Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to more 2 marketing. The podcast explores marketing, product and everything business. I’m your host Susan Walsh, and today we’re talking about how successful you can use photography to actually bring about not just your brand, but a campaign to life. I’m very fortunate today to have a special guest leader and she is a professional photographer. She’s been doing this for over a decade and has really honed her craft in this industry and she has a pass in business so she can really merge those two together to get the most out of. She brings a huge amount of skills from commercial advertising, food lifestyle shops which make me draw portraits and also has a specialty in working with vegan friendly products. Her eye for D Timex, Lila and explain all things. Photography, branding. And I’d love to hear more about your walking you to the podcast. Hi, Leela.
Lila
Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Susan
I’m so glad to have you here. But tell us a bit more about you, your journey and your love of photography.
Lila
That’s a bit of a backlog there. My journey I’ve actually started way back, way doing fashion, design and makeup artistry. Before I worked in the world of photography. So I guess I come with a bit of a unique standpoint of where I’ve come from because I come from the. Styling and visual side of it from a different aspect behind the lens, and I’ve merged that with my photography. So I bring in, I guess a bit more of a. Bigger visual image of how a campaign should come together. When I’m looking at my advertising and commercial work, I’m really thinking about creating a visual story. You know, there are some photographers that really just focus on your lighting aspects, but I’m really here about creating a brand vision and how we can create a brand vision and really make a business more money. To be honest, that’s where I bring in my business side of things. You know, I think as a photographer you can easily get absorbed into the world of beautiful imagery. But if it doesn’t make you money, well, we’re not doing the right thing. Exactly.
Susan
And even if it is beautiful, can you the target audience, they picture themselves using it it. Might be too beautiful.
Lila
Exactly. Well, yeah. I mean, you you really have to consider where the audience is. I mean, a prime example of someone like Lowe’s, right, their brands, you know, you can see in everything they do from their TV commercials to their billboards to their signage in store, they’re targeting a very specific dynamic of people. And it’s like. You might look at those images and be like ohh they’re not great, but that’s the demographic they’re going for. They’re going to cheat, easy, accessible, so you’re exactly refining who your customer is and targeting them is so key in creating a really strong brand visual.
Susan
No, I 100% agree. And you see so many different cases of this. And I suppose over the last five years, you’ve probably seen a bit of a change in how photography is used. So you want to share some of your insights that you’ve noticed over the industry.
Lila
Yeah, it’s been really interesting. It’s kind of for me. There’s kind of three aspects that I would say have changed. We’ve got one aspect where there is definitely a real shift to bold dynamic in your face photography. You know, we’re kind of shying away a little bit. I would say from that kind of light and airy look to really high impact. Contrast, and I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that, you know, we really need to get people’s attention quickly. So it’s really that really like grabbing your face kind of look. The other thing I would say we’re definitely seeing a lot more of is a lot more narrative driven photography. It’s all about trying to sell an emotion, you know, and this is something that big companies have done for a long time. If you think about, you know, Coca Cola, for example, but we’re definitely seeing it trickle down in a way that, you know, even medium sized brands are realising. That selling this aspirational idea is so important when it comes to campaigns, though, they’re starting to really look at how can we create this lifestyle and brand identity? And then I would say the third thing that I find is really interesting. Is actually. We’ve also. In contrast to this really high police high contrast image, what we’re also seeing is this almost like. I’m done. You can do it yourself. Kind of look where it’s like. You’re the friendly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, more like, you know, like. Ohh. I’ve just captured this on my phone, which is something that’s really different to what you know, these really high polished images are. But it’s this kind of look.
Susan
Unfiltered.
Lila
You know it’s accessible. Anyone could do this. A prime example for me at the moment is Applebee’s latest campaign for their iPhone. You look at the images of it and you know, one of the billboards at the moment is a close up of a little baby. You know, that is specifically not done in a picture perfect studio, but the whole image, you know, I think the tagline is something like. Capturing the next generation and it’s selling that idea of like, oh, it’s not even about how great this is. It’s about capturing a moment, you know. And yeah, it’s it’s a completely different style of photography, even though it would have been a whole team there. They’re making it seem like someone just snapped on their.
