Oxfam relies on the ability to share photos, videos, and stories to generate social awareness for important causes around the world. The stories it shares bring the reality of poverty and injustice to the public, inspiring people to act or give to its causes. 

Oxfam works together with more than 3,500 partner organizations, as well as allies and communities in 67 countries. Collectively, it reached more than 22 million people worldwide last year (2020) through its long-term development, advocacy and emergency programs, 53% of whom were women and girls.

Opportunity Over Concern

Having teams of freelancers gathering video footage across the globe, Oxfam was increasingly facing logistical challenges including storage issues and a lack of team collaboration. The issues became more apparent when the Coronavirus pandemic took hold, and the organization was having to handle more raw footage than usual.

Additionally, with rising concerns over data security, Oxfam required a remote storage solution which would give the organization total control over its assets.

“We had been looking for different solutions to share raw footage quickly across our global teams prior to Covid. We had no choice but to work remotely which meant more hard drives were being sent and received. Along with the data privacy concerns, the number of items being received was causing frustration. This seemed like a great opportunity to upgrade our facilities and ensure the global teams were able to work collaboratively on projects.”
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Fred Perraut, Head of Stories Team, Oxfam UK

A Focus on Collaboration

With teams all over the world, Oxfam wanted to ensure any authorized personnel could easily and securely access video content, regardless of location. It wanted to move away from the expense and insecurities of hardware and introduce a solution which would eliminate the need for sending and receiving large numbers of hard drives. 

After trying a previous solution, Oxfam wanted to remove the reliance on hardware and introduce a system which would improve workflow efficiency and ensure it could maximize content collaboration. Oxfam enlisted iconik to upgrade its approach to media management and to rethink the video creation process. Iconik’s platform is built for remote collaboration and being cloud-based, it ensures constant connectivity even in remote areas. 

Creating Videos to Inspire 

Using iconik, Oxfam has amazing security and remains in control of how its content is gathered, managed, and used, while also following its organizational guidelines, such as GDPR regulations, and maintaining the respect and dignity of all participants. Video editors, regardless of expertise, can immediately locate required content using the AI capabilities that are built into the platform. The transition to cloud storage has benefitted Oxfam’s ability to create meaningful videos. It’s clear that ensuring teams have access to large amounts of raw footage is more important now, than ever.

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“Iconik’s solution has streamlined our approach to creating content. It’s easier to edit stories, easier to transcribe, and easier to locate specific content. The whole process, from the initial talks with iconik through to implementation, has been really pleasant. We have seen immediate results, and I’m already sharing this solution with friends working in the non-profit sector.”
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Fred Perraut, Head of Stories Team, Oxfam UK