This week ImageBrief launched brand new eCommerce Portfolios with cutting edge Reverse Image Search features, previously unavailable anywhere on the web. The ImageBrief Portfolios are linked with personal Marketplaces allowing buyers to drag on drop a reference image onto a photographer’s portfolio to search for similar images and purchase instantly, giving photographers an new way to monetize their work.
This week ImageBrief launches brand new eCommerce Portfolios with cutting edge Reverse Image Search features, previously unavailable anywhere on the web.
No other platform allows image buyers the ability to search through a photographer’s personal marketplace using Google-like drag and drop reference images to find commercially available content.
All images uploaded into a photographer’s Portfolio Marketplace are keyworded automatically by the platform’s auto-tagging technology. Every image is reviewed by ImageBrief’s team of photo editors, and images that match current buyer trends are selected for the carefully curated Global Marketplace.
More time behind the lens for photographers
By providing photographers a continual stream of buyers and briefs on the platform, ImageBrief is positioned to be the market network for photographers and image buyers.
ImageBrief’s aim, according to CEO Simon Moss, is to “help photographers spend less time behind the laptop, and more time behind the lens, and ultimately to sell more work, connect with buyers, and get hired more often.”
“When we released Reverse Image Search in our Global Marketplace there was a demand from our photographer community to leverage this technology within their own personal portfolios. We brought it a step further by linking the search tech on their Portfolio with their own individual Marketplace.”
Capitalizing on buyer traffic
An added benefit of this eCommerce Portfolio is the ability to capitalize on the buyer traffic that’s already being driven to the ImageBrief platform, which has more than doubled in the past month. Rather than having a desolate website floating in the abyss, photographers have an existing network as soon as they step on the platform.
Secret sauce
What makes ImageBrief a standout in the industry is the company’s vision to provide photographers with a platform to showcase and sell their work and get hired, ultimately providing them with a marketing powerhouse.
Unlike the big stock libraries, ImageBrief gives photographers new ways to grow their business by facilitating direct connections with buyers for licensing and assignments.
About ImageBrief
ImageBrief is the largest curated gathering of image buyers and photographers on the web, where buyers can search, brief, and hire all in one place, and photographers can sell their work, connect with buyers and get hired.
]]>A UK-based airline has tapped into the family albums of photographers to create an authentic travel campaign. The hard to find travel images from 1995-2015 make up part of a landmark deal for ImageBrief photographers. As brands and their agencies shift away from generic stock imagery to authentic content that creates higher audience engagement, new innovative ways are being used to source content that connects with their audience.
A major UK advertising agency working on behalf of their airline client has turned to ImageBrief to help source hard to find, authentic vacation images dating back as far as 1995.
The images will be used in a campaign that will highlight 20 years of travel with the airline and had photographers mining their archives and dusting off their old 35mm negatives.
“This brief was fun since it gave my husband and I the opportunity to go through old photos and try and find some appropriate ones for the brief,” says photographer, Marie Claude Couillard, who is based in France.
19 photographers collaborated to license a total of 24 images. The sales marked some of the biggest ever made for many of the photographers, the majority of whom keep 100% of the commission on the sale.
“I'm very happy with this sale, it's the biggest I've ever made! I usually work with Getty Images as my main stock agency, and even if I've made some good sales, nothing as exciting as this one,” says Elvira Boix, a photographer based in Spain.
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ImageBrief closed $750,000 in funding, bringing the company’s total funding-to-date to around US $3.2 million. ImageBrief will use the new funds to expand its product team...
ImageBrief, the online global marketplace where commercial image buyers license curated photos from professional photographers, closed $750,000 in funding, bringing the company’s total funding-to-date to around US $3.2 million. ImageBrief will use the new funds to expand its product team and develop additional offerings in response to the needs of advertising agencies, brands and publishing customers. The investment comes from New York-based Great Oaks Venture Capital, representing ImageBrief’s first U.S. funding since opening its New York headquarters in 2013. Great Oaks has a strong track record funding successful platform and marketplace businesses, including Trulia, Stubhub, Invite Media, JoorAccess, and Olapic.
