What are digital assets? The term “digital asset” has become more common in marketing and creative communication – and with good reason. According to Venngage, 74% of marketers now use visuals in over 70% of their content. But, there is still a disconnect between what is considered a digital asset. Is it just any digital file? If not, what are the other criteria?

We explore the key elements of digital assets, share examples of digital assets, and explain how to evaluate their value and why digital assets are important to your business.

What are Digital Assets?

Gartner’s Glossary, define digital assets as digital material owned by an enterprise or individual including text, graphics, audio, video, and animations. Traditionally, people have considered digital assets to only include photos and videos. Over the years however, we’ve started including other digital files in our definition, such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.

The definition of a digital asset is constantly changing as new digital formats are emerging in business. It’s important to remember that the file format is only part of the definition. The other portion of the digital asset definition is derived from the value the asset brings to the company.

There are 3 key elements that make any single file a digital asset. A digital asset must:

• Be a digital file owned by an individual/company,
• Provide value to the individual/company, and
• Be searchable and discoverable (usually with metadata).

Digital Assets Examples

In order to fully understand what digital assets are, here are some common digital asset types:

• Photos,
• Videos,
• Audio files,
• Presentations,
• Graphics,
• PDFs,
• Spreadsheets,
• Documents,
• Design files,
• 3D files,
• and more.

Digital Assets Example: eBook

eBooks are generally created for knowledge sharing, lead generation, and establishing authority.
An entire eBook is more challenging to replace. They often contain valuable, well-researched information. Keeping them secure ensures that your intellectual property is protected and your audience trusts the source.

Digital Assets Example: Ad

Ads are typically created for campaign consistency, reusability, and performance analysis.

Given their role as the face of your brand, secure storage prevents the loss of creative work and ensures quick access for future campaigns or audits.

Digital Assets Example: Video

Videos are primarily used for brand storytelling, product demos, and customer engagement.

As high-value assets, protecting them safeguards your investment in production and maintains the quality and accessibility of your content.

Digital Assets Example: Logo

Logos are typically created for brand identity, recognition, and marketing purposes. They are central to a brand’s visual representation and are used across various platforms and materials.

Storing logos securely ensures that the correct, high-resolution versions are always accessible for consistent use. Protecting these files also prevents unauthorized alterations or misuse, which could compromise the brand’s image and integrity.

Digital Assets Example: AutoCAD File

AutoCAD files are typically created for detailed architectural plans, engineering designs, and complex technical drawings. These files are often intricate and time-consuming to produce, containing precise specifications crucial for construction and manufacturing.

Storing them securely is essential to prevent unauthorized access or accidental loss, which could lead to significant setbacks in projects and potential financial loss. Secure storage ensures that these critical assets are easily accessible for future reference and modification.

Want to learn more about digital assets, DAM software, and more? Get the free report here.

What is the Difference Between Digital Assets and Other Files?

To help identify the difference, Theresa Regli, a DAM industry expert, describes digital assets as “something represented in a digital form that has intrinsic or acquired value”. To simplify, the key difference lies in whether or not the file adds value to the company.

For example, an image from a photoshoot used in a social media campaign to raise awareness of an upcoming event and drive registration, is considered a digital asset. However, if a rough screenshot is sent in a one-off email to a potential client, the image itself has minimal long-term value and would likely not be considered a digital asset.

When evaluating the value of your digital assets, there’s more to consider than just the hard cost of them. It’s also important to consider 2 factors: the time spent producing it, and the ability to recreate it.

1. Time and Effort to Produce

When evaluating production value, consider the time, resources, people, and planning that it took to create the asset. Often, an organization’s most high-value assets are those that take a considerable amount of time and effort to create. Losing a single photo, while inconvenient, can be resolved quickly, by re-editing the raw file or selecting another. A fully-edited and ready-to-distribute eBook, however, will take significantly more time and effort to recreate and get re-approved. Even if you still have each individual asset. This is an incredibly common challenge. In fact, in our recent DAM Trends Report, 41% of organizations without a digital asset management (DAM) solution in place reported having to recreate or repurchase an asset.

