Guide to Storing Video Files in Your DAM System

Video isn’t new. In fact, 71% of B2B and 66% of B2C marketers use video marketing. That’s because video works — it can increase traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding. But, it only works at an enterprise level if you store and distribute your videos strategically.  

A healthy video strategy can include everything from branded video to product detail videos. Enterprise video is still on the rise and technology changes like 5G are about to change demands for video production exponentially. About 60% of people still watch video at home, but with 5G download speeds predicted at 1GBS to 10GBS — mobile video consumption is going to skyrocket. A 600MB video (approximately one hour of video) will take 20 seconds or less to download. You’ll even be able to stream 4K video on your 5G phone. Brands need to start planning for a future where customers expect high quality video everywhere they go — not just at home. You could end up with hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of video files to store and distribute. Managing this volume of videos takes the right technology.

If video is a key component of your marketing plan, a digital asset management (DAM) system should be an essential part of managing your files across the video asset lifecycle.

Once you choose the right DAM system, you need a clear view of the video content you have to store so you can manage costs and determine the right organizational structure. Any company can inform that decision-making process with a comprehensive video audit. 

Audit your video content 

To manage your video content, you need to understand what you have, what you will have in the future, who needs access to it, and how you will use it. Use your audit to deliver an overview of key factors like file formats, user needs, step in the customer journey, engagement, and something as seemingly technical as video resolution.

Today, your highest-performing branded video may be in HD at 1080p, but will you use 4K, 8K, or beyond in the future? It’s something to think about with 5G on the way in major cities around the world. If one of your main customer segments is in one of these rollout locations (like Houston, Texas), you have a chance to impress them with 4k video before anyone else.

With an audit in place, you can get ahead of industry trends and make strategic decisions like these on the fly. You can also use your audit to guide your roadmap for video production and make a case for resources as you grow. At a foundational level, your audit gives you a solid count of how many videos you need to manage in your DAM system and helps determine your video goals. 

Once you know what and how many videos you want to store, you need to choose a storage format — or formats.

Choose a storage format for video files in your DAM system

Many businesses start off thinking that they always need to store the full-resolution master files in their DAM system. Chances are, you don’t need to do that for every video in order to accomplish your goals. You can use a mezzanine format.

High-resolution video often has very large file sizes that can make digital asset management costs prohibitive. A mezzanine format provides high quality video while taking up 50-75% less disk space and bandwidth. This way, you get the quality resolution you need for viewing and repurposing, but you minimize file sizes.  And with a DAM system, you’ll also be able to convert your files on the fly allowing you to get several formats out of just one file.

Once you decide how to store your video files, you’ll need to add the right metadata to find them.

Determine your video metadata 

You can’t use your videos if you can’t find them. Building the right metadata fields for your assets makes this easier and there are a lot of different types to choose from. Here are some specific fields that you should be sure to include for your video files:

Video type
Videos are used for many purposes. Identifying video types like customer interviews, presentations, marketing, or training, will help you narrow your search. 

Editing program used
If you use multiple video editors or video editing programs, it can be helpful to be able to filter by the editing program used. 

Script
Including your script or the transcription in an open text field allows you to search on the words and topics used in the video.

Timecode notes
Make notes as to when questions are asked during an interview or key quotes are said for easy reference. 

Licensing
When making videos available for use, it’s important to keep digital rights management practices in mind and document the video’s licensing agreement.

Description
Write a clear description of the video including themes and topics so users can easily determine what’s in the video without watching everything to find what they need.

Keywords
Apply keywords to your video to improve searchability. Consider the words your teams would use to describe or search for a video. 

Version notes
When uploading a new version of a video, note the changes to help teams understand how it differs from the previous one. 

Talent release documents
Ensure you have the rights to distribute a video with an actor’s likeness. Storing that information in the video’s metadata makes it easier to reference when needed. 

Language
Being able to search the video language is key, especially when you’re managing a global DAM system. 

If you’ve got the right metadata from the start, it makes finding and using videos in your DAM system much easier. 

Without a strong metadata structure, you waste hours looking for assets or even risk damaging your brand reputation by using the wrong videos. With a DAM system, you can create custom fields to match your internal processes and save everyone time searching for what they need. It’s worth devoting time to this step so that you build a robust search foundation and make it easier for everyone to find the right video.

Additionally, DAM systems provide custom ways to securely share your videos internally and externally, to make it even easier for your users to get the content they need..

Share videos with your video management system 

With your DAM system, you can share links directly to videos, utilize embed codes, create video collections, and make custom portals. Want to share and continuously update training videos for your customer-facing teams? Create a playlist section in Brand Portals and everyone can watch the educational series as they’re added. 

It’s also easy to share new versions of videos whenever something business-critical changes. Imagine your creative team produced a campaign video that marketing, sales, and customer solutions all need to use. The video was approved and everyone got an email with the link to the campaign portal for launch. Then a critical legal detail changed overnight and you have to send a new version out to the whole company. 

With a DAM system to manage your videos, just upload a new version and all of the links now have the accurate information. Without a DAM system, you’ve got a potentially brand-damaging scenario where someone inevitably shares the wrong video file because they missed the email with a new link. 

Sharing videos internally is just the start with a DAM system like Acquia DAM (Widen). You can also distribute videos in your DAM system directly to consumers via YouTube, and integrate Acquia DAM with platforms like Brightcove. Your marketing strategy might require a custom publishing flow and API integrations can help meet the needs of your unique technology stack.

Ready to power your video strategy? 

If you want results from your video strategy, you need the capability to manage every video asset through its whole lifecycle. That takes the right DAM system and a strategic approach to video storage that makes your assets easy to find, share, and distribute — internally and externally.

Navigating the video galaxy is only going to get more complex with market-changers like 5G and Internet of Things (IoT). Learn to optimize your video workflow now and you can create a positive impact on internal cost savings and revenue in a changing landscape.

To build your brand and increase sales with video, look for a DAM system that can match your video management needs right now and grow with you over time. Over 800 brands around the world like the Houston Texans, Hootsuite, and Crayola use Acquia DAM to manage their video assets. Take a closer look to see why and request, watch, or click through a demo today. 

Note: This article was originally published on Widen.com.