Creative asset management for sports events [case study]

The Maccabiah Games is the second largest sports event in the world. Established nearly 100 years ago, it brings together over 10,000 Jewish athletes from more than 80 countries. With such a rich history, you can bet they’ve amassed a huge collection of photos over the decades. But with all that history comes the challenge of managing and finding those images when needed. That’s where the Maccabiah team stepped up to make some big changes.

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The Challenge

Here’s how things were before the big transformation:

• A large number of assets: going back so many years, it’s no wonder the team gathered hundreds of thousands of photos and videos from numerous sources - professional photographers, team members, and their community. 
• A fragmented system: The team relied on two main systems for their photos: Google Drive, managed by the Head of Digital Media, and an official archive for older images. The head of media, being the go-to person for anything photo-related, had to juggle this responsibility alongside her many other tasks. Access was limited, and the process was slow.
• Bottlenecks everywhere: If anyone, like the designers or marketers, needed a specific photo, they had to send an email with a detailed request. Then, they’d wait—sometimes for days—while they searched through the archives. It wasn’t just time-consuming. At best, the person making the request got 5-10 possible options, out of hundreds of potentially available photos.
• Manual tagging overload: An archivist was responsible for tagging photos manually. This was a never-ending task, prone to human error. The volume of photos made it hard to keep everything organized, and images were at times either missed or not tagged correctly.

With the Maccabiah Games growing every year, it became clear that this system wasn’t sustainable. The team needed a solution that would free up their time and make their jobs easier.

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The Turnaround

The Maccabiah team decided it was time for a change. By teaming up with Tagbox.io, they were able to completely overhaul their workflows:

• Opening up access: They knew they needed to democratize the photo archives. Instead of centralizing everything through the Head of Digital Media, they rolled out a system that everyone on the team could use. This shift allowed them to focus on improving the organization of the photos rather than digging through emails for requests.
• Streamlining the workflow: For the design team, this was a breath of fresh air. No more waiting around for the photos they needed. With just a quick search and a few filters, they could find exactly what they were looking for in seconds.
• Better tagging without the burnout: The official archive still exists, but the role of the archivist became so much easier, with the new system taking a lot of pressure off his shoulders. The improved tagging capabilities meant he could ensure accuracy without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work. This was especially true with tagging people, with Tagbox.io’s facial recognition system often finding 10x more people than originally tagged for manually.
• Getting set up quickly: a huge challenge was getting all of their assets tagged and organized. While this is usually a lengthy project that can take months, the team managed to get it done quickly using Tagbox.io’s seamless migration service. With the Tagbox.io team uploading and tagging the assets, the Maccabiah team reaped the benefits without needing to do the heavy lifting.

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Summary

The Maccabiah Games team faced a daunting challenge: how to efficiently manage and access nearly a century’s worth of photos. But with some smart changes, they turned things around.

Today, they have a streamlined system that works for everyone, freeing up time and making it easier to find and share images. The media manager can now focus on enhancing the system, the designers can get their work done faster, and the archivist can ensure the archives are well-organized without the manual grind. The entire team can access and share the rich history of the Maccabiah Games with ease, preserving the legacy for future generations.

It’s been a real team effort, and the Maccabiah crew deserves all the credit for making it happen. They didn’t just improve a system; they transformed the way they manage and celebrate their history.​

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Looking to organize your media from your sports events? Join Tagbox.io and get started.