When you think about your favourite brands – maybe it’s a crisp logo on your Instagram explore page, a catchy slogan at the end of a video ad, or that comforting robin-egg-blue you see when you walk past the Tiffany store – chances are those elements are all brand assets; individual elements that represent a brand.
Brand assets are the visual and non-visual ingredients that make a brand instantly recognisable. They are the visual icons, the tone of voice, the colours, slogans, and design details that echo in your mind.
These assets help brands stand out, build trust, and live on in people’s memories.
But their role is deeper than aesthetics; they’re a strategic asset that marketers must manage carefully.
In this article, we’ll unpack:
Let’s crack on.
Believe it or not, “branding” is ancient. The word originates from the Old Norse brandr, meaning “to burn” – literally burning cattle to show ownership with a hot iron mark 😬. That deep-rooted concept of “marking your territory” is where branding begins.
Fast-forward to the 1700s and the Industrial Revolution. Factories started mass-producing soaps, foods, and textiles.
To stand out from local goods made by individuals or families within the community, larger manufacturers needed identities – a consistent logo or symbol – so people bought into the prestige of a larger brand, and eventually bought into that familiarity, too.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, branding evolved.
Marketers like Thomas J. Barratt (called the “father of modern advertising”), used slogans, imagery, and art to emotionally connect products (like Pears Soap) with people.
As Walter Landor, pioneer of modern brand design, said:
“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”
Brand assets are rooted in ownership and trust, that evolved into strategic tools that shape how people feel and remember.
Brand assets can be visual or non-visual, and they help your brand speak – in colour, tone, memory, or experience. Here are some core brand asset types:
Brand assets are powerful because they’re memorable, recognisable, and because they differentiate you from competitors. They’re also intangible – your brand equity lives in your audience’s mind.
You’ve got all these precious brand assets – now you need to manage and protect them.
Often, brands start with all their exciting, shiny new brand assets in one place: a Google Drive folder, for example. But it’s often not long before more branded assets get created (TikToks, for example), which don’t quite fit in the master folder, so another folder is created.
Then sales material is built for a new prospect, and that content lives somewhere else. Ditto the YouTube channel long-form content that’s being managed by a whole different team.
This all might be okay, as long as nothing changes at a brand level. But the moment your brand gets tweaked, how are you going to collect all of those (now outdated) brand assets, and update them?
With brand asset management software, all your assets stay in one place. Anything featuring your logo, for example, lives in your BAM system.
And every time a change gets made, that change is rolled out across every affected piece of content.
How? Users who’ve downloaded any asset will get an email telling them that it’s now out of date and needs replacing. The source asset will be updated, and remains THE single source of truth.
When all your brand assets (even those used by your sales teams, social media teams, external agencies) live under one BAM roof, your design team can edit (without even leaving Adobe, (and/or dare we say, Canva!?) because Asset Bank integrates directly with those tools.
It’s an incredibly efficient way of managing and protecting your branded assets. In short, brand asset management software offers:
That’s just the surface of it. There’s also a financial benefit to keeping your brand assets safe, and sometimes legal ramifications if you mismanage content!
So that’s what branding is, what brand assets are, why they matter, and how to manage them like a pro.
Whether you're curating a mood board or launching a content campaign, your brand assets are your power tools. Handle them well, and they make your brand feel unforgettable.
Launching a new brand campaign in record time? It's easy for things to slip through the net. But don't worry, we've got you covered with our handy campaign checklist.