Buyer's Guide: Digital Asset Management Platforms, 2025

Digital Asset Management is Pioneering the Future of Content Management

This guide equips business buyers with a strategic, practical framework for selecting a digital asset management (DAM) platform. As organizations produce and deploy more rich media content than ever, a DAM system has become mission-critical for managing these assets and accelerating marketing operations. It's not just about storing files-a well-implemented DAM unlocks business value by turning scattered content into shareable stories, improving team collaboration, and ensuring consistent on-brand experiences across all channels. In short, a DAM platform helps companies launch campaigns faster, reuse and personalize content at scale, and protect their brand assets.

The DAM market is experiencing rapid growth. Frost & Sullivan estimated that the DAM platforms market earned $3.15 billion in 2024 and expects a compound annual growth rate of at least 17% from 2024 to 2031-a direct reflection of the criticality of managing digital assets. This momentum is fueled by widespread digital transformation, exploding content marketing needs, and a push for personalized, omnichannel customer experiences. Businesses are investing in DAM to cope with the deluge of digital content and to gain a competitive edge in engaging customers. Not adopting a modern DAM comes at a cost: teams waste time searching for or recreating assets, slowing campaign velocity and risking revenue opportunities. Successful organizations recognize that content is a growth engine, and a scalable DAM platform is the backbone to power it.

This guide will help buyers:

1. Understand the DAM Landscape-including current market trends, growth drivers, and restraints shaping DAM adoption in 2025 and beyond. You'll learn why DAM has never been more important for business agility and marketing ROI.

2. Evaluate Platforms Strategically-with clear criteria and checklists covering usability, governance, scalability, interoperability, total cost of ownership, flexibility, and industry-specific needs. The guide highlights what to look for in architecture (API-first, cloud-native vs. monolithic) and integration capabilities (with CMS, PIM, creative suites) to future-proof your choice.

3. Realize Business Value-by seeing how DAM drives efficiency and ROI. We show how a DAM can reduce time-to-market (by streamlining workflows and collaboration), increase productivity (by saving hours spent searching/handling assets), improve brand consistency, and enable personalized customer experiences at scale.

What You Will Get: By the end of this guide, you will understand why a DAM platform is pioneering the future of content management for businesses, and you will be equipped with the insights and tools to make an informed purchasing decision that aligns with your organization's goals.

The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the DAM Platforms Industry

Disruptive Technologies

Why

• Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and intelligent search are transforming digital asset management. New technologies now automate tasks that once required manual effort-such as tagging assets, generating content variations, or ensuring brand compliance-saving teams time while improving accuracy. These tools also enable smarter search capabilities and more personalized content delivery.

Frost Perspective

• When evaluating DAM platforms, prioritize those that embed AI throughout the content lifecycle-not just for novelty, but for meaningful automation, compliance, and search enhancements. The most future-ready solutions will go beyond storage, acting as intelligent content hubs that help teams manage complexity, accelerate workflows, and operate efficiently.

Innovative Business Models

Why

• Traditional DAM systems were rigid and costly to maintain. Today's top solutions offer flexible, modular, and cloud-native architectures that better align with how businesses actually work. These platforms can scale with your needs, connect easily with marketing and commerce systems, and support global teams through hybrid or SaaS-based delivery models.

Frost Perspective

• Look for DAM providers that offer flexible pricing models, composable architectures (so you can activate only the capabilities you need), and seamless integrations with your existing tech stacks. The ability to adapt to evolving business requirements-without requiring a major overhaul-will be essential for resilience and sustainability.

Customer Value Chain Compression

Why

• Digital content creation and delivery often involve too many steps, tools, and handoffs-causing delays, silos, and miscommunication. Modern DAM platforms are solving this challenge by bringing together creative, marketing, and product teams within a unified workspace. The result: faster time to market, fewer errors, and better collaboration across functions.

Frost Perspective

• Choose DAM platforms that reduce complexity in your content workflows. Look for intuitive interfaces, low-code automation features, and native integrations with content creation, product data, and publishing tools. The more your DAM can serve as a central hub across the content value chain, the more efficiently your teams can work, and the greater your return on investment.

Growth Restraints

• Integration Complexity with Existing Systems: Integration with legacy systems remains a top challenge, as complex tech stacks and data silos hinder seamless DAM deployment and slow adoption.
• High Implementation Cost and Time: High upfront costs for enterprise-grade DAM solutions, including implementation and training, limit adoption among smaller companies.
• Change Management and User Adoption Challenges: Poor change management and limited user training often result in low adoption and underutilization of DAM platforms after deployment.
• Security and Data Governance Concerns: Security and AI governance concerns, especially in regulated industries, create hesitancy toward cloud DAM platforms and automated features.
• Unclear ROI and Difficulty Measuring Impact: Many businesses struggle to quantify DAM ROI, which complicates budget approvals and undermines stakeholder support.
• Market Confusion and Solution Misperception: Confusion between DAM and other file storage tools creates market friction, with buyers misjudging needs or delaying adoption due to misunderstanding.

Growth Drivers

• Explosion of Digital Content Volume & Complexity
• Omnichannel Marketing & Personalization Demands
• Advancements in AI and Automation Technologies
• Cloud Adoption and SaaS Accessibility
• Remote Collaboration & Distributed Workforce Needs
• Governance, Security, and Compliance Priorities