The Chosen

The Chosen is a groundbreaking historical drama based on the life of Jesus, seen through the eyes of those who knew him. Set against the backdrop of Roman oppression in first-century Israel, the seven-season show shares an authentic and intimate look at Jesus’ revolutionary life and teachings.

With over 200 million viewers, The Chosen is one of the most-watched shows in the world. The series is consistently a top performer across streaming platforms Amazon Prime, Peacock, and Netflix plus a top-rated broadcast weekly on The CW. What started as a crowd-funded project has now garnered over 770 million episode views and more than 12 million social media followers.

The Chosen is an independent production written, directed, and produced by Dallas Jenkins and distributed globally by Lionsgate.

The Challenges

The Chosen has seen exponential growth in the digital assets it creates, manages, and uses. These assets are used for marketing the series, fundraising for the show production and translations, and supporting the sale of merchandise. The team was looking for a solution to manage a growing number of assets and improve the efficiency, productivity, and distribution of digital assets.

The Results

The Chosen uses their DAM to enhance distribution, increase accessibility, and improve the discoverability of their assets while sustaining consistent asset growth. With a simple click, team members are able to quickly share assets internally and with external collaborators. Further, the DAM has helped:

• Increase discoverability of assets, thereby simplifying global marketing efforts through use of AI,
• Streamline workflow processes for faster time-to-market,
• Enhance relationships with vendors, collaborators, and distributors with Branded Portals.

The Challenges: Navigating the Digital Asset Maze

Kortnay Woods, the Digital Asset Manager for The Chosen explained the organization’s initial obstacle:

"We create many assets...as the number of assets…needed and created increased…we needed a place to be able to sort them, manage them, and distribute them quickly and easily."

The absence of an effective platform to organize, access, and share these assets was impeding the team's ability to keep pace with the project's rapid growth and engagement goals.

Along with managing a massive amount of video footage, photographs, designed content, and associated imagery, they were also considering ways to ensure compliance with contractual strike rights.

They set out to find an asset management system that would help them avoid delays in promotional asset distribution as their time to market was crucial. They found in MediaValet the ability to further their success and the reach of their TV series.

Use Case: Crafting an AI-Powered Global Narrative

"Our end goal was to have a DAM platform and processing system that enables our users to easily find independently any assets they need," Woods explained.

This form of streamlined asset management was crucial for maintaining the series' momentum and expanding its global footprint.

The DAM has become an integral and strategic part of their marketing workflow and has enabled them to consolidate their footage for worldwide engagement.

The Chosen is using their MediaValet DAM to:

Streamline Actor Approval Processes

MediaValet’s Face Recognition has been used to automatically tag actors across their asset library, massively accelerating the discovery of assets needing actor review.

The Chosen's MediaValet DAM has been leveraged to streamline the actor strike-rights processes, a critical aspect of their content distribution strategy. The team uses Lightboxes to collect all of the required tagged materials then shares the Lightbox with cast members. This enables cast to review, approve, or request changes to their images while ensuring compliance with contractual requirements. It also accelerates the approval timeline, enabling quicker distribution of approved assets.

The efficiency introduced by this system supports The Chosen's broader goal of global outreach, ensuring that all promotional materials meet both internal standards and actors' expectations before being shared worldwide.

Simplify Global Marketing with AI

With a goal to reach one billion viewers, the team at The Chosen has been using the DAM as a centralized platform where marketing materials and digital assets are easily shared with international partners and distributors.

This capability ensures that The Chosen maintains a consistent and impactful presence across different markets and platforms.

With MediaValet’s AI powered video intelligence (AVI) to translate video and identify text within assets, The Chosen is still discovering how AVI can be used in their targeted campaigns and aid with unprecedented asset delivery speed and captivate viewers across different cultures and regions.

Key Features: A Toolkit for Digital Excellence

Utilizing key MediaValet features, The Chosen has not only managed to streamline its digital asset management but also significantly enhance its global marketing efforts and viewer engagement.

The DAM has contributed to creating an efficient, secure, and scalable environment for managing the vast array of digital content that powers this groundbreaking series.

The success story of The Chosen with MediaValet is not just a tale of overcoming challenges and achieving results; it's a showcase of strategic utilization of key DAM features that have transformed their digital asset management processes.

The following key features were leveraged to write their success story:

Advanced Search for Better Organization

Kortnay Woods emphasized the necessity for a system that allows users to "easily find independently any assets they need."

MediaValet's Advanced Search and organization features provide The Chosen with the ability to categorize, tag, and retrieve assets swiftly. This functionality ensures that the right content can be found at the right time, facilitating efficient content management and distribution.

Lightboxes for Approval Workflows

The team at The Chosen is using MediaValet’s Lightboxes to facilitate the cast asset approval process – actors can quickly approve, reject, or request changes to photo assets and the team can see them instantly, ensuring compliance and quick turnaround.

"Actors can review their lightbox and simply apply an attribute to determine whether they approve it, reject it, or they want to accept it with updates."

Branded Portals to Sync with Partners and Distributors

The Chosen uses Branded Portals as a means to seamlessly organize and distribute assets to vendors, collaborators, and distributors.

It enabled the team to easily sync with external partners and share assets and footage in seconds, accelerating their content distribution and securing relationships with distributors for the long-term.

“[Branded Portals] have enabled us exponentially; when we get requests from our major distributors, we're able to fulfill them...usually within less than 24 hours."

Face Recognition and AI Features for Efficiency

The team has leveraged AI-powered Face Recognition to automatically tag actors, influencers, and performers across assets to streamline the approval process and maintain compliance. This, in turn, has given them the ability to distribute promotional assets without delay.

In addition to Face Recognition, the team is beginning to use other AI-features like Audio-Visual Intelligence (AVI) to translate video and identify captions to meet new audiences in different markets.

"I love AI and I'm really excited about it... the facial recognition was a godsend."

Results: Expansive Storytelling Abilities Unleashed

Since implementing MediaValet, The Chosen has undergone a dramatic transformation in its operational and marketing efficacy.

Woods shared the tangible outcomes of using a MediaValet DAM:

"It's been very beneficial for our business...[it] has enabled us to quickly respond to requests from our major distributors…we're able to fulfill them...usually within less than 24 hours."

The DAM has been pivotal in sustaining viewer interest and expanding the series' reach.

Redefined Operational Efficiency

MediaValet's interface and robust search capabilities have drastically reduced the time spent managing assets, allowing the team to devote more energy to ideation, creative endeavors, and strategic planning.

Accelerated Distribution Capabilities

The ability to both seamlessly obtain actor approvals and to automatically identify said actor’s images with Face Recognition has accelerated The Chosen’s ability to share promotional assets across markets and expand the reach of the series.

Enriched Audience Engagement

Streamlined access to quality assets and the capability to translate assets in an instant, has enabled The Chosen to enrich its viewer experience significantly, fostering deeper connections with the audience and amplifying the series' impact, across several markets.

Evolved Digital Storytelling Abilities

By overcoming initial challenges, leveraging the DAM's capabilities for global engagement, and achieving remarkable results in viewer connection and operational efficiency, The Chosen has set a new standard for digital narratives worldwide.