Susan
And I I following on from that the mobile example, there’s been some mobile ones in the past where they literally do use shots from users of that type of phone and promote that phone at the same time going this was taken by Sam. Sam was in some mountain range somewhere using the lace blah blah device. Just to try and show how great their new cameras are when you’re out and about. So it it’s it’s quite a clever use of it because you’re getting your social content in there at the same time.
Lila
Yeah, exactly.
Susan
As well as the product being used and then bringing it back to the audience.
Lila
Completely. And it’s interesting as well, like from my point of view, I’ve definitely been asked to create more user content than I’ve ever had before, you know, and even to the point of there has been a couple of incidences I recently did a short campaign for Vic. The inhaler, and they specifically asked me to film one on my. Phone. Which I was totally not how I normally do, but it interesting they specifically wanted user content that was filmed on a phone. And so yeah, it’s an interesting shift that we’re seeing. I don’t think it’s the end of photography. But an interesting mix I think between that really high polished studio bold look and that really user friendly anyone can do it style.
Susan
Yep, Yep. Exactly. And I I think this really leads us on to what you consider are the fundamental elements of a successful photography campaign and the the why behind because you’re given a few different examples of the three trends. But what actually makes it successful when we’re just down to the basics of what you should be looking at so that you know you’re on the right path.
Lila
For me, the biggest thing is really knowing your target audience, you know, and it’s something that I cannot stress enough. I have. You know, people come to me quite often and I say like, who are you targeting? And I’ve had a few people say, oh, everyone, to which I say, well, then you’re. Targeting no one. You know it’s so important to know who you’re targeting because that drives your colour choice. You know, it drives the models that you use. It drives the difference between, like you say, whether you go for high polished or whether you go for user friendly content. And that is truly it’s the key to everything that for me, when I’m working with a new client is my starting point. Who are we driving this content for and where are we trying to create the aspiration behind the brand? Because if you think about someone, again, if we go back to, for example, Coca Cola, they’re a great big brand. They’re all about. Having that lifestyle, that fun, bold imagery, great looking models, you know, really in your faith campaigns, it’s all about selling that moment in the sun if I take. The way they photograph and I do it for something like. Incontinence pads for over 60 year olds, and say we create a campaign that’s like, you know, old people that are out there having fun, but they’re just in these pads and, you know, it’s really in your faith that’s not going to hit the target demographic. Now if you take those old people having fun and do it this same kind of style as Coca Cola. And shoot it with Coca Cola and say hey, like when you’re 60, you could still be having fun. You could still be this cool if you drink Coca Cola, it’s gonna work, you know. But that’s not gonna work if you’re targeting this different demographic. So it’s like understand. Being who your client is drives the entire photography process.
Susan
And I’d, I’d guess that another layer to it as well is finding out from the marketing team what assets and what placements is going to be behind it as well, because it’ll be a difference between a catalogue versus a social media campaign versus a billboard versus a map. Magazine so many different iterations that you need to find out where it’s going to be to know how the image should be shot to.
Lila
Ohh, completely. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and even subtle things like the amount of negative space needed to how much wording is going around. You know, people. Yeah. Definitely think it’s very easy to just take a whole bunch of shots and utilise. Them wherever you know. It’s, you know, if I’m shooting for a social media campaign versus, for instance, a website that are just so long and narrow, it’s like a completely different way of shooting. Yeah, it’s it’s kind of one of my go to 1st after knowing. You know, what’s the ideas? Where are these images going?
Susan
And I think that’s where a lot of companies struggle because they think one photo. Will do all. Where really you need a variety that will cover your landscapes, your portraits, your different sizes. Like you said, the negative space so that you have a collective. I don’t know, a minimum 10 images of the same type of image that you can work on for all those different areas.
