Here are the questions asked:

• How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
• How does this organization use place holders for packaging?
• Is there an incentive for getting that information in correctly in the beginning and actually delivering the assets on time?
• What advice would you like to give for DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Charles Cole.
Charles, how are you?
Charles Cole: [0:09] I am doing well, Henrik. Thanks for asking.
Henrik: [0:11] Great. Charles, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
Charles: [0:15] Well, I manage Digital Asset Management at a film studio where
I handle mostly home entertainment assets, so for the marketing department
and creative aspects.
Henrik: [0:31] How does that organization use placeholders for packaging?
Charles: [0:38] Well, placeholders, it’s an interesting concept. First, I guess I’ll
explain the concept of placeholders. It’s a pretty interesting concept. Essentially
the way to upload traditional embarks is whoever is uploading the file will select
the file, and they’ll tag it with whatever metadata. That’s the traditional model.
[1:00] What placeholders does is leverages upstream work that has to take place,
say in a marketing system where somebody is essentially planning out the marketing
and says, “I need this asset to fulfill my marketing requirements.”
[1:18] They put in all the information they need into the marketing system, and
then what happens is a placeholder automatically gets created in our Digital
Asset Management system where it’s already pre-populated with all the metadata
that’s required. So now whoever is uploading needs to find that placeholder
and just drop the file in. What happens is it’s automatically tagged with
all the appropriate metadata, and can even be sent downstream based on what
the marketing system says.
[1:47] If they for instance say, “I’ll pick the print vendor,” who is going to actually
manufacture this asset, this physical asset, then as soon as the file gets uploaded,
it can then be tagged with all the appropriate metadata and automatically
be sent downstream to whatever company has been selected.
Another D 82 AM Podcast Transcribed
Henrik: [2:07] Just to clarify, this is basically creating metadata and putting a
placeholder for an asset that will be created in the near future because there is a
schedule for it.
Charles: [2:15] Exactly. It is dependent on you having a plan and knowing what
assets you need. It’s not for everybody. So in a trim or ad hoc environment, or
you don’t know what assets you need, then, yeah, it may not be as useful. It has
been extremely useful in our case where we have thousands of assets that need
to be created, Yeah, it’s been great.
Henrik: [2:39] Granted, there’s a time frame or schedule of when you create
those things for your organization, so you already know that packing needs to
be created for that individual project.
Charles: [2:51] Exactly. Maybe it’s better just to explain it. A marketing manager
for a given territory, say Romania or whatever territory, will go into the marketing
system and say, “I need this specific asset, on this specific date.” The marketing
manager will go in and say, “For this given territory, for this given title, I need
these particular assets to fulfill my marketing plan. I need them on this specific
date. I need them from this specific vendor.” [3:28] As soon as they assign that
date and assign that vendor, that’s when the placeholder gets generated in the
Digital Asset Management system. Now, rather than the vendor just uploading
that file and tagging it with the metadata at the time of upload manually, it’s
done automatically. So they go in.
[3:49] The onus is on them to search for that placeholder using all the correct
metadata. It’s that subtle shift has created a really great situation in terms of our
metadata is now 100 percent accurate, 100 percent complete vs. before, just
trying to twist somebody’s arm into entering all the metadata and entering it
correctly. This just seems to be a much better approach.
Henrik: [4:19] Is there an incentive for getting that information correct in the
beginning, and actually delivering the assets on time in respect?
Charles: [4:27] Yes, actually. If you are responsible as marketing, for putting
together a well-executed marketing plan, obviously the goal is to generate the
most revenue possible. If you want those assets to be created, you have to ask
for them. You have to go into the marketing system and say, “These are the
assets I need to execute.” [4:58] If you don’t do that, those assets will never be
created, and you’ll be viewed as having falling down on the job. “Why this product
created and released? Well, I didn’t ask for it.” There is definitely incentive
there. If you fall short of your revenue targets, that’s a direct asset to revenue
correlation there. You want to make sure that you get those configured and set
up, the marketing funds configured and set up, including the assets that you
need in the marketing system on time, and we take care of everything downstream.
Create that container, and then creative vendor will go in above the file.
Henrik: [5:44] That’s a good way to keep people accountable. What advice
would you like to give to DAM professionals are people aspiring to become
DAM professionals?
Charles: [5:52] I think the best advice I can give which it’s sort I guess you
could say generic advice for maybe getting a job in general in the field that you
want is just really do your research. Go in, and if there is a company that you
want to work for, and do all the research regarding that company in that industry
space, as well. Do your Google News searches, see what all the relevant
happenings have been. [6:22] From a Digital Asset Management perspective, I
would say just network, ask questions. Go out there, do your research and sign
up for industry events, sign up for conferences. There are a lot of well-respected
digital a few really well-known Digital Asset Management conferences that you
can just sign up for. Go and just sit. Get an idea of what the relevant topics are,
and just familiarize yourself with the industry terms.
[6:57] I think that will go a long way towards getting you where you want to go.
Henrik: [7:00] Thanks, Charles.
Charles: [7:01] Absolutely.
Henrik: [7:03] For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto
AnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.

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