marketing

Visualizing A Better Story

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A potential customer asked for “action pictures” of their employees. What do the employees do at this financial company? They sit all day long and tap away at their computers.

Five weeks ago, I photographed at an office which was an entire floor of employees quietly typing inside beige cubicles. I was also recently at a healthcare company’s warehouse-sized call centre that was wall-to-wall cubicles of employees talking on telephones while they typed on computer keyboards.

Even at a tech company’s office, which is well-known for its fun decor and in-office perks, the employees sat quietly at tables tapping away at their laptops. (This tech company office had no landline phones except for the receptionist. When I stood in this office, the only sound I heard was that plastic clicky sound from keyboards.)

So where’s all the action?
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Canada’s Anti-Spam Law

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Canada’s Anti-Spam Law was introduced back in 2014 and it came with a three-year phase-in period. How times flies. That three-year period ends in a few days on July 1, 2017.

Do you use email, SMS, social media or instant messaging to send commercial or promotional information about your organization to reach customers, prospects and other important audiences?

– Canada’s Anti-Spam Law

Up until now, a business could continue sending commercial electronic messages to potential and current customers as it was assumed that you may have had implied consent. But starting July 1, you need express consent.

If you market your photography business through e-mail, text messages or social media, pay attention.

 

Life in the Slow Lane

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Most photographers go through a slow period, or two, during the year. Perhaps it’s the time from Christmas to the end of January or maybe it’s during a summer month. It depends on what type of photography you do. So what should a photographer do during a slow period?

What not to do

• Don’t panic (too much).

• Don’t use a slow period to catch up on your TV viewing.

• Don’t buy new gear. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if you buy a new camera or lens, you’ll get more business. New gear won’t help.

• Don’t have a fire sale. Unlike a retail store, photographers don’t have marked-up merchandise on their store shelves that can be discounted. You have only time on your “store shelf” and, unlike a tangible product, time can’t be restocked.

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Avoid fake news about your company

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Thanks to recent events in the USA, the phrase “fake news” has become popular. Fake news, the intentional publication of hoaxes and disinformation, has existed for many decades. For example: while standing in a supermarket checkout lane, you’ve probably noticed all those crazy headlines on tabloid magazine covers: cures for cancer, alien invasions, Bigfoot sightings, the end of the world, and so on.

Sometimes fake news is used to sway opinion but mostly it’s used to make money.

Fake news isn’t used just to influence elections. It’s routinely used online to garner web clicks which in turn helps generate money through advertising. Sometimes this is outright fake news and other times it’s clickbait headlines to trick readers. Unfortunately many legitimate news outlets shoot themselves in the foot when they do the same thing:
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Violins and Marketing Photography

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When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story.

– Joshua Bell

You can replace the violin in that statement with a camera and it would still hold true.

A decade ago, The Washington Post did an unscientific social experiment where Joshua Bell, a well-known classical violinist, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and ball cap, performed incognito in a subway station. The newspaper wanted to see how many morning rush-hour commuters would stop to hear classical music being perfectly played.

On the morning of Friday January 12, 2007, Bell set up inside a Washington DC subway station and placed an open violin case on the ground for donations. The unannounced event was recorded by a hidden camera.

The Post was worried about huge mobs gathering and the possibility of needing police for crowd control. You can probably guess what happened.
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What Is Corporate Photography?

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“Corporate photography” is just a general name for photography used to help market a business. It isn’t just for big corporations. This type of photography can be used by any business, big or small, incorporated or not.

Corporate photography is not advertising photography. The latter type of photography is about selling a product or service. Corporate photography is for building and enhancing a company’s name or brand and it tends to be editorial photography.

The most common type of corporate photography is business portraits. Photography of business conferences and events, office interiors and exteriors, and employees on the job, are also common subject matter. Corporate photographers are also used to cover a company’s involvement with a community or charity event.
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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 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.)
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