In the digital age, having a central hub to find all of your brand’s content is so important and can help you stay ahead of the curve with events, vehicle launches, social media and more! Luckily for you, most brands have an asset website to help you stay on brand in your advertising! See how you can utilize your manufacture’s asset website to make the most out of your advertising!
How To Get An Account
All asset websites require you to create an account to access their assets. Since these assets can be confidential, they don’t just allow anyone to log-in. Brands like GM and Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep & Ram will require you to prove that you are associated with a dealership. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, and once you’re in, you’re all set!
Navigating
Each asset site runs a little differently. Some will post their events and most recently posted assets to their homepage, while other will require you to search a bit more in different sections within the site. Most sites will allow you to search for specific items, like a logo or event that you know is running. Once you know where to look, assets are usually easy to find. If you are having difficulty, ask your automotive digital marketing agency if they have experience using an asset site, or they might be pulling the assets for you.
What Can the Asset Site Provide?
The asset sites host everything from vehicle brand programs, campaigns and events to brand essentials and guides. Some sites will even post running footage and social medial content that could be downloaded for your advertising. At Digital to Dealer Direct, our in-house design team researches each brand to stay up to date on events and any changes that might be posted on the asset websites. The design team will also use the asset site to ensure monthly campaigns remain on brand for any events that might be posted. Some other logos that can be found would be certified pre-owned, service and any brand essential logos your brand might have.
In addition to branding and campaign logos, the asset websites are a great place to find images of vehicles, whether it be lifestyle imagery with a background or cut-out vehicle images, or what we call, “jellybeans images”. This feature where you can find a particular vehicle with a certain trim or an image in a particular location. Most asset sites will even allow you to search for keywords like “snow” “mountains” “lake” “city” etc. to help stay consistent to your dealership’s location.
Staying on Brand
One of the most important things to remember in automotive advertising is staying in brand, not only for your dealership, but for your manufacturer. Each manufacturer has a particular set of standards for their logos, fonts, and even color pallets and will post guides to follow. The asset site is the best place to find all the information you’ll need regarding these standards and they will usually provide all the information and files you may need to do so. Most brands will require you to stay within these particular style guides to be approved for co-op reimbursement, so this section of the website it key!
Downloading Assets
Once you find what you’re looking for, obtaining your assets is just a click and download away. Some sites have you download assets individually while others allow you to add to a “cart” and download multiple items at once. Depending on the site, you will often have the chance to choose the file type you need for creative. I.E. Logos can be downloaded in a vector file or a plain .png file, depending on your needs.
What They Don’t Have
Although an asset site is the best place to find almost everything you could need for your advertising, they don’t always offer EVERYTHING. Sometimes you find a lack of variety when it comes to lifestyle imagery locations or even a particular photo you see in advertising, won’t be posted for download. Another asset that can be difficult to find is vehicle images with a particular trim level, especially in lifestyle vehicle images.
Manufacture websites are the go-to place in automotive adverting, with almost everything you could need, just a download away. Here at D2D, as an automotive marketing company, we have experience with several different manufacturers and the related asset sites. Our experienced graphic design department stays up to date with most manufacture’s campaigns, brand guidelines and more! Want to ensure your dealership has all the right assets in your advertising? Contact us today, directly at info@digital2dealer.com.

Kristen has 11 years of experience within the creative side of advertising as an Art Director and Photographer. She is multi-faceted in her experiences and skills in both traditional and digital spaces, primarily for automotive marketing.