A new global integrated campaign from Shutterstock, the brand’s first such effort in six years, is aimed at spreading awareness to customers and demonstrating the potential power of its service. As a leading provider of creative content (photography, video, music and stylish graphic themes or “vectors”) to businesses, media and, yes, marketing agencies, Shutterstock is perhaps preaching to the choir, but also rallying the troops. New York agency DiMassimo Goldstein contributed to the campaign.
“With over 550,000 contributors, from over 100 countries, artists are the engines of our business who make all this stuff available,” said Lou Weiss, Shutterstock’s global CMO.
“Our brand positioning hasn’t changed really at all,” he added. “Shutterstock is an unbelievable repository of creative…combined with search and discovery. It’s also a tremendous value for the money.”
The tagline, “it’s not stock, it’s shutterstock,” communicates the value in the platform’s offerings, while also insisting on the competitive needs for top-quality content. “It used to be that creativity set you apart,” Weiss explained. “Lack of creativity sets you apart, now.”
The campaign rolls out this month in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. Shortly thereafter, the effort extends to other parts of Europe, Latin America and Asia.
“We have a methodical plan to roll out geographically, testing digital and offline media,” Weiss said. “We believe that people live in a digital world and the real world. We want to meet them where they are, and that’s going to be likely through online and offline channels. That’s the way people consume media.”
While the campaign emphasizes the value of existing content, Shutterstock also understands that it has to continue to make moves. In November, it debuted a premium-tier video offering, Shutterstock Select, providing access to over 10,000 royalty-free video clips filmed with cinema-grade 4K and HD camera gear. Furthermore, Shutterstock partnered with rights and clearance agency Greenlight (part of Branded Entertainment Network) to allow users, including ad agencies, to license images of celebrities, among them Whitney Houston and Steve McQueen, for creative use outside of strict editorial purposes. In the same month, Shutterstock also announced a new content integration extension with Final Cut Pro X, providing access to 250 million video, image and music assets available for license. Available through the Mac App Store, the extension is the first multi-asset API tool Shutterstock has released, according to the company.
With features used by a global creative audience, Shutterstock also has a great deal of pertinent data that can further inform their user base and the entire creative community. Shutterstock’s trend reports take this big data and share it publicly, enabling creatives to better understand the field and gain greater awareness of regional differences, if only to ask more questions. For instance, why is chess a dominant graphic theme in Spain? What is it with Australia and elephants?
The 2019 Creative Trends Report was released this week.
“The year-over-year search increases provide insights that are not only helpful for marketers as they prepare for campaigns throughout the year, but also valuable to artists, photographers, videographers and musicians all over the world as an inspirational guide for creating new content for the Shutterstock collection,” said Shutterstock’s curator, Robyn Lange.
Lange adds, “In years past, we have seen some of our trends really take off, and others that leave us scratching our heads. Our 2017 report was particularly accurate in identifying a standout trend called ‘Glitch’ early on. Throughout the year we watched as the style grew, developed, and thrived into major campaign themes for brands across the world. We saw ‘Glitch’ play out on the silver screen in Ghost in the Shell and major brands using this style like Adidas, Forever 21, and more.”
Other trends have less staying power and appear more like glitches. “’Waxy Monkey’ was a trending keyword in the U.S. in 2018, and we had no idea why,” Lange explained. “After some research, it turns out there was a bit of news about this little frog’s medicinal powers. We didn’t quite see this ‘trend’ take off, but now we know why people were searching for it.”
Beyond graphic images and designs, Shutterstock also releases an annual Color Trends report. If you aren’t already in the know, keep an eye out for “UFO Green.”
