Corbis added a specialty royalty-free collection MedicalRF to its image inventory. Launched in July by the Dublin, Ireland-based Moore Film Ltd., MedicalRF contains 10,000 digital illustrations of human anatomy, disease states, medical devices, microscopic organisms and related concepts.
The move is a bid for the ad dollars of the healthcare industry, historically among the biggest spenders. Though according to TNS Media Intelligence, U.S. ad spending has declined for the first two quarters of 2007, the pharmaceutical sector is booming. As reported by Media Daily News, pharma ads shot up 14% in 2006 and additional 6.7% during the first quarter of 2007. Online advertising by the pharmaceutical segment is growing at a particularly high rate; eMarketer projects 2007 as spend will reach $975 million, rising 19% since last year.
According to Corbis, MedicalRF is the world's largest provider of quality royalty-free medical stock. Moore Film also owns a 30,000-image rights-managed collection 3D4Medical, exclusively distributed by Getty Images.
The other significant player in this space is the Cologne, Germany-based medicapicture. The 5-year-old agency offers a 100,000-asset, rights-managed archive of photos, graphics, illustrations, three-dimensional animations and videos devoted to medicine, health, pharmacology, science and nutrition. medicalpicture sells through its own Web site and is also represented by the Associated Press' recently revamped AP Images.
The simplicity of a royalty-free license structure, combined with Corbis' position in the advertising sector and the collection's highly specialized nature, which makes it near-impervious to cannibalization by budget-priced offers, may give MedicalRF an edge. The imagery has already been licensed for advertising, educational and other uses by businesses in life sciences, medical, pharmaceutical, biotech, editorial and publishing industries. According to a summer announcement, the size of the offering is expected to reach 25,000 by mid-2008.