How Taylor High School upgraded their display by switching to Gipper Touch

Taylor High School may be small — roughly 500 students — but you wouldn't know it from how they run their athletic department. Under Athletic Director Zach Stakely, Taylor has built a brand identity that punches well above its weight.

Stakely and his Athletic Secretary, Carrie Taylor, operate with what Stakely calls an "Oregon Ducks mentality": polished visuals, consistent messaging, and a professional brand identity that sets a standard of excellence, attracts students, and drives participation rates well above the national average.

"I want people to look at Taylor like, hey, this is a place to be. It looks good. They know what they're doing." — Zach Stakely

Before Gipper Touch

Taylor ran their interactive touchscreen display through Rocket Alumni Solutions. The platform had some useful features, but fell short in a number of ways.

A display with a generic look and feel. 
Brand is important to Taylor Athletics and their display wasn’t able to meet their quality bar.

No communication. 
Updates from Rocket were rare. "The only emails we got were invoices," Stakely recalls.

No innovation. 
Features that were promised, never materialized. While Taylor's brand kept evolving, their display provider stayed static. 

The Migration

Stakely first saw Gipper Touch during a webinar. Taylor Athletics was already a Gipper Engage customer and had experienced firsthand how frequently Gipper released new features and templates. That track record told them something important.

Switching from Rocket was seamless. They could utilize their same touchscreen hardware - and Gipper's team helped migrate their prior content on their behalf. Plus. Gipper designed Taylor's new look and feel from scratch — with custom Gipper graphics built around Taylor's brand identity. Stakely's reaction when he saw the fully migrated display:

"We were like, wow, we like that. Especially not having to do anything ourselves. Seeing it all come together — we were really pleased." — Zach Stakely

After Gipper Touch

A world-class display that actually reflects the quality of the Taylor Athletics brand.
Taylor's custom-designed display reflects the same polished identity Stakely and Carrie have built across every other touchpoint. The display reinforces that "Oregon Ducks mentality" instead of fighting against it. And this is all made possible because of the unique graphics capabilities built into Gipper Touch.

“With Gipper Touch we could actually achieve the look we wanted” 

One platform, no juggling.
Creating graphics, posting to social media, and updating their touchscreen display all happens in Gipper. Plus, they have quick access to their branding, photos, videos, and graphics to quickly add to their Touch display — no re-uploading, no managing separate vendors, no extra invoices.

"To work with one company for everything is awesome." 

Updates in minutes, not days.
Gipper Touch's visual editor and modern interface means Stakely can easily update content without it becoming a chore. That means time back in his day to handle his other AD duties.

A vendor that keeps innovating.
Unlike their previous provider, Gipper releases regular product updates and communicates proactively about what's coming next. 

"We love how much Gipper evolves as a company to serve our needs." 

Now, their 75" ViewSonic touchscreen display is a center-piece that Taylor Athletics is proud of. It sits between their two main gymnasium doors, right at the event entrance where every visitor, student, and community member walks by.

"Our ticket gates are all right there — for theater productions, basketball games, volleyball games. Anything that's indoor filters through that spot. It's prime real estate." — Zach Stakely