Photos have always been important. In 1911, a newspaper article ad suggested, “One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words” and the old ad-age was born. If only Instagram had existed back then, they may have really understood the power of the message they were conveying. With modern marketing revolving more and more around the constraints of a smartphone screen, images and charts are more important than ever before. Smaller screens are more difficult to read on, and so a message packs more punch with an image.
Avoiding Stock Art in 2016
Stock art is so 2005. A new trend began to form in Web design about a decade ago, thanks to services like iStockPhoto and Shutterstock. Web sites began to load themselves up with cheesy stock art… generic images of happy actors in fun situations. These days the savvy marketer and the savvy client can spot stock art from a mile away. At the same time camera phone images have improved so dramatically that more original art – photos directly from the author – is able to be used in marketing. And it’s not just that improved access to prosumer camera gear and the improving camera phone lenses that are allowing creative types to stage their own images. There are some really innovative angles being used to shoot marketing photo shoots these days as well.
Look Up in the Sky, It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s….
Enter the drone – a small remote controlled multi-copter with a 4K camera onboard. Commercial marketers use to be able to get a new perspective on things by hiring aerial photographers, who in turn rented airplanes or helicopters to get them above and beyond the limits of ground-based photography. While this was possible, it was costly and cumbersome. Special permits were often needed, and certain places were just off limits to this type of photography.
Thanks to the advent of affordable drones, even real estate agents can now give potential buyers a view of the neighborhood from the air, a great way for a real estate agent to make their home listing stand apart from the crowd. Drones are even beginning to replace much more expensive techniques in Hollywood. A recent report from the Wall Street Journal found that drone usage in movie creation is exploding – sometimes literally as the drones are able to go into high risk shots of explosives.
The Marketer’s Angle
Getting up in the sky is an excellent way for the online marketers to offer a new perspective to clients. Beyond just bespoke photography, drones allow for really creative shots that would have been relegated only to the imagination in years past.
If a picture was worth a thousand words to a marketer in 1911, before Instagram and other “feed based” marketing including Facebook, the value to a marketer today is much higher.
