It’s a daily battle in the agency world when it comes to photography and what’s the best image to represent the project at hand. Designers often use stock photos in their comps to get across the concept of the piece but even if the client likes that specific image it does not always make the most sense financially to purchase the rights to use it. There are many stock houses out there these days and they all offer a variety of pricing structures from subscription based services to royalty free and rights managed options. Along with pricing concerns, quality and variety of images also comes into play.
Photos that are rights-managed cost more and tend to offer better quality and variety of images with even the option of exclusivity within a given industry. However, there are no guarantees of that exclusivity and many companies find their image elsewhere which can lead to embarrassment and an overall cheapening of your project and brand.
We often try to persuade our clients to set up custom photo shoots to capture the image(s) they need. Custom photo shoots used to be considered too costly for some budgets but with digital technology it often costs less with the added benefit of getting the exact image you are looking for. You won’t see the image being used by another company when you drive down the freeway and you want have to worry about purchasing additional photo rights from the stock house if you negotiate a full buyout with your photographer. Tip to the wise: make sure you have that conversation with your photographer up front. Often you will get a better deal if you package the usage up front rather than add it on later.
While stock photo usage will always have its place for convenience and ease of use, the growing need to build a company’s photo library for the long-term makes owning the image outright and shooting photos specifically to a company’s needs the smarter strategic move.
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In the first half of the year, many companies were paralyzed by uncertainty and hesitant to allocate resources to marketing and promotion. We are beginning to see those tides turning…slowly. I believe that either companies have waited so long that they feel they have to do something or we’re really seeing the being of an economic upturn.
In either case, the timing is right to build a new brand or claim a new space in the market place. Right now, the marketing ‘noise level’ is relatively low and new online and social media venues offer inexpensive, instantaneous opportunities to reach your audience.
However, companies are approaching the market more cautiously than in years past. Budgets are being scrutinized and stretched making a well defined brand and strategic launch plan more critical than ever.
New regulations have already removed many line items, such as golf outings, giveaways and expensive dinners, from launch budgets.
Of primary importance is that all activities in your launch plan work together and be prioritized based on their potential ROI. ‘Anchor’ components of the launch, such as a key conference, should be determined and then supported by other marketing activities, such as poster presentations, eblasts, social media, advertising, CME and public relations.
Be sure to support follow-on sales efforts with quality clinical data, effective sales tools and ongoing brand building activities in key publications and online.
Now is the time. Seize the moment. And capture more than your share of the market.
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New business is the lifeblood of all business at all times. Whether it is getting new work from a current client or work from a new client, it is what makes the future. However, in rough times, (and unless you are the re-animated corpse of Joseph Goebbels, today should rank as a rough time for all businesses), new business is crucial for survival, let alone growth.
But new business is very hard in the best of times, and today, especially hard. Business people need to watch their last dollar. Promotion and marketing are seen as a profligate luxuries from another, more profligate time.
Sigh…
In reality, however, this is the optimum time for a breakout campaign. Making changes in your market position – whether selling hamburgers or strategic marketing campaigns – is considerably easier during rough financial times. In high financial times, all players spend the max – both because they have the money and the confidence of exploding sales, and because they have to – competing against their competitors also spending the max. In such times, a lot of money doesn’t go very far – the noise level is too high and the customer can’t hear you for all the noise of everybody shouting at the same time.
In rough times, everybody has to cut back, or even go to zero. Consequently, even a tiny effort will ring incredibly loud. This is the time to make a move, especially if you don’t have any money!
Enlarge your position in this down market and reap the benefits in a relatively inexpensive way for the upcoming expansive market, and let your aggressive promotion build your future success when it matters. When everybody has money and is ready to spend it.
At Mentus we’ve put our money where our mouth is and made investments in new business ourselves. We have a new CRM database and are regularly disseminating email blasts and other forms of outreach to potential clients. We hope you’ve been the recipient of some of these efforts!
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Interest in environmentally and socially beneficial investment is at an all-time high, and so is the need for a common way to measure sustainability programs.
According to several fund managers who follow social investing there are no set of absolute standards or metrics in place to measure sustainability. Leaders within their verticals are beginning to set the standards in which other companies will begin to follow. So the early adopters, those who have already begun reporting on their corporate, social and environmental responsibility, are having an advantage over those who have not.
Below are a few recent posts I have read regarding CSR and social investing. I hope that you find them useful.
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/US_CP_GMADeloitteGreenShopperStudy_2009.pdf
http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article/the-measure-of-money-social-impact-investing-grows-up-jen-van-der-meer
http://www.mygreenelement.com/?p=481
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Come on. It’s time the content on your web site gets seen outside in the real world. With so many social media options, there’s no excuse.
From Facebook and twitter, to YouTube and Wikipedia, your story can be told and passed along with great ease. Your only hurdle? Relevance. What makes your story relevant? How can your story, content, your brand, appeal to someone who is reaching out for pertinent information? Why you?
There are many factors, but one that sticks out in my mind is timeliness. A Facebook page will not be viewed as credible if you have 24 fans. Your video on YouTube should be updated. Your twitter needs to tweet on a regular basis. Now we’re reaching out. Now we’re getting seen.
You need to keep it fresh—on your web site and within social media channels. That’s how you stay on board without getting thrown off the social-media train.
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