Clemson Athletics Goes 'All In' On Microsoft for Social Content
The blast of cannon fire is unnerving—a martial deviation from an otherwise celebratory medley of passion, pride, tradition, and unbridled youth. Tiny cheerleaders tumble in synchronicity through the 90-degree heat and into the arms of muscular counterparts. The unintelligible sound of synchronized voices exits the wide end of megaphones—the noises blending with and lost among the 81,500 voices in the arena. Here, on the western end zone of Clemson University's Death Valley Memorial Stadium, the explosion commences what is known as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football"—when the reigning NCAA College Football Champion Clemson Tigers run from the top of a hill that sits above the field onto the end zone. The game is about to begin. The team is going to win. I close my eyes and see nothing but orange.
As the capacity crowd remains on its feet in anticipation of kickoff, a Clemson student sprints up three flights of steep stairs, hastening to deliver an SD card that holds the footage of the hill run to one of his teammates within the Clemson Tigers Creativity Studio. The Studio, a cramped, shadowy room is managed by Jonathan Gantt, The Clemson Athletic Department's Director of New and Creative Media. Gantt leads a team of eight creatives—six students, and two professionals—who are responsible for creating all of the social media content that captures the experience of 18 different teams and almost 500 student athletes.
The creative team combines a mix of short-form video, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram stills, and Snapchat stories to try to replicate the experience of being a Clemson Tiger. This content includes behind-the-scenes looks into locker room pep-talks, first person video of practicing with the team, quick-turnaround video of pre-game ceremonies like the aforementioned Hill Run, or the pre-game Tiger Walk. Using its technology arsenal, Gantt's team is able to create content that is close to real-time, while still providing expert-level design. For Gannt's higher ups, the creative team's main objective isn't to sell Clemson paraphernalia or amass an army of followers; it's to show potential athletic recruits what life would be like should they choose to don the orange and white.
PCMag was given exclusive access to Gantt's team, as well as on-field access to Clemson Tiger pre-game festivities, so that we could see exactly how the small team, and its even smaller suite of technology, has made Clemson one of the most followed and respected social media content producers in sports.
The Clemson Creativity Studio
On Oct. 13th, 2008, Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden, who had been with the team for 9 years, was fired. The same day thirty-eight-year-old wide receivers coach Dabo Swinney was offered the interim job and told he could remain on as head coach if he were capable of turning the team around. He met with the team, told them what had happened, and said that the next six weeks would be extremely difficult for everyone involved, but that he would be "all in" to helping return Clemson Football to a place of respectability. He told his team and his coaches he only wanted people who would be "all in" with him. Anyone who wasn't committed to the program, he said, should be absent for the next practice, which was scheduled for later that day. The entire team and coaching staff came to the practice.
Today, prior to exiting the locker room before each game, each Clemson football player and Dabo Swinney places a poker chip in a bucket labeled "All In" to re-pledge their commitment to the program. Although Gantt doesn't run his Creativity Studio with a similar emphasis on tradition, he said he doesn't choose his staffers and students based on their respective skillsets, but rather on the type of person they are, and whether they're committed to going all in for the creative team.
"The number one criterion for working for us is you've got to be a good person," said Gantt. "We don't really care if you can hold a camera or know how to use Photoshop. We can teach you that. Obviously, it helps tremendously if you have some skill and experience, but the number one thing is you've got to be a good person, because we can teach you the rest."
The first thing you notice when you walk into the Creativity Studio is the 84-inch Microsoft Surface Hub . Then you'll notice the mess; papers strewn about, empty coffee cups, Clemson t-shirts, Clemson hats in no apparent order. You'll see two Microsoft Surface Studio desktops along the right-side of the room, a square table at the center of the room housing two Microsoft Surface Book laptops, and a coffee bar in the far left corner featuring a wide variety of sweeteners, creams, coffee flavors, and a bottle of water or two. Because the team needs to follow what Clemson football and its rivals are doing on the field, four large-screen LG televisions are positioned alongside one another on the back wall.
As proof of his commitment to his staff, Gantt allows any one of his professional or student workers (and even their friends) to access the $21,999 Microsoft Surface Hub at any point during the day. The Hub, an 84-inch 4K Windows-based collaboration kiosk, is designed to provide businesses and schools the ability to work in large groups, on multiple screens, and in remote locations. Gantt also allows his team to check out one of two Microsoft Surface Books , which start at $1,499, if they'd prefer to use the device over their own personal laptops, which were each in the range of three to four years old, the staffers told me. The same goes for any of the high-end cameras the team uses down on the field. With access to these expensive devices, and with the freedom to use them how and when they want, the students feel like professional creatives, rather than work-study gophers.