Your image My Image Your Business

Do you fund an Athlete or club ? Have you ever wondered how your investment benefits you as an buisness ?

Have you ever wondered how much of your effort is returned or benefitted by others ?
In my free time, I am a photographer ! There I've said it - no longer attending anonymous meetings - now publicly declaring I like to take photographs.

I also take landscapes !

To me, an image is a memory. It's a story. it's a record of history. I see a moment about to happen - the future coming toward the lens.
The second an image is taken - it passes from the contemporary to the past.
But what then? The moment gone, the image remains - now what ?

As the duke of Wellington famously said "Publish and be damned", all well and good - but photographers, for all our bravado in getting in-there and capturing moments - we can also be quite shy when it means exposing ourselves.
A paradox exists being extrovert in showing the images, but introvert as to how they are received.


Until that is, we have something to show !
Enter statistics and the internet.

Welcome marketers and advertisers.
Graphic designers, web developers and business managers.
But most importantly Athletes and clubs.
Why?

Let me start again - I take photographs.
Athletes and clubs need funding.
Advertisers and business managers need markets and results.

Enter Statistics: My images posted on social media Flickr have exceeded 2+1/2 million views.
2,500,00 +

By the end of year they may breach 3 million. And this in less than 3 years.

To say I'm shocked, stunned and more than a little impressed and encouraged - is an understatement.
 





Original image: McHugh's Bar and Chain driven cycles

Now this is where my feedback circles and crosses over to your feedback.

It would be wrong and misleading for me to suggest your Logo on an athletes suit or bike will see 3 million views. But it will be seen !


It would also be wrong for me to think I know a lot about marketing and advertising. But that's not to say I don't understand it.
What I do know is by Sponsoring an athlete your brand will be seen. I can tell you by how many views too.
Sponsoring a team or club - will see the brand views multiplied by number of members. Sponsoring and event or by extension, a series of events - the numbers just keep climbing.

Corporate sponsorship of a series of events: Vodafone Ireland very prominent every event

Throw in I'm not the only photographer taking images. It also discounts how images find their way onto other social media.

I stay on Flickr. Occasional on Twitter. But think Facebook/instagram and well...everything else - the multiplication of views is a multiplication of return on your investment.
And not just on the event day.


What I've seen is images being reviewed month after month, year after year. Social media, internet searching and strong images and events all combining to keep your branding moving.

2yrs later Velo revolution still in receipt of advertising

Over half a million in the last 2 months alone. Typically, the views spike immediately after the event, trail off over 3-5 days but still stay active online and can be viewed again and again, depending on how they are promoted or linked.

So, I'm thrilled to get such strong values on my images.
If you've sponsored an Athlete or event - I hope you see it as money well spent.

Now, anyone out there want to sponsor or commission a Photographer ??
Email me
James
(Telling life stories through images - with statistics to back it up !)
Twitter
My Flickr galleries
Triathlon Ireland

Hope you have a wonderful creative Springtime.

It amazes me still, how a small sentance or comment can be so well received.
Serendipity ?

An email arrived, just before I was due to leave the house, from an artist I had met at the weekend during and after a race she ran, the distance of which (50km) inspires me to what people are capable of. We had been talking and discussing images I had taken.
But at the end of the email, instead of a routine 'cheers' 'bye' 'later' or 'regards' ending to the email, she closed with the sentence;

"Hope you have a wonderful creative Springtime."

What a beautiful way to part. It's different. It stands out. OK, it doesn't rhyme or roll with alliterative prose, neither is it blunt, safe or dismissive.
Oh but it does resonate.
I took that sentence with me, and to the village where I was heading,  all along playing it back. And here is where it took off, the morning sunshine along the Rye river was beautiful, a Thrush hopping about the grass within reach. Birdsong - yes it is that time of year where birds call and fill the air with sound. The river itself, full in both sound and flow, no doubt the trout are feeding well, with the extra rain these days, I'm sure enough nutrients will be introduced into their world. I wonder will the salmon find their way upstream. The river Rye is known as the furthest river upstream of the river Liffey to carry Salmon.
The trees have not yet filled out with leaves, but maybe it's only the awakening of springtime.

As I walked, and closer to the village I got. Sounds changed. The life of commerce, of commuting and peoples lives started to slowly fill the air. But not in a bad way. A slow quiet tempo - distant, removed yet close. Not intrusive, but sharing the audio with nature.

Into the village, and the business I was to visit was closed, today was its day not to wake early. I enjoy that, commerce taking a relaxed healthy approach on one of it's days. I hope some of their staff took the opportunity to walk also !
Though closed, all was not in vain. I, by chance, met another athlete from the weekend. Some fine compliments were exchanged, He admiring the images, I admiring the way he and the other athletes had style during the race. The conversation flowed so well, by the time we parted, the doors were almost opening, I still had time to cross over and look at the river Rye flowing and joining the River Liffey. And think some more on Springtime.

I came back from my morning, buoyed with positive ideas, Business ideas for my images came flowing, inspiration from positive people - and it all started with the ending;

"Hope you have a wonderful creative Springtime."


To visit some of the images from a muddy 50km forest trail race: Donadea 5km Trail Ultra Marathon