2. Ability to Reproduce

Assets also become increasingly more valuable when they’re impossible to recreate. These types of assets usually come from one-time, never-going-to-happen again events, where even all the time and money in the world couldn’t recreate that moment. For example, as the marketing department of a sports team would know this all too well, a single photo of a game-winning goal can be extremely valuable and can’t be recreated if it’s misplaced. When just looking at the costs to create that asset, it’s just one of the hundreds of images taken by the photographers in a single night, but to the marketing team, this single photo is more valuable than gold.

Why Are Digital Assets Important?

The way that we do business is changing and emotions have always influenced buying behaviors, but now it’s about more than just producing cool ads to drive customer demand. It’s about who is connecting the best with customers, and how they’re doing it. In an increasingly digital world, most connections are happening across online channels: exactly where your digital assets come in.

At their core, digital assets are the visual representation of your products, services, culture, and, ultimately, your brand. As the key drivers of online engagement, digital assets represent the connection between your company and your customers. They give you the ability to interact with customers how, when, and where they like.

How to Make Digital Assets Discoverable

Assets are valuable only if they can be found. When you’re working with a lot of digital assets, it’s important to take steps to make sure they’re discoverable and can be managed efficiently. This is done with the consistent use of metadata (keywords, titles, photographer name, etc.), and a smart taxonomy (category structure):

Metadata

Metadata is essentially data about data providing a variety of information about the asset, beyond its basic filename. There are two types of metadata that include the following:

1. Technical metadata: usually displayed automatically, such as resolution, photographer name, dimensions, and size.
2. Descriptive metadata: describing a resource for the purpose of discovery, such as title, description, and keywords.

Most commonly, people tend to associate metadata with keywords. Your keywords are key to powering asset search and give you the power to label your assets in a way that’s relevant to your unique business needs. Here’s a helpful guide to keywording.

Taxonomy

A taxonomy is a hierarchical structure that allows you to categorize and classify your assets to ease navigation, and identify relationships between assets. Using a taxonomy will help users intuitively browse for assets in a digital asset management system, especially when they’re not exactly sure what they are looking for. Here’s a helpful post about building a taxonomy.

While a basic form of both metadata and taxonomy can be done in-house, many companies take advantage of a digital asset management system. It enables true control of their digital assets and gives instant access to the people that need them.

Digital Assets FAQs

What’s the difference between traditional digital assets and financial digital assets?

Traditional digital assets refer to items like photos, videos, and documents that were once physical but are now created, stored, and shared digitally. These digital media assets are primarily used for media and content purposes. These assets are usually stored in DAM systems (see more below).

Financial digital assets, emerging with blockchain technology, include cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and asset-backed tokens. These are investable assets that hold financial value and can be traded or used in various financial applications.

Where are digital assets stored?

Digital assets are stored in Digital Asset Management software (DAM), which can be cloud-based or on-premises. Cloud options include public clouds like AWS and private clouds, offering flexibility and security. On-premises solutions involve local servers and Network Attached Storage (NAS) for greater control.

Hybrid solutions combine both methods, while external drives provide backup options. DAM systems enhance management with features like metadata tagging, version control, and access permissions for efficient asset retrieval and use.

Check out the free, self-guided tour of a MediaValet DAM here!

Why are visual assets important for branding?

Visual assets include images, graphics, logos, and design templates used to create a consistent visual identity for a brand. They are crucial for maintaining brand recognition and ensuring cohesive and professional-looking marketing materials.

Learn more about DAM systems, visual assets, and brand management here.

How are social media assets different from other digital assets?

Social media assets are digital files specifically designed for use on social media platforms, such as profile images, cover photos, and post graphics. They are tailored to meet platform-specific requirements and optimize engagement with the audience.

Better Manage Your Digital Assets With a DAM

Digital assets have become the essential tools of brand loyalty, with every digital interaction returning to visuals and copy. But your assets are only valuable if they can be found and used efficiently.

By implementing dedicated digital asset management software in your organization, you can elevate your digital asset game.

