How University of Miami Athletics Has Instant Access to 500K+ Images

Organizing 30 Years of University History

The University of Miami has nearly 500,000 photos capturing moments over the past 30 years. These images are crucial to sharing the story of Hurricane athletics. Miami’s Associate AD for Marketing and Digital Strategy, Brian Bowsher needed a way to consolidate all of the university’s athletics photos into one visual media library.

Photo courtesy of University of Miami.

No single source of truth. Photos were stored in a variety of random places (for example, a folder on a staff member’s desktop). This made it difficult for the team to take full advantage of the high-quality photos coming in on game days. “Having reliable, solid photography helps engage fans and hopefully gets them interested in attending events,” says Miami’s Associate AD for Marketing and Digital Strategy, Brian Bowsher. 

No easy way for freelancers to access & share photos. JC Ridley, has been shooting Miami athletics for the past 20 years. Before, he used his own site to deliver photos to the team at the university. Meanwhile, any local unattached freelancers all shared their photos with the team in different ways, like WeTransfer. The uptick in the number of photos coming in from freelancers exacerbated Miami’s photo management problems, driving the team to centralize all of their visual assets into one library. 

The need for real-time content is growing. Over the past four years, the demand for authentic, real-time content on social media and the school’s website has driven the athletic department to hire freelancers more frequently when the team is on the road. Brian says it’s critical to have a photographer at every big event so you can make fans feel like they are on the road with you when they’re following along on social media. However, with no easy access to photos, posting real-time content was a challenge.

Desire to monetize game photos. Brian says monetizing athletics images would supplement the department’s budget and help them fund shoots they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. However, they did not have a system in place to be able to achieve this goal seamlessly.

“Until now we didn’t have a home for all of our photos, so that’s certainly been the biggest benefit up to this point.”

– Brian Bowsher, Associate AD for Marketing and Digital Strategy, University of Miami Athletics

The Solution: A Winning Content Strategy

PhotoShelter empowers Brian and his team to easily organize and access the university’s massive collection, generate revenue from imagery and build a stronger brand through visual storytelling.

A centralized content library. With Miami’s new cloud-based library, Brian explains, it’s easy to give all of the photographers FTP access to the library, cutting out the hassle of WeTransfers. The team can stay organized with metadata, quickly search the entire collection, create their own tags (like “home” or “away,” jersey color, etc.), sort by orientation and browse visual thumbnails. 

Quick & easy content access. Combining Ridley’s archive with all of the other disparate shoots into one repository has allowed the team to create an easily accessible, searchable collection. “Having photographers is the first step, but being able to access those photos in a quick and convenient fashion is a big benefit,” Brian explains. 

Operating in real-time drives results. With a fully accessible and searchable content library, the Hurricanes can now use the most recent and engaging content available. Using a real photo from today’s game, rather than an old stock photo, as the lead image for a real-time score update on the website is authentic and boosts the number of clicks. Current photos also drive retweets and shares, add to the value of being a follower and attract new followers.

PhotoShelter as a revenue generator. “We want to be aggressive in sales and have it be a revenue generator,” says Brian. Because PhotoShelter is the only NCAA-compliant photo sales solution for universities, Brian and his team will be able to generate revenue from their images without making their compliance officers nervous. He plans to start out with a handful of 8-12 great campus shots, panoramic shots of events like the one below, and perhaps some of the cool graphics created by university designers.

“[PhotoShelter] gives us content for social media, for the website, it’s something that will potentially serve branding pieces down the road. The photography just conveys what we want to get across far better than we can write.”

–  Brian Bowsher, Associate AD for Marketing and Digital Strategy, University of Miami Athletics

A Look Inside University of Miami’s Media Library

Check out this screenshot of the results of an advanced search for the keyword “Sebastian,” a horizontal orientation, sorted by date in University of Miami’s centralized visual media library:

University of Miami Preserves a Visual Legacy with PhotoShelter

Now, Brian and his team have quick and easy access to that photos that can be used in email blasts, next year’s baseball posters, sales collateral, and perhaps new prints to hang up in the locker room. Brian says that being able to easily search and browse a centralized database will add to the overall look of all of these projects. With the right photos, Miami athletics will be able to tell strong stories across the board.

“The searchability and the user-friendliness of PhotoShelter is far better than anything we had in the past.” 

–  Brian Bowsher, Associate AD for Marketing and Digital Strategy, University of Miami Athletics

Cover photo courtesy of University of Miami.