Lila
Yeah, exactly. And I think the other thing to consider as well is. There’s different ways to sell your product. You know, I’ve found with some brands they’ll invest in beautiful E commerce products, which is definitely need to go too straight away, need good ecom, but then they’ll try and use those as their campaign images and it’s it’s different like they’re you need to have a strong product. Manage that when someone clicks your website, they purchase it, but when it comes to a campaign it’s so much more about selling an idea. Yes, you know it’s such a different look and feel. Deal. And it’s sometimes you find even with those campaign images, your product is the smallest aspect within that photo. You know it could just be a bunch of people laughing. For example, if it be a company. People laughing, having a great time. The beers are just in someones hand, you know that is a completely different look and feel to your ecommerce E commerce St where it’s product front centre clean purchase me now.
Susan
Exactly. Exactly. And I find one of the other things a lot of people are praying to. Their photography is props, even for those ones with the ecom site, that they’re really filling them. We say it’s a Native Australian product and it’s got a lot of those like wattle and whatever eucalypt or whatever.
Susan
Is they? They throw them all over the background. So throw a couple of leaves down some gum nuts. Have you seen a lot of that as well happen out there? And what’s your views on over using props for your products for ecom?
Lila
It’s a fine line. I think those shots look beautiful, but to be honest, I think they should be your campaign shots. You know, if you’re selling the idea of like, you know, see how much nature is involved in that. But those, they’re stunning, you know. But I still think it’s so important to have a clean e-commerce shot. You know, I just think. People underestimate, you know, just having a clean product shot and you know, the way I think about it as well is. You do that product shot once you’ve got uncapped profit on that, you only need to do it once and get it right and nail it. You can then, you know, cut out the background. You can do so many things with that. But I think if you’ve got an image that’s got all those props around it, you’re gonna have a harder time. I think that those shots are beautiful. I think they’re great for your social media, your campaigns. The website banners, you know your billboards. But have a backlog of e-commerce that’s clean on file. Yep, that makes complete sense as well because even then you can just change out the background if you wanted to, just to give it a bit of a spruce up if you chose to. You didn’t have to do a whole new shoot. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think it’s just a staple, you know, staple for any business, have it on file. And then invest in those kind of stylized looks that are gonna be really eye catching, yeah.
Susan
You’ve spoken a. Lot about how photography is part of. Telling a story so like storytelling as part of photo. Trophy. Have you had any particular concerns with brands or doing the identity or building out the marketing goals when you’re doing these storylines through photography?
Lila
The I mean not concerned. I think sometimes it’s for me, it’s more the brand having a real understanding of who they’re targeting. Like I mentioned before, you know, I can always work with someone to build a story, but if they don’t have a solid concept of who they’re aiming to.
Lila
That’s when it’s a real struggle. You know, we I think when some brands really like before they they try and target everyone you know and it’s a missed opportunity to really clone in on who you’re kind. Of going towards and. And sometimes this takes time to develop, you know.
Susan
And it evolves to I’d.
Lila
Assume yeah, exactly. And there are times where you may want to even. You know, approach a different market, I mean, a prime example that I can think of recently was I was shooting Brasilia coffee and they’re a coffee brand. They’re in South Australia, Italian coffee brand and they had realised their target market was about kind of like. The plus 60 year olds. In the supermarket chains that purchased their coffee, now they realised if they had a solid market. So they wanted to break into a new market and and what I found really interesting about this. Because. Sometimes it’s not even about they already had an established market, so it wasn’t about that market. It was like how can we extend it? We don’t need to actually advertise to these guys anymore. They’re they’re shopping our product. How can we get in your market? So for them, they wanted to get a younger market. So we came up with this idea to. Have a European style set up with their coffee. A young couple model couple that looked very European and it was all about creating the romance about coffee, and it was about doing this whole campaign that targeted young people that targeted this kind of new love of coffee and romance. So you kind of see in those what’s the brand, loca mocha.