A DAM system comes with a ton of benefits including:

• Easy access to assets
• Enhanced organization and discoverability
• Improved collaboration, workflows, and processes
• Better brand consistency
• More secure assets

Interested in learning more about DAM and how it compares to other solutions? Check out these resources:

DAM vs Google Drive

DAM vs Traditional Online Document Storage

DAM vs MAM

DAM vs On-Premise

DAM vs Brandfolder

For a step-by-step process to finding a DAM vendor, download the free DAM Buying Guide.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

As content creation continues to grow exponentially, many companies are struggling to keep up with the number of digital files that they’re creating and managing on a day-to-day basis. Even those who have digital file management solutions in place are now finding that they’ve outgrown them way faster than anticipated and are now revisiting their digital asset needs. When looking for new options and considering how to upgrade their file management systems, organizations get caught wondering what the difference is between popular cloud-based systems, like Box, and digital asset management solutions (DAM), like MediaValet.

To understand the difference between Box and DAM, let’s take a look at each in more depth.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

TechTarget explains digital asset management solutions by defining them as “system[s] for organizing, storing, and retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions”. As a file management system focused on digital media, a cloud digital asset management system is a great solutions for teams looking to organize, collaborate on and distribute their visual content (photos, videos, graphics, etc.) all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, a DAM is conventionally owned by the marketing team, but can also be used and accessed by many other teams within your organization in order to maximize productivity.

A DAM offers excellent features that allow users to manage any type of digital file and perform a variety of beneficial functions, including re-sizing and re-formatting their media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily. Additionally, a DAM provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations and watermarking.

Key Features of a DAM

1. File Discoverability: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords and advanced search capabilities.
2. Access Security: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on digital media. A DAM offers version control, history tracking and watermarks, as well as enhanced security and compliance.
3. Easy Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images, large format videos, etc., over email, web galleries or Branded Portals.

The Bottom Line

While a DAM allows for text-based file management, it’s best for companies that need a better way to produce, store and distribute large amounts of rich media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.). If you’re a smaller team, looking for a lighter solution that stores documents alone, you may not need all the features a DAM provides.

Box

According to ITONICS, “Box is a cloud-hosted file storage service that supports file sharing and collaboration through a robust set of synced editing, commenting, and task assignment functions, along with delegated file and folder security.” Box focuses on building out the collaborative features of their platform, and many departments could benefit from using this solution, as they’re able to work on documents simultaneously from anywhere.

As a cloud-based file storage system, Box offers several great features, such as collaboration capabilities (for multiple stakeholders) and flexible security controls. It was designed for teams to use from anywhere and has over 1500 app integrations. Box also offers automated workflows, metadata tags and portals.

Key Features of Box

1. Simultaneous Collaboration: Users, including external partners, can work on files simultaneously and from anywhere, using messaging and task assignment features.
2. Improved Workflow: Integrations, automations, and approval features aid teams in accelerate their workflow and productivity.
3. Access Security: Box offers cloud-native security and compliance capabilities. The system has granular access controls, watermarking and classification of files.

The Bottom Line

Although Box is a handy cloud-based file storage solution with collaboration and security features, it is not the best solution for dealing with vast amounts of media assets. Companies with more document-focused work may find that Box is enough as a storage and collaborative work solution. Companies with larger amounts of media assets, however, likely require complete solutions and long-term strategies for their ever-growing digital asset management needs.

Why Organizations Choose to Upgrade from Box to DAM

While many organizations begin with using Box (or something similar), they often find that as they grow, they need a more robust solution to manage their content – especially their rich media. While organizations gain vast benefits from upgrading to a DAM, here are a few noteworthy features:

• Previewing: With a DAM, users can preview design files, PDFs, video, 3D files, large format images, etc. where Box has more limited file preview capabilities, and can only preview files that are 500MB or smaller.
• Asset Rendering and Resizing: A DAM enables users to customize the format and size of each asset when they download or share them. Users no longer need help from the design team, they simply need permission to use the rendering feature.
• Searching: A DAM offers additional advanced search features, including AI auto tagging, that allow you to find what you’re looking for without the hassle of sifting through a large number of assets.
• Sharing: Not only can users share all popular formats and sizes of files, but a DAM allows them to instantly send files of up to 200 GBs to anyone, anywhere in the world, no matter what browser or operating system they’re using. Firewalls aren’t an issue as only links are used, eliminating the need for attachments.
• Support and Training: A DAM (specifically, MediaValet) offers unlimited onboarding and training, meaning that if you’re ever having challenges or need a refresher, MediaValet will immediately help you, free of charge.

