In the coming months, agencies are going to have to work faster with less to remain competitive. The increased pressure stems from the explosion of online, mobile and multi-media advertising projects that typically have smaller budgets and much tighter turnarounds. And this is just the beginning. The trend is expected to continue, driving an ever-expanding appetite for fresh digital content, including high quality, easily licensable music.
According to eMarketer, online ad spending is expected to reach $17.8 billion by the end of this year and mobile ad spending is expected to reach $903 million by the end of this year, up from $421 million in 2006.
To alleviate some of the pressure caused by a changing media landscape, stock footage companies are making key changes to address their customers’ changing needs. Stepping up to the plate recently was Getty Images. The company created a one-stop solution for its customers by entering the commercial music licensing business with the acquisition of Pump Audio. Pump is an online catalog of pre-cleared, pre-priced music featuring independent and unsigned artists. Agencies can browse through the tens of thousands of tracks and license the music through a totally automated system.
“If you look at the customers that have traditionally leveraged Getty Images, there is just a clear road map into audio. Certainly audio becomes more important as you move into these new platforms. Still imagery, while still important, is no longer standalone important. They’ll need audio and footage to go along with that,” relates Craig Peters, VP of footage and multimedia at Getty.
“We thought that Pump Audio was at a great stage. We thought the company had a great business model, very solid management team and very solid technology in place and it had made good progress working with customers and building a true business. We combined those factors and that’s what made it a good fit.”
In addition to the Pump Audio acquisition, Getty has introduced improved search and preview functionality and e-commerce enabled broadcast quality downloads. The company has also moved its Rights Managed content to a Rights-Ready model, which allows for transparent pricing, making it easier for customers to license rights managed content more immediately from the website. Visitors select one or more of the broad-use categories and the assigned end client can use the clip for any need within the selected use category or categories. There is no need to indicate the dates of use, market locations, alternate versions or number of lifts or to go through an interview and several phone calls to understand what the footage is going to cost.
“When you start thinking about that in relation to the timeline that these production companies or creative agencies are under, this is very, very powerful. Now they can access footage 24/7. Then you think about the budget pressures that they are under and understanding how this footage is or is not going to work within their budget–it’s very important,” explains Peters. “They can do that right upfront. If it does work within their budget, they can click it and buy it. If it doesn’t, they can start looking for other footage that does meet their budget requirements and they don’t have to go through that entire diagnostic process to do it.”
Getty Images worked with MTV on delivering footage clips needed for MTV’s new website/channel called MTV Flux, MTV’s foray into the user-generated space.
It allows users to create homepages to which they can upload clips/music/pictures. Getty also provided footage for the spot promoting MTV Flux.
Also recognizing demanding timelines, budget constraints and changing media landscape is BBC Motion Gallery, which recently launched a newly designed website where customers can purchase and download clips from a new royalty free collection. “We are seeing a trend where agencies are requesting digital media rights in addition to broadcast use for a TV commercial spot. Royalty free, which is fully cleared footage, is a fantastic solution for large and small agencies,” says Kristi Manning, director, sales, West Coast, at BBC. “We’ve also adjusted our pricing for Rights Managed material to satisfy the needs of creatives looking for high production value from BBC programming and other BBC Motion Gallery collections, but at a lower price point for web spots that might have a limited run.”
The new BBC Motion Gallery site also launched with an updated version of the company’s popular Search Widget, which allows users to search for royalty-free or rights managed footage almost instantly without having to launch a browser.
BBC recently worked with production company ConspiraCao via Almap BBDO in Brazil on a spot for Veja Magazine, Brazil’s equivalent to Time magazine. The spot used footage from the stock shop’s news archives to illustrate that people will be able to stay abreast of all their current events by subscribing to Veja. BBC also provided footage of the Hoover Dam to Rojo Films in Mexico City for a spot for Hasbro’s Action Man via Grey Mexico.
A broader reach
The Internet and digitization of content is also driving continued growth of the rights and clearance business because rights and clearances are more complex in this space, and they take more time and money for agencies to do internally.