“At ImageBrief we are experiencing explosive growth having more than doubled our revenues in the last six months alone,” says Simon Moss, CEO and co-founder, ImageBrief. “We appreciate Great Oaks’ support of our game-changing, commercial photography marketplace, and the opportunity it presents to recruit additional high-level, New York City-based engineering talent.”
ImageBrief is the only online marketplace that enables commercial buyers to license high-quality original images on-demand from pro-photographers around the globe. Its natural language briefing platform allows image buyers to quickly and cost-effectively secure photos to meet exacting creative needs, no matter how specific. Every professional photographer and contributed photograph is curated by ImageBrief’s editors. ImageBrief’s founders have a combined 20-plus-years of experience in the rapidly-changing photography, technology and content industry, having worked on both sides of the market as licensee and licensor.
“ImageBrief has taken the traditional photo licensing agency that provides one-on-one curation and licensing services and scaled it to enable thousands of buyers to simultaneously purchase and license original images they could not otherwise purchase online,” says Ben Lin, Managing Partner, Great Oaks Venture Capital. “It’s a brilliant model that provides a real win-win for both photographers and image buyers, and this is why we’re proud to be adding ImageBrief to our portfolio.”
ImageBrief buyer Brendan Donnelly, Senior Art Director from Advertising Agency Leo Burnett explains “What a way to open up some incredible archives. I like the unexpected results which are a refreshing change from scrolling through thousands of the same images in the usual photo libraries.”
About ImageBrief
ImageBrief is a privately held company headquartered in New York City, with offices in Australia and the United Kingdom. To date more than 18,000 photographers in 168 countries have signed on to sell original photographs to over 5,000 image buyers at advertising agencies, brands and publishers. ImageBrief allows buyers to secure location-specific, culturally relevant images from almost anywhere in the world within hours and enables effortless licensing agreements. For more information visit: http://imagebrief.com.
]]>After a rocketing success in Sydney, London and New York, the innovative new marketplace for sourcing commercial photography, ImageBrief, has arrived in South Africa, giving creatives access to a range of photographers and images not previously available from traditional stock libraries.
Newly launched in Cape Town, ImageBrief has taken the creative industries in Sydney and London by storm, in addition to last month’s premier at the New York Photo Festival that has signalled their move into the US market. As an alternative to stock libraries, ImageBrief addresses the global demand for high quality images. Clients are able to source unique shots from an ever-increasing pool (currently 3000) of internationally recognised photographers via an innovative online marketplace. Gone are the days of scrolling through stock libraries in search of that perfect image. The concept is simple - buyers submit a brief for their image requirements along with their budget and timeframe, and the continuously growing network of photographers submit images to meet that brief.
A simple concept that works
“We create the situation of putting suppliers and the end users together – in this case photographers and image buyers. Our sophisticated and moderated use of crowdsourcing techniques allows creative clients the opportunity to brief photographers on their exact needs, saving them time and money,” says Meg Moss, Creative Director of ImageBrief.
“ImageBrief takes the schlep out of image searching and buying. Simply upload your brief and budget and watch fresh images flood into your light box from over 3000 local and international photographers,” adds Cindy Laufs, Account Manager for ImageBrief SA.
She goes on to explain, “The appeal of ImageBrief lies in the quality of the content, because you are not briefing a stock agency but individual photographers around the world - thus you are drawing on the creative intellect of some of the world’s best photographers. ImageBrief also makes those hard to find images easy to find. Chances are, that image you are looking for is sitting on a photographer’s hard drive and not in a traditional stock library. ImageBrief facilitates the conversation between ad agency creatives and photographers. It’s a simple concept, but it works. Stop searching. Start briefing. “
Catering to a broad range of clients across the advertising, marketing and design industries, the need for quality images has paved the way for this new model that provides greater budget control. Cape Town agencies will be able to benefit from a broad network of photographers, with a customised image sourcing solution that does not break the bank.
ImageBrief is proving a highly successful tool for both advertising agencies and photographers.
