How The Tennessee Titans Tackled 1M+ Unsearchable Images

1.6 million images needed to be surfaced

The Tennessee Titans compete in the NFL’s AFC South division, representing Nashville on a national stage every season. Behind the on-field action, the organization produces and manages a constant stream of visual content, from game photography and player portraits to partnership assets and social media creative, spanning years of franchise history. 

As the demand for imagery grew across departments, the team’s legacy archive became more of a liability than a resource. Over a million images sat in a system where most of them were effectively invisible.

The challenge: A massive library nobody could actually use

Donald Page, Director of Team Photography, is responsible for capturing and managing the visual identity of the Titans. Nate Bain, Director of Social Media & Influencer Marketing, relies on that visual library daily to fuel content across the team’s social channels. The problem wasn’t a lack of images; it was that finding the right one felt nearly impossible.

• Huge archive with no way to search it. When the Titans moved away from their prior system, years of content came over as a bulk dump. Nothing was categorized, nothing was labeled, and nothing was easy to find. “There was a dump of content that wasn’t searchable,” Donald said. “No metadata, nothing tagged.”
• Years of images missing tags. Donald inherited a library built entirely by external photographers, but tagging and keywording were never included. “Photography was 100% contract and metadata wasn’t part of the contract,” he explained, which meant the archive grew without any structural foundation. 
• Digital assets scattered across teams. Teams across the organization stored assets wherever was most convenient: desktop folders, local servers, wherever they could. Workflows varied from person to person. The path of least resistance was to reuse whatever images were already close at hand, rather than dig through an unorganized archive for something better.

“Before PhotoShelter, people kept folders on desktops or servers, processes weren’t consistent, and they reused the same images because those were easiest to find.”

Donald Page, Director of Team Photography, Tennessee Titans

The solution: AI-powered library for the whole organization 

What used to be a bottleneck, with every request funneled through the photo team, is now a self-service system that moves at the speed the Titans need. PhotoShelter gave the organization a single source of truth for over a million and a half images, with the tools to actually find what they’re looking for.

• Every department can access the library and keep moving. “PhotoShelter gives the organization fast access to the image library,” Donald said. “We onboard people, and they can find what they need.”
• AI Visual Search makes a library of 1.5 million images usable. Tagging every image in an archive that large isn’t realistic, but AI Visual Search closes the gap. “With over a million and a half images, AI search helps us find what we’re looking for when we can’t get metadata perfect every time,” Donald said.
• Teams are using new assets. Better search means better creative output. Images that once sat buried in the archive are now surfacing in campaigns and social content. Donald sees it daily: PhotoShelter “helps teams find new, fresh images that amplify the brand.”

• Quick-turn requests get handled from anywhere. The speed of content delivery has changed. Donald no longer needs to be at his desk to fulfill an urgent ask. “Now I can find an image on my phone, download it, send it, and keep moving,” he said, a shift that eliminates friction on game days and beyond.
• LogoID makes partnership workflows faster. Sponsor-branded imagery is a critical need, and the next step is making it effortless to locate. The Titans are rolling out LogoID to build smart galleries for their partnerships group, making it simple to “quickly find assets that support our partners,” as Donald described.
• Thousands of hours recovered across the organization. Without self-service access, Donald estimates, “people would spend half their day pulling images.” The time saved across departments adds up to what he calls “thousands of hours” that now go toward higher-value work.

“A great image is no good if you can’t find it. PhotoShelter helps us find our best work.”

Donald Page, Director of Team Photography, Tennessee Titans

Championship-level archive for the NFL brand

An archive that once buried its best work under years of disorganization now powers the Titans’ brand. Departments move faster, creative output is fresher, and the photo team spends its time shooting instead of fielding file requests. 

“With PhotoShelter, you can just log in and find whatever you’re looking for at your fingertips.” 

Donald Page, Director of Team Photography, Tennessee Titans

Photos provided by Donald Page / Tennessee Titans