Images are about getting your message across to your market. Images communicate so much more than text. This is both a good and a bad thing. Poor images give an immediate negative impression, but equally great images make you stand out from the crowd and connect to your audience better than anything you can write. It’s evolution.
“What we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. Through experience and experimentation, we continually increase our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by it. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian demonstrated that 93% of communication is nonverbal. Studies find that the human brain deciphers image elements simultaneously, while language is decoded in a linear, sequential manner taking more time to process. Our minds react differently to visual stimuli. Thanks to millions of years of evolution, we are genetically wired to respond differently to visuals than text.” – Mark Parkinson, The Power of Visual Communication
I’ll talk about a case study of work I’ve done later in the week, but today I wanted to look at a few ad campaigns with a bit bigger budgets. Here’s a great link to top ad campaigns of the 21st century. My favourite is also their top choice Dove: Campaign for Real Beauty. The images are bright, clean and not over photoshopped, which matches their message and bucks the trend in the industry.
The Red Bull: Stratos is also a favourite as it is just visually spectacular. The images grab us because they are totally out with our experience. Fortunately, we don’t need to leave the atmosphere to get great images. Most SMEs don’t quite have the budget of Red Bull 😉
What makes your business different? It does’t have to be plummeting through the earth’s atmosphere or being pictured in your pants. It can be small details like the quality of your stationary, the friendliness of your staff, the unique features of your building, the difference of your approach that makes you stand out from your competitors. Images can show people who they are much better then telling them.
Over the next 2 weeks I will blog more about how to get images that take your message to your market. I’d love to hear other people’s feed back on their images.
Claire Watson Photography 