Where marketing teams lose 8 hours a week (and how to get them back)
How Dirac uses ImageBank X to streamline everyday work
Too many channels, too little time – How to tame content chaos?
A quick guide to DAM systems: What DAM does and why you need one?
Marketing teams today produce more content than ever. Campaign visuals, product images, videos, presentations, product sheets, social media assets, partner materials, brand guidelines and more. But while the amount of content has grown, the way many teams manage it has not.
Files are scattered across shared drives, email threads, Teams channels, personal folders, and different cloud tools. The result is a familiar daily frustration: finding the right material takes longer than it should.
In many organizations, marketing teams spend up to 8 hours every week searching for files, making quick edits, confirming versions, and sharing materials with colleagues and partners (based on ImageBank X customer survey 2025).
That is an entire workday lost each week. Let’s look at where this time actually disappears and how teams can get it back.
Where the 8 hours disappear?
The lost time rarely comes from one large task. Instead, it accumulates through small, repeated actions throughout the week.
1. Searching for files across multiple systems
A campaign image might exist in several places:
- a shared drive
- a marketing folder in Teams
- an old email attachment
- a designer’s local folder
- a cloud storage tool
Marketing teams often spend valuable time simply figuring out where the correct file is stored. Even when the asset exists, finding it can require digging through folders or asking colleagues.
2. Checking which version is the right one
Another common problem is version confusion.
Is this the latest product image?
Has the logo been updated?
Was this campaign visual approved already?
Without a centralized system, teams constantly verify files before using them. This creates unnecessary back-and-forth conversations and delays publishing.
3. Sending the same files again and again
Marketing teams regularly distribute materials to sales teams, partners, distributors, agencies, PR contacts and regional marketing teams. It is important that internal teams and external partners use the correct materials, but manually sending files is rarely the most efficient way to distribute them.
Files are repeatedly attached to emails or uploaded to different platforms. This is not only time-consuming, but also increases the risk that outdated materials continue circulating.
4. Manually organizing and tagging assets
To keep files searchable, someone needs to organize them. This often means renaming files, sorting them into folders, and writing some kind of metadata. For teams producing large volumes of content, this quickly becomes a tedious and time-consuming task.
5. Creating different asset versions for different channels
Marketing materials often need to be adapted for different platforms. A single image might require:
- a social media format
- a web version
- a presentation version
- a print resolution file
Without built-in editing tools, teams spend extra time exporting and recreating these versions.
Example: What 8 hours of lost time really costs?
Let’s look at a simple example. Imagine a marketing team that spends around 8 hours per week in total searching for files, organizing assets, confirming versions and sharing materials with colleagues or partners.
That is essentially one full working day every week spent managing files instead of building campaigns. Now let’s estimate the financial impact.
If the average fully loaded cost of a marketing specialist is approximately $45 per hour, the weekly cost of this lost productivity becomes:
8 hours × $45 = $360 per week
Over the course of a year, that equals:
$360 × 52 weeks = $18,720
In other words, even a relatively small amount of weekly time spent managing files can cost an organization nearly $20,000 per year in lost productivity. And this estimate still does not include other hidden costs such as delayed campaign launches, duplicated work or inconsistent brand materials across markets.
This is one of the reasons many organizations invest in a Digital Asset Management system. By centralizing assets, automating metadata with AI and enabling fast search, teams can significantly reduce the time spent managing files and focus on work that actually drives growth.
How DAM system helps marketing teams reclaim their time
A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system solves these marketing team’s challenges by bringing all marketing assets into one organized platform. Instead of scattered files and folders, teams work from a single source of truth.
With a DAM solution like ImageBank X, marketing teams can:
1. Centralize all assets in one platform
Images, videos, documents, product visuals, brand materials and campaign assets are stored in one structured location.
Everyone knows where to find them.
2. Find files instantly with powerful search
AI-generated descriptions and keywords make assets easily searchable.
Instead of browsing folders, users simply search for what they need.
In many cases, assets can be found up to 60% faster compared to traditional folder-based storage (ImageBank X customer survey 2025).
3. Let AI organize files automatically
One of the biggest challenges in asset management is metadata creation. ImageBank X uses AI to automatically generate descriptions, create keywords, and recognize visual content such as colors or faces
This means marketing teams no longer need to manually tag every asset. Files become searchable automatically, ensuring they remain easy to find as the asset library grows.
4. Share assets instantly with partners
Instead of sending files through email, assets can be shared through secure links or brand portals. Partners, distributors and agencies can access the materials they need without waiting for someone to send them. This reduces repetitive file requests and ensures everyone works with the correct versions.
With a DAM system like ImageBank X, marketing teams can share assets up to three times faster with stakeholders (ImageBank X customer survey 2025).
5. Edit assets directly inside the platform
Built-in editing tools allow teams to crop images, adjust formats and export channel-specific versions without leaving the DAM system.
Marketing teams can use designer-created templates to quickly produce social media visuals or apply branded elements such as logos.
Video editing tools allow teams to generate subtitles and create branded video versions for different channels.
Automated file conversions also ensure that assets are exported in the correct size and format for each platform without manual adjustments.
What marketing work looks like after DAM system?
When digital assets are organized and easily accessible, marketing teams can shift their focus back to high-value work. Instead of spending time searching for files, they can concentrate on:
- launching campaigns faster
- producing better content
- supporting sales teams
- collaborating with partners
- maintaining consistent brand communication
The difference is simple but powerful: when assets are easy to find, work flows faster.
Reclaim your marketing team’s time
Content production is only increasing. Marketing teams cannot afford to lose valuable time managing files manually. A modern DAM system ensures that assets are organized, searchable and ready to use whenever they are needed.
For many teams, this means reclaiming an entire workday every week. And that time can be spent where it truly matters: building campaigns that drive growth.
Want to calculate the ROI your organization could gain from a DAM system?
Download our guide and learn how to estimate the business value of Digital Asset Management.
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