With rich media files changing the name of the enterprise content game, many companies are looking into digital asset management (DAM) systems. Only a few years back, enterprise content repositories consisted overwhelmingly of text files, with perhaps a few visual images. Now, such rich media as Flash files, videos, and high-resolution images have suddenly added considerable complexity to content management. Not only are files larger, but non-text files lack the contextual clues that make searching relatively simple. Thus, metadata is required, and for those exposing content to parties outside the enterprise, asset protection is also an issue. With the recent explosion of rich media, options for reaching target audiences have increased tremendously. At the same time, the process of developing and reinforcing brands has assumed a new importance. Marketing departments in all sectors now have to think and act like media companies. One big question is whether established content management infrastructure is still enough in a rich media world. The answer to that question depends on who is asked. For internal use, ECM may provide most of what a company needs. A different point of view says that ECM and DAM are complementary. A DAM system does well at integrating with creative applications and handling large media files. In particular, DAMs can generate low-resolution versions of video files that enable content manipulation without large downloads. Another strength of DAM technology is metadata creation, tagging and categorizing rich media for easier access and organization. In the end, though, it is important to remember that DAM is important mostly to marketing and creative services, not to consumers.