In June, I wrote about a presentation Stockland Martel arranged at McCann Erickson in which some of our photographers screened their video work and talked about their approach to working with moving images. That meeting is an example of the different promotional methods we’ve been experimenting with this year. Others include our Facebook page (which we started last week), Twitter (@stocklandmartel), and, of course, this blog. Technology has created these wonderful new networking opportunities, and along with it the sense that a business must utilize all or many of these tools in order to thrive. Each business has to make its own choice about whether to engage at this level, but we at Stockland Martel certainly believe in the need to adapt and grow.
Not only have websites, social networking, and email changed the way and frequency with which businesses present themselves, it’s also influenced how people consume information. We’re basically all talking to and at each other 24 hours a day, nonstop. With so much talking and less and less listening, you’d better have something good to say and say it well. Art buyers and photo editors, for example, are deluged with emails, so they have to make some pretty mercenary decisions about which messages to even bother to open, let alone “read.”
Which is why we’ve recently retooled our e-blasts. We’d been accustomed to sending them out with a simple subject line consisting of the photographer’s name and the phrase “Portfolio Update.” When recipients opened the email, they’d see an interactive grid of images that they could click through to get to the photographer’s work on our website. There was no copy in the body of the email, only the URL for Stockland Martel and for the photographer’s own website.
As we’ve been reevaluating our marketing efforts, we started to wonder whether these e-blasts could be a bit more grabby. So we decided to add text. For each blast, I write a subject line and some short copy to accompany the images. The objective of the subject line is to stand out from all the other messages in the recipients’ inboxes, while the body copy plays off of the images. Sometimes it’s expressionistic, and sometimes it’s straightforward. It depends on the photographer. Because each e-blast is a reinforcement of both our and the photographer’s brand, each message is tailor-made.
Here are a few examples:
Subject line: Real-people portraits by celebrity photographer Kwaku Alston
Body text: Simple and honest. Kwaku Alston’s portraits of everyday people are a tribute to individuality in all its forms. Who says only celebrities have star quality?
Subject line: Rolph Gobits: For Mature Audiences Only
Body text: His elegant, understated portraits and interiors have earned him the respect of the world’s most discerning clients, from the Ritz-Carlton to Sotheby’s. Instant gratification has its charms, but if it’s gravitas you want, Rolph Gobits is your man.
Subject line: Roxanne Lowit: Hot Nights and High Times
Body text: Roxanne Lowit’s photographs remind you of something. That feeling you get when you’re having a night out. Your best night out. When it seems no one and nothing has ever been more beautiful or fabulous. The sense that you will remember this forever.
In the past two weeks, we’ve also done e-blasts for Craig Cutler and Luca Zordan.
We’ve also begun adding text to our newsletters, which, like our e-blasts, had previously been exclusively photo-driven. We just sent out our summer newsletter.
Recently, there have been some really interesting posts about photo-related promos at various other blogs. At Fresh Produce, art producer/art buyer Cecilia Marshall talks about what drew her to a promo she received from photographer Dana Neibert. At pdnonline.com, PDN photo editor Amber Terranova highlights eight recent promos that she considers standouts “because of an obvious style and aesthetic in the imagery, bold and sleek design, personal touches—like a handwritten note—and something quirky or unique in content.”
Toronto freelance art buyer Heather Morton, meanwhile, went so far as to solicit promos from photographers via her blog, HeatherMortonArt buyer, which she then posted and judged with fellow HMAb blogger Myles McCutcheon, who is a photo editor. The two are candid and constructive in their criticism. It’s exactly the kind of feedback that photographers—and agencies, for that matter—wish they could get on a regular basis. If you haven’t already seen it, the post is well worth your time.
