Is Corporate Photography Dead?

By Ed Lallo, Founder of Newsroom Ink

Corporate photography may not be dead, but it’s on the critical list. If the patient is to survive, photographers must reinvent themselves, along with their profession. A new and healthy photography industry must be willing to accept some hard-to-swallow changes.

Ed Lallo, Photographer and Founder of Newsroom Ink

I’ve seen many changes in corporate communications over the last 15 years. The value of photography to companies whipsaws from one extreme to another. In high times, more photography is better. As budgets tighten, its importance falls to the bottom of the must-do list.

For the past 12 months, we’ve been at bottom, struggling to get back up. For many corporate photographers, the ride already has taken far too long. They’ve either closed their doors or altered their business plans to include weddings, school portraits or local sports teams.

Photographers are struggling with a mix of old standby marketing tools while experimenting with the new social media; neither of which have brought the desired results.

Standards, including the Black Book, are having a hard time finding photographers to advertise at the over-inflated rates. The online photography search market is oversaturated with sites such as www.creativeshake.com. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are not reliable alternative sources to find the limited amount of corporate work available.

For years, photographers partnered with designers as a way to find work. This model also is severely shaken as design firms and ad agencies continue to downsize. Cheap online stock has become the answer for many of these firms to stay in business. Gone are the four-color magazines, and the days of annual reports with 30 to 40 days of location shooting. Now, a simple online 10k will fill all SEC mandates.

The standard “day rate” and “photo usage rights” are two main reasons for the industry recession. With corporate budgets cut to the bone, costly photography is given a pass in lieu of royalty-free stock, or having a staff member with a digital camera shoot the assignment.

Management can see little benefit to pay what they consider excessive fees for a professional photograph they will use only once. Communication staffs are being challenged on every budgetary decision, and few are willing to risk their jobs to fight for this expense.

Corporate photography is first of all a business, and secondly, an art form.

Photographers who shoot corporate assignments must take heed about how their clients are coping during this economic downturn. It’s time to position photography in terms of strategic communication—something that adds a definite value to a company.

For the most part, photographers are a reactive group. A client calls with an assignment and the photographer reacts, shooting what the client wants. Photos are sent to the client, and the interaction ends when the check clears the bank. The cycle continues only as long as the client keeps calling. When the client fails to call, the photographer then calls the client and asks why there is no work.

The corporate photographer has failed to engage beyond the lens with clients. To be worth more than a one-time photo, a photographer has to become a strategic partner to corporate communications: to help build a brand, save time, expense and, most importantly, portray the company in ways an insider cannot see. The photographer is the one behind the camera, and should use this unique business vantage point wisely.

For too long, we have relied on art directors as a constant source of assignments. It’s now time to seek new partnerships, take risks and to expend time and effort that is sometimes not always compensated.

One new possible partner in moving corporate photography into the strategic communications realm is another communication entity facing turmoil in this downturn—public relations and communication firms.

Traditional public relations and communication firms never appreciated—or had much success with—using great photography. Based on the premise of billable hours, they are more entrenched in using a host of staff time to place as many press releases as possible.

What escapes most agencies is the knowledge of how to successfully use photographers to enhance their businesses. Instead, photography comes as an afterthought, a one-time line item to expense.

Now that some PR agencies are finally realizing that companies have strategic communications plans that employ a wide variety of visual media, corporate photography suddenly becomes a marketable tool. Corporate or Brand Journalism is the future of communications for the digital era.

A growing number of organizations and companies are finding that as news coverage wanes, they are hiring accomplished reporters and photographers, Corporate Journalists, to post stories and photos on their online newsrooms. The LA Kings hockey team, for example, hired Rich Hammond who writes for the Los Angeles Daily News to cover their team online (http://lakingsinsider.com) because they were getting no space in the traditional local press.

Michael Dell speaks to stockholders at Dell's Annual Meeting in Austin, TX.

In the corporate world, Sugar Land, Texas-based Imperial Sugar Company, hired The News Group Net (http://www.thenewsgroup.net), of which I am a partner, to develop an online news site for the company to provide a steady flow of timely stories and photos. Since it first launched in June of 2009, the Imperial Sugar Newsroom (http://ISCNewsroom.com) has become the most popular online news site in the global sugar industry.

Corporate Journalism has spurred the growth of company online newsrooms, which constantly need to be fed updated stories and photos. It is creating a market with great opportunities for the corporate photographer, especially when partnered with a knowledgeable, professional communications company.

Online newsrooms, Facebook, Twitter and other digital tools tell the company story to a wide variety of audiences: media, employees, shareholders, analysts and even the competition using Corporate Journalism. Management is much more willing to invest when the audience it reaches is greater and sustainable. Great photos drive traffic to these digital tools and are one of the main reasons for repeat traffic.

Since the conception of online websites that use quality photography, the industry has struggled with how to be compensated. Much like the music and movie industries, that struggle still continues today.

At most, online photos are a mere 900k in resolution. The photos are available virtually forever on the Internet and can easily be downloaded to a computer, or used on other sites. Traditional print use of an Internet photo, however, is not a factor, and there within lies the problem. Most assignments now being shot for the Internet still are being invoiced as if for traditional publication.

Photo assignment for Plus Publishing of Austin, TX yoga instructor.

If photographers strategically place their talents with a company, they can increase the day rate to a “monthly rate” by relinquishing Web usage fees and offering set prices for their services over the course of the month. By highlighting the overall corporate savings, plus the ability of the company to more effectively build brand by adding effective visuals, the photographer can eventually grow the business from within and add a proof of concept for new business.

By adding great photos as a visual communication tool, especially on the Web, an often unheard voice—the shooter—becomes part of the corporate strategic communications function.

Organizations like IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) and PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) are excellent conduits to meet potential strategic communication partners.

To reach senior executives, organizations such as NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) and local executive strategic forum organizations like the Houston Strategic Forum, should also be included as places to form new relationships.

Opportunities for strategic alliances abound daily for photographers with the right business mindset. Being ready to seize those opportunities requires presenting a clear, concise approach to tying what you do so well with what corporate communications shops need so badly.

Always remember, corporate photography—when focused on the right ROI (Return On Investment)—has its rightful place today among both old and new media and technologies. As professionals, we just need to get the business aperture right to earn a seat at the table.