Overtime centralizes video file management and scales for growth with Smartsheet and Brandfolder

Overtime is building a network and brand for the next generation of sports fans. With more than 40 original series published on YouTube, Snapchat, and IGTV, Overtime is creating inclusive and engaging experiences for sports fans who want to not only watch games but connect with the athletes. Smartsheet and its premium products — including WorkApps, Brandfolder, Dynamic View, and Resource Management by Smartsheet — help Overtime more quickly and easily manage vast amounts of video content and work planning, on a platform that’s ready to grow with the network.

“We’re targeting our audience by seeing them as our family,” says Tanya Cuadra, senior production manager at Overtime. “We are really focusing on what they want. We talk to them; we have an Overtime VIP page where you sign up and interact with the people that work at Overtime and with the different athletes. We’re taking it a step further. We’re not just what’s on TV when you’re clicking through; we are actually a part of your life.”

Cuadra’s role is to oversee logistics for the video team, everything from travel to insurance to sourcing and delivering equipment. The fires she fights on a typical day include filling staff rosters for specific shows, reporting on the performance of series episodes or marathons, and capturing the all-important media releases that are required before a video can go live. As Overtime adds staff and greenlights new series, Cuadra has exponentially more details to manage with no letup in the pace of work.

“As we grow, we want to make that growth an easy transition,” Cuadra says. “We’ve been doing that for the past three and a half years that I’ve been here; we’re always running. Right now I would like to organize ourselves so that as we continue the growth that has already been happening, we have processes in place that everyone can adapt to very easily.”

One of Overtime’s most important needs is a single place to manage series’ video files, with clear indications of where a cut is in the review process and which version is final and approved for publishing. The company previously used Slope, which was acquired by Smartsheet in 2019. As Cuadra decided how to deal with that transition, she knew she needed a file management system that could help her bring order to tracking vast amounts of information, while also being fast to learn and easy to use.

“We are a ton of creative minds moving really quickly, and we needed a little more organization,” Cuadra says. “We needed something that can scale with us, where we can see all employee time, with information that adds into our budget, and to have all of our videos in one place rather than having to mix and match.”

Cuadra and her team were combining multiple tools to organize video and logistics, including file management on Slope and Box, information tracking on Google Docs, and communication and updates via email and text message. Overtime prides itself on being fast — for example, having game highlights up within five minutes of the final buzzer — but it was difficult to meet that pace if it wasn’t clear which file version to pull.

“If we go to a basketball game, we will have the highlights up before anybody else,” Cuadra says. “Not being able to upload something quickly, not being able to find the file and guarantee that it’s the right one, it does hurt our business if we’re not releasing things on time and we’re slower than other companies because of it.”

The production team evaluated a variety of project and file management platforms. Many had appealing features, such as ease of use or a robust upload and storage structure. But only Smartsheet combined all these features with a responsive and deep-benched support program that put expert advice and problem-solving at Cuadra’s fingertips anytime. And the versatility of Smartsheet means that multiple Overtime teams, including finance, HR, sales, and design, could benefit from the platform, making it cost-effective for a startup.

Cutting confusion out of media file management

When a series is greenlit, Cuadra sets up a production workspace for it in Smartsheet. She calculates budgets and flags any cost concerns, pulls together release forms and other necessary documents, and creates trackers for episodes, video file versions, and social media assets. Automated workflows route completed releases into the correct series folder and push updates to dashboards. Brandfolder cuts time and confusion by establishing a single location for each series and automatically moving file versions to the right locations as each step of the process is completed.

“We do marathons of all of our shows, where every single episode is combined into one,” Cuadra says. “With those, we don’t want to use the final YouTube cut because that has the ‘next on’ and ‘previously on’ and all the graphics. We need the raw version with no graphics and no music, so that later if we want to rebuild anything it’s going to be very easy. And as we put tags on the files in the sheets, those columns go directly to Brandfolder, so it’s going to be easier if we want to pull everything for ‘Hello Newmans’ or Julian Newman and have it all there automatically.”

Smartsheet captures all the data needed to make decisions, from viewership and staff hours for each episode to budget analytics that show how well a series is generating return against its costs. Cuadra has created dashboard views that allow executives to see performance across the network or drill into details for specific programs.

“With dashboards, our CEO can click in and see everything, which is pretty incredible,” Cuadra says. “Whenever our higher-ups are wondering how a show like ‘Bunchie’ is doing, they can see the analytics of the seasons prior, how the budgets compare to the actuals, and how many people are working on it. They can see if a show is worth continuing to produce with the number of people who are working on it and the amount of money it’s making. All of this is much easier for them to digest than having to be in seven different meetings.”

Cuadra is implementing Resource Management by Smartsheet to simplify the process of tracking staff time for both payroll and resource planning. She used to tally each employee’s time in a spreadsheet, with different tabs for each week and manual calculation of hours spent per show. Often her accounting colleague would come up with different numbers, forcing them to go back in and resolve the discrepancy. Now when she inputs staff workdays, the numbers feed into a calendar that shows individual payroll figures as well as salary costs per show. She expects the data to guide decisions about series renewals, staff assignments, and hiring.

Bringing order to messy processes

The first Smartsheet solution to roll out at Overtime was an automated location and talent release process. Before Smartsheet, Cuadra would send out requests for approval of location filming and individuals’ appearance on video, but had no centralized way to track which requests had come back and which were still outstanding. Now she has created standard release forms and a sheet that tracks all requests, so it’s easy to follow up on the last permissions standing in the way of putting a series online.

“I absolutely love it because we’re not losing releases,” Cuadra says. “Before I would send out a release into the abyss, and I wasn’t the person who asked the contact to sign it. Now I can go in and very easily ask what’s up with a specific release. I wouldn’t say that it saves me time; it’s more that everything’s organized, where before it was just a hot mess.”

One of the most important benefits for Overtime is the level of support Smartsheet provides. Cuadra says that where other providers assigned a single contact for the account, Smartsheet offers a team that will teach her how to create specific solutions, check requests to make sure she’s getting the right level of functionality for a product, and proactively contact her when new or updated features are being rolled out.

A support team that enables rapid growth

Cuadra is in the process of creating WorkApps to provide tailored workspaces for each employee. The apps include a personalized dashboard, production “bible,” task lists, and links to everything employees need for the shows they’re working on. The custom-built views mean employees don’t have to search through files or documentation for anything outside their areas of responsibility, saving time and reducing the risk of overload or misplacing information.

“I’m still figuring out how to make it work best for our team,” Cuadra says. “But it’s been fun to be able to click ‘Hello Newmans’ and see all the things for the show in one place, and then send it over to that team and say ‘In a couple weeks, this is what we’re going to launch.’ They’ve been texting me already saying that they’re very excited.”

Additional solutions that Cuadra is planning include tracking production data such as each editor’s average edit time. She’s also interested in using the guest upload feature in Brandfolder to make it easier for iPhone shooters to share video with show editors. And as recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic allows employees to travel more, the Smartsheet mobile app will give them project status and files for approval when it’s not convenient to connect a laptop.

“What’s great about Smartsheet is that the implementation process is helping us make templates that we can build upon as we grow,” Cuadra says. “As we get more channels, we already have a template for how our original channels were working, and we can grow from there. And we have really great communication with Smartsheet, so if we need anything that will help us move to that next level, we can reach out to them. We really feel we have support from Smartsheet, but also know that as we scale, we’ll be able to handle this on our own.”

For more information about this story, please see our case study.