Edit Expand creates 8x more videos with Dropbox—quickly, affordably, securely

Background

Edit Expand is a video production agency that helps bring clients’ ideas to life. Focusing on taking clients' existing resources and working with customers who are new to video production, the Edit Expand team tailors content to customers’ needs and creates the processes that keep them going. The agency is passionate about delivering content that doesn’t just grab attention but maintains engagement—like demos and webinars, which are often overlooked but play a big role in retaining customers.

Challenge: small team, big workload

Edit Expand’s small, remote team of five juggles 10 to 20 projects at a time. To keep up, they need an easy way to store, share and find files. On top of that, they have to store and share the files securely, which is especially crucial when working with large corporations like Adobe and Amazon.

Edit Expand was searching for a more effective solution for file syncing and storage as well as a platform that would bring together client feedback and ideas for the whole team to work on. “For me, the biggest challenge is ensuring that every customer feels heard and understood”, shares Adam Nielson, Founder at Edit Expand. “I often have to pull together feedback, comments and thoughts from 15 different email threads, which can be difficult.”

Solution: having everything in one place

Edit Expand tried various cloud storage solutions but they all had limitations—one had issues syncing large files, while others had laggy playbacks or problems saving file versions. Nielson then brought Dropbox into the picture, saying, “I’ve been a Dropbox loyalist for a long time. It just works.”

Today, the agency stores every project in Dropbox and works on them there, making it their only source of truth. From start to finish, the entire process—scripts, edits, reviews—happens within Dropbox. “The files are synced across all our devices so it cuts any redundancy and ensures that we’re all working only on the latest versions shared by our clients”, says Nick Spinder, Editor at Edit Expand. Team members also receive notifications when files are updated, speeding up collaboration.

With Dropbox Replay, customers and team members can leave notes on video drafts, scripts and even specific frames. Nielson can then consolidate and filter the comments to give editors the details they need to make any changes. “We get so many emails and Slack messages of comments people have on the files and frames”, he says. “So it’s important to track all the changes we’ve made and make sure that only the most essential information reaches the editors, which I can put into Dropbox Paper.”

Results: saving time, cutting costs, creating more

Having everything on one platform means the Edit Expand team has the flexibility to multitask seamlessly. “I manage dozens of videos and juggle multiple projects at the same time—and Dropbox allows me to easily switch between tasks”, Spinder shares.

Dropbox also keeps everything organised for the team to quickly locate files, a key feature when dealing with large amounts of data. In one instance, Adobe requested Edit Expand to create a video showcasing how their products work together—this required extensive product screen captures and about 10 product specialists for each one.  Since Edit Expand had to come up with the assets themselves, Spinder simply used Dropbox’s search functions to easily find the demos and files he needed. “At first, it seemed like we didn’t have enough. And just like that, we were back on track”, he says.

As a result, Edit Expand’s small but mighty team can produce an impressive amount of content. In 2024, outside of other client projects for Cloudinary and Amazon, they delivered over 150 projects for Adobe, including commercials and webinars. This required sifting through hundreds of video files and audio segments. “In the old days, we would have had to dig through the wardrobe for hard drives”, adds Nielson.

Dropbox enables the team to work efficiently, at whatever place and time they choose.

“Creative work relies on people being in the right headspace. By letting my team work whenever they’re most productive, we save thousands—if not tens of thousands—of dollars on every project.”

By working remotely, Edit Expand also avoids costs associated with office rent. If an editor’s system isn’t powerful enough to render videos, the team can simply access the project file, make updates and handle rendering on another computer, avoiding unnecessary hardware costs. “Overall, I’d estimate we’re saving anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 a year because we don’t need a whole building or massive servers to make things happen”, adds Nielson.

Dropbox has also given Edit Expand peace of mind—the team no longer worries about maintaining servers, balancing workloads or dealing with unexpected downtimes. “We love the selective syncing feature since we can choose what we want to have online so we can keep working on them”, shares Nielson. Dropbox ensures files are always fully synced and updated, even when editors are working from locations with poor Internet connections. If the Internet goes out, the team can still work on files on their local drives and when the Internet comes back online, Dropbox then seamlessly uploads updates.

Nielson also finds it easy to manage file access rights and security settings, such as encryption and multi-factor authentication. This means the agency can meet client requirements and gain the trust of larger companies. Even if large amounts of data were accidentally erased, Nielson would receive an alert and be able to restore the files straight away to the team.

This security and reliability brings peace of mind to their customers as well. “When clients see their files and feedback are safe, organised and consolidated in one place, they relax”, says Nielson. “This saves hours—sometimes days—of unnecessary back-and-forth and lets us focus on the creative process.”