Ashleigh Hamilton, Art Buyer and Producer at Y&R Cape Town, believes that the simplicity of ImageBrief is the crucial factor in its success. “I love the simplicity of ImageBrief. After fruitless searching for an image with a tight brief, I uploaded my brief and found the image I was looking for,” says Ashleigh.
"ImageBrief is the best thing that has happened to me and photography - it offers opportunity and opens up a whole new world," says local photographer Debra Roets.
Goodbye Image Banks, Hello Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is by no means a new concept, but in the world of stock libraries this concept is still underutilised. ImageBrief has proven that they are not afraid to take a different approach to provide clients with a cost-effective and high quality solution for image purchases.
The launch into the South African market and the fast adoption by creatives across the globe shows yet again that when it comes to innovation, giving clients exactly what they need will always deliver results.
Photographers wishing to apply should visit http://www.imagebrief.com/photographers
Contact:
Cindy Laufs – ImageBrief South Africa
cindy@imagebrief.com
www.imagebrief.com
079 417 1764
Skype: ImagebriefSA
]]>ImageBrief, the online marketplace that connects image buyers with a global network of professional photographers, has appealed to photographers to find those fabulous lost images that lie in their archives unused and let them be found!
"The Lost” film is a call to arms for photographers to seek out those hidden gems on their hard drives and use them in response to the growing number of briefs on the ImageBrief website. Under the innovative new business model created by ImageBrief, image buyers submit their requirements, including budget and licensing needs, via the ImageBrief website and registered photographers are then invited to submit their relevant shots. The model is being embraced by photographers thanks to its budget and licensing transparency.
“ImageBrief provides photographers with an opportunity to monetize those images sitting on their hard drives that may not have been used otherwise,” said CEO Simon Moss. “We’ve had a great response from photographers who feel they have unprecedented control over how and where their images are used.”
More than 3000 photographers from over 100 countries are already part of the ImageBrief community. Photographers are accepted on the strength of their portfolio, and once accepted they have the ability to receive and respond to briefs. Photographers wishing to find out more should visit http://www.imagebrief.com/photographers
To view "The Lost" movie visit https://vimeo.com/43604572
ImageBrief, the online marketplace that connects image buyers with a global network of professional photographers, has launched their first major marketing campaign, asking photographers to find those fabulous lost images that lie in their archives unused.
The Lost is an inspirational appeal to photographers to seek out those unseen images and let them be found. The campaign is based upon the premise that the 12.5 million professional photographers on the planet have captured more than 60 billion images, most of which have not seen the light of day. The film has been designed to attract and recruit photography talent to ImageBrief in order to meet the increasing needs of their image-buying customer base.
“This is a visual, inspirational film that was carefully crafted to appeal to our highly visual target audience – photographers,” said ImageBrief Marketing Director, Stephen Pearson. “One of the key drivers for the success of this business is the quality of the photographer base we recruit; hence this campaign is a key element in our overall marketing strategy.”
The campaign was created by Whybin/TBWA Auckland with production talent from Flying Fish. The Lost was premiered as part of ImageBrief’s involvement with the New York Photo Festival.
A growing international phenomenon, ImageBrief is transforming the way creatives source commercial photography. With a presence in Australia, the UK, the USA and now South Africa, ImageBrief is being embraced by image buyers and photographers alike, with a growing base of 3000 photographers from more than 100 countries.
To view The Lost go to https://vimeo.com/43604572
ImageBrief, the online marketplace that connects image buyers with a global network of professional photographers, will promote its launch in the US with a presence at the New York Photo Festival (NYPH). Running from 16-20 May, NYPH attracts some of the greatest talent in the photography arena with a series of exhibitions and presentations in and around the Powerhouse Arena, Dumbo, Brooklyn.
As lead presentation partner of NYPH, ImageBrief will launch their highly successful business model that is being embraced across the globe by photographers and image buyers alike. For photographers, ImageBrief is an outlet to license those images that are in their archives and may not otherwise be seen. It also offers photographers a unique level of control over the licensing of their shots. For image buyers the ImageBrief service gives them access to imagery that may not have been otherwise available and with complete budget control.