Susan
Oh, Yep. Yep. More cards. Yep.
Lila
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because for them, they pay.
Susan
But also in the movies, that’s what you see in the movies as.
Lila
Well, with coffee. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And. So for that then it was like this was almost like a bit of a rebranding exercise. They had one market check. How do we now extend our new market and create that narrative? And so it was really interesting campaign to relaunch them in a new direction, but it worked because they knew who they were targeting younger people in their 30s. That wanted to have coffee at home that weren’t going out, you know, and wanted to bring that romantic sense into. To their field, they’re copying their brand.
Susan
And again, storytelling, bringing that in so that they could fuel that as well when they’re hopefully having their copper on a Sunday morning too.
Lila
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And that was it. There were so many different scenes that we did with that campaign. There was, you know, your breakfast in bed, your breakfast outdoors, a date night. It was very much about the couple connecting, you know, the product was in the shop, but it wasn’t the hero. You know, the hero was these two people connecting. And it was that. Idea of if you drink our coffee, you could have the moments that we have.
Susan
Umm and and again come that storytelling is so important and it really needs to flow through all elements. So not just the photography but the wording, the language. Everything was seamless there and that’s how photography is so important. Because it’s one of the grounding pieces.
Lila
Exactly. Yeah. And so, for instance, with that, their wording is for the love of coffee. You know? Simple. Yep. That’s a narrative bringing it back to romance, love, you know, driving home, that message within the whole campaign.
Susan
Yep. Now that’s beautiful. Do you have any other examples that you could share of past? It doesn’t have to be your own, but other past ones that you’ve seen that are really successful campaigns using photography and why it was so effective.
Ohh gosh. I mean, there’s.
So many out there so. Hard to narrow it down.
Susan
I think for me one of the ones which isn’t still photography, but it’s visual photography and how they did the storyline. Forgive me everyone, I cannot remember the insurance company but the story of could.
Lila
Ohh yes.
Susan
And how that went on for? Like 2 years, yeah. But it started with the holiday and then the overtime, the romance and everything as well. But it was just done in such a.
Susan
A nice clean but clever way that you had the photography telling the story so as soon as you saw him or her, you knew exactly what this product was at that moment in time. I I forgot what surance it is.
Lila
It did its job, obviously.
Susan
But that went on for years.
Lila
Yeah, I I definitely think a strong contender for this would definitely be Qantas, their campaigns that they do that are all about reuniting people, especially around COVID. You know, again, a lot of this was motion, but the the campaign that they did that was around surprising and loved one. You know, bringing home and they did one ad that was bringing home a son from London and surprising his family in Australia. Yeah. God, they I cry every time I say that. But exactly it’s driving that emotion and connection. I mean really at the end of the day, they’re just a flight company. Yeah, but what they’re driving is we’re not just here to fly. We’re here to connect people. And it’s such a that is such a strong message.
Lila
That is so different from we get you from A to B. You know it’s we get you to see your loved one and that’s just the the power of creating that story. Exactly. And even if you keep going down the lines of airlines that try and do things a little bit differently in their photography and and really use what they’ve their asset.
Susan
Other I think New Zealand, so Air New Zealand does a has been doing a fantastic job for many, many years, particularly when Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and all of those movies were coming out and using their assets and teaming up with tourism. So that to the point that they had. Even some of their videos on how the stewardesses. Doing their whole boring spill that here every time but making exciting and new with their video content. So people actually wanted to watch it till the end and see what new placements have they got, what characters are they building out, where on Middle Earth are people gone to learn about how to sit on a plane and live and get. Off it safely. So I I think they really used. Everything they could in such a way to build up not only tourism but also the airline as well. And put it across all the different types of media to really get the most of it, because even if you looked at some of their ads that they have. They’re they’re picturesque and gorgeous with minimum wording, but they really have they have a normal person in the picture. It’s not a model, it’s an everyday person, and it really does make you think that you could be that person there.
