers expect. That is what Papirfly is all about.

Working closely with chief marketing officers and global brands to understand what they truly need in today’s complex digital landscape, we are becoming the thought leader for DAM’s evolution into true brand management.

We are driving a future where a DAM becomes almost invisible to our users, who simply carry out its actions within a universal brand ecosystem. A space where you can create, maintain, monitor and manage assets across their lifetime, all the way to campaign delivery.

The Forrester Wave™ has recognised it’s time to look past DAM as a simple shared drive, but part of a broader solution that minimises the effort of managing a brand and maximises the efficiency of marketing. That’s the future of DAM, and that’s the heart of our platform.

It’s time to break beyond the framework of “DAM” and unlock something much more powerful: a future of end-to-end brand management.