“The demand for all types of content from footage and film to photos and music is exploding online, and agencies don’t have the core capabilities to deal with all of the rights clearances they need in an increasingly complicated world,” says Gary Shenk, CEO, Corbis. “We’re focusing in the coming years on not just having a leading footage collection on Corbis.com and possibly on our microstock site SnapVillage, but also leading the way in helping advertisers to find, license and clear all the rights for any kind of media no matter who owns it or where advertisers want to use it.”
Gina Regusa, director, rights and music clearances at Corbis, explains that these platforms require many clearances because the reach is broader and less controlled than other mediums that ad people have used in the past.
“Often rights are cleared regionally, and the Internet is not broken down that way,” Regusa says. “Corbis recommends that customers clear rights beyond what they plan on using in order to protect themselves.”
She points out that the Rights Services part of Corbis’ business continues to grow rapidly, from almost nothing in 2003 to more than $30 million in 2006. “Although Corbis started this division in ’03, through acquisitions of a major clearance company and hiring seasoned veterans in the area, we have more than 20 years of experience,” she says.
Corbis worked with TBWAChiatDay in Los Angeles to provide footage it acquired through its Global Search for an interactive campaign promoting Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation3 in North America. The online campaign, www.playbeyond.com, visually demonstrates how SonyPlayStation3 is smarter, has greater capacity and higher definition than its competitors.
When BBDO New York created an in-cinema spot for GE to spread its “ecomagination” message, it also enlisted the help of Corbis. The GE “Serengeti” spot featured a casting call for movie Evan Almighty using real animals such as a baboon and an elephant taking direction from the movie crew.
Corbis also continues to work closely with Hallmark to handle talent rights acquisition and music clearances for the greeting card company’s line of sound cards. The cards now include dialogue and theme songs from popular movies and TV shows. Corbis also supports the advertising campaigns for the cards, clearing personality, imagery, video footage and music rights for print, direct mail, TV spots and online promotional use.
“They understand our creative vision and have the Hollywood and global entertainment industry connections, as well as rights and music clearance experience to deliver the content. Corbis helps us navigate unfamiliar waters, avoid roadblocks and unnecessary risks,” said Teddi Hernandez, licensing director for Hallmark.
Thought Equity Motion is also busy on the rights and clearances front. The company, which offers real time search, preview and delivery from its website, launched a full-service solution for multi-media licensing through its rights and clearances department. “Our rights and clearances division is big for us,” says Schaff, CEO, Thought Equity. “Ours is built solely on speed. We work with agencies a lot earlier on in the creative process. We recognized that a lot of projects would start to get built and they would use material and they didn’t really think about the rights and clearances aspect. They would have to change the concept after they already had the client buy in or actually went into production mode. They actually couldn’t get the appropriate rights and clearances fast enough and that became an incredibly big expense.”
When Cingular needed to score with two 2007 March Madness commercials, Thought Equity provided the licensing and clearance solution that allowed them to get their spots on the air. The Thought Equity research team provided dozens of inspirational moments, and the final selects encompassed six clips and 18 athletes. The rights and clearances team set to work identifying, locating and clearing all the players featured in the final footage.
“Because of the complexities of the rights and clearances related to current NCAA student athletes, individual’s likeness and institutional trademarks, it has been difficult for our partners to utilize and leverage these great moments in sports competitions. By outsourcing rights and clearances functions to Thought Equity Motion it allows our corporate champions and partners like AT&T, The Hartford and Enterprise Rent-A-Car to make these connections easier than before,” says Greg Weitekamp, director of broadcasting at the NCAA.
In addition to handling licensing and distribution of motion content for the NCAA, National Geographic, HBO, Sony Pictures and other collections, Thought Equity recently announced it will digitize and distribute NBC’s enormous news collection.
“For the first time this vast amount of content–every major story around the world from the inception of television to today–is being brought to the forefront of the storytelling industry,” Schaff says.
“In the digital age, there is an ever expanding demand for content that can be re-crafted and used in new and imaginative ways. Our mission is to provide that flexibility to artists in a wide variety of media. Entertainers, advertisers, billboard companies, schools, cell phone companies and many others are all in the hunt for images that will give life to their stories.
“Frankly, we can’t even imagine all of the ways in which digitally mastered content will be used in the future, but Thought Equity is [committed to] making this content digitally accessible.”
