It seems that the term ‘brand asset management’ has been adopted by a two distinct practitioner camps in recent years, leading to some confusion of the term’s definition, or more importantly, to whom its problems should be tasked.  Companies in both the technology and creative industries release press on the subject and all have their respective brand asset management solutions. 

Essentially, the broader term appears to belong to the academics of brand strategy, most notably Scott Davis in his book “Brand Asset Management: Driving Profitable Growth Through Your Brands” (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series, 2002). In this realm, brand is recognised as amongst a firm’s most valuable assets, which requires careful management in order to maximise brand value and draw consumers in.

However, the term brand asset management has also found its place in the terminology of software engineering companies, to refer more specifically to a range of Digital Asset Management features for ensuring brand compliance throughout marcomms production and delivery.   In this definition, technologists respond to the very practical need identified by Davis to ensure that “all communications coming from your company deliver a consistent message to consumers…must reflect the brand value, persona and vision.”

To effect a cohesive brand strategy across a modular organisation, brand managers must maintain some control over marketing communications at the point of production and an ongoing dialogue with those responsible for brand execution, namely designers, copy writers and producers, both staff and external agencies.

Having read the other articles, it should be apparent that (in addition to the format) the playback technology used to deliver streaming media is also important.  Although there are numerous formats and associated players, for practical purposes there are three that are either adequately supported now or will be in the very near future:

• Adobe Flash Player
• Microsoft Windows Media Player
• Microsoft Silverlight

Of the choices above, most online video is delivered via the Flash Player as it has widespread support – even in the majority of corporate environments.  The Flash Player supports Flash Video and the newer MPEG/H.264 format.

The Microsoft Windows Media Player is usually available as standard with all Windows PCs, as a result it is ubiquitous in corporate IT environments.  The player is more difficult to adapt and for marketing oriented uses, controlling the design & branding of the controller is a slightly more involved process (although it is possible).

Microsoft Silverlight is a newer technology and threatens to challenge Flash’s dominance.  It offers a number of the benefits of Flash and, crucially, streaming online video.  Silverlight operates via a player that will work on both Macs and Windows PCs.  At the time of writing, the Silverlight player is not as widely supported as Flash and in most cases, the user has to agree to allow it to be installed (although this is rapidly changing).  Daydream expect Silverlight to have a comparable or higher level of market penetration by 2009 as it will be included by default with new PCs, the Internet Explorer browser, or automatic operating system updates. 

If Silverlight gains momentum, it is likely to replace the Windows Media Player entirely.  We recommend the latter only if you need to utilise streaming media in the immediate short term and cannot use Flash or wait for Silverlight.

The Flash player has acquired mass-acceptance because it is bundled with most web browsers as a standard plug-in.  Now that Microsoft are directly competing with Adobe (the developers of Flash), there is a possibility that the player will no longer get included with Microsoft browsers.  This is a massive share of the market and a significant potential risk for anyone planning Video Digital Asset Management or video on the web. 

The likely scenario is a format ‘war’ between both technologies.  As a result, we advise all our current and prospective clients to hedge their bets by considering a Digital Asset Management solution that will accommodate both. 

Daydream have designed the FocusOPEN Digital Asset Management platform to support Flash, Windows Media Player and Silverlight players, as well as QuickTime for more specialist video processing work.  This offers the maximum flexibility to ensure that their video can be used successfully in a wide range of scenarios.  If you are evaluating vendors currently, ensure that they offer similar levels of support.

This flexibility should extend to the streaming server also and we strongly favour vendor neutral products such as Wowza (commercial) or Red5 (open source). 

Having read this series of articles about streaming media, you should have a good understanding of the basics and be able to understand the significance of key streaming terms and phrases.  If you require further information about Digital Video Asset Management and media streaming in general, consult the following in our reports and articles library:

• 12 Crucial Points About Online Video Asset Catalogues
• Digital Video Hosting With FocusOPEN 
• Digital Asset Management Glossary

For audio, MP3 is generally the format of choice as it is ubiquitous and widely supported, although the OGG or Vorbis format is gaining popularity amongst vendors because there are no patents restricting it’s use (unlike MP3).

