netactr

If you work on marketing campaigns you probably source your creative from either Getty Images or Corbis. I recently attended a small event where Corbis’ CEO Gary Shenk was speaking about the media industry. Traditional suppliers of creative are facing a new threat in the form of cheaper online exchanges such as Veer, iStockPhoto.com and others. These sites usually offer royalty-free imagery for less than $50 and sometimes as low as a few dollars, much cheaper that the rights-managed variety you get from Getty or Corbis. They can do that because they are simply a marketplace where independent photographers supply the stock and grateful customers pick up their creative imagery. Responding to this threat Corbis launched their own discount site snapvillage. We will see some significant innovation in this space in the coming years and, if you think about it, personal photo-sharing sites like flickr could become players too. But one thing is clear. There will always be a need for vendors like Getty and Corbis, for they supply two very important services to marketing professionals that their cheaper rivals simply can’t match. First, they provide editorial services and quality control, making it possible to find that perfect shot among the millions of images available. And second, they offer advanced copyright clearing services and rights-managed purchases necessary for any self-respecting marketing campaign.