Youngest Media
Background
Youngest Media are a UK based independent entertainment studio who specialise in television and digital video.
They began their journey with Submit.com in 2017. Their main goal of signing up to the platform was to put a tool in place in order to streamline their casting process.
Andy Mallon, a Casting Producer for Youngest, was an active user of the system. Having previously worked with software similar to Submit.com, Andy knew that implementing this within in Youngest would be greatly beneficial for the company.
Before Submit.com
Youngest Media’s application process prior to using Submit.com was simple.
“We would accept applications in the form of word documents from candidates via email to a shared address. Subsequently, these applications were then saved to a shared drive.”
In the beginning, it was the easiest solution for taking in a large number of applications. However, the team then faced the big challenge of keeping track of applications and the need to manually track the breakdown of the data from all the applications they received such as gender, age and location. This became very time consuming and proved to be a pain point of their process.
“Submit.com have a great product and are constantly adding features which have been particularly useful to our team, especially auto-tagging which is great! I’m a freelance Casting Producer and will be recommending them to all of my future employers!”
Moving Systems
By moving their process over to Submit.com, Youngest saw the true advantage of using an online system. The platform allowed their team to be more efficient in their work. As they added more show casting applications to their workspace, it allowed Youngest to develop a substantial database of applicant profiles who they could reach out to, letting them know about future projects but while adhering to GDPR policies.
In addition to this, using Submit.com on a continual basis to streamlining their process online improved the timescale for them in getting future projects up and running.
Andy stated that now the process “ saves several days of the casting producer’s time on each project” than before as it involved less time negotiating price and setting up projects which in turn reduced the time spent by the producer getting resources into place by a number of days.
Freelance Workforce
One challenge Youngest Media faced was in relation to their freelance workforce. A major concern they had when rolling out a new software package like Submit.com was trying to ensure that their freelance workforce was trained up on the platform so they could be familiar with it for effective and efficient work. Submit.com offered training calls as well as in-app support to all team members when they had a query or an issue. The online service catered for a freelance workforce allowing them to gain access to the system on the go as well as adding new team members when it was needed.
Andy held high praise for the team at Submit.com:
“Neil and Sarah who have always been really prompt at replying to our queries and offering tech advice. They have also taken on board any suggestions relating to Submit.com that we’ve had and offer great tutorials to new members of the team.”
Key Features Used
- File Upload
- Branch Logic
- iApplication Summary Forms
- Auto Tagging
Automated Tracking
Using features such as auto-tagging to streamline their process, It allowed them to reduce the time and effort it would take the team to read through the applications and organise them accordingly. Now with Submit.com in place and utilising the tagging feature, Youngest were able to search and filter for applications at the click of a button.
“This is particularly useful when dealing with large volumes of applications on Submit.com. Not having to tag applications individually has saved a lot of time.”
“Submit.com charge for the service of hosting your application form rather than charging per application form. This means that casting teams can just focus on getting as many applications in for their shows without having to think about the cost implications!”
Expanding into New Offices
With the proven success their UK office had with using Submit.com, the Youngest Media Germany office also availed of the system setting up their own workspace dedicated to the productions relevant to their office. Setting up the new workspace involved a lot of customization including translating the whole front-end into German.
“This was tricky to co-ordinate, but the team at Submit.com rose to the challenge and managed to turn this around very quickly and were very flexible in helping us set this up.”