Is it Time for an Upgrade?

After reviewing the main features that both Box and a DAM have to offer, it’s clear why many organizations are choosing to upgrade to a digital asset management system. MediaValet is a digital asset management solution that’s trusted by hundreds of leading brands around the globe to help them make the most of their high-value digital assets.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

With Henry Stewart DAM New York 2024 just around the corner, we’ve put together a complete guide to ensure you make the most of it!

From October 23 – 24, 2024, Digital Asset Management (DAM) novices and veterans will gather at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel to explore the art and practice of managing digital media.

This year’s event features more than 60 experienced and expert speakers across 40+ sessions.

From navigating the modern marketing ecosystem, to metadata, and artificial intelligence to mastering data management, this year’s event is going to explore the evolution of DAM to a major enterprise strategic application.

But with so many topics and speakers, how can you make the most of the show?

First things first, Henry Stewart is offering pre-event tutorials covering DAM metadata, taxonomy, and leadership. You can register for them here!

To help you manage the tradeshow process from start to finish, we’ve assembled this complete guide to surviving Henry Stewart DAM NY. Check it out for ideas to implement before, during, and after DAM New York 2024.

Before the DAM New York Show

1. Understand Your Company’s Needs

If you’re heading to DAM NY to explore potential DAM solutions, make sure you have an outline of your company’s use case and requirements. Some factors to understand are:

• How much storage you need,
• Which types of files you have,
• What key features you need,
• Which departments will use the platform,
• Possible integrations into other IT or MarTech solutions,
• The business outcomes you’re hoping to achieve, and
• An implementation timeline.

Working with your company to get a clear understanding of your digital asset management needs is crucial to having meaningful conversations with vendors at DAM NY and navigating the DAM landscape.

2. Set Your Goals

Before attending (or even registering for) a tradeshow, it’s important to understand what your goals are. Take the time to write out what you want to achieve from DAM NY 2024—and be specific! Try to avoid generic phrases like “learn more about digital asset management”. Here are some examples of possible goals:

• Create a shortlist of 3 DAM vendors to further explore after the show
• Connect with consultants that understand my industry and use case
• Learn best practices around artificial intelligence in my DAM system

Tradeshows are always more overwhelming than originally anticipated, but it’s important to stay on track. Creating goals adds clarity to what presentations you should attend and which vendors you should visit in the exhibit hall.

3. Come Up with a Game Plan

With recognized industry experts and thought leaders, like Laura Curk, Director of Product Marketing at MediaValet, Jennifer White, the Senior Manager of Digital Assets at the Philadelphia Eagles and David Lipsey, there are plenty of amazing sessions at Henry Stewart DAM New York, but sadly, you can’t attend all of them.

Prioritize your sessions from must-sees to nice-to-sees. From there you can set a schedule for yourself to make sure you don’t miss anything. Be sure to also leave yourself enough time to hit the exhibit hall—you can learn just as much from networking with consultants and vendors, especially if you have a specific use-case or highly technical questions.

4. Research Ahead of Time

The exhibit hall isn’t where you should be first learning about the vendors – it’s where you should be asking the tough questions, getting to know the people behind the product, and understanding which vendors are the best fit for your team. Review vendors that will be at DAM New York 2024 (like MediaValet) and research them ahead of time. Knowing the general scope of their offerings will help you get the most from your conversations at the booths.

You can see how some of the big DAM platforms compare against each other in our free DAM comparison guide here!

5. Book Meetings In Advance

Is there a vendor or a speaker that you want to learn from? Shoot them a message and see if they’re available for a one-on-one! A quick coffee meeting is a casual way to learn more about their history, ask questions about their expertise, and get their opinion on important topics. Many of them will be flattered to be asked and more than happy to meet up.

