The DAM playbook for food and beverage brands: control usage rights, permissions and consent across all your digital assets
Food and beverage brands operate in one of the most highly regulated marketing environments in the world. From allergen labelling and health claims to regional advertising standards and data protection laws, the margin for error is small – and the consequences of getting it wrong can be severe.
Yet much of this risk sits not in product development, but in how marketing teams manage and distribute the digital assets for each of their products.
Images, videos and campaign materials are constantly reused across channels, regions and partners. But without proper control over usage rights, permissions and consent, food and beverage brands expose themselves to legal, financial and reputational risk.
This is exactly where modern digital asset management (DAM) platforms – and specifically Asset Bank – play a critical role.
The compliance challenge in food and beverage marketing
Food and beverage marketing teams face a unique combination of compliance pressures.
Complex global operations create risk
Take Elior North America – a global food service organisation operating across 13 brands and 20,000+ locations in the US. With that scale comes complexity: multiple audiences, regions, campaigns and regulatory environments.
Before implementing Asset Bank, and as their organisation grew in size, their teams faced a familiar problem, as Ben Pien, Senior Content Producer, explains:
“We had content and lots of it, but it was scattered everywhere. We had shared drives with no structure, personal folders on desktops, files stuck in emails, and no one knowing what was really current or approved. It caused a lot of real problems for us.”
This lack of control isn’t just inefficient – it creates compliance risk.
High volumes of content, used at speed, need great governance
Food and beverage brands produce content at scale:
- Campaigns across retail, ecommerce and social
- Distribution to agencies, partners and global teams
- Frequent localisation for regional markets
Without governance, these content assets can quickly lose their context – especially rights, consent and approvals.
Regulatory pressure is only increasing
Marketing teams must navigate GDPR and global data privacy laws, advertising standards and labelling regulations, region-specific restrictions on imagery and messaging, and much more. At the same time, they must move faster than ever.
How to stay legal and compliant
For marketing teams across the food and beverage industry, the core job is clear:
Ensure all digital assets are used legally, in line with rights, licences and regulations.
That means:
- No expired or restricted assets being used
- No misuse across channels or regions
- No missing credits or licence breaches
- No image consent violations
What are usage rights for digital assets?
Usage rights refer to the rules around how, where and how long an asset can be used – including things like:
- Which channels it can appear in (e.g., digital or print)
- Which geographical regions it can be used in (e.g., APAC or Europe)
- How long the licence lasts
- Whether photographer credit is required
- Any restrictions on editing, sharing or using the asset in certain contexts (like specific campaigns, products or audiences).
Why usage rights management is critical for F&B brands
Usage rights are one of the most overlooked – yet most critical – elements of compliance.
Mistakes often happen when rights aren’t visible alongside the asset, or when teams reuse assets without knowing their usage restrictions, or when files are downloaded and shared without metadata that highlights this important information.
It’s where many organisations fall short.
At Elior, the risk of using outdated or unapproved content was very real. “People were using outdated or unapproved visuals without even really realising it. And as a for-profit company, documentation around photo releases for employees and dining guests in our units was becoming more difficult for us to manage, even putting our company at potential legal risk.”
Industries with high regulatory oversight, such as food and beverage, require stronger governance of marketing assets due to increased legal, reputational and operational risk.
How Asset Bank helps you stay compliant with every asset
Asset Bank embeds compliance directly into the asset management process – not as an afterthought.
Asset Bank makes usage rights impossible to miss
With Asset Bank, usage rights can be:
- Displayed in search previews
- Highlighted on asset pages
- Flagged at the point of download
- Embedded into asset metadata
- Appended to a file name
- Watermarked across the file
This ensures users always understand how an asset can – and cannot – be used. And avoids the excuse of, ‘I just didn’t know.'
Keep an eye on usage rights information outside the DAM
When a user downloads an asset to use in a campaign, a slide deck, a video, these usage rights rules are still accessible to other users. This means:
- Usage restrictions travel with the asset
- External teams still see critical information
- Legal risk is reduced
- Teams have greater confidence in asset usage
Managing consent and GDPR compliance
When using images of people, compliance becomes even more critical.
The job to be done
Ensure all imagery is backed by valid, trackable consent.
The risk
- Consent expiring on model release forms, or consent being overlooked, with no one realising – and assets still being used
- Model consent forms and release forms not being linked to the relevant assets
- Delays in removing assets if consent is withdrawn
How Asset Bank solves this
With Asset Bank, you can easily keep on the right side of consent – here’s how:
- Link model release and consent forms directly to assets.
- Set expiry dates that automatically hide an asset on the day of expiry
- Flag consent requirements during download
- Also warn users if consent is due to expire soon, so they can ask for consent to be extended, if appropriate
- Alert users if consent for an asset they’ve previously downloaded has expired, so they can act on that information
- AI-enabled search helps locate all assets featuring that person
With these features available out the box, Asset Bank ensures teams can get consent right every time.
Controlling access to assets: keeping content in the right hands
Compliance is also about controlling who can access and use assets. For large organisations, this is a major efficiency and risk challenge.
