writing » stock options
Forget catalogues — the stock agency website is poised to become the most efficient way to find and purchase the images you need.
The evolution of stock image web sites over the last few years nicely mirrors the growing pains of the web in general. All of the major image houses threw up sites in the early days that were essentially brochure-ware, whose only accomplishment was to announce that the companies existed.
Nobody used them, and in fact nobody used the web in general — people were just window shopping. With the latest generation of stock image sites however, it appears that these companies get the web, and, they may have just the perfect type of service product that can exploit the technological strengths of the channel — a vast and disparate commodity, and a highly individualized client base that needs one-to-one service.
The second generation of these sites introduced crude searching technology. Essentially most of the sites just transferred the indexing logic of their print catalogues to the web, which wasn't terribly useful for impatient designers who didn't want to spend hours drilling down from general and arbitrary categories to specific image types that may have had nothing to do with the type of image they were looking for.
Each designer works differently and each may have a myriad of different approaches depending on the project being tackled. Some know the exact type of image they are looking for, some have a blurry idea of a feel or tone they are seeking, but aren't sure of the exact composition that will nail the project down — these two approaches demand a robust searching capability that most of these second generation sites couldn't service — a facility that could find specific imagery quickly while at the same time allowing for a fuzzy logic approach that could unearth hidden gems in the catalogue.
The third generation of stock sites is upon us now, and the industry leaders have enhanced those searching capabilities, while adding the personalization technologies that make the web such an excellent one-to-one marketing vehicle.
Individual users have their own customizable homepages within the site where the company can communicate directly to them, and at least two sites, Canada's impressive Eyewire (www.eyewire.com) and industry veterans Comstock (www.comstock.com) , have user ‘lightboxes’ where search results can be posted for clients to peruse.
The final piece of the puzzle is E-commerce — the ability to start, search, modify, download and finish a transaction without the designer having to leave her desk. Find the image, download and try the comp, negotiate a price, and download and pay for the final image, all online.
Perhaps they have even become too efficient at getting clients to specific images? Designers used to thumbing through thick glossy catalogues to jump-start the muse for a project may have to adjust the way they approach rented images. “These sites are pretty good for defining the art you think you need, quickly”, says designer Susan Kell of Kingston based Susan K Bailey Design, an avid user of these services.
“The shortcoming for us, and ultimately for the stock company is that we can zero in too quickly and miss the images (ergo, purchases) that come from being inspired as one browses the catalogues. If one website does not appear to have exactly what you need immediately, the tendency is to move on to another company's site. However, it's the new toy, the one-stop shop that never asks you to leave your screen. We are learning to trust it and rely on it. Regressing to former methods is a last resort”, she says.
Attention deficit disorder aside, more and more designers are adjusting their workflow to include regular visits to the pages of stock and royalty free sites. Susan says that 90% or their shop's image acquisition is now done through digital sources, and is sourced on the web. Kyle Romaniuk, Design Director for Winnipeg based Gator Designs estimates that he obtained 50% of his leased or bought imagery from websites, and that he “expects that figure to grow rapidly”.
“The ability to search a specific subject is much easier on an organized website than flipping through stacks of printed directories. Some of them could still improve the searches however. Searches for specific subjects occasionally either bring up no matches, or too many. When there are too many matches there usually seems to be no direct link of our key words with most of the images”, opines Kyle.
That's the challenge these sites face, the ability to service the browser or window shopper looking for inspirational compositions, while at the same time quickly delivering specific image needs to the deadline harried designer who needs their perfect picture yesterday. This type of searching and indexing technology is still new, and is quite complicated to set up, but they are getting better at it.
The leaders in this area are enhancing machine searches with one-to-one assistance to bypass the vagaries computerized solutions will often produce. Almost all the sites are offering customer service representatives who can take the specifics of your image requirements on-line, and then scour the catalogue and post or point the client to the right images.
The best of these sites, post them on personalized pages accessible only by the client, in addition to account information, one click buying and downloading features, and personalized content gleaned from the client's use of the site and the features they have shown interest in. As these sites evolve, it will be this personal touch that will provide a winning formula for designers — a personalized doorway into a vast image collection that learns about you as you use it.
The final hurdle stock sites have started to overcome, is completing the loop. It is only recently that designers have adopted the web as more than just a research tool, and are actually using it to obtain the files themselves. Sometimes a project just demands a transparency, and sometimes it's just hard to change the behaviour of clients and get them to adopt a new channel.
“The web is a very efficient to search for the imagery I need. Although I find a lot of the imagery we use on the web, all of our orders have been placed over the phone. You just can't replace a relationship that may have been built up over a period of time with a representative at an organization”, says Kyle of Gator.
For royalty free images, which have less negotiation involved in their use and therefore require less customer service intervention, the web is the perfect transaction mechanism. “My research over the internet saves time and helps me speed up the process. In the past with catalogues I would have hundreds of shots and still not always find what I needed. Now I know right away if the shot is right for a layout or if it is what my client is looking for. I can complete the transaction on-line, without hesitation”, says Linda Norton-McLaren a freelance designer, out of Cornwall, Ontario, and an image website advocate.
None of the image agencies we talked to are yet prepared to stop the hugely expensive production of their glossy print catalogues, but they all recognize that the as the web improves they may soon do all their marketing and client service online, saving a lot for the bottom line.
Modifying their clients' behaviour and getting them to move their transactions online is the next hurdle to leap, and the recent improvements in the websites functionality and personalization is a big step in that direction. As bandwidth continues to improve, even huge project specific transparency scans can be accommodated in this channel- making these sites an en-to-end solution for designers' image acquisition needs.
“As the technology improves to accommodate the transfer of larger and larger files, I think web based stock delivery is the future. Even now, we can, and do produce most of our work through digital sources”, says Susan Kell.
“We have found a great deal of the imagery required for our projects on the web. I only expect that figure to grow rapidly”, echoes Kyle.
Short on personalized functionality, but does have a shopping cart functionality and the ability to download comps and purchase final images on-line. Only stock images available, no royalty free images. All images on the website are flat $50 — which is unique in stock pricing. The shopping cart functionality allows users to view their selection of images before purchasing but was behaving a little buggy when we were there.
Stock and royalty free images available. Users can register with the site and receive a personalized lightbox (above). Also available is a customer service function called search-u-lator, which involves filling out a form and getting personalized assistance to find the images you need. The representative will then post these images to your lightbox for viewing on your schedule.
Has both traditional stock photography and royalty free collections available online- over 1.4 million images available. Also has a registration feature which allows for personalized content and billing/account information. Snappy clean interface, and good search response times.
Over 25,000 illustrations available for comp downloading, but no full file transfer capabilities as yet. Offers a lightbox page for viewing but it is not personalized in any way. A neat touch is the ability to save notes about each picture beside it to refresh you memory as you move around the site, or for when you return. Royalty free collections said to be coming soon.
Most ambitious of the new third generation sites offering both stock and royalty free photography, illustration and additionally graphic software and fonts and useful editorial and links. Personalized user page, a whimsical tone , and contests and surveys show the proper way to leverage the web channel to create both a vibrant service and a effective business online.
Only stock images available but Tony Stone is affiliated with PhotoDisc (www.photodisc.com) for access to their Royalty free imagery.
