The case for a marketing content hub

Marketing technologies projects often get labelled as digital asset management (DAM) even when the project’s scope or business case make only a glancing reference to DAM. This can lead to a false start and in the worst case money and momentum lost. This paper investigates the larger context and challenges a lot of organisations are currently dealing with and how the real scope of their challenge is different from or wider than DAM. The main angles covered include the aggregation of marketing content to build a 360° interaction from the perspective of the marketer; creative project management and collaboration tools to empower marketing teams; and setting up a dialogue with the marketing community. The authors pitch the concept of a marketing content hub as the embodiment of this 360° interaction and define the blueprint of the matching business case. This business case for a marketing content hub takes the traditional one for a DAM system as a baseline, but adds elements that capture more of the strategic value that commonly remain unaccounted for. The opportunities for the marketing department to add value and become part of the solution are discussed as well as the arguments that can motivate the different stakeholders to embark on this endeavour.