Lila
Yeah, it’s interesting. I work on a lot of campaigns where they’re now actually asking for everyday people. You know, I I say with Bunny ears cause you know, they still like to to be good looking everyday people. Yeah, but yeah, it is interesting thing. I guess it goes back to creating that more user content friendly, you know photography. We are now getting more and more request for less model looking or definitely at least diversity within the kind of models that we get. And yeah, they’re getting a lot more. Request for everyday people, so it has that relatability aspect to it. So exactly right. You can envision yourself being the one that has this product or it’s more as well. Like if you use this product you could be this person but without it being so disconnected that you know you have to be a model to be able to be this person.
Susan
Exactly. And I suppose that that comes down to a bit of how do you actually navigate the balance between artistic expression in the photography and also fulfilling the strategic need of the brand as part of that brief?
Lila
There’s one lesson that I really took from working with the big businesses that I used to, and that is that what I find really interesting about just people in general is you can have such different views in what you think is aesthetically pleasing and as a creative that can be challenging sometimes because you know. You cannot see your photography work as a reflection. One of you, and if someone doesn’t like it, it can hit hard. But the biggest thing that I’ve learned through doing business is one everyone sees things differently. But two, what’s important is what’s gonna make business money for the business. You know, at the end of the day. So it’s a matter of stepping outside of your what you see as visually pleasing and thinking about. How is this going to drive sales and how can we merge the two? Because you know, like we were talking about earlier, E come with all that beautiful, flowery things about it. It’s gorgeous. But is that gonna make you any more money than having a stagnant ecom shop?
Lila
You know, So what is really gonna drive the product and at the end of the day, it is about making more money for the business and highlighting the products. So there are aspects when you’re doing creative projects where actually less is more because you may find that going all these fancy things, fancy lining, fancy props. Actually takes away from the message, and sometimes keeping it clean and simple and working with. How is this going to drive? Sales takes a lot of the personnel out of it. You know, you can’t get offended if it’s like, hey, what’s gonna make money? What’s not you know? And it allows you to think a. Lot more strategically about the project.
Susan
Have you done a lot where it comes to AB testing on images or going into focus groups or anything like that to see different images? Because I hear a lot about that, particularly when you’ve got these big companies that are going to invest millions and millions of dollars in the campaign, but they want to make sure. You know where I’m.
Lila
Going with this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I haven’t done that personally, but it’s it’s an interesting idea to think about. It’s also what I find really interesting as well. It’s different markets as well. So for example, I’m in middle of a project that hasn’t been released at the moment. I can’t say the brand, but. Uhm. What’s interesting about this brand is they’ve already got a backlog of photography, but it’s from America and that’s fine. But interestingly, in Australia for them to bring their products here, there’s a lot of regulations that are really different to the US you know, so those photos might be beautiful, but they’re actually not.
Lila
Clickable here so that’s been really interesting. Looking at the different markets, you know and the different regulations, even little things, for example that we’re dealing with where within Australia if you’re using. I don’t want to say chemicals flavour enhancers rather than the natural products, so say I’m using a lemon flavouring rather than a lemon. There’s legislation around how much lemon as in the product. Sorry, how much of the actual fruit can be in the image, the balance it out.
Lila
Based on you know whether it’s a natural product or not. So all these kind of legislations that in America would matter, they could have the products surrounded by lemons to give it the idea. That this is created by lemons, but in Australia if it’s not actually come from the juice itself, we’re really restricted. So it’s interesting having to work with that because it’s like, OK, well, how do we give the same look and feel but without the natural element? OK, well, how can we bring in things such as colour play and utilise yellow utilise things like? Freshness. Deadliness within a more abstract way to give the look that we’re after, but within our market. It’s interesting how restrictive Australia is that it’s all about ensuring there’s no misleading.
