All posts by Robert Henson

Robert Henson is a stock photography industry professional and analyst with a long executive career in top photo licensing companies. He is also a popular speaker and an insightful innovator. He was previously the VP , Business Development at IMGembed.

The Content Marketing Machine and Photo Supply

Brands, commercial stock, content, ECM, getty, license, marketing, Search, Shutterstock, UGC October 16, 2014 Robert Henson 1 Comment

The sharp rise in content marketing by corporations has demanded a commensurate rise in content acquisition from traditional sources, and has opened the door to niche platforms and services such as Thismoment and Newscred. The impact to the photo industry has been mixed. On one hand, image licensing agencies – and specifically large-scale aggregators like Shutterstock – have benefitted from their inroads into corporate clients, expanding and servicing a segment that is marketing-focused with high volume transactions. On the other hand, UGC (corporate-generated) and platforms…

Embedding Images: A Contextual Ad Delivery Model?

Brands, content, editorial, flickr, getty, marketing, PhotoTech, technology, transaction October 7, 2014 Robert Henson 3 Comments

Embeddable images through online publishers can be a tactic for extending the reach and brand of publishers, who are the direct recipients of its traffic-building and presence. As you allow sharing, your content network grows, as do link-backs and overall web-imprint of a publisher’s site and branding. More often than not, the image owner and publisher are not the same entities. What’s in it for the image owner? UGC aggregators that welcome the outbound embedding of images from their platform…

Embedding Images: The Promise of Proliferation, The Tension of Control

commercial stock, computer vision, content, getty, license, marketing, PhotoTech, Shutterstock, UGC October 3, 2014 Robert Henson 5 Comments

The practice of allowing visual media to be embedded on an external site by an anonymous user has seen widespread adoption (thanks, YouTube), so that any site in the business of publishing content uses it. By allowing readers to share the video/photo itself, and not a page link, it incentives use and reuse by offering bespoke contextualization of the object. Moreover, it gives the source publisher the ability to generate outbound links and traffic data in a more meaningful…

3 Major Reasons Photo Tech Needs to be Concerned About Rights

commercial stock, content, editorial, license, Marketplace, PhotoTech, Shutterstock, technology, UGC July 30, 2014 Robert Henson 1 Comment

The recent explosion of startups devoted to monetizing photography have revealed certain diversity of approach within the photo tech ecosystem, where business models are targeted largely on accelerated aggregation of imagery and either monetization of the audience (data, app charge, etc.) or of the images themselves (advertising, print on demand, licensing/use). Many, like Chute, provide tools for the aggregation of UGC to supplement their campaigns, while others, like 500px, focus on fine art enthusiasts and provide enhanced portfolio tools in a community setting. The variance…

THE VALUE BEYOND THE TRANSACTION

commercial stock, content, ECM, getty, Marketplace, PhotoTech, Search, Shutterstock, technology March 26, 2014 Robert Henson Leave a comment

The traditional image licensing business is a transactional one. Historically, the management of rights was considered to be an ongoing service, but with royalty free models eclipsing rights managed volumes, this is of little to no value for today’s image buyer. All value is wrapped up in the transaction: image rights and metadata are pre-vetted, and those are the most important and critical components to the product. Consumers are buying a license – not an image – and that license makes warranties of accuracy that assuages…