Reference Glossary
Asset request
A formal, trackable ask — submitted through the DAM rather than email or chat — for a specific asset to be created, sourced, located, or cleared for a stated use.
Why it matters in a DAM
Without a request record inside the DAM, 'can someone send me the new logo in PNG' turns into a Slack thread that's unsearchable a month later, and nobody can prove who approved a given use if a licensing question comes up later. Logged requests also surface demand patterns: the same crop requested weekly by three regional teams is a sign a derivative preset is missing, not a one-off favor.
A worked example
Common mistake
Requests get handled entirely over email, so the asset that finally gets delivered never becomes searchable in the DAM itself — the next person with the same need starts from zero instead of finding it already made.
An asset request formalizes a step that most organizations already do informally and badly: someone needs a file that doesn’t obviously exist yet, or exists but they can’t find it, and they ask a person rather than the system. Running that ask through the DAM as a structured request — with a stated use, a deadline, and a status — turns a one-off favor into a record that can be searched, reported on, and audited later.
The practical payoff is fulfillment reuse. If a request for ‘the hero shot cropped to 4:5 for print’ gets fulfilled once and stored back in the DAM as a proper derivative, the next requester with the same need finds it in search instead of generating a fifth slightly different crop. Request volume by type is also a decent proxy for where the DAM’s preset library or search taxonomy is falling short.
Requests tied to usage — ‘need this cleared for a paid social campaign in France’ — also give whoever owns rights on that asset a concrete decision point to log, rather than a verbal yes that nobody wrote down.
Frequently asked
What makes an asset request different from just asking a colleague on Slack?
It's submitted and tracked through the DAM itself, with a stated use, deadline, and status, rather than living in an unsearchable chat thread. That means it can be searched, reported on, and audited months later.
How does logging asset requests help prevent duplicate work?
If a request like 'hero shot cropped to 4:5 for print' is fulfilled once and stored back in the DAM as a proper derivative, the next requester with the same need finds it in search instead of generating a fifth slightly different crop.
What can request volume tell a DAM administrator?
A pattern — like the same crop being requested weekly by three regional teams — signals that a derivative preset is missing from the system, not that it's a one-off favor to keep handling manually.
Why does routing requests through the DAM matter for rights questions?
A request tied to a specific use, like 'cleared for a paid social campaign in France,' gives whoever owns rights on that asset a concrete decision to log, instead of a verbal yes nobody wrote down.
What goes wrong when asset requests are handled entirely by email?
The asset that finally gets delivered never becomes searchable in the DAM, so the next person with the same need starts from zero instead of finding it already made.
What status values does a typical asset request move through?
Something like 'in review' to 'fulfilled,' with the final delivered file linked directly to the asset record — for example a print-portrait derivative linked back to the original request from a regional marketing team.