With video, however, the options are more complicated due to rapid technological progress in the whole area of video delivery via the internet and competition between vendors for format supremacy.  The following are the more well known streaming formats available:

• Flash Video (FLV)
• Windows Media Video (WMV)
• QuickTime
• RealMedia
• H.264/MPEG4

Flash Video (FLV)
A popular choice because of the wide support for the Flash player in most web browsers.  Flash also has the advantage of working on both Macs and Windows PCs.  Flash Video is probably the most ubiquitous streaming video format, due in no small part due to it’s adoption by larger sites such as YouTube.  

Windows Media Video (WMV)
WMV is usually successful in corporate environments where Microsoft technologies proliferate on the desktop.  Outside Windows environments, the results can be less reliable.  The situation with WMV is currently undergoing rapid change as a result of the release of Silverlight (a competitor to Flash developed by Microsoft).  The Silverlight player will be much more widely supported by non-Windows PCs (e.g. Macs).  A variation of WMV called VC-1 is natively supported by Silverlight and this will make format selection less straightforward than it has been up until now.  A number of larger media providers are planning to or already have adopted Silverlight either as well as Flash or instead of it.

H.264/MPEG4
H.264 is one of the newer formats and is likely to become popular because the footage is higher quality than Flash Video, however, the file sizes also tend to be larger and consequently slower for users to download.  That said, many media owners have invested heavily into MPEG4 and are keen to avoid the process of converting (or ‘transcoding’) to a lower quality preview format such as FLV.  There are a variety of derivative formats that are specialised for certain applications, e.g. 3GPP which is MPEG4 optimised for playback on mobile devices.  To further complicate matters, the Flash Player now supports direct playback of H.264 video as well as FLV.

QuickTime
This format is popular on Macs because support is built in and also with more sophisticated Windows users is less widely supported.  QuickTime is a reasonable choice where the audience is composed of video professionals (e.g. for a production oriented DAM or Media Asset Management system). 

RealMedia
Real were an early entrant to the streaming market but are currently losing market share, partly due to the high costs of licensing the server technology required to deliver streaming media in the various RealMedia formats.

Conclusion
As described at the start of this post, the streaming video landscape is currently changing at rapid pace.  When deciding what DAM to select for time based media, it is vital to work with a vendor that understands the environment, can explain the choices to you without excessive jargon and has the flexibility to switch between the different competing technologies.

At the time this article was written (mid-late 2008), the market is in transition and more powerful Digital Asset Management solutions will be able to cater for existing formats as well as providing full support for the up and coming standards which look likely to gain mass acceptance.  Daydream’s FocusOPEN Digital Asset Manager can support Flash, WMV/VC-1, QuickTime, MPEG4/H.264 and deliver via either Flash or Silverlight players. 

In the next post, we consider the main competing technologies for playing back streaming video.

Why Stream Media?
The main benefit of streaming is quite straightforward to understand.  With streamed media, rather than needing to wait for an entire file to download, users can start viewing or listening to a clip as soon as enough data arrives for a player to begin displaying it. For live events, it is essential, there is no other feasible method of delivery. For archived media, the choice is less clear, but for the majority of Digital Asset Management scenarios, providing a streamed edition (at least for preview) is now simple to achieve using cheap widely available technology and a vendor (or development team) who has the necessary skills.

What Option Are Available For Streaming Digital Assets?
Once past the basic concepts of streaming, things get more complicated. There are essentially two further choices which begin to take the discussion into a more technical realm:

• The streaming method
• The streaming format

If chosen incorrectly, these can have some negative consequences in terms of performance and compatibility. Streaming itself divides into two broad techniques (there are others, but these are outside the scope of this article):

• Progressive Download
• True Streaming

Progressive Download
Progressive Download or “Pseudo Streaming” as it is sometimes called is probably the most popular type currently in use on most websites because it is very easy to implement. Although the user can begin playing back media as soon as it downloads, they cannot skip forward to a part of the media that has not downloaded yet. The advantage is that media can be delivered on the same web server as used to deliver a Digital Asset Management system (or website) and the streamed media merely needs to be placed with other files - like web pages, PDFs, images etc. The media player takes responsibility for managing the download and partially assumes the role that a true streaming server would have provided - this is what simplifies the process and makes it far cheaper than true streaming.

The disadvantage is that for longer footage like movies or TV programmes is that users cannot access any of the media that has not yet downloaded. If their connection is slow and the playback rate exceeds the amount downloaded, they must wait while the player buffers some more of the footage to allow playback to start again – this can happen repeatedly and interrupt the playback experience. If your Digital Asset Management system uses any kind of timeline metadata features (e.g. Edit Decision Lists, DVD style chapters, linking assets based on time codes etc.) then the Progressive Streaming approach might restrict the facilities you can reliably offer.

