marketing

Why your company needs a photojournalist

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The British Columbia Liberal Party recently hired a former photojournalist to photograph its leader, the current premier of that province. The party is heading towards a 2017 election.

The Wildrose Party of Alberta did the same thing a year ago by hiring (on a part-time basis) a working photojournalist.

Almost every photographer, hired by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to cover the Canadian Prime Minister, has been a working photojournalist.

In the first two cases, the photographers are paid by the provincial party, not the taxpayers.

Political parties could save a lot of money by hiring the lowest-bidder-with-a-camera, by doing the photos themselves, or by not hiring a professional news photographer at all.

But these political parties know that they need authentic, story-telling photography to communicate their message. This is today’s marketing 101.
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Driving Emotions

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How often do you see a photo credit on a company’s press release pictures? Have you ever seen a credit line on a product photo?

For example, when you see a photo of a new car, supplied by the car manufacturer, there’s either no credit line or it simply names the car manufacturer that supplied the photo.

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Company launched its advertising campaign for the 2017 Lincoln Continental. Newspapers like The Globe and Mail did their usual car review and included handout photos of the new car. But this time, the handout photos had a credit line. The November 10th print version of The Globe and Mail used:

(Photo – Annie Leibovitz / Ford)

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Taking the long way

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Been sitting at your computer for a while? Need some exercise?

A long time ago, a Yellow Pages advertisement used the slogan “Let your fingers do the walking.” Now you can let your fingers do your exercising by scrolling for a mile. (That web page is a mile long: 6,082,560 pixels at 96 ppi (monitor resolution) = 5,280 feet = 1 mile).

Twenty years ago, web-page scrolling was considered bad design maybe because most folks used slow dial-up Internet and page content had to be kept minimal. As broadband Internet became the norm, longer pages, and scrolling, became popular. Five or six years ago, scrolling went out of fashion maybe because it took too much effort or because people were in too much of a hurry to go below the fold. Today, scrolling is trendy again probably because scrolling is easier and more preferred on mobile devices.

Both the photo pages and blog pages on my web site have several long pages with lots of text. Scrolling is often required on my site. This is intentional and the reasons are:
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Recognizing Younger Customers

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Maybe it’s my imagination but it seems that the average age of my business customers is going down.

In the late 1980s through the 1990s, most of my business clients were in their 40s to 60s. In the late 1990s to mid-2000s, the average customer was in their 30s to 50s. In the past six or seven years, it seems my average customer was in their mid-20s to mid-40s.

This is not to be confused with the fact that the overall workforce is slowly getting older [US numbers here]. And hopefully this is not about me getting old.

My customers include a wide variety of businesses from technology to healthcare to car manufacturing, from ad agencies to public relations companies, from universities to municipal governments, from small local companies to large multi-nationals. In general, the people I work with or those whom I photograph are mysteriously getting younger:
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Great Expectations

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If anyone else can do the same pictures as you, even an amateur with a cell phone, then you’re probably out of a job.

Every customer expects that you own the necessary camera gear and the appropriate computer and software. They expect you know what you’re doing.

Customers expect that you can do more than just take pictures. After all, anyone can take pictures.

Customers also expect that you:

• Are self-motivated and have up-to-date skills.

• Know something about the legal, moral and ethical issues surrounding photography.

• Understand picture usage and licensing.

• Have suitable people skills.

• Have project management skills.

• Can think and act in the best interest of the customer.

They also expect that you know their expectations.

As a professional photographer, you’re expected to be the expert when it comes to all things photographic. You’re expected to be more than just a camera owner and operator.

Are you marketing yourself as a camera owner and operator or as a photography expert?

An owner and operator markets what equipment they own and their technical abilities. These photographers are essentially nothing more than a human photo booth.

A photography expert markets their experience, their management skills, their willingness to be a team player, their trustworthiness and their effectiveness. This is the best way to show that you’re not just someone with a camera.

Customer expectations are about much more than just pictures.

 

The Photographer Kings

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Two decades ago in a television documentary, legendary US photographer Richard Avedon said:

Images are fast replacing words as our primary language. They define our ideas of beauty, truth and history. In our age, the photographer, not the philosopher, is king.

Today the Internet is the dominant means of communication and images are the most effective, most powerful, most universal language. People don’t read, they look.

What does this mean for you and your business?

If you’re not using photography to market your business then you’re not worth looking at, you’re not part of the conversation, you’re pretty much invisible.
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If it sounds too cheap

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A Toronto-based mining company just found out that if it sounds cheap, it probably isn’t a bargain.

In February this year, a mining company requested a quote for business headshots of six executives for its new web site. I quoted about $1500 which might be average for a job like this. The company replied that it had “decided to go in another direction.”

A few days ago, the same company e-mailed to ask if my February quote was still good.

Before replying, I went to the company’s web site and saw six business portraits. The photos’ EXIF data revealed that these were shot by another Toronto photographer in late February, about two weeks after my quote was turned down.
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