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Digital Asset Management in Advertising Agencies: Jeanne Oden Special Libraries LIS 5733 May 9, 2011

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Digital Asset Management in Advertising Agencies

Jeanne Oden Special Libraries LIS 5733 May 9, 2011

Why is this study needed?


Digital assets are used by all employees, clients, vendors, and and marketing partners across five offices in four states. Digital assets are both the components and work product of the agency. A central system is not currently available to manage, access, and search digital assets. The agency has a long history of organizing and preserving physical assets. A digital asset management (DAM) system serves not only this preservation culture but also serves current workflow in a digital and physically dispersed environment.

What does the literature reveal about users?


DAM with structured information supports knowledge workers for which electronic access and collection familiarity/unfamiliarity, distance, and knowledge preservation is an issue (Albertson 2010, Yuan et. al 2001). The creative process and information architecture can contribute to asset creation and business efficiencies when using a DAM (Lamont 2006, McKee 2006). Culture within advertising agencies is the single biggest challenge to implementation of a DAM. The speed and fluidity of the creative process are in real or perceived opposition to the structure needed within workflow to implement an effective DAM (Roszkiewicz 2007, Stanton 2007).

What does the literature reveal about assets and metadata?


The Principle of Compound Media states that new media formats do not replace old formats, but have changed uses and purposes. Therefore, expanded infrastructure and management is needed to manage the growing number of formats (Wallace and Van Fleet 2005). The Law of Digital Assets states that digital assets are not consumed but can be reused indefinitely; this creates a need to effectively manage this everexpanding set of resources (Kovacs 2004). Extensibility and interoperability are important considerations for DAM adopters (Burman and Lenatti 2007).

What does the literature reveal about assets and metadata?


Taxonomy and structured metadata are widely agreed to be key to DAM usefulness and controlling the tidal wave of digital content (Gregory 2009, 156). Information studies of non-textual assets provide insight into how information architecture and application of traditional practices, such as controlled vocabularies, folksonomies, ontologies, and semantics, can be used to manage assets and improve search or browsing (Goodrum 2005, Kim 2011, Yoon and OConnor 2010).

What does the literature reveal about workflow?


Workflow is heavily linked to metadata in DAM, and selection of the best metadata scheme, or creation of a custom scheme, is a key factor of implementation (Kim et. al 2007). Metadata and taxonomy planning can enable discovery and resolution of existing workflow issues, to yield smarter and more efficient processes overall (Lamont 2006). Workflows and system functionality must be easy to use, intuitive, and become a natural step in the workflow process, or creative employees will simply ignore metadata entry (Roszkiewicz 2007). Culture is again a consideration, because an alienated pool of creation ad production people will guarantee failure (Roszkiewicz 2007).

What is the topic for study?


The chosen research topic is based on issues related to the adoption and implementation of a DAM system in an advertising agency library, based on the problem of dramatically increasing digital files (both size and volume), extensive repurposing of the assets, and search challenges related to the lack of metadata and multiple storage locations. The topic will focus on the subject of structured metadata, including aspects of metadata planning and implementation. Assumptions:
DAM will provide solutions, with improved access points and a single repository for assets. DAM will provide workflow, time, and knowledge-sharing efficiencies, as well as additional opportunities for repurposing and revenue. The broader issues of asset use, workflow, and culture are relevant.

What are the study questions?


How are assets being used in the current and anticipated business goals of the agency? In what ways do metadata standards and information architecture contribute to these goals (or not)? How does user familiarity affect search and retrieval? How satisfied (or not) are users with current methods of asset management, and what are the most significant aspects about which they are satisfied and unsatisfied?

What are the variables?


For the overall topic in general, the variables are culture, workflow, and metadata creation. For the specific agency, variables also include:
Value and cost approval by executive management Collection familiarity Local workflow processes

In this particular study, the variable is the responses from individual executives to the research instrument.

What are the data collection methods?


Qualitative research within the advertising field in general, and this agency in particular. For this study, the data collection method is a series of one-hour in-depth interviews (IDIs) with executive managers conducted over a two-week period. Two individuals from each of eight disciplines within the agency will be interviewed by an independent moderator/interviewer using a structured research instrument. Purposive sampling will be used, and invitees will be advised there is no obligation to participate.

What are the data collection methods?


Interviews will be conducted in interviewees offices and will be audiotaped and transcribed. Subjects will be de-identified and associated only with discipline in data analysis. There are no risks associated with research, as these are peers within the population and participation is voluntary. This information will be provided to each individual in the invitation to participate.

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What are the data analysis methods?


Using the transcriptions, content will be analyzed qualitatively and conceptually within the the subtopics of background, concept reaction, employee reaction, and client reaction. Discipline-specific results will be produced and analyzed to find trends as they relate to the subtopics of background, concept reaction, employee reaction, and client reaction. Relational analysis will also be conducted to identify semantic relationships between concepts.

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What are the data analysis methods?


Data will be analyzed manually. It is expected that information will be found to provide insight into current practices and possible gaps in practice vs. business goals. Concepts and themes will be presented in a written report as well as bar charts which will be used to show concept relationships between disciplines. Concept clouds will be used to show relationships and frequencies, independent of discipline.

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What are the expected outcomes?


It is expected that this study and its findings will:
Help agency management to better understand the current landscape of digital information use, workflow, and management within the agency, as well as gaps between current practice and business goals. Provide information that can be used to assess how structured metadata might support workflow, and how employees might, or might not, use a DAM. Explore anticipated client use and funding of metadata application and DAM use.

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What are the expected outcomes?


Additional quantitative and qualitative research can conducted to assess attitudes and behaviors for employees who regularly use digital assets, including exploration of culture and workflow. It is expected that this study and its findings will provide information to aid executive managements decisionmaking with regard to resource allocation:
Move forward with additional research among employees Research into a specific DAM solution Make funding decisions Some combination of the above None of the above

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References
Albertson, Dan. 2010. Influences of users familiarity with visual search topics on interactive video digital libraries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science Technology 61(12):2490-2502. Burman, Linda, and Chuck Lenatti. 2007. When DAM goes wrong. Seybold Report: Analyzing Publishing Technologies 7(12):13-16. Goodrum, Abby A. 2005. Reference & User Services Quarterly 45(2):46-53. Gregory, Andrew A. 2009. Asset management and metadata workflow An interview with Andrew Gregory of eMedia Concepts. Journal of Digital Asset Management (5)3:148-158.

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References
Kim, Hyun Hee. 2011. Structured video semantic search based on a structured folksonomy. Journal of the American Society for Information Science Technology 62 (3):478-492. Kim, Yong-Mi, Judy Ahronhelm, Kara Suzuka, Louis E. King, Dan Burell, Ron Miller, and Lynn Johnson. 2007. Enterprise Digital Asset Management System Pilot: Lessons learned. Information Technology and Libraries 26(4):4-16. Kovacs, Gyongyi. 2004. Digital asset management in marketing communication logistics. Journal of Enterprise Information Management 17(3):208-218. Lamont, Judith. 2006. DAM: agile and effective. KM World (November/December): 12-13, 24.

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References
McKee, Cathal. 2006. The DAM marketing communication creation process: A new way of working. Journal of Digital Asset Management (2) 2:80-84. Roszkiewicz, Ron. 2007. Assessing the value of DAM systems for advertising agencies. Journal of Digital Asset Management (3)3:116-123. Stanton, Russ. 2007. How do you tell them, This will really work for you?: DAM and how you can aid the creative process. Journal of Digital Asset Management (3)4:177-180.

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References
Wallace, Danny P. and Connie Van Fleet. 2005. The principle of compound media. Reference & User Services Quarterly 45(1):4-6. Yoon, JungWon, and Brian OConnor. 2010. Engineering an image-browsing environment: repurposing existing denotive descriptors. Journal of Documentation 66(5):750-774. Yuan, Y. Connie, Laura N. Rickard, Ling Xia, and Clifford Scherer. 2011. The interplay between interpersonal and electronic resources in knowledge seeking among co-located and distributed employees. Journal of the American Society for Information Science Technology 62(3): 535-549.

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