True Streaming
True Streaming uses a dedicated streaming server. This is not necessarily a hardware device, but special software that delivers the client player the section of the footage that the user is requesting - whether at the start, middle or end.  Rather than needing to wait for the section of the media that the user wants to play, they can be given the exact entry point they require and the stream commences from there. True Streaming is the best approach for longer footage and is the method of choice for established broadcast media owners (the BBC iPlayer, is an example of true streaming). For advanced video operations involving manipulation of timeline metadata, like video editing applications, True Streaming is usually essential.

The main disadvantage of True Streaming is that it requires a special dedicated server and is therefore harder to setup and may involve some systems administration work to enable successful playback in more secure corporate IT environments where Digital Asset Management systems are likely to be used.

Conclusion
Despite these drawbacks, the process of setting up most modern streaming server is not especially complex for most systems administrator or engineers and the task is far simpler now than it was a few years ago.  In addition, competitive vendors such as Wowza Media and and open source solutions like Red5 have reduced the entry costs considerably even when taking into account the setup and configuration. For most Video Digital Asset Management or Media Asset Management systems for significant groups of users, we recommend clients use a streaming server and Daydream now implement all our Video DAM systems to easily scale to accomodate one from the outset.

In the next article, we will consider the formats available for Media Streaming and how to choose the most suitable one for your organisation.

To explain this, it is helpful to look at how metadata in time based media has been used conventionally (i.e. not in the context of Digital Asset Management).  Many marketers who have been involved in the production of corporate showreels, audio broadcasts etc. will be familiar with EDLs (Edit Decision Lists).  These are series of in/out points recorded as time codes that describe to a video editor what parts of the original footage are to be included or excluded from the final production.  Historically, these may have been recorded using something as simple as a pencil and paper.  With the advent of non-linear editing, this has been replaced by electronic equivalents, although the basic idea has not changed a great deal.

Timeline metadata extends the EDL concept by allowing a more diverse range of attributes about sections of time based media to be recorded.  As well as marking in/out points, many modern video or audio container formats now include support for cue points to be embedded into the media also.  Why is this beneficial?  To answer this, consider some potential practical applications of timeline metadata:

Linked Media Assets
A lot of video footage or audio clips may implicitly cross reference a wide range of other subjects as the media is playing.  For example, if a video contains a series of scenes describing different business units or markets, it is possible to show to the user photos, documents or other files that specifically relate to those subjects – but only when they actually appear in the clip.  The same links can also work in reverse which enables the same static assets to also directly cross-reference the section of a clip that they relate to.  With time based media this can save staff hours of time having to watch material that has no relevance to them.  As well as productivity gains, linked media assets can also increase the visibility of assets that may have previously not been found via a conventional search facility.

Triggers
Having cue points embedded into media enables users of Digital Asset Management systems that support them to setup triggers that can call other processes when the user is watching or listening.  A simple example is the ability to identify how much of a clip has actually been viewed.  While most systems can record whether or not a media assets has been accessed, this gives an incomplete picture of what proportion of the media has been reviewed.  Triggers enables more accurate reporting about usage to be established.  There are a wide range of other opportunities offered by timeline triggers for integrating Digital Asset Management with third party applications.

Micro Navigation
Most readers will be familiar with the ‘chapters’ concept used in consumer DVDs that allow them to jump from one section of a film to another.  Using timeline metadata, the same flexibility is also possible in Digital Asset Management systems.  Linear footage or audio can be embedded with cue points that allow users to navigate the clip at a micro level.  This permits full non-linear consumption.  As with linked assets, this can save users a lot of time finding the section of a clip that they require.  When closely integrated with the search facilities provided by a DAM system, not only can users find media assets but also they can also access directly the section that is relevant to their needs.

Custom User Editing – Personal EDLs
A more advanced option that timeline metadata enables is the ability for users to create their own custom edited editions of footage by generating their own set of in/out points.  The list of edit points (the user’s personal EDL) can also be shared with colleagues and also be used to produce custom editions of footage quickly and easily without the need to request them from a production company.  The flexibility and cost savings that this kind of power provides clearly has considerable potential benefits for marketers for whom video production costs will often constitute a major proportion of their annual budget.

