October 12, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - Maybe it is because I am involved in advertising. When it comes to commercial photography specifically for advertising I have learned that perfect isn't always the best nor does it always sell products the best. The flaws of reality can be and often are better and more effective.
One day I was amazed after visiting the studio of a commercial photographer friend. He was getting paid to grow grass. His client was a major retailer who was paying him to grow grass to be used in an ad image. Some time after that I had a client that needed grass in one of her ad images. I bought some sod. I learned something of great value. The sod cost my client just a few bucks. It wasn't as perfect as the carefully grown "studio" grass but it was real. When it was done my clients product looked great as did the total image but there was something more to that image. There was reality. You could see it. Maybe you didn't "see" it but the reality was there. Some might say the $20.00 piece of sod was more effective than the grass that cost $1000 or more for the photographer to grow in his studio. I'm sure the retailers ad agency wouldn't agree.
There is a great value to reality that is most often overlooked by advertising executives. Often days or even weeks and $ thousands are spent building the perfect set for the background. Everything has to be exactly the perfect color and the prefect size. Then days can be invested in getting the lighting just perfect. I've been there and done that and in the end there were many beautiful ad images. Maybe it was just me. No I don't expect my cheese Whopper to look like it does on TV when I pull it out of the bag and I don't believe Burger King would sell a lot of Whoppers if they used a photo of the one I pulled from the bag in their ads but... there is a real value in reality more than manufactured perfection.
]]>
Maybe you do everything to make your product look it's best in the photo but the background is part of that image. What does it say about your product when the background looks too perfect to be real? Customer testimonials are of great value to us all in business. Why? Because they're from real people. Amazon.com developed one of the most powerful marketing tools ever, the customer comments. I was looking to buy a waffle iron the other day. I found one I liked on line at a major retailer. I liked the price on the one I picked out but before I bought I went to Amazon and did a search. Sure enough there was my waffle iron. The comments weren't all that good and I didn't buy it, because of reality.
Look at Billy Mays. His success was because he was real. One could sense that he was real. One could sense that he believed in that product. His product demonstrations were real. Yes they were practiced but in the end they were real. In a world with digital images it's hard to tell what is real and when your being conned. I believe that someplace in our subconscious we see and respond better to things that aren't perfect, that are real. You might not even see the "real" but somehow something catches your attention.
I have to wonder about this rush to places like Twitter and Facebook by advertisers. The marketing value to Twitter and Facebook was that it was real, kind of like the comments on Amazon but in real time. Now there is a cottage industry teaching people how to take advantage of the social networks. Now you see car manufacturers and others hiring staff to keep promoting their products on them. Well guess what? That's no more real or effective than the guy who knocks on your door trying to sell something. It's not the same. It's not real. I remember a car company that did a major press release on how they were going to use Twitter to promote their products. They must have had writers compose a series of Twitter posts in advance so they could be approved, of course. The day of the announcement they posted 20 or 30 professionally written posts in a matter of 2 minutes or less. Hello? Maybe you should have announced that you had a plan to spam Twitter. First of all you can't have every post professionally written and approved in advance. It's not real. Social Networks are about being real.
In my commercial photography business, sometimes to my detriment, I urge clients to use real. I find and use real locations for photo shoots because they are real, not perfect. I just recently completed a project for a company that makes products used in construction. In the past they may well have built sets to show their products being used. They would hire models and set up everything for their notion of how this should look. Me? I went to actual construction sites and used the very same guys that use the products, dirt, worn work boots and tattoos and all. I even used their beat up tools as props. I didn't even clean up the wood shavings from the drills and saws. The location was real. The people were real. Even the lighting was real. I held my breath when my client reviewed the first series of shots. Their response? Get more! Not only were they very real but in the end they cost my client a fraction of what it cost to build sets and hire models. I have a client that is now sold on reality in advertising.
Again, maybe it's just me but when I saw the new GM commercials with Chairman Ed Whitacre walking through the set designed to look like maybe one of GM's design departments, but it was obviously not real I had to wonder. He was trying to deliver a message that we should trust him and the GM products and the background was fake, a fraud. Here's a guy trying to deliver a very substantive message to us and he is surrounded by fiction, no substance. What message did this ad really deliver?
It is sometimes said that what's old becomes new again. You want to stand out in the crowd? Try reality. You remember, that thing we used before technology allowed advertisers to create their own reality. Being real might not get you the instant gratification every one expects these days but reality lasts one hell of a lot longer. So you think you need a computer generated reality to attract younger customers? Guess again. They can spot computer generated BS in a nanosecond. Your just one more clown trying to catch their attention and get their money with technology. Especially now, in this economy where the real reality is apparently out of anyone's control, offering even the younger audience a piece of something honestly real can be powerful message of substance.
Something that's based in reality, substantive and speaks the truth. What a novel idea especially in an advertisement.
Cleveland Commercial Photography - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. - DOUGLAS Commercial Photography™
Advertising Image Services™ - DOUGLAS Art Prints®
]]>