Susan
Yeah. And I I’ve had experience with this when I used to work for guthy renker. Where would we want to use the American product that’s already been tried and tested, but because of chemicals within the product, we can’t and also further to that, you can’t use any photography from anyone that’s got the before and after pictures. Unless it’s genuine. Right. Yeah. So so within Australia, because you’re working with your American counterparts, that person’s already moved on. They took those photos ages ago, 6/12/24 months, whatever it was. So you can’t get the detail from them in some cases about how long did they use. The product for. What was the severity blah, all those details that you might need to give to regulators here in Australia to be able to go. Yes, this is. Legitimate. So then you have to go down the path of. OK, that’s fine. Some people in Australia, let’s actually get them in. Let’s look at them, assess them. Give them the product for free weight 612, whatever the time period is and then I can do the after.
Lila
Photos yeah, so. I know it’s. It’s funny. I don’t think a lot of people realise how different markets from overseas are, you know, and especially if you’re not in this world, I think people just presume ohh, it’s an international company. They’ve just used the same imagery, but no, it’s not the case at all.
Susan
No, stray is very strict and it’s good, but it also can be a bit frustrating when you’ve got double cost then when it comes to. Photography where you.
Lila
They almost look the same. You can get someone that still looks very similar, same demographic, age and everything, and then you just have to find someone else in the other country and the photos almost look identical form where you look at the severity of like acne in my example. Yeah, exactly. And of course, you know, and that’s the other thing, right when you’re trying to take brand consistency, you want it to look similar. You know you want it to almost look the same because you that’s still your brand, right? So exactly right. It’s when I’m working on these projects with overseas companies, I’m wanting to replicate a similar style. So yeah, I could imagine, you know, for these companies, you’re like Chris, we’re so close. You have it. If I just had one less. Lemon, you know.
Susan
And I photoshopped that. Not quite.
Exactly. Yeah. So true, so true. But what?
Susan
Excites you most about photography.
Lila
I think for me it’s actually because like I said, I’m a bit of a business geek. I love getting to know businesses. I love getting to know like who their customer is, who their client is. And I love being able to take that and turn it into a visual. So I think it’s something that. Is not a skill that everyone has, and it’s something that I’m really keyed into that visual. I really like being out of conceptual eyes and making abstract kind of form and see subtle ways that I can enhance the brand for me. I get really excited about, like, how can we create this brand identity because at the end of the day, unless you’ve tried a product. You’re buying it based on how it looks.
Susan
A lot of the time, yes.
Lila
Unless there’s social proof you’re going on, you know, we we hate to say, don’t judge a book by its. Cover. But we all do. So being able to create that image for me gets me really excited. Being able to see how we can push a brand and how we can create more revenue just based on their looks. I just, yeah, gets my kids going and I can’t stop. Thinking about it.
Susan
I and I. I completely understand that as well because it really is bringing it to. Life. You’re putting it into a setting or telling a story with it, or showing it in a way that’s probably never been done before too, so that’s also a new frontier. So that would be very exciting as well, to be part of that.
Lila
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And really pushing it. You know, I think. Even in, you know simple ways. You know, I remember I did shoot a little while ago for a somersault body and the really beautiful natural brands and you know, they had a beautiful coffee scrub and I photographed it on a bed of coffee, you know, coffee beans. And it’s a simple shop. But, you know, it’s quite striking. And. It was really interesting because. Even though it’s such a simple setup, they’d never thought to go that way. So you know, just even being able to create a different Ave for a brand. To me, it’s really exciting, you know, sometimes. You can have an established look which is great, but pushing it in a new direction can really just bring new life, you know, and it can be something that hadn’t even been thought of before, or because they have such an established identity. So being able to bring that kind of fresh take on it, it’s exciting.
Susan
No, no. I can definitely hear your passion in. All of this. Which is fantastic.
Lila
I love that.