Conclusion 
This article just scratches the surface at explaining some of the potential and power of timeline metadata.  Over the next few months, Daydream plan to introduce more reports and articles that will elaborate on some of the points covered.

There are also other scenarios where integration is essential, for example where a decision has been made to offer some of the organisation’s assets to third parties, either through e-commerce websites or channel partner portals.  In these cases, integration between a public and internal system (even if developed by the same vendor) is essential because of the security risks of opening up the internal system.

In our experience, providing all parties are willing to cooperate and there is a free exchange of information, this can be a very effective method of rapidly leveraging the skills and expertise of each service provider.  We have found the following to be useful best practice principles for successful integration projects:

• Agree the integration protocols as early as possible – preferably before implementation work on at least one of the systems starts.
• Use standardised and supported interoperability protocols that fit the use case of the assets.  In some sectors there is agreement already, for example, the SPECTRUM object definition protocol used by museums.  This is less common in commercial sectors, but research carried out into what is already being used can potentially save weeks or months of time in developing new, untested protocols.
• Ensure that all applications support modern ‘on demand’ techniques such as SOA (Services Oriented Architecture) via web services and XML.
• Check that the flavour of web services both systems use are compatible with each other and test developer assumptions by getting them to do an initial smaller test exercise that uses a number of different kinds of data that you are likely to need to share.
• Avoid batch processing techniques (e.g. data loaders).  These are ‘one shot’ attempts to exchange data and can cause data loss and failures.  Although popular amongst system developers because they are easy to write initially, over the longer term, they are more failure prone and harder to maintain.
• Define a ‘header’ or ‘stub’ metadata standard that defines the base attributes of all assets (whether time-based or otherwise) and use this as the basis for integrating the two systems.  This allows both systems to be developed independently but provides a fundamental basis for integration if the finer details have yet to be confirmed.
• Agree a high-level ‘discovery’ protocol about assets that will allow additional metadata not initially enumerated to be added without significant impact on interoperability.  If an existing standard is used, this will often already be defined, however, the system developers of both DAMs will need to make sure that their application is compliant.
• Cache metadata that is will be slow to extract on-demand from the other system but ensure that there is communication between both to notify when an update has occurred so the data can be synchronised. 
• For each integration operation or activity, always nominate one system to assume a master role to reduce the potential for confusion about which has responsibility.  This should typically be the system that will write rather than read data (so it may vary from one task to another). 
• If both systems write data in a single operation, split it into two discrete ones.
  Document explicitly and precisely everything that will be required for each operation and make no assumptions about what data will be sent/received, the format, or type.
• Plan for the range and types of data to change in the future.
• Build in fail-safe mechanisms to stop corrupt or incomplete data from disrupting either systems.
• Document the integration protocol not only for the initial development work but also for ongoing use so that new developers can quickly get up to speed with the integration process.
• Test the integration early, often, with both expected and unexpected data.
  If the integration is in scope for the release of a new or replacement DAM system, build integration into the plans from the outset.  See Digital Asset Management: Implementing A Strategy for more details.

The risks and rewards of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) are considerable for Digital Asset Management systems.  If not planned and executed with great care and attention to detail, they can result in systems becoming available and the need to restore data from backups just to get back to the original starting point.  On the upside, the combination of two systems that have been refined and optimised for your organisation can provide a system that offers many more benefits than one alone. 

As described, if digital assets are to be offered to external users via a public website, an integration project can generate revenue that will increase the top-line growth of the organisation.  This option can be particularly beneficial for cultural institutions and can help to reduce their reliance on state funding, donations or other grants.

As well as functionality and features, integration can bring substantial bottom line benefits also.  The cost of redeveloping a single application to fulfil a dual role can be expensive and risk prone. Both can be avoided or deferred by integrating a Digital Asset Management system with an existing solution.  As with any IT solution, it is important that a proper assessment of the costs and benefits of either route is conducted before it is carried out.

It is vital that digital assets are checked before they are released into a DAM system and periodically afterwards as well.  Apart from general considerations (e.g. copyright compliance), digital assets that may be used for external purposes needs to be checked to ensure none are not detrimental to the firm’s reputation.

There are a number of ways this can occur, from more obvious non-compliance (e.g. outdated corporate logos, colours or liveries) to more subtle and harmful, reputation-related problems, for example:

• Photos or footage of staff in breach of health and safety policy.
• Footage of projects where a competitor company’s logo is prominent on clothing or vehicles.
• Products or projects that have been involved in legal disputes or safety related incidents.
• Older collateral depicting sustainability or environmental practices that are no longer acceptable (e.g. asbestos based installations, deforestation or chemical pollution).

Evidently, any of the above could be disastrous if they are used in promotional material, especially during high profile media events where the press may be present.

In our latest report, Corporate Media Libraries: Brand Asset Management For Marketing Managers, we describe some techniques using Digital Asset Management systems for entirely avoiding these risks and the resulting damage to your brand.

Sounds great doesn’t it, but how does all this apply to the real-world? How do marketers begin to exploit mobile channels, and what opportunities are out there?  Currently,  most adopters are in the B2C arena.  Retailers in competitive, often youth-orientated markets, such as consumer electronics, fashion and media, are busy using mobile channels to deliver push-marketing campaigns to consumers in media-rich formats such as video.  However, B2B companies are also beginning to recognise the value of the mobile channel for both marketing and operational uses.

Read the article on our site: Mobile DAM: The Possibilities Of Archived Streamed Media For Marketers to find out more.

The range of media channels employed by firms is increasing at a rapid pace.  As well as providing brand assets, there is now a clear need to provide tools that help staff and partners to use media assets in a manner that complies with brand.

Many brand asset management tools are disconnected from the production phase  i.e. where photos, videos, fonts etc. get transformed from being simple files into the marketing collateral that PR, Sales and Marcomms staff use to realise the firm’s marketing strategy.

More advanced solutions add further value by including facilities to assist staff and external agencies develop collateral from the assets retrieved.  For example:

• Usage history for assets that a designer has selected for use in marketing materials.
• Identify assets which require clearance before use.
• Provide shared folders (or lightboxes) which can be seen and commented on by internal and external agency staff throughout the creative process.
• Offer details of potential licence costs so budgets can be monitored.

Furthermore, advanced brand asset management systems can integrate with media production software to add powerful features.  For example, those systems integrated with design software such as Quark or In-Design can enable print quality photos and illustrations to be accessed directly from users’ lightboxes.   Similarly, versatile systems can integrate with conventional desktop applications, like Word or PowerPoint, to assist with the semi-auto generation of proposals or presentations. 

When integrated with multimedia sales presenter toolkits or personalised print on demand solutions, for example, Daydream’s FocusOPEN Presentation Add-On, a second generation brand asset management system can provide some very powerful marketing communications tools.

The Presenter Add-On enables highly visual slides with animation, photos or videos to be assembled very quickly using a drag and drop interface and can act as a complete Presentation Management System.  By connecting it to a repository of brand assets, it is possible to update footage and material live without needing to manually obtain the file and edit the presentation.  For events or pitches where assets may be changing right up to the last minute, this kind of flexibility can give the company a significant advantage over less agile competitors.

Read more about sales presenters.

Most corporations now insist on retaining the copyright and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to assets they have commissioned.  Despite this, copyright and IPR provides headaches for many reasons, these are just a few:

• If the company acquires or merges with another firm, IPR may not be transferable to the parent group after the transaction is complete – this depends on the terms of the asset’s licence.
• Assets commissioned prior an initiative to retain copyright and/or IPR will still be subject previous agreements, which may include territorial or other usage restrictions.
• Popular, single-payment licences, such as royalty-free, may not be easily extendable over multiple subsidiaries (even if shares are owned by a single holding company).
• There may be additional complications such as property licences where the owners of a building or structure insist on being paid royalties and/or having the right to veto usage in certain contexts.
• Third party copyright might also require consideration.  For example if the composition of a video or image contains a highly prominent product, screenshot, or other intellectual property, there is the risk that the owner may request royalties or veto it’s usage - even though the asset was not directly originated by them.

The area of copyright compliance is usually too complex to be easily rationalised into a form based approach that can be represented on a brand asset management system.  A more pragmatic method is to determine which assets have no copyright restrictions and which that do using a flowchart based workflow as shown below:

Those that claim to have a solution that will manage compliance in a fully ‘hands off’ fashion as probably lack of genuine experience of dealing with the complexities of IPR.

Vendors of brand asset management solutions with experience of working with Marcomms departments will understand the complexities of commercial copyright and IPR management across an organisation and will be able to demonstrate digital asset management features designed to accommodate them.