I recently met up with Geraldine Neale from Madison Soho marketing agency to talk about her views on recent campaigns and her thoughts on stock photography. Madison Soho is a full service agency that delivers media-neutral marketing solutions. Geraldine’s department handles the marketing and events of shopping centres across the UK and Europe. I noticed moodboard images have been used more and more in their recent campaigns so I decided to investigate.
What projects have you recently enjoyed working on?
Christmas is always an exciting time in shopping centres as they pull out all the stops. We have to differentiate each Christmas’s marketing to be even bigger and better than the last year, so it really does mean the creatives are on top of their game thinking up original campaigns. Celebrities help build a great buzz and for Christmas just passed we organised Nicholas Cage to turn on the Christmas lights in Bath.
Nicholas Cage, wow I hope you took some good photos!
Well actually funnily enough I had one of those embarrassing moments where I went to take a picture of him but pressed the off button instead. I was too embarrassed to say I’d turned off the camera so left without one. I don’t think I’m quite up to scratch with my photography skills. I think I will leave that to the experts at moodboard.
Have you seen a change in the way agencies use Stock photography?
In the last couple of years I’ve noticed a change in the way art directors produce campaigns. Before, an art director would draw out a specific idea. Now they work more with a concept or headline and then go through the stock sites to see which visual best works. They are more flexible with the visuals and are very open to other interpretations.
Can you remember a moodboard image that was used in a recent campaign you were handling?
I remember using an image of a woman holding a camera in the snow. This was used in a shopping centre in Cheltenham. This image captured everything the client was looking for in the photograph. Sometimes it’s hard to meet all criteria but this photo really hit the nail on the head.
What makes for a great stock photo?
Well apart from being a quality photograph I’d say that the image has to inspire a great slogan from looking at it. Concept images are always great for this but not the ones that are so obvious and cheesy. Some images capture something you have to visualise and create yourself but without too much of a struggle so others don’t get it.
What are you reservations about working with Stock Photography?
One of my concerns is that the image won’t be model released. This would have big implications for our campaigns if it wasn’t. Although we don’t have to worry about that with moodboard.
What do you like about moodboard’s photo library?
I was getting frustrated using larger agencies as it takes ages to search through many inappropriate images. With moodboard you know your selection of quality relevant images will be brought up. This saves me a lot of time. Also the range of images and price points helps me chose the right image for campaigns with different budgets.
Do you include microstock in your campaigns?
No never as it’s not worth risking a campaign by scrimping on a very low budget image. We do use royalty free though as there are some amazing premium quality photos out there.
With a lot of doom and gloom in the market at the moment it’s great to hear from an agency that is using stock photography successfully in more and more campaigns. Better luck next time with your celebrity photography. If you want any tips I’m sure our photographers here would be happy to give you some pointers.