How the Baltimore Ravens made 14,000 game photos searchable in under a month
The Baltimore Ravens generate hundreds to thousands of photographs per game. By 2019, the team had deployed photographers to home and away games and stored images in Photoshelter. The problem was retrieval: assets disappeared into the platform after upload, and the Digital Media Manager, Erin Disney, reported that the team fell behind on keywording game photos for the entire 2019 season.
The Ravens needed metadata taxonomies and file naming conventions that matched their workflows. A consulting team sat down with stakeholders, developed controlled vocabularies for player names, coaches, sponsors, and game events, and documented those standards in a Best Practice Guide. Once the taxonomy existed, the team applied it retroactively to over 14,000 assets from the 2019-2020 preseason, regular season, and playoffs, with a 24-hour turnaround on new game-day uploads.
Disney reported that after less than a month, player, coach, and sponsor photos became easy to search and find for any user in the organization. The combination of platform and standards delivered speed.
How MANSCAPED chose the right platform and populated it without stalling growth
MANSCAPED built its brand on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter ads targeting Millennials and Gen Z. Rapid international growth created a new problem: creative services and marketing teams lost track of content scattered across servers and Dropbox accounts. On-brand assets became difficult to find and share, threatening the pace of campaign launches.
Lizzie Correia, Creative Services Project Manager, hired outside help because no one on the team had DAM experience. The first task was platform selection. Consultants narrowed hundreds of DAM vendors to two or three options that fit MANSCAPED's needs and budget. Correia noted that this work would have taken her team months. The consultants also helped build the business case for purchase, then managed asset population, metadata application, and ongoing system administration while the creative team continued producing content.
Platform selection matters, but MANSCAPED's success came from pairing the right tool with workflow analysis and hands-on asset management. The team avoided months of internal research and kept campaigns moving.
How KIND Snacks built a folder structure and keyword list for 3,000 design assets
KIND Snacks manages up to 15 product lines with hundreds of unique ingredients. The company generated packaging design files, marketing materials, and product photography but had no central repository. Creative content lived in scattered locations, and teams could not search, share, or download assets reliably.
KIND knew a platform alone would not solve the problem. Before migrating assets, the team worked with stakeholders to define four standards: a folder structure using internal language that would scale naturally; a controlled vocabulary of 110 keywords segmented by product, ingredients, packaging, product description, and nutrition facts; a file naming convention; and a permissions tree to protect sensitive brand assets.
Once standards were documented, the team curated and uploaded nearly 3,000 design assets in a matter of weeks. Social Media Coordinator Blair Hirak reported that the migration was quick and painless, and that remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic would have been a nightmare without the newly accessible DAM system. Stacks covers this project and the other case studies in more detail on the company blog.
Why standards come before volume in every case
All three organizations faced the same pattern: volume overwhelmed informal systems, and a platform alone could not restore findability. The Ravens had Photoshelter but no keywording process. MANSCAPED had Dropbox but no taxonomy. KIND had design files but no folder structure or controlled vocabulary.
Each team invested in metadata standards, file naming conventions, and folder hierarchies before or immediately after platform selection. The Ravens applied 14,000 keywords. MANSCAPED vetted vendors and outsourced population. KIND built a 110-term vocabulary and a permissions model. Standards turned platforms into working systems.
None of these projects took years. The Ravens caught up in under a month. KIND curated 3,000 assets in weeks. MANSCAPED avoided months of vendor research by narrowing the field to two or three finalists. Speed came from treating DAM as a program, not a product, and from documenting repeatable processes that new team members could learn quickly.
Key takeaways
- The Baltimore Ravens, MANSCAPED, and KIND Snacks each solved asset findability by pairing platforms with metadata taxonomies, file naming conventions, and folder structures.
- Platform selection matters, but standards and workflows determine whether thousands of assets become searchable in weeks or remain lost in the system.
- Documented processes, such as controlled vocabularies and Best Practice Guides, let teams onboard new members quickly and maintain consistency as volume grows.
- Remote work and rapid growth expose DAM gaps faster than gradual expansion, making early investment in standards a strategic advantage during market shifts.