DAM naming in the age of AI

why names are still so DAM important

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Special note: speaking of names, I have launched a consultancy named Spark Focus. Over the years, I have discovered a need for a place where creative, content and tech teams learn to understand each other and collaborate together. Please share the site broadly, subscribe to the newsletter here on Substack and schedule some time to discuss how we can help your teams succeed. Now back to your regularly scheduled Give a DAM post. - KB

Last year I wrote about building a naming convention before you start adding assets to your DAM. Still good advice that can help you ensure large quantities of assets can be cleanly structured, searchable and categorized across subject matter, file type and version. So we know when to do it, but why is it so important? And in the age of visual search, movig away from folders and better AI tagging, is it as necessary?

What is important when it comes to naming and digital asset management (DAM)?

Forget AI for a minute (just 1, I get it) and go back to the basics. Why does naming matter? One important aspect of DAM is naming your digital assets effectively. A good naming convention will help you to:

• Find your assets quickly and easily: When your assets are named in a consistent way, you can easily find the asset you need by searching for its name.

• Organize your assets efficiently: A good naming convention can help you to organize your assets into folders and subfolders, making it easy to keep track of where everything is.

• Share your assets with others securely: When your assets are named in a clear and concise way, it is easier to share them with others without causing confusion.

If you are getting started, here are the basics & tips for naming your digital assets effectively:

• Use a consistent naming convention across all of your assets. This will make it easier to find and organize your assets, regardless of the type of asset or the folder it is in.

• Use meaningful names that accurately reflect the content of the asset. This will help you to find the asset you need quickly and easily, and to share it with others without causing confusion. Avoid using generic names like "image1.jpg" or "video1.mp4." Instead, use descriptive names that indicate the content of the asset, such as "product-launch-photo.jpg" or "company-overview-video.mp4."

• Use keywords in the names of your assets. This will help you to find your assets quickly and easily when you search for them in your DAM system.

• Use version numbers: When you update an asset, use a version number to indicate the new version. This will help you to keep track of different versions of the asset and to avoid confusion.

• Use prefixes and suffixes to indicate the type of asset or the folder it is in. For example, you could use the prefix "IMG_" to indicate that the asset is an image, or the suffix "_WEB" to indicate that the asset is optimized for the web.

Past the technical part to the people part

Ok, now that you have the basics, share them with your teammates so you can expand to include more assets, more users and more complexity at scale. Naming cannot end with you, so:

• Talk through the reasons behind why you constructed the naming convention as you have.

• Seek out champions to support the new naming

• Manage change through training and consistency

• Schedule time & support for anyone adding assets to the DAM to reject misnamed assets and continue to seek naming excellence

• Save examples where the new naming has saved time, rounds of review or money through reuse to bolster its importance. Share as needed.

But what about AI?

List of New York wildflowers, generated by Google Bard. Useful for naming, especially if Latin is necessary.

When it comes to AI, I have already found it useful for filling in the blanks in keywords and structuring naming levels (for example if you are trying to include all possible colors, animals, states, or other fact-based list) and more. We will find more applications for AI as new projects need naming solutions. Consistent, clear naming of your assets will make them much more valuable in a world where queries are language-based. As we have found in using AI - especially GenAI- the language we use can return very different results. Precise naming is a solution to keep our assets relevant and searchable for tools that rely on words.