In order to get the new year off to a good start, I thought I’d relate some points from a webcast I recently watched. One of the many emails in my inbox upon my return to work was from Adbase, a database service that many agencies subscribe to. It’s a very comprehensive and frequently updated list of important decision makers in North America related to photography, illustration, fine art and broadcast, covering the gamut from the graphic designer at a small book publishing agency to the lead creative directors at the big ad agencies. It’s not the cheapest service but for an agency (and photographers) it’s a worthwhile tool and just about every agency I know uses it.

I received an email entitled “What Buyers Really Want” and normally this is the type of email that gets delete immediately status but I clicked on this one and it led me to a 10 minute webcast (well, basically a powerpoint presentation) from a nice sales manager talking about the results of a survey conducted in Spring of 2007.

- A panel of 41 qualified individuals…5 large agency Art Director’s, 10 agency Art Buyer’s, 7 Photo editors, 5 in-house Art Directors, 7 design agency Art Director’s and 7 small agency Art Director’s. (caveat..the sales manager said 46 panelists, but unless my math is so utterly horrendous the panelists add up to 41)

Personally this seems a little Art Director heavy to me but whoever they could get, right?

The Highlights:

- Most buyers get emails with no focus on style or type of photography
- Emails should trigger action and a target specific audience
- Avoid sweeping, unfocused campaigns
- Both email and print are crucial marketing tools…for now
- Keep EVERYTHING up to date…people will keep tabs on you if they like your work. Keep everything equally updated
- Send regular reminders of your work to people who clicked on your work
- A successful email promotion will lead to a buyer likely bookmarking your website
- An impromptu survey in the middle of the webcast queried the viewer…how do you promote? 57% of the respondents used web and email
- Age matters - the older panelists (and I do not know what old is in this case) preferred traditional print promos, the younger panelists use the Internet first and thinks sourcebooks are a waste of time
- However, 75% of respondents bookmark websites…and 74% keep tearsheets and promos
- Not a single respondent mentioned phone calls as a valid form of promotion
- One should only call the buyer if they clicked through on your email promotion
- Remember, it’s the job of art buyers to see work…and to set up meetings, especially to gauge the personality of the photographer
- Keep your work fresh!
- 80% of large agency Art Directors get their recommendations from the Art Buying department

Again, everything should be taken with a grain of salt and I don’t think that there’s information here that will knock anyone’s socks off, but I do think that the “Age Matters” point is quite interesting, as well as the fact that 80% of large agency Art Directors get their recommendations from the Art Buying Department.

Basically the Internet has become (or will very shortly become) the main marketing force for the our print driven world…oh the irony.