Image assets: the care and feeding of a different breed of digital assets
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Image assets: the care and feeding of a different breed of digital assets David Norris is the CEO of OnRequest Images, the world’s leading provider of custom imagery. A seasoned executive with more than 20 years of broad business experience, OnRequest Images unites David’s lifelong passion for photography with a deep understanding of technology to help corporations build brand equity through custom imagery.
Keywords: stock photography, image management, cataloging, keywording, JPG, TIF, file size, licensing rights, image use Abstract Over the last decade, as the use of digital images and the potential for liability associated with their use increased, companies of all sizes have begun to investigate solutions to better manage their image assets. These solutions must address the unique challenges of managing images, which are distinctly different from other types of digital assets. Using images in a corporate environment has the potential to create liability that must be mitigated with controlled access and a defined process for image management. Traditional enterprise asset management systems are not ideally suited for the complex issues that arise when considering how images are searched, retrieved, used and tracked in a corporate environment. This article will outline six key differentiating factors that must be considered as an image management system is planned and will offer insight into the approach corporations should take with regard to their image assets. Journal of Digital Asset Management (2006) 2, 223–230. doi:10.1057/palgrave.dam.3650036
BACKGROUND Corporate use of photography in advertising, marketing and other materials has increased dramatically in the last 15 years. Growth in the number of corporate image assets accelerated during the 1990s as photography migrated from an almost entirely analog form to almost entirely digital form, making it much easier for companies to find, license and use imagery. As companies use imagery more frequently, they also need to deploy more robust systems to store, retrieve and track their use. Companies typically acquire image assets from three primary sources:
• • David Norris CEO, OnRequest Images, Tel: + 206 382 0192 Fax: + 206 774 6075. Email: david.norris@ onrequestimages.com
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Stock photography providers with existing collections. Professional photographers or agencies creating custom photography. In-house teams creating graphic content (for example, web content).
In the first two cases, the images are typically licensed by the company for use, rather than
© 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1743-6540 $30.00
Vol. 2, 5 223–230
purchased outright. In the third case, content created by the company usually becomes a wholly owned company asset.1 Licensed images can be “rights managed,” meaning the image can only be used in certain defined ways (ie for printed marketing collateral pieces but not for web site use), or they can be “royalty-free,” where fewer restrictions are placed on how the image may be used. Because each image may have a unique set of permissions
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