Traditional media asset management (MAM) systems have not been designed to meet the needs of most organizations today. In a world with ever-evolving digital technology and new digital assets being created daily, the tools that once worked simply don’t cater to the mass market.

Unfortunately, even when companies try to responsibly manage their media, they find themselves tumbling down a long, frustrating path filled with technical demands and hidden costs as they integrate a new MAM or DAM.

On top of all that, there’s often the cruel irony of these platforms not working as promised–making it difficult to access the assets where and when they’re needed. 

Most of these other asset management platforms seem like they’re more than management — it's like ownership. You can't interact with your assets outside the context of the asset management platform. After they ingest your file it can be difficult to know exactly where it’s located, what it’s named, or how assets are structured.

‍Ben Nelson, Former Manager of Post & Studio Operations, Complex Networks

Media Creation Has Been Democratized, Media Management Should Do the Same

With widespread internet availability and the advancement of camera technology, media creation has become democratized and accessible. However, managing and preserving media long-term is still a challenge for many SMBs, independent filmmakers, in-house production teams, and the new wave of short-form content creators, streamers, and podcasters.

Traditional MAM has always been expensive, complicated, and designed to mainly serve large media companies.

Iconik breaks this mold by offering a cloud-native MAM platform. This model makes media asset management more accessible and agile for companies of all sizes—democratizing it to allow companies to get the best ROI from their MAM system.

To Democratize Media Management, You'll Need a New Approach:

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1. Establish Remote Access as a Core Principle

So much has changed in the past 20 years in regards to workflow. The way we work in 2023 is very different from how we operated in 2003. Tools for virtual work are essential. The old way of having a strictly on-premise asset management solution locked behind a firewall has become a hindrance to growth.

Iconik is a cloud-native service, which means clients can access and use media from anywhere, no matter where the original files are stored, whether on-premise or in the cloud. This is especially helpful for those with limited network connectivity because it enables proxy editing workflows where editors can edit with media that’s a fraction of the size of the original files.

The ‘everyone in the same production building’ model didn’t work for us any longer as our content service grew with more and more editors and producers checking in content from remote locations that our entire team needed to use immediately. With iconik, we finally have what feels like the modern, cloud-delivered production tool we’ve always wanted.

‍Loren Goldfarb, COO, Everwell

2. Offer a Pain-Free Storage Solution

Transferring data to a new storage location can be a time-consuming process that involves a lot of uncertainty. There are a lot of questions and potential headaches to consider.

• How long will the transfer take? 
• Will files be safe during the move?

Iconik users can sidestep this stress and leverage the storage they've already invested in with our bring-your-own storage model. There’s no need for any migration of data. Iconik can index and manage media assets regardless of where they are stored.

Even as data moves to the cloud, on-premise storage still has great benefits—a hybrid cloud structure that manages assets from both cloud and on-premise storage is a central part of iconik.

This agile approach gives organizations a way to move to the cloud at their own pace. It opens the possibility to transfer assets in and out of hot and cold storage as needed. This approach has a cost advantage and removes major hurdles for teams with limited technical knowledge.

3. Allow Media Management to Scale With Your Needs 

When starting out with media management there are a lot of unknowns.

• Will this be worth the investment? 
• How many people will actually use it? 
• How else can this help our business?

For this reason, leadership is usually hesitant to make a large up-front investment for a system that may or may not be fully embraced.

Iconik's pricing model is revolutionary in the MAM/DAM space. You only pay for what you need, when you need it, month to month. When media management finds its groove in your organization and more people begin to use it, you can scale your usage in line with the real value you're already getting—no guesswork.

This product-led growth strategy of iconik has made media management more accessible for organizations of every size, and with any budget. Anyone can start as small as they need to, think big, and scale fast when the time is right.

4. Encourage Collaboration and Self-Service to Access Media Assets

Collaboration is key to creating and fully leveraging media, but it's only possible when assets are accessible to those who need them when they need them.

Iconik makes it easy for users to invite internal and external collaborators to access the right assets at any time. But it's not just about ease of access — iconik lets users find assets themselves, without having to ask for a media manager or archivist to find them. This removes gatekeepers and speeds up workflows, allowing departments to collaborate with less friction.

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In this post, I've been able to chart the way to democratized asset management because that is the heart of iconik's mission. This flexible and adaptable approach will provide you with an asset management strategy that's dynamic enough to suit your business needs now and in the future.