📘 Overview

A digital media boutique specializing in branded photo, video, and campaign packaging was producing content faster than it could organize it.

With a small in-house team and a rotating mix of contractors, freelancers, and remote editors, their workflows had become a patchwork of cloud drives, email links, and temporary folder systems.

This Digital Asset Management (DAM) Audit was designed to uncover how a hybrid creative ecosystem could evolve from reactive storage to a governed, searchable, and scalable content system.

🎯 Objective

To diagnose the boutique’s fragmented asset workflows, evaluate its underutilized DAM platform, and create a roadmap that balances structure with creative flexibility.

🧭 Context: The Hybrid Creative Ecosystem

Before audit: a hybrid ecosystem without governance led to duplicate uploads, no version control, and multiple file versions.

The boutique’s model was designed for agility — quick turnarounds, multiple campaigns, and shared brand deliverables — but that same agility created chaos at scale.

• Asset Types: Branded photography, short-form social video, campaign packaging, and client-specific design templates.
• Production Mix: ~20% produced in-house; 80% delivered by remote contributors (freelancers, editors, motion designers, contractors).
• Tool Stack: Google Drive for sharing, Dropbox for storage overflow, and an underused DAM subscription inherited from a prior client partnership.
• Team Composition: Creative Director, two producers, freelance editors, and rotating project managers.

Over time, the volume of assets exceeded the system’s structure. Metadata became inconsistent, folder hierarchies fractured, and asset trust eroded.

“We don’t know which version is final anymore — or where it even lives.”

⚡ Challenge

The boutique’s key struggles reflected the realities of small creative teams scaling fast: