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 freelance 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 political 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 photographer at all. But these political parties know that they need authentic, story-telling photography to communicate their message. This is marketing 101.
(Added 2018: The Ontario Liberal party hired a freelance photojournalist to photograph the re-election campaign of the premier.)
Lindsay Meredith, a professor of marketing at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, said:
. . . because images carry so much weight on social networks, [political] campaigns know that it’s crucial to get the right kinds of photographs out there.
If I straight advertise to you, it bounces off you like a rubber bullet. If I can get the picture and the name at you in what we call ‘editorial script,’ in other words a news story, the believability, or the veracity, skyrockets.
This is nothing new. It’s been long known that editorial photography is the most accepted and trusted type of photography. Editorial photography seeks out human interest and tries to inform rather than sell.
As Meredith said:
It’s really important for the person who is documenting political life and politicians to have that skill set as a photojournalist or documentary photographer, because that’s really what your mandate is, to get in there and document what’s going on.
The same thing applies to your company’s corporate marketing and public relations. You need editorial photography created by a photographer with true journalism experience.
Quality corporate journalism is the best way to connect with your customers on social media, the Web and in print. Editorial photography is the best way to build trust.
