The first flexible photographic roll film was introduced by George Eastman in 1885, however businesses have not caught onto the idea of using visual content as a conversion tool and revenue multiplier until late 20th century. Even the almighty Coca Cola was using questionable (yet quite original) visuals to build their brand in the middle of the century.
As cameras became cheaper and professional photographers more plentiful, large businesses started asking their advertising agencies to hire the best photographers to create visual content for them.
Whilst large companies were growing on the back of ads and marketing materials with amazing visuals, smaller companies had to make do with whatever visuals they could get their hands on.
With the meteoric rise of the internet at the turn of the century, disproportionally large number of leads started to come via websites and not using professional visuals to sell more was no longer an option.
However, photographers were still mightily expensive and small to medium sized businesses could not afford them. Thus stock photography was born and suddenly every business – large and small – could buy a photo for their website or marketing brochure for a few dollars.
Then came Steve Job and everything changed. With an amazing camera in everyone’s pocket – we all became photographers.
Then came Facebook & Instagram and we all became photo editors and bloggers.
Billions of photos are now being uploaded online daily and businesses no longer can standout with a few identical looking stock photos from Getty Images or iStockPhoto. Stock photo businesses have tried to reinvent themselves, but a stock photo is a stock photo. It’s not of you, your team, your event, your product. It’s someone else’s photo.
Of course, Chanel and Coca Cola can afford to hire the best photographers in the world and pay them a quarter of Tuvalu’s GDP for the photoshoot. But what about 100mln+ smaller unlisted companies that want the same great quality without having to sell lock, stock and barrel to pay for it?
Welcome to the advent of visual content on-demand or, as my colleague, Bogdan, loves to call it Visual Content as a Service.
With the likes of Splento (at the moment we are the only ones who can service thousands of clients worldwide and deliver consistently high quality every time, but we are sure competitors will start appearing soon), businesses around the world can hire carefully vetted professional photographers for £99 per hour to create any content they desire, from product photography, to conference, to team headshots and portraits.
Whatever your need – you no longer have to work with intermediaries. You personally or your marketing team can fuel your business with visual content in a few clicks at a fraction of whatever perception of the price you may have.
Remember, Great Visual Content Sells! So get Splento to create some for you and help you sell more.
Contact Splento if you are in need of:
