Recently, I found a list on Pond5 of popular keywords customers use to find videos. Earlier this month I published a similar
list that Videoblocks had sent to its contributors a few months ago. I decided to search
Pond5,
Videoblocks and
Shutterstock for each of these words and record the number of returns. You’ll find the results in the chart below.
Clearly, almost any word used provides more results than any searcher will ever have time to review. Searchers can narrow their search by adding more specific terms, but if the creator who did the keywording hasn’t used exactly the same words then a clip that might have perfectly fulfilled the customer’s need will be missed.
Most customers will scroll through a few of the early pages and then move on to something else. Customers may find “a solution” to their immediate need in the first few pages, but it’s highly unlikely that it will be the best solution.
In addition, even when customers use different keywords in their searches, they will often be shown the same clips. To illustrate this point go to
Shutterstock and search the footage collection, one word at a time, for the following words: business, office, professional, working, businessman, worker, career, team, modern, communications, corporate and meetings. Note how often you see the same clips on the first page of each search by using any of these keywords. This happens despite the fact that there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of clips in each category.
This makes sense from the image creators point of view. Creator wants to be sure potential customer see their work regardless of what keyword the customer happens to use. Thus, all creators are taught to attach “all appropriate” keywords to every clip.
Imagine, however, how frustrated buyers with limited time to do searches become when they see the same clips over and over regardless of the keywords they use to search.
Good keywording is necessary, but words alone often can’t adequately describe a viewer’s visual experience. It is hard enough to describe a still image with words. It is more difficult to rely on keywords to describe a video. In addition, different viewers have different reactions to the same visual.
Is there a solution? In the tech world the goal is to do everything with technology and eliminate the human element. For a possible tech improvement check out this
story. But even if this idea were implemented there would still be a need for human curation that narrows down the massive number of clips or images being produced to a manageable number for art directors and graphic designers to review.
It is also somewhat surprising at how different Pond5’s popular keyword list is from Videoblock’s. I have no similar listing from Shutterstock.
Good lists that provide a clear understanding of how often one keyword is used relative to another could be of immeasurable value to videographers (and image creators as well) if distributors would simply provide them. What’s needed is not just the words, but how frequently each word is used in a search relative to all the others, and how frequently such searches result in the sale of a clip. Such information could be of great benefit when planning future shoots.
Comparisons
These comparative searches may provide us with some other insights into the businesses of the three companies. In general, Videoblock’s Marketplace seems to have one-third to one-quarter of the number of returns per keyword as Shutterstock. That makes some sense as Videoblocks currently has just over 1 million clips and Shutterstock has 3,810,794. Videoblocks says they had over $1 million in sales in the first 8 months since their Marketplace was launched. Shutterstock has been selling video for a number of years. Based on the figures they provided at the end of Q3 2015, I estimated that their 2015 video sales will have been about $32 million.
Pond5 seems to have about the same number of clips as Shutterstock based on the number of returns per keyword. A lot of their clips are licensed at much lower prices than Shutterstocks so they may make more unit sales. While it is possible that they license use to more clips than Shutterstock, I suspect their gross revenue is lower than Shutterstock’s.
It is also important to note that many of the same clips are available on all three sites, if they can be found.
| |
Shutterstock |
Pond5 |
Videoblocks |
| |
|
|
Marketplace |
| Pond5 Most in Demand |
|
|
|
| Dance |
83,843 |
122,027 |
27,400 |
| Disco |
50,235 |
61,858 |
13,200 |
| Research and Development |
2,672 |
2,448 |
613 |
| People |
1,009,045 |
1,013,084 |
325,440 |
| Squirrel i |
3,330 |
4,342 |
701 |
| School Bus |
1,190 |
1,913 |
716 |
| Airport |
32,428 |
49,871 |
11,720 |
| Water Spray |
32,497 |
31,782 |
6,440 |
| Pop Music |
7,296 |
10,955 |
1,920 |
| mountains |
277,127 |
307,100 |
64,000 |
| digital devices |
12,239 |
13,868 |
12,560 |
| nature |
1,256,894 |
1,273,628 |
268,400 |
| splashing water |
75,137 |
74,208 |
17,200 |
| factory fly by |
29 |
1,471 |
12,040 |
| toddler sleep |
720 |
917 |
8,160 |
| wall street |
13,653 |
18,801 |
12,760 |
| oven |
8,231 |
8,817 |
2,280 |
| wedding silhouette |
1,273 |
1,814 |
275 |
| horse jump |
1,118 |
1,718 |
458 |
| chinese woman |
12,277 |
10,086 |
150,680 |
| north carolina |
3,095 |
4,381 |
979 |
| pop art |
3,082 |
5,067 |
521 |
| hawaii beach people |
2,921 |
2,215 |
521 |
| chicago |
5,925 |
9,301 |
2,200 |
| old tv |
3,068 |
5,066 |
9,500 |
| babies smling |
18,140 |
14,591 |
4,960 |
| fireworks |
27,886 |
33,348 |
5,000 |
| ballerina |
2,254 |
2,933 |
508 |
| title graphics template |
252 |
400 |
49 |
| 80s |
2,460 |
4,397 |
842 |
| particle |
61,386 |
66,902 |
10,400 |
| character animation |
3,627 |
5,445 |
960 |
| san francisco aerial |
2,768 |
3,301 |
4,700 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
3,018,098 |
3,168,055 |
978,103 |
| |
|
|
|
| Videoblocks Most In Demand |
|
|
|
| business |
371,284 |
439,458 |
146,160 |
| industry |
213,184 |
254,749 |
60,920 |
| job |
69,706 |
83,138 |
23,760 |
| office |
136,969 |
156,997 |
55,920 |
| woman office |
85,779 |
44,352 |
11,400 |
| woman using computer |
16,722 |
21,024 |
7,000 |
| occupation |
67,007 |
77,148 |
22,720 |
| professional |
130,633 |
156,135 |
50,920 |
| working |
275,264 |
340,881 |
96,600 |
| technology |
278,280 |
333,470 |
88,160 |
| businessman |
73,380 |
83,969 |
30,520 |
| worker |
119,674 |
144,047 |
46,040 |
| computer |
161,411 |
215,172 |
57,760 |
| career |
25,505 |
31,153 |
16,000 |
| team |
70,143 |
89,014 |
32,360 |
| modern |
255,449 |
301,079 |
84,080 |
| communications |
136,740 |
158,913 |
56,440 |
| city |
532,629 |
704,241 |
187,240 |
| profession |
16,478 |
19,783 |
8,080 |
| equipment |
181,693 |
210,866 |
56,920 |
| construction |
112,476 |
134,139 |
33,920 |
| finance |
67,661 |
73,761 |
21,680 |
| medical |
64,842 |
80,522 |
26,640 |
| industrial |
213,180 |
254,749 |
60,920 |
| smiling |
261,360 |
303,657 |
60,920 |
| corporate |
68,490 |
82,619 |
27,200 |
| urban |
323,172 |
409,837 |
109,720 |
| desk |
33,419 |
40,601 |
15,520 |
| design |
234,551 |
269,943 |
55,440 |
| laptop |
49,325 |
60,389 |
25,080 |
| meeting |
47,732 |
59,537 |
23,760 |
| economy |
44,407 |
54,965 |
14,640 |
| warehouse manager |
759 |
957 |
387 |
| robots |
7,954 |
14,705 |
3,080 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
4,747,258 |
5,705,970 |
1,617,907 |