Susan
Well, I have a question. I ask everybody, So what brand any brand in the world best represent you and why?
Lila
Ohh God this is. This is a tough one.
Lila
You know, I think I have to. The first thing that comes to mind for me is Apple. And the reason I say that is because I I love how sleek, minimal refines they are. But for me, the other biggest thing about them is they there’s there’s so much about the narrative and the emotion in the way that they sell. And for me, that’s like what I really resonate with, you know. I’m emotionally driven person. I love like connecting with people and connecting emotionally with a brand, you know? So for me. That just gets me excited, you know, like how how can we bring joy or, you know, connection into this world, you know? And also I like to think that people are brand loyal. You know that I attract that kind of consumer that people want to work with me. They’re. An apple.
Susan
Kind of person. I love it. I love it. You thought through all the aspects there as well.
Lila
All the cake component.
Susan
Thank you. Is there any fun on things you’d love to share before we wrap up?
Lila
I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is really just considering how from a marketing point of view, never underestimate your photography. You know, I think sometimes we can really get distracted by your return on investment and where we’re going to plug it and where we’re going to, you know, put this word out there. But if you don’t have a solid. Image that creates a really strong brand identity. It doesn’t matter where it goes. You know you’re not going to get your image across to the world and you’re not going to get your story across. So taking the time to really consider the visuals and making sure it really communicates through your brand is. Is so key to the success of your.
Susan
Business 100% agree. I’ve done marketing in some of my past life as well and it really is. It just solidifies everything together.
Lila
Yes.
Susan
So a quick wrap up for everyone. So Leela was here to talk about photography and in particular some of the changes we’ve seen very recently as people going for more bold images are in your face very high contrast, high impact and probably because they’re trying to really do a cut through because of people not having as much dwell time anymore. There’s also the narrative of actually selling the aspirational lifestyle lifestyle of the product using photography. So that’s part of that emotive piece. And then there’s also some changes happening where people are actually asking if the business image, photos can be more unfiltered. The pure capture of the moment to evoke. Something that people want to feel, that that could be them, they could actually be the one taking that photo as well. Some fundamentals of success, though, is 100%. To know your target, make sure you know who your audience is, where they are, everything about them, so you can actually be able to brief your photography team to get the best out of it possible. Also, what’s the aspiration behind the brand? Where are you trying to go with it? What you’re trying to do? Are you trying to sell something? Go places? What is it? Make sure that’s clearly communicated to your photographer as. But another big piece is where are you going to use these images so that different versions can be made to be used in all the different ways. So you need to think of things like negative space banners on websites, social content page sites, all of those. But it’s important to also consider. Your product, a commerce version versus your campaign imagery, because you always want to have a plain Jane version with nothing around it. So you can use that on your ecom and have all your other images with your props. Your life size, life cycle and everything like that happening to your lifestyle. For your campaign, because then people get more emotive with those. Storytelling is a highly important when it comes to photography, because it’s part of the brand and bringing it all to life and the imagery will be key to this so that people actually have that connection and can picture themselves there. So think about even having a bit of diversity in there or whatever it might be to make sure that it makes. And you cannot please everyone with the photos. No photographer can take a photo that everyone will be happy with. So when you’re internally assessing the images, make sure you step back from your personal view and look at it from who is my audience? What are these? Pictures will help me drive my business needs. What will help my business to be able to get the cut through it needs for the sales and what highlights the products and the best because otherwise you’re going on your gut when you really should be going on what your audience is going to reset. Right with and last but not least, never underestimate the power of photography, because it is the cornerstone to your campaigns. Did I miss anything there? No. You nailed.
Lila
It. I love it.
Susan
Thank you again so much, Leela. I will have all your details in the show notes, so people can. Connect with you. And hopefully use your services as well for everyone else, don’t forget to add more to marketing to your playlist. You don’t miss out on any other fabulous guests in the future. More to marketing.