6. Leverage Social Media

If you have a specific topic you want to discuss or an industry you want to connect with, make sure to follow Henry Stewart on X and on LinkedIn to find people or companies with answers. Most Henry Stewart DAM attendees will be following the hashtag, making it a great way to interact with other attendees before the show.

During the DAM New York Show

7. Double Check the Schedule

The first thing to do after getting your registration badge is to double-check the schedule. Last-minute changes are rare—but they do happen! Review your schedule and make changes to your game plan, as needed.

8. Spend Your Time Efficiently

You have your schedule—stick to it! Only attend the presentations you’re interested in and that will help you meet your goals, as outlined before the show. It’s easy to pass time at a trade show but before you know it, you’ll run yourself ragged before you’ve ticked off your to-dos for the day.

Also, make sure you also leave some time open for impromptu meetings that come up with the attendees you meet.

9. Learn from Others’ Expertise

Networking can be one of the most valuable things to do at a tradeshow, yet people get shy or busy and end up coming back home with no new contacts, besides vendors that want their business.

At DAM New York, there are plenty of opportunities to meet new people during breakfast and lunch, in the exhibit room, or between sessions. Take the time to find people who have similar use cases to your own and learn from their experiences.

10. Get to Know the Vendors

DAM New York is the perfect time to get a feel for the different vendors and their personalities. Check out each vendor as you’re wandering the exhibit and analyze how “keen” they are on the floor. Are they actively engaging the people at the show or just waiting for someone to approach them? It will allow you to get to know each vendor and their ability to build lasting relationships.

11. Set Post-Show Meetings

At tradeshows, especially ones like DAM New York, it’s common to arrange a follow-up meeting. If you meet someone that you’d like to reconnect with, don’t wait to book a follow-up call when you get back. Take out your calendar (we all have our phones nowadays) and book one at the show! You can always move it around when you get back, but having a set day and time on the record makes it much easier to touch base.

Make sure you give a realistic timeline for when you’ll be ready to jump on a call. The first week back after a tradeshow is always a little hectic, so give yourself at least a week to play catch up.

12. Don’t Just Collect Brochures

When you’re walking the exhibit hall, sometimes it can be tempting to grab every brochure you can, then review each vendor later. But brochures are meant to be supplementary to the conversations you have with each exhibitor. The information found on a company’s brochures can usually be found online, so if you solely focus on brochure collecting, you won’t take advantage of the additional knowledge you can gain by having personalized, one-to-one conversations at each booth. Save the brochures for after you’ve had a chance to talk to them.

13. Request to Have Info Emailed to You

You’re at a tradeshow for digital asset management! That means, hypothetically, everything should be available to you in a digital format. Save yourself the trouble of carrying around brochures (and other collateral) and request to have them emailed to you instead. Many vendors will just send them via their DAM system, which will also give you a chance to see the solution in action. Make sure you’re organizing the brochures as you go, so you can easily find them after the show.

14. Take Notes as You Go

While sometimes it can be inconvenient to take a journal around with you, taking notes is a must! At DAM New York, you’ll be attending 5+ sessions each day, meeting new people, and visiting different booths, so you’ll probably overestimate how much you can actually remember. By jotting down a few key points from each presentation or interaction, you’ll be able to head home with clear, concise points of action that you can bring to your team.

After the DAM New York Show

15. Summarize and Share Your Learnings

The ROI on attending Henry Stewart DAM New York can increase exponentially if you share what you learned across your team (or company). One of the first things to do when you get back is to summarize your learnings into a concise and easy-to-read format (PowerPoint, Word document, email – whatever you choose), so it can be shared with relevant teams and individuals. This can include points from sessions you attended, vendors you met – anything you think is worth noting!

If you’re buying a DAM, it’s even more important to share your findings with potential decision-makers, as it’ll allow you to discuss the findings and set clear next steps for the evaluation process.

Interested in a more in-depth guide to finding and buying the right DAM for your organization? Check out our free eBook here!

16. Request Your Favorite Presentation Decks

If there were any presentations you found particularly useful or interesting, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask the organizers from DAM New York or the speaker for the presentation slides! It’ll refresh your own memory of details from the presentation, and you’ll be able to share the slides with others on your team.

17. Read Henry Stewart DAM New York Summary Posts

Tradeshow summaries can be useful for getting the “spark notes” on sessions you didn’t attend and refreshing your memory on sessions you did. They’re the perfect way to realize the key trends in digital asset management for 2025 and see some of the highlights you may have overlooked.

Let’s Meet at Henry Stewart DAM NY!

We hope this guide helps you have a successful two days at DAM NY, and we hope to meet you there! Make sure to stop by one of our sessions:

Video Mastery in DAM: Unlocking the Potential of Your Digital Assets with MediaValet Director of Product Marketing, Laura Curk, and

Honoring Jackie Robinson: How a small team’s strategic approach implemented a DAM System worthy of the legacy it honours with MediaValet’s Director of Customer Success and Support, Lina Smith.

Organizations across many industries struggle to find effective ways to store the large number of digital files they acquire. The sheer amount of content that’s being created every single day, coupled with the boom in the remote workforce, has led most companies to look for cloud-based solutions that offer collaborative features for their geographically dispersed teams.

With so many options, managers are finding themselves trying to learn the differences between tools like digital asset management software (DAM) and cloud-based file-sharing services like OneDrive. We’ve detailed digital asset management vs document management solutions here.

In this post, we’ll run through the main differences between DAM solutions and OneDrive document management, explaining how the addition of either of these solutions would be beneficial to your team.

To fully understand the difference between OneDrive and DAM, let’s take a look at each in more depth:

OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is a leading cloud-based file-sharing sync service where users can securely store important files and access them from almost anywhere. Part of the Microsoft 365 platform, it can be used for personal or work purposes. The collaborative appeal of easily sharing work documents with colleagues makes OneDrive a popular choice for geographically dispersed teams. It is typically used for sharing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc., and is enjoyed by 365 users for the seamless experience it provides. Additionally, the productivity features like project tracking and automatic file syncing make OneDrive a valuable tool for professionals.

Three Key Benefits of Using OneDrive

1. File Security – The file access settings in OneDrive give control over who can view, edit and share important files. Users can also set passwords or expiration dates.

2. File Collaboration – Geographically dispersed team members can work on the same documents simultaneously, increasing productivity on projects.

3. Centralized Storage – The use of the cloud allows users to free up device storage by centralizing data into one place where it can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

The Bottom Line

This cloud-based solution offers many features that benefit teams that often use and collaborate on the same files. While it does allow for media uploads and sharing, it’s ultimately best for text-based file collaboration, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Excel, etc., as mentioned above. If you’re a large team looking for a broader solution for storing, organizing, and distributing vast amounts of media files, you may want to look into a DAM.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

A digital asset management system is an essential part of the media content creation process and is used to help marketing teams organize, collaborate on, and distribute their digital assets all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, it is conventionally owned by the marketing team but can be accessed by many other teams including sales, product management, communications, and partners. By providing a single source of truth for all the important content within an organization, a DAM reduces internal bottlenecks and improves brand consistency across all channels. Additionally, a DAM allows users to manage any type of digital file (videos, 3D files, documents, etc.) from within the system and perform a variety of beneficial functions. These functions include re-sizing and re-formatting media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily with external parties.

Three Key Benefits of Using DAM

1. Asset Organization & Discovery: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords and advanced searches.

2. Asset Control: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on their digital media, plus a DAM offers version control and history tracking.

3. Easy Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images and videos, etc., via email, branded portals, and more.

Check out this self-guided tour of a MediaValet DAM:

The Bottom Line

While DAM allows for text-based file collaboration, it is best for companies that need a better way to produce, store, collaborate, share, and distribute large amounts of media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.) If you’re a smaller organization looking for a narrower solution in storing, organizing, and distributing text-based files, you may not need all the features a DAM provides.

So, What’s the Difference?

The main difference between OneDrive and a digital asset management system can be seen in the types of files they specialize in. OneDrive is a great platform to collaborate on document-based content (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and provide a central workspace for team members. DAM, on the other hand, extends this workspace to a greater degree by adding the ability to better manage large, media-based files in a single, centralized library, secured through access rights and permissions.

