What are Digital Assets?

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.