Let’s face it – media today is a mess.
Assets are scattered across servers, old hard drives, cloud folders, WhatsApp chats, and in that one producer’s laptop bag from 2016.
Meanwhile, deadlines loom, budgets tighten, and the demand for high-impact content never lets up.
That’s where content wrangling comes in. And no, it’s not just a clever phrase – it’s a very real (and increasingly vital) discipline.
At Greatstock, content wrangling means taking a proactive, strategic approach to media asset management.
It’s about tracking, rounding up, reimagining and deploying content that might otherwise disappear into digital oblivion.
And as brands and agencies push to do more with less, it’s become an essential service.
“Wrangling content is part archivist, part detective, part digital strategist,” says Margi Sheard, Managing Director of leading visual solutions provider, Greatstock.
“It’s not just about storage – it’s about finding the value in your content, making it accessible, and ensuring it’s ready to deliver creative impact when you need it most.”
Not Just Management – It’s Content with a Game Plan
For years, Greatstock has been at the forefront of media asset management – working with top brands, agencies and content producers across South Africa to digitise, index, and future-proof their media libraries.
But now, with the flood of digital content showing no sign of slowing, the company has embraced the term “Content Wranglers” – a title that captures both the technical rigour and creative intuition required for the job.
And it’s more than semantics.
While traditional asset management might stop at “file and store,” content wrangling goes further – offering customised, searchable platforms, expert rights clearance, and the ability to repurpose existing footage for entirely new campaigns.
In one instance, Greatstock helped a multinational brand save over $2.6 million by unlocking value from their existing film library instead of reshooting from scratch.
“It’s about being smart with what you already have,” says Sheard.
“A lot of what we do is helping clients rediscover amazing material they didn’t even know was still usable – and then putting the systems in place so they never lose track of it again.”
Welcome to the Age of Strategic Content
Modern marketing doesn’t follow a single broadcast path anymore.
Content needs to work across TV, social, digital, internal platforms, and sometimes even interactive activations – each with their own formats, rights requirements, and tone.
With that, the stakes for licensing and usage rights have gone up. One wrongly sourced clip can tank a campaign – and leave agencies dealing with legal fallout.
That’s where Greatstock’s rights clearance expertise comes in.
From negotiating with international sports bodies and music publishers, to tracing the owners of obscure home video clips, Greatstock’s researchers do the hard work to ensure everything is above board and legally locked down.
They’ve cleared content for everyone from Volkswagen and Sanlam to MTN and Kia – even dealing with high-profile footage involving Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali, Stirling Moss, and beyond.
Building Better Systems – Not Just Folders
Aside from content discovery and rights clearance, Greatstock also offers bespoke digital libraries tailored to a client’s specific workflow.
Whether it’s a private internal portal for marketing teams, a public-facing archive, or a hybrid model, these platforms are user-friendly, secure, and built for speed – with advanced search, tagging and version control features baked in.
And perhaps most critically: these systems are designed by producers, for producers – meaning they speak the language of people actually using the content.
So, if your brand has years of footage, photos or raw rushes lurking in the background (and let’s be honest, most do), it may be time to call in the wranglers.
Because in the ever-evolving world of digital storytelling, having a partner who can help you round up, protect and actually use your content assets is more than a nice-to-have – it’s a no brainer.
Greatstock:
The Great Curator
www.greatstock.co.za