Key Differences

• OneDrive is more document-focused, designed for collaboration and communication among team members, where DAM focuses on the organization and control of digital assets (photos, videos, etc.)
• DAM is a much broader tool than OneDrive, as it allows users to perform a variety of functions within the system while also making it easy to share digital files internally and externally.
• OneDrive offers only one primary location for users to share and edit their assets, where DAM allows users to share and edit their assets in multiple different applications through integrations.

What About Both?

To answer the question: If I already have OneDrive, do I still need a DAM? The answer is YES! A DAM complements OneDrive by providing a much larger variety of functions and features. In fact, many organizations will have both, as they offer specialization in different areas. Use our self-assessment quiz to analyze your organization’s need for a digital asset management system.

Interested in which DAM platform is right for your organization? We detail how 5 of the top digital asset management vendors compare to help you find the right fit. Check out our free resource:

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

With more and more pressure to create and distribute content across multiple channels and formats, DAM has never been more important. Digital asset management software (DAM) enables you to manage all your digital assets in one place, streamline workflows, increase productivity and ensure brand consistency by storing all types of digital files – images to videos – in one secure location. But, in the third annual DAM Trends Report, we deep dive into how organizations are using DAM to get real, measurable results.

With the global DAM market expected to grow from $3.97 billion in 2023 to $12.29 billion by 2030, it’s clear DAM is a must-have for staying relevant in a digital-first world. And this year’s report explains why; because DAM impacts business outcomes.

What is the DAM Trends Report?

The DAM Trends Report is a comprehensive analysis of the latest developments in digital asset management technology and its growing impact on organizations across industries.

The 2025 DAM Trends Report, in its third year, provides valuable insights into how DAM systems are being used to streamline workflows, save time and money, and drive better marketing and creative outcomes.

It highlights key trends, such as the expanding role of DAM in achieving business KPIs, improving brand consistency, and enhancing compliance efforts.

Based on real-world data, the 2025 DAM Trends Report is an essential resource for businesses looking to optimize their asset management strategies and stay competitive in a digital-first world.

Interested in what’s in the report? Here are some of the key findings from the 2025 DAM Trends Report:

1. AI-Powered DAM Integrations and Features Drive Marketing Outcomes

Those using AI-powered features like Video Intelligence and Face Recognition are seeing big benefits in their asset management.

In fact 100% of those using Video Intelligence are expanding their digital presence, 83% of Face Recognition users are saving money.

And beyond digital asset management features, DAM systems integrated with project management tools like Wrike or templating solutions like MediaValet Templating, powered by Marq, are enabling marketing teams to deploy projects faster and improve brand consistency across channels.

2. DAM Security Features Improve Brand Consistency and Compliancy

DAM software has advanced security features like access controls, encryption and authentication to protect digital assets from unauthorized access.

These robust security measures ensure digital assets are always protected. DAM systems also help organizations comply with regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA.

According to the report, 80% of organizations using DAM systems say they have stronger brand consistency when integrated with single sign-on (SSO) solutions.

DAM is critical to ensure all digital content – whether in marketing campaigns or internal comms – is consistent with the organization’s brand guidelines which is key to building trust and recognition with customers.

3. Digital Asset Management Systems Save Time and Money

According to the report, 60% of organizations using a DAM system are saving time and money.

On average, businesses are saving 13.5 hours a week on asset-related tasks. That’s 34% of a typical workweek that can be reallocated to more strategic activities like content creation, customer engagement and marketing.

Tasks like searching for assets, sharing files and avoiding asset duplication are streamlined through digital asset management solutions. These solutions not only increase productivity but also workflows, ensure brand consistency and protect digital assets. In today’s fast paced digital world, every hour saved can add up to big productivity gains.

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The 2025 DAM Trends Report shows how DAM systems are delivering on the promise of workflow optimization and business outcomes. Whether you want to increase efficiency, maintain brand consistency or add AI driven features to your tech stack DAM is the answer.

Download the report to read more insights, data and trends and stay ahead of the curve in the digital world.