iStockphoto and Avery Dennison Office Products have announced a multi-year agreement to cross-promote each other’s offerings.
Founded in 1935, Avery specializes in pressure-sensitive technology and self-adhesive consumer products. In addition to the well-known Avery brand of office products, the company also produces Fasson-brand self-adhesive materials, peel-and-stick postage stamps, reflective highway safety products, automated retail tag and labeling systems, and specialty tapes and chemicals. In 2007, the company’s revenues were $6.3 billion, placing it at 382 among the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. industrial and service companies.
Avery will offer free and discounted iStock images in 15 million of its products sold in the U.S. The promotion will also run on the Avery Web site, where customers will be able to choose 20 free images and claim a 20% discount off their first purchase of over 50 iStock credits.
In turn, iStock’s Web site will feature Avery templates and promote the office-supply company’s products and online services.
Caradoc Ehrenhalt, Avery group manager of content development, said the deal comes “at a time when the appetite for great photos and illustrations is at a peak, but most people still don’t know where to get them.” Avery’s online design and printing solutions will allow its customers to easily add iStock images to Avery products—such as business cards, binders, dividers, mailing labels, greeting cards and fabric transfers—and print them from the desktop.
iStock COO Kelly Thompson sees this partnership as additional access to the consumer market. He said a recent survey of 1,000 Americans highlighted that over 30% are downloading and using images without appropriately licensing them. “[There is a] need for more knowledge about finding safe, authorized imagery,” he explained.