PhotoShelter Helps FC Cincinnati Engage Fans with Real-Time Content

PhotoShelter Levels Up FC Cincinnati’s Photo Management Game

Winning and keeping the attention of sports fans requires capturing and sharing in-game moments as soon as they happen on the field. FC Cincinnati’s prior struggles with photo management caused significant delays in content distribution – which means their team missed these important moments for audience engagement. PhotoShelter helped FC Cincinnati significantly improve their workflows, and now they’re able to get content out in real-time.  

The Challenge: Outdated Photo Management & Slow Content Distribution

Joseph Guzy, Manager of Photography, and Cortney Lesovoy, Coordinator of Digital Asset Management, encountered significant challenges with outdated photo management before joining FC Cincinnati. In their previous positions, handling and organizing thousands of images was a cumbersome process that slowed down their workflow and caused delays in media distribution.

• No easy way to tag, organize, and find photos.  Cortney describes the time-consuming process, saying, “Prior to coming here, I was a photography intern and [my last organization] used Dropbox… It would take a whole day to sort all the photos we had to go through because you had to put them in folders on your desktop, upload them to the community folder, and also the player folder, and the game folder.”
• Editing and delivering photos was a bottleneck. Before PhotoShelter, editing and delivering photos created significant bottlenecks. This slow process led to frequent content delays, affecting his team’s ability to engage audiences. The resulting backlogs also spilled over into personal time, disrupting the team’s work-life balance.
• Challenges with real-time content sharing. Lacking the features for real-time content sharing, Joseph and Cortney struggled to distribute key game moments to fans. Their previous system’s delays often meant that dynamic content was shared too late to capture peak fan engagement, undermining the effectiveness of their media efforts.

“It could take you a whole day just to sort and make sure everyone could find things where they were supposed to be. We didn’t add metadata, no keywords whatsoever. So coming here and utilizing PhotoShelter has just been a dream come true, because I don’t have to waste a whole day doing that. I can do it in a couple of minutes. So it’s phenomenal.”

Cortney Lesovoy, Coordinator of Digital Asset Management

The Solution: Easy Access for Real-Time Collaboration

Transitioning to FC Cincinnati, Joseph Guzy and Cortney Lesovoy experienced a significant improvement from their previous struggles with inefficient photo management. PhotoShelter equipped them with tools that transformed how they handle and share digital assets.

• Easy and quick access to visual assets. PhotoShelter revolutionized Joseph and Cortney’s photo management by enhancing search functionality and tagging systems. Joseph noted the significant reduction in time required to locate specific photos, which previously consumed considerable effort and resources. The platform has optimized their entire process of capturing, editing, and distributing photos, boosting overall productivity.
• Real-time uploads & improved collaboration. PhotoShelter’s centralized digital asset management solution and the FileFlow app significantly improved workflow. Cortney explained, “Workspaces make it super easy for me to collect a bunch of photos for when I need to show people options. We recently had a real estate project… They had to get approved by our real estate developer, our CEO, and a lot of other stakeholders. And I get to solidify the decision with a folder that I can send to multiple people.”
• Actionable data for improved performance. With PhotoShelter Analytics, Cortney is better equipped to refine the team’s creative processes based on actual data. She uses insights from the most downloaded photos and search terms to adjust strategies, noting, “I definitely look at our most downloaded photos every month, and what keywords people are using to search. Then, I make sure I’m tailoring those searches and adding in new keywords every time someone’s looking for something specific.”

“A huge thing as photographers in this line of work is having to deal with a front office and stakeholders…it’s really easy for us to share things like [PhotoShelter galleries] and know our stakeholders are not going to have trouble accessing or downloading photos.”

Joseph Guzy, Manager of Photography

FC Cincinnati is Winning with Modern Photo Management

With PhotoShelter, FC Cincinnati is now able to engage fans with real-time content and easily collaborate with their internal team. The club has also been able to create a fully searchable and organized archive of FC Cincinnati’s visual history. Cortney says, “We are a club that is really proud of our history, and it’s so easy for us to go back and reference specific moments from when we became an MLS Club…and [be] able to share it all.” From the first moments as a club, to their latest moments on the field, FC Cincinnati is now able to share them all with fans – faster and easier than ever before.

“I have a lot of our internal stakeholders come to me on a daily basis… it’s really just a mutual relationship of they trust me, I trust them. And PhotoShelter makes it super easy for everyone to work together.”

Cortney Lesovoy, Coordinator of Digital Asset Management