A State of Stock

Print Action, Sep 2004

From all of the headaches inflicted on printers as they deal with files containing low-resolution stock photography, there is some comfort to be found in the fact that this strong market is not a good economic indicator of business health. As a TrendWatch Graphic Arts' analyst suggests, stock photography is one of the few categories that seems to benefit whether the economy is strong or not. "When the economy is good, clients do more projects, which equates to a greater need for more images," stated Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, in TrendWatch's latest report. "When the economy is bad, clients do fewer projects, but tight budgets mean less money for commissioned photography and artwork, which translates to increased need for more stock photos."

Stock photography online is becoming so rampant that an urban legend is growing around the story of two, three or four print ads winning awards in a competition even though they contain part of the same image. The growth of stock imagery is certainly not slowing down and even as resolutions are picking up, this successful internet-based phenomenon continues to plague many printer workflows. It is therefore useful to take a quick look at a few results from the TrendWatch report entitled Stock Imagery 2004, Still the One.

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The report suggests that the reasons for this market's success are straightforward, primarily because the stock image collections owned by agencies, co-ops and individual photographers are improving in quality and diversity. While in the past a collection was all about the photographer's name, the analysts think that now the image speaks for itself.

A big part of stock imagery success has to be the incredible accessibility to online image collections. This of course can be linked to improving search engines and a huge public acceptance in online purchasing. Such appealing efficiency suggests that the collection owners will produce fewer print catalogues for distribution to agencies.

According to the reports, use and acceptance of stock imagery continues to rise steadily among all segments of the graphic arts, creative, publishing and internet communities. "Stock has become one of the most high-quality, easily accessible, costeffective tools for document creators today," says Tolliver-Nigro.

In the report TrendWatch outlines that stock imagery growth can also be attributed to its ability to hit a wide spectrum among graphic arts, advertising, publishing and internet projects. This can apply to traditional rights-managed images to royalty-free versions of all styles and price ranges, to new pricing models like flat-rate or limited distribution.

Stock imagery also now includes photography online, illustration and video, which is sold for limited use in advertising, publishing or promotional applications. And though the rights of the imagery is retained by the stock photo provider, it allows the campaign designer or creative director to acquire just the right look, at just the right price, without the time and cost penalties of creating their own original artwork.

As the quality of today's stock imagery has grown, TrendWatch suggests that users increasingly prefer to work directly with digitally captured or pre-scanned high-resolution digital images that can be injected immediately into their digital workflows. Below are some more findings from the research group's report, which is available online (trendwatchgraphicarts.com) for US$995 or US$1,895 for both.

More in stock

* 27 per cent of publishers plan to purchase stock illustration or clip art in the next 12 months, more than doubling to 56 per cent among small catalogers.

* 22 per cent of internet designers plan to purchase royalty-free images in the next 12 months; this rises to 58 per cent for graphic designers.

* On average, creative professionals purchase six rights-managed images per month from the internet versus four rights-managed images per month from a print catalogue.

* 32 per cent of publishers plan to purchase rights-managed images in the next 12 months, while 42 per cent plan to purchase royalty-free images.

* 17 per cent of trade shops plan to purchase royalty-free images in the next year and 13 per cent plan to purchase rightsmanaged images.

* 38 per cent of creative professionals plan to purchase rights-managed images (rising to 48 per cent of ad agencies) in the next 12 months; 64 per cent plan to purchase royalty-free images and 34 per cent plan to purchase stock illustration.

* On average, creative professionals purchase five images per month using new pricing models (this rises to seven among ad agencies).

* 27 per cent of creative professionals say they have never used royalty-free images and never will.

Copyright Youngblood Communications Co., Ltd. Sep 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

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