Getty Customers Use Fewer Images

Posted on 2/5/2008 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

In his year-end conference call to investors, Getty Images CEO, Jonathan Klein said, "We are licensing fewer images for print advertising, brochures, junk mail and print collateral." This is very significant because these uses have always been the bread and butter of stock photography.

Klein attributes the decline to customers doing "less of that kind of work." They are not cutting their marketing budgets but, "simply moving these marketing dollars to other areas, including online and paid search, which as we all know is text-based and has no pictures." In terms of online spending, he said the pictures are at lower resolution and as a result, offered at lower price points.

He also cited changes in the ad business and more work done in the online environment. Klein also addressed the RF space, noting; "The higher resolution images by definition are being used for print and not on the Web and those volumes are lower. So we're not seeing a lot of swapping out."

It is not clear how he can be sure customers are actually producing fewer products. It seems possible customers are continuing to produce the same quantities of the print products listed, but are going to cheaper sources (microstock) to find images.

Getty's revenue statistics seem to indicate that customers are finding more of the images they need for smaller uses in microstock. The average RPI at iStock has risen significantly in the last year. This means that larger files sizes are being purchased much more frequently and larger file sizes are used for print. In addition, the fact that microstock companies are moving to supply XLarge and XXLarge files, as well as Fotolia's new XXXL file, also seems to support the conclusion that microstock is being used increasingly for print.



Customers may also be patronizing sources other than Getty.

This possibility is supported by research I did in September 2006. At that time, I looked for a picture of an air conditioner repairman for use in a small yellow pages ad. I checked Getty and they had one picture of someone working on a major industrial system. Corbis had three pictures, two on industrial systems and a nice one on a home system, which was the kind of picture the customer needed. Jupiterimages had nothing. iStockphoto had 20 images, all taken on the same shoot of two guys working on a home system.

One of iStock's images had been downloaded 171 times and the total downloads for all 20 images over 16 months was 829. I recently took another look for this subject matter. Now, there are 34 images in that category (another photographer added some) and a total of 3675 downloads. Corbis and Getty still have the same number as before, and Jupiter is showing Corbis' pictures. There are a huge number of customers who want to use this subject matter and the only place they can find it is in microstock.

Customers may still be producing approximately the same number of printed pieces as they have in the past, but whenever possible, they are looking for less expensive pictures. When they can find cheaper images, it frees up the overall budget for use in online or paid search advertising.



Copyright © 2008 Jim Pickerell. 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

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

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