“After a decade of worrying about the Internet, after the collapse of its print advertising base, still only 12 percent of newspaper ad revenue came from online. (And, of course, a much tinier slice of circulation revenue.) Or, perhaps most galling of all: Even after a decade-plus of eBay and Craigslist and Match.com and the rest, online revenue is barely half as big as classified ad revenue, the one line item most folks gave up for dead years ago. Compare those depressing numbers with those of another industry undergoing digital disruption: the book industry. New numbers from the Association of American Publishers reported that ebook net sales jumped by 115 percent in January, year over year from 2010. At $69.9 million, January ebook net sales were greater than adult hardcovers ($49.1 million) and approaching adult paperbacks ($83.6 million). Newspapers just don’t have any new digital revenue streams producing in the ballpark of that rate of growth — in part because their monopoly power has been disrupted more than that of their peer industries.”
—Joshua Benton
Production Time!
We love to talk about production. We have our favorite producers and we will try new folks who come highly recommended. We research the heck out of producers that we haven’t used before. It’s so important that a producer understands that the client is, well, the client and has the checkbook, that the agency is hiring and making sure that they are getting paid, and that the photographer and his/her team needs a lot of TLC and support. It takes a strong production company to manage all of these personalities and needs.
We were catching up on Heather Elder’s blog recently and were thrilled to see her comment on the relationship between agency and production company:
Production Companies
More and more agencies are beginning to make suggestions as to whom the photographer uses for production and often times they are requesting specific production companies. Now that art producers are being required to understand and produce videos, they are more savvy with the value of a production company. They are even sometimes more willing to pay the extra money involved with the larger productions just to have the peace of mind that goes along with having more people involved in a production. Not all clients can support the larger budgets but I suspect that having a hand in choosing a producer is something we will see more of in 2013.
Heather speaks the truth. We really do like to have a relationship with our producers. It’s so important when we are traveling as a group, or that they care if someone on our team has dietary restrictions, or they know how our billing works for advances and invoices, and that they support the photographer and his/her team in a completely positive way. We want everyone to have a great shoot! The better the production looks and the more buttoned up, the better the photographer and crew looks and that can mean repeat business just because the shoot felt “easy” to the client. We call it “smoke and mirrors” but know how much work it takes to make it seem effortless.
We are sure that if you speak with any Art Buyer/Producer that she can give you a nightmare production story. This may be why this is a growing trend. We are all for it. It’s nice to have someone who is a lover. A great producer is a very special person.
Check out Heather’s blog. She is a great resource for how the industry operates and she has a strong commercial roster to boot!
Powerful use of Intelligent Metaphors
Some Mouths will never speak the Truth
Through the combination of print and mobile technology - Reporters without Boarders - The Voice uses QR codes in print ads to get the truth out about what happens in several countries that are being run by dictators.
The brilliance of their communication approach is that while the deliver a very message, they concurrently deliver a very powerful idea. As the message is clearly communicated when the QR code is triggered and the video plays… the idea is communicated in a much subtler way. It’s the use of a mobile phone to get at the truth, serves as a powerful metaphor that all words coming from these dictators month should be filtered. And it is this idea coupled that when coupled with the message that makes this execution so brilliant.
Compare this approach to your standard QR code in a print communication (i.e. Mercedes-Benz Interactive Print Ad), and you’ll immediately see the value when creative is combined with intelligent strategy. It continues to be inspiring to see existing technologies used both intelligently and in creative ways!
