Keedup: Keywording, All Grown Up

Posted on 2/19/2008 by Julia Dudnik Stern | Printable Version | Comments (0)



"You should be thinking of the new world, not the third world, to keyword your images," asserts the home page of the newly independent New Zealand image-keywording company Keedup. Previously a division of downunder celebrity-photo agency More Images, Keedup Ltd. is now a separate business entity.

In the image-licensing business since 1994, More Images launched Keedup in 2005. The keywording service was borne out of frustration with the quality of keywords supplied to More Images, according to its founder Kevin Townsend. Focusing on the familiar niche of celebrity and news imagery, Keedup grew quicker than anticipated.

"We've obviously struck a chord with the image-selling community; today keywording easily eclipses our syndication sales," said Townsend, commenting on the decision to spin off Keedup as an entirely separate business from its parent. He adds that the separation has also enabled the labor-intensive keywording business to make more appropriate financing arrangements.

Keedup exits a two-year period of aggressive growth with a staff of 25, working around-the-clock shifts seven days a week. In addition to keywording, it offers international image-distribution services via a Montreal, Canada-based server. And it has bigger plans.



As the number of creative images skyrockets, the company is looking to take a larger piece of the global keywording pie by expanding out of its editorial niche. Townsend said many stock companies have already sought out Keedup, because of its attractive cost-to-quality ratio.

"With [New Zealand's] low wages and high education standards, we are delivering keywording at the standard of U.S. and U.K. companies, but at a greatly reduced price... similar to those offered by companies in third-world countries such as India," he explained. This is not surprising; the Western film and television industries have taken advantage of the continent for decades, with results that range from television's "Xena" to "The Lord or the Rings" trilogy.

In partnership with technology companies Imagetext and Premedia, Keedup has developed its own image-processing software and technology-driven keywording processes. Its service can be customized to meet any standard, including those of Getty Images, Corbis, Image Source, Aurora and Alamy. Its employees are college-educated professionals with image-licensing experience. All are also native English speakers, an important factor to a language-driven business.

Another benefit to clients in Europe and the Americas is Keedup's geographic location. The time difference allows for overnight turnaround on time-sensitive projects.

In addition to expanding its keywording operation, Keedup plans to introduce a range of new services targeted at stock-licensing companies. Already in the works is an image-research service. Townsend thinks that handling it in-house is a particularly big problem for small and medium-size image libraries. Keedup provides the service to its keywording clients and sees it as a growth market.




Copyright © 2008 Julia Dudnik Stern. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Comments

Be the first to comment below.

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff