Stock footage companies have been gearing up to play a greater role than ever in commercial advertising. As more agencies are turning to the image providers for various needs, stock suppliers are trying to make their wares more attractive (in terms of content and more high-definition [HD] footage), and more accessible to users (with regard to Web-based visual images).
Stock footage has become an increasingly desirable option for commercial producers seeking ways to get the most out of their ever-shrinking budgets. "A tool like stock footage allows [producers] to put money into other parts of the production," says Jennifer Burak, VP of product marketing/film at Seattle-headquartered Getty Images, which has additional offices in New York, London and Sydney, as well as wholly-owned offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the Netherlands.
Burak notes that, in the past, stock footage was used primarily as filler for transition sequences, or as establishing shots. "[There was] lots of nature—clouds, sun, moon," she says. "Now stock is used [for] more conceptual representations. The quality is better. At Getty, we’ve built a team of art directors who work extremely closely with filmmakers, and we also have a thirteen-member creative research department—of people around the world—who study trends and demographics. They guide our marketing and collection decisions."
Attesting to the importance of high-quality conceptual stock imagery is Rick Wysocki, VP of Corbis Motion Brands, who is based in the New York office of the Seattle-headquartered Corbis. "The game is won or lost on content," says Wysocki. "Claims of library size are very deceptive. It’s how much content you have that people want to buy. When we’re talking about advertising or corporate clients, all of their requests are concept-based. So, for instance, agencies don’t merely want images of children—they want lovable, sweet, warm children doing things … shot in a way that will fit into high-level cinematography. There is a demand for very high-quality existing material that can be mixed with original production."
Getty
As content has improved, stock suppliers are making other upgrades regarding how that content is delivered. Consider the revitalization recently undertaken by Getty, an eight-year-old company housing the world’s largest stock footage collection. In March, Getty unveiled a complete revitalization of its film product, converting nearly 70,000 rights-managed clips to digital format (in addition to the thousands of clips of royalty-free footage), which can be directly downloaded from the Getty Images Web site, www.gettyimages.com.
"Our vision is to be the complete desktop imagery resource for customers," says Burak, who estimates that advertising accounts for a little more than half of Getty’s business (up from five years ago, when advertising supplied a third of the company’s revenues). "We have seen a complete transition from clients who formerly looked at [stock images] on cassette, and are now viewing them online," she notes.
To accommodate its clientele’s request for visually larger preview clips, Getty assembled a business plan to digitize its film collection in June ’02. Last fall, a team at Getty began working with QuickTime on compression and resolution. As a result, its film clips on the Web are 50 percent larger, which enables customers to make more informed selection and purchasing decisions (Burak relates that Getty Images’ Web site averages $1.3 million dollars a day in sales). Downloading capabilities with a variety of resolutions have also been added. For some of the stock collections, customers can download final elements in broadcast quality.
Among Getty’s recent commercial projects is "Today," a :60 for AAA, The Automobile Club of Southern California, via Foote, Cone & Belding, Irvine, Calif. The spot, with live-action footage directed by Billy O’Sullivan of M.A.D. Films, Los Angeles, comprises a series of lifestyle vignettes, which help convey the message that AAA’s slate of services—from insurance/financial, travel, automotive and member services—help guide customers "through all of life’s travels." All but three images in the spot were pulled from the stock libraries of Getty and Corbis Motion.
While only seven percent of Getty’s business currently comes from film, Burak comments, "We believe film will be the biggest grower in the next few years. There are many more people able to work with and access moving images."
To further serve its advertising clients, Getty is preparing to introduce a new service—slated to be up-and-running by fall—whereby users can, for a fee, download non-watermarked broadcast-quality stock images for in-house client presentations or new business pitches. According to Burak, Getty created this solution at the suggestion of McCann-Erickson, New York, with whom the company has a close relationship. "McCann approached us in March after our [revamped] Web site went up," she remembers.
Michael Malfesi, VP/director of emerging technologies at McCann-Erickson, notes that access to non-watermarked stock images is a competitive advantage to agencies, which traditionally use movie footage to cull images for internal presentations. "It’s really a production tool for us," comments Malfesi, who says McCann has a non-contracted beta arrangement with Getty Images. "For a monthly access fee, we get the ability to use higher resolution images [in order to help] show a campaign approach or a conceptual target. Internally, we will evaluate if the images are appropriate and, if so, we’ll license the images and pay the full fee."
Burak notes that in ’99, Getty made the commitment to transfer its library to high definition; a format that has been growing in popularity in the media and entertainment sectors. In anticipation of the need to have HD once the conversion occurs, Burak says that Getty is telling its filmmakers who shoot in 35mm to shoot in a 16:9 aspect ratio, but to also protect the standard 4:3 format.
Corbis
Corbis Motion, another major player in the stock footage industry, has offices in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; London; Paris; Dusseldorf, Germany; Vienna; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Tokyo. The Bill Gates-owned company, which has more than 30,000 hours of material in its stock film library, has also made a significant investment in new client services. Corbis Motion moved to an all-digital work process last year, and is launching two new services that have been in beta testing for the past few months: WebReel and PowerPost.
Using WebReel, Corbis Motion researchers can forward research results online the instant research is completed. Users can look at it, and provide instant feedback to the researcher. "Our customers are extremely busy, but they want our assistance doing searches," says Wysocki. "The notion was that Corbis is dedicated to customer service, to making our motion customers’ lives easier. With WebReel, we get to talk visually, so I get to solve problems as quickly as possible.
"In its first iteration, WebReel was meant to enhance the interactivity of the research process," Wysocki continues. "But what we found was that a growing number of clients said to us, ‘Don’t send me an analog cassette. I can make my decision on the Web.’ "
Already, a number of ad clients have utilized WebReel, says Wysocki. For instance, in July, Corbis received a request from Grey Healthcare Group, New York, for images to accompany a new business pitch for Crestor Lipid Control. Corbis sent the client a 38-shot WebReel that same morning. The client placed an order the next day, which was filled that afternoon. In another instance, creatives at Doner, Southfield, Mich., requested images for an ADP commercial, and a 69-shot WebReel was sent. A few days later, after Doner requested more clips, Corbis sent 23 additional shots, and Doner placed an order several days thereafter.
Corbis’ PowerPost enables customers to have secure access to high-quality digital files in a variety of formats. Depending on client requirements, these motion files can be downloaded directly into an editing environment to be used for rough cut purposes, or used as a final element in postproduction.
Like Burak, Wysocki also reports more requests for HD material from media and entertainment clients, and adds that Corbis is "aggressively" acquiring material shot on HD. For example, the company recently acquired some HD footage shot in Greece, site of the ’04 Summer Olympics, including the Olympic Stadium in Athens. "That’s why the material had value: it had iconic shots," notes Wysocki. "It wasn’t just because it was shot on HD."
FootageBank
In contrast to the vast libraries of Getty and Corbis, the year-old FootageBank, Venice, Calif., positions itself as a boutique stock company that specializes in HD footage for broadcast clients. Company president Paula Lumbard explains that, coming from a background in film and television, she felt that high definition was where the industry was headed. Back in the mid-’80s, Lumbard owned another stock house, FilmBank, which she sold in ’98 to Hot Shots/Cool Cuts (which was eventually folded into Corbis). "When I had the opportunity to go out on my own again," Lumbard says, "I chose to go into business with a new approach and a product that would be different."
Amongst its hundreds of hours of footage (about 80 percent of which is HD), FootageBank offers a large library of patriotic and military images. The night vision footage is particularly popular, reports Lumbard.
Television comprises the bulk of FootageBank’s clientele, along with features. The Discovery Channel started an HD network, and now more than 40 shows are shooting in HD, says Lumbard, relating that her firm has provided images to TV programs such as The Guardian, Judging Amy, Crossing Jordan and Malcolm in the Middle, among others. "Truthfully, spot clients are slower to use HD than broadcast clients," comments Lumbard. "But the need for product is actually growing quite rapidly."
