public relations

Creating memorable photos for marketing

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Researchers at MIT recently published a study and online demo about trying to understand and predict image memorability. The study used 60,000 images and a few thousand participants.

A goal of this research was “[u]nderstanding why certain things are memorable…” so that it might someday be possible to create better images thereby “allowing people to consume information more efficiently.” (If you’re a photographer, please stop laughing at this.)

Researchers found that the most memorable pictures usually included – wait for it – faces or other human body parts. The least memorable pictures were those of generic scenes, especially landscapes and other types of nature. The researchers called their results a “trend.” Most photographers know that this “trend” has been around for almost 180 years.
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Platform Photography

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Canada’s 2015 federal election is days away and each party has released its platform. Let’s compare them from a photographer’s point of view.

The Obvious

• Green Party platform is 44 pages and 5.8 MB in file size.

• NDP brochure is 81 pages and 5.1 MB in size.

• Liberal Party platform is 88 pages and 10.6 MB.

• Conservative Party brochure is 159 pages and 37.4 MB.

That alone might be very telling.
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Prize-winning news coverage

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Yesterday at 5:50am (Eastern Time), it was announced that a Canadian scientist from Queen’s University, in Ontario, had co-won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics. By 6:20am, or maybe even earlier, news media were calling Queen’s University media relations people to request handout pictures of the new Nobel Laureate.

Queen’s University was prepared and news media around the world had a portrait of the university professor emeritus on their web sites shortly thereafter.

The Nobel Prize-winning professor did his research at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Sudbury, Ontario. News media called the lab early in the morning for handout pictures of the scientist and of its research facilities.
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Pricing photography for social media

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In the old days, photographers priced their photography based on its type of usage. Generally speaking, editorial has the lowest price, public relations and corporate have a mid-range price and advertising has the highest price.

This worked quite well for 45 years or so. Then someone invented Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

With social media, the line between editorial, corporate and advertising can be nearly invisible. When a company publishes pictures on Facebook et al., is that editorial, public relations or advertising?

Every type of business communication is a form of marketing. At the very least, social media should be considered public relations rather than pure editorial even though it may use an editorial style of photography.
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The importance of good public relations photography

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The Globe and Mail took a look at some of the photographs that Canada’s top three political leaders use in their social media. The newspaper asked a neutral third party, a US photo editor and consultant, to review the pictures.

Without knowing the leaders, their political parties or any other backstory, photo consultant Mike Davis gave his opinions of the pictures.

Stephen Harper photos:

“It’s very linear, very simplistic, not at all dynamic or deep. … It’s all very similar, it’s very distant, very removed from the person. It kind of represents him as an entity who does official things, and that’s about all you get. … These are just official records of events.”

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Is your business ready for its close up?

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When a business spends tens of thousands of dollars on a full-page newspaper ad, why would it spend $0 on the photography for that ad? With the company image at stake, why would a national company get an amateur to do a quick snapshot with a cell phone?

The Globe and Mail today published an ad supplement about franchising. The online version isn’t quite the same as the print version but it does have many of the same photos. The back cover of the print version has a full-page ad for a large pet care company. The amateur point-and-shoot photo missed the purpose of the business and it also missed everything needed in good photography.

What readers don’t know is that some “normal” sections of a newspaper are also advertorials produced by the ad department and/or outsourced to freelancers. This includes sections for new cars, new homes, gardening, education, investing, travel and any other “special section.” I spent almost two decades at a Toronto daily newspaper and was involved with many advertising supplements.
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A Photo Opportunity Without Any Opportunity

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Yesterday I photographed a press event / photo op / reception in Toronto. It had bad lighting, bad staging and bad media flaks. It was run by the Prime Minister’s Office.

For “security reasons,” the media had to be searched both by police and by sniffer dog. The audience? They just walked in.

There were lots of rules for the media: where to stand, where not to go, what not to shoot. Reporters weren’t allowed to ask any questions nor interview anyone. The audience? They could do anything they wanted.

The audience was standing and the three political VIPs (Canadian Prime Minister and two European Union presidents) were seated on a low stage. This meant that when the three were seated, (far enough apart to prevent a group picture), they could barely be seen by the photographers and TV cameras who were on a riser at the back of the room:
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