Brand asset access: why the people making the most video have the least of it
Quick Answer
Brand asset access is the ability to actually use a company's approved fonts, colours, and templates when producing something, rather than only reading about them in a brand guide. In the enterprise teams we work with, that access sits with designers while the day to day video work has moved elsewhere.
Why does brand asset access sit with designers instead of the people making video?
The licences and source files were bought and stored for a design team, back when design produced most of what carried the brand. The font licences, the layered template files, the colour definitions: all of it lives on machines and accounts belonging to design, because design is who used to need it.
Where the volume of content comes from has changed. Social posts, internal updates, quick product explainers: most of that gets made today by people sitting nowhere near the design org chart, and the access never moved with the work.
Who holds brand asset access, and who needs it day to day?
The people producing the most brand carrying content day to day tend to have the least access to the assets that would keep it on brand.
| Role | What they produce | What they can reach | What they do instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designer | Top level brand campaigns and the templates everyone else uses | Full access: font licences, colour files, source templates | Nothing to substitute, since they hold the real assets |
| Social media team member | Day to day social posts and short video | Little or no access to the actual font files or brand templates | Uses a default font, or a free tool that gets close enough |
| Internal comms lead | Announcement and update video for employees | Similarly limited access to design's source files | Asks design for a one off export, or reuses an old asset |
| Field or regional marketer | Localised or one off video for a specific market | The least access of anyone on this list | Builds the video in whatever consumer tool is already installed |
What happens when brand asset access does not reach the social team?
The post gets made in whatever tool the person can open, with whatever font happens to be installed, and it goes out looking close to on brand. A social media team member at an enterprise data protection company put it this way:
I don't even have access to like this font, that we use for everything. So everything's been a little bit difficult.
The font in question is the one the company uses for everything, and the person making its day to day social content could not open it. Internal comms teams hit the same wall on tighter deadlines, since an announcement video usually has to go out the same day. If that is a function you run, our page on internal comms video covers how that volume tends to get handled.
Why does buying more font licences not fix brand asset access?
Buying a design licence for everyone who might one day touch a brand asset gets expensive and hard to administer, which is part of why the gap exists. Licences also leave the harder problem untouched. Applying a typeface, a colour, and a layout together correctly is a design skill, and a login does not confer it.
Governance runs the other way too. Handing raw source files to everyone who asks buys access and gives up control over how the brand gets used once people have the files. For how brand consistency gets checked once more people are making video, see our post on brand QA in self serve video.
What actually fixes brand asset access for non designers?
Removing the need for the licence in the first place. A brand locked motion design system, which we describe in what a motion design system actually is, carries your approved type and colour into whatever gets made, so the person building the video stays on brand without the font sitting on a designer's machine. The brand controls travel with the system instead of living in a file only one team can open.
That reframes the access question. Nobody in social needs to become a designer, and nobody in design needs to hand over the keys to the source files. The approved decisions come pre made, and the person with the message does the part only they can do.
FAQ
What is brand asset access?
Brand asset access is being able to actually use a company's approved fonts, colours, and templates when producing something, rather than only seeing them referenced in a brand guide.
Why do so few people at a company have brand asset access?
The licences and source files were typically bought and stored for a design team, from a period when design produced most of the brand's content. Access never moved as the volume of everyday video shifted to social, comms, and field teams.
Does everyone making video need a full font licence to stay on brand?
No. A brand locked motion design system can carry the approved type and colour with it, so the person making the video stays on brand without holding the underlying font licence.
How do you give non designers brand asset access without losing brand consistency?
Separate the brand controls from the raw source files. Keep the approved type, colour, and layout locked into the system people use to make video, rather than distributing the files themselves.