The importance of photography for successful PR campaigns
There is little doubt that in an industry as visual as the interiors, design and architecture sector, photography is key to the success of both your business and your PR strategy. Whether promoting a product, project or personality, we know from experience that imagery needs to work hard, particularly in an era when everyone can claim to be a photographer to some degree!
Use Photography To Maintain Your Brand Identity and Highlight Differentiators
Even before considering additional photography for specific elements of a PR campaign, high-quality, cohesive-looking imagery used across all relevant channels will help maintain brand identity.
Being able to immediately recognise the brand or designer by the style of imagery is a measure of success while building the foundations of brand awareness and visual recall.
Whether known for sophistication, playfulness, or authenticity, photography allows you to capture and communicate these qualities, and foster a deeper connection with your audience. Distinguishing yourselves from the competition, and honing in on your own style is vital to ensuring the brand stands out against the crowd.
Having said this, with the interiors sector becoming an ever-more crowded space, imagery needs to be eye-catching and unique, of course, while remaining on-brand. Businesses are much more likely to attract new visitors to their channels and website if audiences are left feeling intrigued, and wanting to learn more.
Planning Photography For Your Target Audience
For a successful PR campaign, vital ahead of any planning is to ensure that you are creating imagery with the desired audience in mind. Whether your strategy is to target consumers, and other businesses, or gain a foothold in a crowded space in the press, variations in styling, aesthetic, location and background will need to be thought through. Interior designers and architectural practitioners who work on long-term projects will need to think differently about the brief compared to brands pushing products and trying to attract increased sales.
An understanding of the subtle differences between the imagery used by media with a B2B focus versus what is used within consumer titles, versus the style of imagery used on social media, is one of the benefits of working with an agency.
We’re speaking regularly to key industry leaders and know exactly what kind of photography will appeal to them, individually, by title - what their readers like and want to see more of, what has historically worked well for them, and what they are hoping to include in the future.
Making Your Photography Work Harder For A Global Audience
Brands can find it tricky to strike the right balance when planning photography for an international PR campaign. It can be difficult to place an image in UK media titles with a background or visible landscaping that is obviously overseas - palm trees and desert scenes are not abundant on our little island sadly! Additional photography in situ of any new regions being included in outreach is always beneficial, but understandably not always feasible.
We know there are also interior differences in aesthetic and styling for a US audience, for example, and for brands offering products to both markets, slight variations to tailor imagery to each should be included in the brief. Having an understanding of media in each region, familiarity with local press, how they work and what they are looking for in brand or project imagery is just part of the expertise an agency can bring to the process.
Photography Should Be Multifunctional
Following on from this is the idea that imagery needs to be multifunctional and work twice as hard. To really make your budget stretch a bit further for you, the set-up of each shot can be tweaked and fine-tuned to create versions for internal marketing purposes, specific digital strategies, website updates, and even for social media, as well as for your PR campaign.
The media tends to rely on full room sets for the most part, but detail shots and close-ups, mood boards created on-site, video content and behind-the-scenes snapshots can all be incorporated into a marketing and comms schedule, and re-used throughout the year across different channels.
Using Photography As A Method Of Story-Telling
For product collection launches, the announcement of new showroom openings, partnerships with other brands or personalities, or for increasing awareness of a key stakeholder or founder within the business, great imagery can lead to additional opportunities to tell that story and to tell it more effectively. What is PR and marketing without imagery to support it?
Brands that can offer a variety of photography tailored to each of their target audiences, or that has been created to suit specific stories to be seeded throughout the year will have more success with placement of these than brands relying on the strength of the news on its own. A picture is, after all, worth 1000 words.
We will often work with clients to enrich their content creation for more creative PR campaigns to ensure each story will not only be picked up by the press in the first place but resonate with the desired market once published.
Preparing A Budget For Approval
We understand that organising regular lifestyle shoots on location can be difficult for brands who are more constrained or conscious of their annual budget - there’s no doubt it is an investment.
However, when looking back at editorial coverage secured and calculating the ROI (return on investment), particularly in comparison to the cost of advertising, it is an investment that we know is worthwhile. When the right coverage is secured at a key moment in time to announce a collection launch, new project or recent opening, it is key to increasing wider brand awareness and recognition.
Whether tracking an influx in product orders, website visits or new business secured, the resulting achievements can be proven to outweigh the costs involved in organising the shoot.
Having formed close relationships with the press over the years, we know that sometimes it is the imagery which is to the detriment of a brand. Companies could be offering unique innovative products, and designers could be promoting an exciting restaurant or hotel opening, but it can come down to the quality of the photography as to whether coverage ensues. So it is well worth including the costs associated with organising professional photography in your strategy from the offset.
How Can An Agency Help In The Planning Stages?
Compiling a creative brief ahead of any planned photography can indeed be laborious. A lot of agencies will have existing relationships with stylists and photographers, and knowledge of locations and set builders, and can help with this process. At Sandford, we have managed many photoshoots over the years and as we understand what editors want in the ever-evolving media landscape, can craft imagery to reach the desired audience.
Summary
Use a cohesive style of photography to build brand awareness and visual recall, while ensuring your brand stands out in a crowded sector
Tailor your photography to the audience you are trying to reach, bearing in mind the type of media coverage you’re hoping to secure, and the global scope of your campaigns
Ensure each image can be used in a multitude of story-telling capacities
Get the most out of your photography by proposing content that can be used in both PR and wider marketing activity in the brief
Prepare a realistic budget and proposal
Get in touch to see how we can help with your next photoshoot
