Introduction

INDYCAR is the Indianapolis-based governing body for North America’s auto racing series known as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The series features an international field of drivers – including six-time series champion Scott Dixon, two-time series champion Will Power and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves – who compete on ovals, road courses and temporary street courses.

The season consists of 17 races in North America and is highlighted by the historic Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is owned by Penske Entertainment, a division of Penske Corporation, a global transportation, automotive and motorsports leader.

The Problem

The INDYCAR governing body needed a new content management solution for two key reasons - firstly to help broadcast partners access video and still images easily and quickly, and secondly to resolve a security issue with the older system.

“We wanted to get it up and running as quickly as possible,” explained Kate Davis, Director of Communications, INDYCAR. “But we also had high expectations of how it would look and feel simply because we had friends at other sports leagues like MLS that were using the [Imagen] platform.”

The security and robustness of the Imagen Pro platform was therefore of crucial importance to the INDYCAR team. Imagen is ISO 27001 certified, storing all assets securely in the cloud, with video streaming and all file downloads handled via secure HTTPS encryption and TLS1.2/TLS1.3 connections, making the platform an obvious choice.

“I show off the imagen tool when I’m at business dinners when I need to approve a piece of content or have a reporter that’s looking for a video or photo. I can quickly find it on my phone and share a link. It is so easy now… we went into the project with some high expectations, and I feel like they were met.”

KATE DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, INDYCAR

The Solution

INDYCAR chose Imagen because so many of their clients are sporting rights holders and managers, so they understand broadcast workflow processes in sports organisations. Central to INDYCAR’s success is the ability to distribute large volumes of video content at speed in as near to real time as possible to sponsors and broadcasters. Imagen features such as AFD (Accelerated File Download), which transfers broadcast-quality video at much higher speeds than conventional methods such as HTTP, FTP or courier, really add value here.

Imagen has always championed self-service access to content, so that clients or end-users can help themselves to as much content as they need, subject to granular permission controls. Similarly, the ability to initiate and manage live streaming via the Imagen platform is useful for all types of immediate sporting content, and especially valuable for premium content, such as pit lane walks, previews and insider insights.

Results and Benefits

SPEED
Imagen has always prided itself on providing impeccable customer service and support, offering immediate access to expertise to ensure a frictionless experience. INDYCAR operates in a real-time environment, so responsive support in tight timeframes has been a core part of the successful implementation.

EFFICIENCY
“There are times where our race teams [will] send me content because they are too busy to upload it. They’ll text me a piece of video and I’ll upload it to the site from my phone. It’s so user-friendly, once we were able to get into the tool and start using it day in and day out, you see how incredibly easy it is.”
Kate Davis
Director of Communications, INDYCAR

ENGAGEMENT
Today’s video and image assets are discoverable tomorrow and into the future too, a vital ROI consideration. INDYCAR is seeing strong engagement with the platform by internal and external teams. For example, on one day there were 770 pieces of content downloaded in 24 hours - an increase of 102% over the previous high in August 2018.

DISTRIBUTION
“We needed a tool not just to service the immediate needs of our media, but also to be able to deliver to our international broadcast partners and create somewhat of a backup library,” Davis concludes. As a cloud solution that is designed specifically to deliver exactly these features, Imagen has already proven to be a fantastic fit for INDYCAR, and has the brand all revved up for the future.