In previous posts, I've talked about the importance of categories and about which categories do well in RF and which do well for US Travel. Some of my readers probably are bored of categories, at this point, so I will try to lure everyone back into the discussion, by talking about Lifestyle images.
For those not "in the business," the term Lifestyle connotes fast cars, good clothes, and a nice bottle of wine. For stock agencies like mine, Index Stock Imagery, the term is more technical. It means an image that will suggest to image users an activity, emotion, or social situation. These people image can be used to sell products, promote concepts, and communicate stories. As such, they are one of the two core tools of those who use images for advertising. (The other main group are concept images.)
I divide Lifestyle images categories into three groups:
1. Women, men, couples, girl, boy, teenager, children, baby, mature adults, families, and the catchall for what is left, people. These categories hold images that are just of people. They may be interacting (with emotions or not). But, many are portraits that look a lot like the snapshots we all take of our own families, children, or spouses.
2. Occupations, education, public service. These images cover the work sides of our lives.
3. Sports and leisure, shopping, social issue, wedding, holiday, religion. Outside of work, we play, pray, and pay.
The leader in sales per image terms is (drum roll, please)--shopping! Number two might be less of a surprise to those in our business--social issues! Yes, these are two things that sell well, and that we never seem to get enough of. Within shopping, the best subcategory is "store interiors." Makes sense, since it is the heart of the shopping experience and very hard to get (since you need a property release from the store). Within social issues, the biggest is "demonstration." This is another tough one do do, since you need model releases on a lot of people, at once.
Buried inside some of the bigger categories are some high-powered subcategories. For instance, women couples, indoor babies, boys with cats, and teenagers engaged in sports. There are also some laggards. They include sanitation workers (surprising, since this is a tough job that is a metaphor for many things), several "minor" sports such as gymnastics, skateboarding, and speedwalking, and mature adults in silhouette (guess we have too many of them?).
There is a lot more information to share in this area, but I think I'll save it for private conversations with our artists. Here is a list of the major categories in order of their popularity (on a per image basis), for your reference (and comment).
Shopping (even the worst-performing subcategory--malls--does well)
Social Issue (drug abuse is the worst performing area--probably too grim)
Vacation (spring break is the hottest area)
Teenager (subcategory indoor has the most images, and does pretty well)
Woman (women with animals do well, and we don't have many images in the area)
People (unfortunately, the physically challenged subcategory does not do well)
Man (surprisingly, we only a couple of men in evening wear)
Child Boy (boys doing hobbies don't do well)
Children (eating and drinking images do pretty well)
Education (got to love campus scenes!)
Public Service (park rangers and prison guards are popular)
Couple (bicycling and jogging just don't sell)
Sports and Leisure (would you guess wrestling is a top subcategory?)
Child Girl (outdoor shots are middle of the road on earnings and we have a lot of images)
Entertainment (give up on festivals, they aren't selling well)
Occupation (hard-working lab technicians are number one!)
Wedding (best to take shots of brides and grooms, as a couple)
Family Style (forgot hiking--not much revenue)
Religion (funeral subcategory images do worse than the rest)
Mature Adult (gardening is a big hobby, but not a great earner)
Holiday (Thanksgiving get overshadowed always by Christmas)
Hello Bahar,
Are you interested in pictures from India & Asia? Or are you interested in pictures only from America? Are there specifications that need to be followed for pictures - particular clarity/resolution/lighting/etc?
Regards, Sunita
Posted by: Sunita J | March 08, 2006 at 04:28 AM