Alice Cowley at Yeo Valley Organic highlights the operational benefit:
“Being able to set permissions prevents one person needing to allocate images, which saves us a lot of time as a large organisation.”
And for global brands, permissions are an essential part of their image library infrastructure. Larissa Vasilopoulou at SPI Spirits explains:
“As a global wine and spirits brands producer, we have many marketing assets that need to be organised and… shared with all our partners. Clear structure, different levels of user permissions, and fast and easy sharing options are essential for us.”
How Asset Bank helps control who sees what
- Granular permissions by group
- Visibility rules set at a metadata level
- Approval workflows before assets go live
- Controlled download permissions
- Tailored metadata and download options
This ensures content is always approved, appropriate and accessible to only the right audiences.
From chaos to control: the Elior example
After implementing Asset Bank, Elior North America’s teams moved from “chaos… to more collaboration”.
“We went from chaos – a scattered, reactive way of dealing with content to more collaboration, where everyone knows where to go, what to use, and how to work together.”
Approved assets were easier to find, confidence in usage increased and legal and compliance risks were reduced.
Why food and beverage brands lead in DAM maturity
Asset Bank’s food and beverage clients consistently rank high in our customer success analysis; that’s because:
- Compliance risk is high
- Content complexity is great
- Global distribution is more demanding
These organisations understand that usage rights, consent and permissions are not optional – they are business-critical.
The bottom line
For food and beverage brands, compliance is about more than regulation – it’s about control, consistency and trust.
Without it, marketing teams are exposed.
With it, they can move faster, create confidently and scale globally.
Why Asset Bank is the best way to stay compliant:
Asset Bank stands out as the leading DAM for compliance management because it is built with governance at its core, offering an unparalleled breadth and configurability of features that adapt to complex organisational needs.
Unlike rigid, off-the-shelf systems, Asset Bank enables teams to define exactly how usage rights, consent and permissions are structured, surfaced and enforced – from granular access controls and metadata-driven visibility rules to automated expiry management and embedded rights metadata.
This flexibility allows marketing and brand teams to reflect real-world regulatory requirements across regions, channels and user groups, rather than forcing compliance into a one-size-fits-all model.
The result is a system where compliance is not reliant on manual processes or individual knowledge, but is consistently applied across the entire asset lifecycle – empowering teams to use assets confidently, control access precisely and protect rights at scale.
Want to see how Asset Bank can help you manage compliance and governance across your digital asset library? Get in touch with the team for a chat.
FAQs: usage rights, consent and compliance in DAM for F&B brands
What are usage rights in digital asset management?
Usage rights are the rules that define how an asset can be used – including where it can be published, how long it can be used for, which regions it applies to and whether attribution is required. Managing these rights properly ensures assets are not used in ways that breach licensing agreements or legal requirements.
Why are usage rights important for food and beverage brands?
Food and beverage brands operate across multiple regions and channels, each with different regulations and restrictions. Without clear usage rights, teams risk using assets incorrectly – such as applying region-restricted imagery globally or using licensed content beyond its permitted timeframe.
What happens if you use an image without the correct licence?
Using an image outside of its licence terms can lead to legal action, fines, reputational damage and the need to withdraw campaigns. It can also damage relationships with photographers, agencies and partners.
How can a DAM system help with usage rights compliance?
A DAM system helps by making usage rights visible at every stage – from search to download – and by embedding rights information into the asset itself. Advanced systems also enforce restrictions, manage expiry dates and ensure users understand how assets can be used before they download them.
What is consent management in digital asset management?
Consent management refers to the process of storing, linking and managing permissions from individuals featured in images or videos. This includes tracking consent forms, applying expiry dates and ensuring assets are no longer used if consent is withdrawn.
Why is GDPR important for marketing teams using images?
GDPR requires organisations to have clear, documented consent to use images of identifiable individuals. This consent must be specific, time-bound and revocable. Marketing teams must be able to prove consent and act quickly if it changes.
How do you manage expired licences or consent?
Best practice is to use a system that automatically tracks expiry dates and restricts or hides assets when licences or consent expire. This prevents outdated or non-compliant assets from being reused.
How do permissions help with compliance?
Permissions ensure that only the right people can access and use specific assets. This reduces the risk of unapproved or restricted content being used and helps maintain control across teams, partners and regions.
What is the biggest compliance risk in marketing asset management?
The biggest risk is not asset creation – it is reuse. Assets are often downloaded, shared and reused without visibility of their rights, restrictions or consent status, which is where most compliance issues occur.
What should food and beverage brands look for in a DAM system?
Brands should look for a DAM that offers strong governance features, including:
- Clear visibility of usage rights
- Consent management and expiry tracking
- Granular permissions and access control
- Metadata-driven workflows
- Embedded rights information in downloaded files
This ensures compliance is built into everyday processes.
How does Asset Bank support compliance?
Asset Bank helps teams stay compliant by making rights and consent visible throughout the asset lifecycle, embedding metadata into files, automating expiry management and providing granular control over who can access and use assets.
Can a DAM system reduce legal risk?
Yes. A well-configured DAM system reduces legal risk by ensuring assets are only used within their permitted rights, consent is properly managed and access is controlled. This minimises the chance of accidental misuse.