This entry was written by Kristina Feliciano and posted on July 6, 2009 at 3:33 pm and filed under Industry News & Commentary with tags amber terranova, art buyers, cecilia marshall, Craig Cutler, dana neibert, David Drebin, e-blasts, fcebook, fresh produce blog, heather morton, Kwaku Alston, Luca Zordan, marketing, McCann Erickson, myles mccutcheon, PDN, photo editors, portfolio updates, promos, promotions, rolph gobits, Roxanne Lowit, twitter. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Kwaku Alston
Jorg Badura
Fulvio Bonavia
Matthias Clamer
Craig Cutler
David Drebin
Uwe Duettmann
Jim Fiscus
Hans Gissinger
Rolph Gobits
Lauren Greenfield
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Kai Uwe Gundlach
Jason Hindley
Liz Von Hoene
Ruedi Hofmann
Walter Iooss
Nadav Kander
Vincent Laforet
Jeff Lipsky
Roxanne Lowit
Doug Menuez
John Midgley
Michael Muller
Nino Munoz
John Offenbach
Tom Rafalovich
Matthew Rolston
Uli Rose
Scott and Zoe
Martin Sigal
Jan Steinhilber
Timothy White
Michael Wirth
Bruce Wolf
Luca Zordan
What’s the best way to promote a photographer?
In June, I wrote about a presentation Stockland Martel arranged at McCann Erickson in which some of our photographers screened their video work and talked about their approach to working with moving images. That meeting is an example of the different promotional methods we’ve been experimenting with this year. Others include our Facebook page (which we started last week), Twitter (@stocklandmartel), and, of course, this blog. Technology has created these wonderful new networking opportunities, and along with it the sense that a business must utilize all or many of these tools in order to thrive. Each business has to make its own choice about whether to engage at this level, but we at Stockland Martel certainly believe in the need to adapt and grow.
Not only have websites, social networking, and email changed the way and frequency with which businesses present themselves, it’s also influenced how people consume information. We’re basically all talking to and at each other 24 hours a day, nonstop. With so much talking and less and less listening, you’d better have something good to say and say it well. Art buyers and photo editors, for example, are deluged with emails, so they have to make some pretty mercenary decisions about which messages to even bother to open, let alone “read.”
Which is why we’ve recently retooled our e-blasts. We’d been accustomed to sending them out with a simple subject line consisting of the photographer’s name and the phrase “Portfolio Update.” When recipients opened the email, they’d see an interactive grid of images that they could click through to get to the photographer’s work on our website. There was no copy in the body of the email, only the URL for Stockland Martel and for the photographer’s own website.
As we’ve been reevaluating our marketing efforts, we started to wonder whether these e-blasts could be a bit more grabby. So we decided to add text. For each blast, I write a subject line and some short copy to accompany the images. The objective of the subject line is to stand out from all the other messages in the recipients’ inboxes, while the body copy plays off of the images. Sometimes it’s expressionistic, and sometimes it’s straightforward. It depends on the photographer. Because each e-blast is a reinforcement of both our and the photographer’s brand, each message is tailor-made.
Here are a few examples:
Subject line: Real-people portraits by celebrity photographer Kwaku Alston
Body text: Simple and honest. Kwaku Alston’s portraits of everyday people are a tribute to individuality in all its forms. Who says only celebrities have star quality?
Subject line: Rolph Gobits: For Mature Audiences Only
Body text: His elegant, understated portraits and interiors have earned him the respect of the world’s most discerning clients, from the Ritz-Carlton to Sotheby’s. Instant gratification has its charms, but if it’s gravitas you want, Rolph Gobits is your man.
Subject line: Roxanne Lowit: Hot Nights and High Times
Body text: Roxanne Lowit’s photographs remind you of something. That feeling you get when you’re having a night out. Your best night out. When it seems no one and nothing has ever been more beautiful or fabulous. The sense that you will remember this forever.
In the past two weeks, we’ve also done e-blasts for Craig Cutler and Luca Zordan.
We’ve also begun adding text to our newsletters, which, like our e-blasts, had previously been exclusively photo-driven. We just sent out our summer newsletter.
Recently, there have been some really interesting posts about photo-related promos at various other blogs. At Fresh Produce, art producer/art buyer Cecilia Marshall talks about what drew her to a promo she received from photographer Dana Neibert. At pdnonline.com, PDN photo editor Amber Terranova highlights eight recent promos that she considers standouts “because of an obvious style and aesthetic in the imagery, bold and sleek design, personal touches—like a handwritten note—and something quirky or unique in content.”
Toronto freelance art buyer Heather Morton, meanwhile, went so far as to solicit promos from photographers via her blog, HeatherMortonArt buyer, which she then posted and judged with fellow HMAb blogger Myles McCutcheon, who is a photo editor. The two are candid and constructive in their criticism. It’s exactly the kind of feedback that photographers—and agencies, for that matter—wish they could get on a regular basis. If you haven’t already seen it, the post is well worth your time.