How Overlake School unified their touchscreen display and social media presence with Gipper Touch

The Overlake School runs one of the most successful small-school athletic programs in Washington. In 2024, it was named the #1 athletic department in the state for its size. 

"Our mission is teaching character in a fun, competitive environment," says Mike Fine, in his 10th year as Associate Athletic Director. "We're trying to teach more than just the X's and O's."

For years, Overlake promoted that culture in two places: online through social media, and in person through a touchscreen display in their gym foyer. But the two lived in completely separate systems. Gipper Engage powered the social media side. TouchPros powered the display. Every update meant two logins, two workflows, and two places to remember.

When Athletic Director, John Wiley, heard Gipper was launching Touch, the promise of a single unified system caught his attention. The demo sealed it. Compared to TouchPros, Gipper Touch's visual editor was dramatically easier to use, and it pulled directly from the branding, photos, and graphics Overlake had already built up in Gipper. They made the call to move their on-campus touchscreen display to Gipper Touch. The decision was a "game-changer."

Before Gipper Touch

Overlake ran their interactive touchscreen display through TouchPros. The vendor offered effective touchscreen hardware, but the software fell short in a number of ways.

Two systems, two logins, double the work.
Overlake was already a longtime Gipper customer for social media graphics, but the touchscreen display lived in a separate world. It meant managing different logins, taking extra steps, and spending a lot of time making updates.

A frustratingly rigid system with no visual editor.
Making updates to content in their prior system was highly restrictive. Mike found himself spending additional time having to delete entire sections in order to get things to look the way he wanted. And the system lacked a visual editor, which meant slower updates and more frustration when the display wouldn't look the way he wanted. 

Outdated software with no innovation.
Overlake had run TouchPros since 2017. The hardware was fine. The software hadn't evolved. "The interface never really changed from 2017," Mike says.

The Migration

The Overlake  team learned that Gipper Touch could run on their existing 42-inch vertical screen in the gym foyer, right next to the trophy case. The migration itself turned out to be far simpler than they even expected.

"It was literally pulling our old mini computer off and putting another one on, and off we went," Mike says. 

The Gipper team migrated the content that had been in TouchPros directly to Gipper Touch. Their existing touhcscreen, which Overlake had configured in portrait rather than the more common landscape orientation, worked beautifully with the Gipper Touch platform. No new touchscreen purchase needed.

After Gipper Touch

One unified system for social media and their touchscreen display.
The same Gipper login that powers Overlake's social media posts now powers the touchscreen outside their gym. It saves time and simplifies the way Mike and John work.

A modern, visual editor that makes updates easy
Updates in Touch are made through an editor that lets Mike see his changes as he makes them. It's modern, intuitive and familiar with the Gipper platform he knows and loves.

Brand consistency on social media and on their touchscreen display 
Overlake's brand shows up the same way everywhere, because the social posts and the touchscreen pull from the exact same branding and graphics.

On-going innovation & support 
Gipper ships meaningful product updates constantly, and every customer gets a dedicated support team that actually picks up the phone.