*** From the Archives ***

This article is from August 9, 2004, and is no longer current.

The Art of Business: Stocking Up on Stock Imagery

It’s pretty easy to understand the reasons for stock imagery’s continued success. Stock image collections owned by agencies, co-ops, and individual photographers are improving in quality and diversity at the same time that online purchasing and downloads has been made easier than ever. In other words, it’s convenient and cost effective.
Stock imagery includes photography, illustration, and video, sold for limited use in advertising, publishing, or promotional applications. For years stock imagery was primarily available as rights-managed, that is, the purchaser negotiated a licensing fee tied to specific uses of the photo. Royalty-free images are bought once and can be used more broadly in a variety of media. In both cases, even though the purchaser has paid a licensing fee, the stock photo provider retains image rights.
The big benefit of stock imagery is that it allows the campaign designer or creative director to acquire just the right look, at just the right price, without the time and cost penalties of creating their own original artwork.
Stock Market on the Rise
TrendWatch Graphic Arts recently released two reports (available for online purchase) detailing the growth, use, and acceptance of stock imagery. According to the reports:

  • The use and acceptance of stock imagery continues to rise steadily among all segments of the graphic arts, creative, publishing, and Internet communities.
  • Both traditional rights-managed images and royalty-free versions of all styles and price ranges have matured into a first-choice option for a wide range of graphic arts, advertising, publishing, and Internet projects.
  • New pricing models are becoming popular, including flat rate and limited distribution.
  • As the quality of today’s stock imagery has grown, users increasingly prefer to work directly with digitally captured or pre-scanned high-res digital images that can be injected immediately into their digital workflows.

Breaking out results by industry segment, TrendWatch found:

  • Creatives: 38 percent of creative professionals surveyed plan to purchase rights-managed images (rising to 48 percent of ad agencies) in the next 12 months; 64 percent plan to purchase royalty-free images and 34 percent plan to purchase stock illustration.

 

  • Publishers: 32 percent of publishers plan to purchase rights-managed images in the next 12 months, while 42 percent plan to purchase royalty-free images; 27 percent of publishers plan to purchase stock illustration or clip art in the next 12 months, more than doubling to 56 percent among small catalogers.
  • Internet Designers: 22 percent of Internet Designers plan to purchase royalty-free images in the next 12 months.
  • Graphic Arts Firms: 17 percent of trade shops plan to purchase royalty-free images in the next year and 13 percent plan to purchase rights-managed images.On average, creative professionals purchase six rights-managed images per month from the Internet versus four rights-managed images per month from a print catalog. Twenty-seven percent of all creative professionals say they have never used royalty-free images and never will.
    “Stock has become one of the most high-quality, easily accessible, cost-effective tools for document creators today,” notes Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, TWGA Analyst.
    “As a result, stock photography is one of the few categories that seems to benefit whether the U.S. economy is strong or not. When the economy is good, clients do more projects, which equates to a greater need for more images. When the economy is bad, clients do fewer projects, but tight budgets mean less money for commissioned photography and artwork, which translates to increased need for more stock photos. Thus the strength of the stock photography market.”
    Taking Stock
    I would be remiss (and creamed by my editor) not to mention that creativepro.com offers instant access to 3.25 million rights-protected and royalty free images through its partner Imagegrabber. Imagegrabber allows you to submit your research request to dozens of agencies at once for a custom lightbox of images for you to choose from.
    In addition, dozens of stock agencies provide all manner of imagery, so whatever image you might be searching for, however sublime or ridiculous, chances are you’ll find what you need at a price that’s right in the ever-growing stock world.
     

 

Eric is an award-winning producer, screenwriter, author and former journalist. He wrote the script and co-produced the feature film SUPREMACY, starring Danny Glover, Anson Mount, Joe Anderson and Academy-Award-winner Mahershali Ali. As founder and president of Sleeperwave Films, Eric relies on his unique background to develop film commercial films around contemporary social issues. As a seasoned storyteller, Eric also coaches corporate executives on creating and delivering compelling presentations. He has written thought leadership materials for entertainment and technology companies, such as Cisco, Apple, Lucasfilm and others.
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