Visuals matter: Ways to use stock content effectively

This is the second part in my series of articles comparing how brands can use royalty-free stock and original production to influence content. Check out part one in case you missed it.

Pros and cons of stock

Using stock content saves on production time and there are plenty of options available that have a professional feel. With many stock repositories in this digital-first era, the biggest sites host millions of images, video clips, music tracks and sound effects in their libraries.

Sounds good? Well, the problem is these visuals aren’t specific to your brand and they can feel very impersonal to your community. There is also a real risk that stock content has already been used heavily elsewhere – possibly by your competitors.

With the sheer volume of content out there, stock libraries overlap massively. Contributors need to place their work in as many places as they can to ensure it is seen and downloaded. Commission rates are often low and there are fewer barriers to entry as costs for the necessary hardware and software fall.

There is also an algorithmic connection between the popularity, seasonality and search frequency of visuals that are used the most. So, the more a visual is requested, viewed and downloaded, the more it is then served up to the brands, agencies and publishers using the site.

Many of the bigger stock sites have launched offshoot outfits to produce bespoke stock that doesn’t conform to the norms of stock content. They’re almost becoming production companies who brief and ‘commission’ content to order. This has been received quite well initially, but it’s inevitably still driven by the creative and direction of stock commissioning practices.

The Everywhere Girl

The story of Jennifer Anderson – also known as the ‘Everywhere Girl’ – demonstrates some of the potential issues with repeated content and lack of originality.

Jennifer took part in a photoshoot for stock images back in the 90s. They became some of the most popular stock images of all time, being used by brands like HP, Visa and Microsoft. Rivals Dell and Gateway even ended up choosing images of Jennifer for competing ads in 2004.

It might all sound a bit humorous, especially considering Jennifer had her own blog and there were online communities dedicated to tracking her appearances. But these issues can really harm your brand and make it difficult to resonate with your audience.

Make stock photos your own

There are some great examples in this article of ways to maximise the impact of stock content by doing a bit of research and customising stock visuals to fit your brand.

Tools like TinEye and Google Images allow you to do a reverse image search and find other places that a stock image may have been used.

If you find lots of results, investigate who else has used the image and how. If they’re in a similar industry or have a huge audience, it’s probably worth finding a different image.

A Rights Managed license could be an option when an image hasn’t already been used too widely. It gives you exclusive use during a certain time frame within the markets you specify. This is more expensive, of course, but it protects against anyone else using that image and prevents the ‘Everywhere Girl’ scenario.

Techniques like creative typography, manipulating backgrounds and clever cropping can all help make a stock image more unique.

Ultimately, though, sourcing your own images is often likely to be the best option (either by taking them yourself or commissioning original production). That’s what I’ll be covering next week in the final part of this series.