VisualSteam has released the results of its 5th Annual Survey of Creative Pros on the issue of Stock Image Licensing. The survey was sent to US art buyers, art directors, art producers, creative directors, photo editors and marketing professionals and provides a glimpse into what is driving image licensing today.
In years past, an average communication piece might have used a handful of visuals and lasted 6 months. A creative might have paid $600 per image for a total licensing fee of $3,000. Today, a social media campaign could be targeting 3 posts a day, 5 days a week for the next 3 months. This could require 180 visuals, instead of 6 and the gross spent on the project might be much less than $3,000.
The survey found that, “Getty remains the dominant top-of-mind brand followed by Shutterstock. Shutterstock, however is for the first time the #1 go-to destination. Adobe has moved up as a top-of-mind brand, but still lags as a go-to resource.”
“Given the importance of price, it is not a surprise to see that two agencies providing CCO licenses (free use) made it onto the list of favorite resources this year – Pexels and Unsplash.”
A high percentage of creatives search 3 or more agencies when looking for images that fulfill their needs.
Forty percent of the respondents were from ad agencies and design firms; 33% from editorial and publishing; 23% from corporations and 4% other. 60% use more than 50 images per year and 36% use more than 100 images per year.
Overall 43% of creatives say they licensed both still and video this year, but this is down from 47% in 2016. Advertising and design agencies seem to be licensing more video than the publishing sector.
“Creative Pros generally think the quality of stock images are about the same. 40% say that creative stills are getting better, 45% believe stock video is getting better, 32% say that editorial stills are getting better and 28% say that editorial video is getting better.”
Of total respondents, 43% says they expect their use of stock photography to increase in the coming year, but 57% expect no increase. When it comes to video 53% expect an increase and 47% don’t.
The additional breakdowns of this information that can be found in the full survey results are very revealing. Reader are advised to request a copy of this year’s survey by sending an email to:
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Leslie Hughes, VisualSteam’s Founder and Strategic Advisor, said, “The importance of visuals to user engagement and retention is clearly driving overall increases in demand. Reliance on stock visuals has grown stronger because it is available, certain, abundant and relatively cheap.” While the survey indicates that client budgets are increasing, Hughes went on to say, “downward pressure on price continues as the appetite for images significantly outpaces any growth in budgets.”
A few highlights of what creatives had to say with regard to the kind of content needed include:
- Less “stocky” content, fewer posed images.
- More “real” people, more authenticity, “real life images,” real life in business and tech
- “Too many trendy images, I need real life.”
- “Quality, more quality, better shots, better locations, authentic models”
- More diverse images – Hispanic, Native American
- Women over 40 for health, fashion and lifestyle.
- More 50 year old people – selections are too young or too old without much in between
- Time is wasted weeding out 3 good images from 3,000 bad ones! Edit please”
- Get rid of old, dated content. “I don’t care if you have 6 million images.”
- Lower prices. Some sites are “ridiculously high.”
- “I want quality for less, just like my clients.”
- Get actual people from specific trades
- Simpler photos that are easier to collage. Dead angles are best for objects
- Better, more current and relevant keywords and metadata
- Be competitive with Getty on price and subscriptions or we can’t use you
My comment: Photographers understand what they want, but they can’t produce such imagery - on speculation - for the prices customers are willing to pay.