“Our business model is built on supporting photographers and giving them access to customers that may not have been attainable previously,” said Simon Moss, CEO of ImageBrief. “NYPH is synonymous with our brand values as they provide photographers with a platform to showcase their work and open doors to new opportunities for talented photographers. We are thrilled to be part of this event!”
For the organisers of NYPH the opportunity to have a growing brand that supports photographer interests as part of the event was seen as a great fit. “When we heard about the ImageBrief business model we were impressed,” said Daniel Power, Director of NYPH. “They have carved a niche between commissioned work and stock photography that is needed in the photography business and we’re pleased to have such a revolutionary brand partnering with our event.”
For further information on NYPH, including daily activities and venues visit http://nyph.at/.
]]>ImageBrief, the online marketplace that connects image buyers with a global network of professional photographers, has expanded globally and is being embraced by creatives, editors and photographers across the globe. Recent expansion into London has been followed by a new office in Capetown, South Africa. The company will officially launch into the US later this month at the New York Photo Festival - NYPH 2012.
Designed to transform the way images are found and licensed online, ImageBrief makes finding the right shot far easier for buyers and gives photographers greater control over rights, usage and pricing. Gone are the days of searching through page upon page of stock photos and trying to refine search criteria to find the right shot. The buyer simply posts a brief outlining their needs, including budget, deadline and intended usage. Photographers respond by uploading shots from their existing catalogues to meet the brief. The buyers then select the image/s they like and pay for the licence. The photographer retains seventy percent of the payment - a significanlty higher percentage than the majority of stock libraries, often offering as low as thirty percent to the photographer.
“Our agency and publishing customers love the ease of licensing images via ImageBrief,” said CEO Simon Moss. “Less than a month after expanding into London, one of the world's most creatively demanding cities, we’re finding creatives are embracing the model over the traditional stock libraries and have started briefing for their image needs via ImageBrief".
The talent pool is curated. Photographers are accepted to ImageBrief based on the strength of their portfolio, ensuring a high standard of photography is available. With a global network of more than 2600 photographers now accepted and many more requests flooding in, ImageBrief is attracting a pool of high calibre photographers. Publishers including ACP Magazines, Australia’s leading magazine publishing house, are also contributing their range of high quality images to meet briefs, giving ImageBrief customers access to a wide-range of high-quality, relevant shots.
According to photographer Beowulf Sheehan “with ImageBrief the blinders are taken off stock photography. Photographers know exactly what buyers want, see what pictures sell, and in the process learn how to better serve the market.”
ImageBrief has contributing photographers from 102 countries. Customer briefs are coming in from across the globe as creatives discover there is an easier way to get the shot they need on brief, on budget and on time.
ImageBrief was recognised earlier this year by Australia's leading business magazine, BRW, as one of the ten start-ups to watch.
ImageBrief, the online marketplace that connects image buyers with a global network of professional photographers, has expanded globally and is being embraced by creatives, image buyers and photographers across the globe. Recent expansion into London has been followed up with a new office in Capetown, South Africa and the company will officially launch into the US later this month at the New York Photo Festival.
Designed to transform the way images are found and licensed online, ImageBrief makes finding the right shot far easier and gives buyers greater budget control. Gone are the days of searching through page upon page of stock photos and trying to refine search criteria to find the right shot. The buyer simply posts a brief outlining their needs, including budget and timeframe, and then waits for the shots to start coming in.
“Our agency and publishing customers love the ease of licensing images via ImageBrief,” said CEO Simon Moss. “Less than a month after expanding into London, we’re finding creatives in one of the world’s most heralded creative cities are embracing the model over the traditional stock libraries, and have started briefing in their image needs via ImageBrief".
“They’re finding fresh, unique shots which haven’t been seen before, and because they can define their budget and usage terms up-front, they are in complete control of the process.”
Photographers are accepted by ImageBrief based on the strength of their portfolio, ensuring a high standard of imagery is available. With a global network of more than 2600 photographers now accepted and many more requests flooding in, the content available to buyers is exceptional. Publishers including ACP Magazines, Australia’s leading magazine publishing house, are also contributing their range of high quality images to meet briefs, meaning ImageBrief customers have access to a wider-range of high-quality relevant shots.
ImageBrief has contributing photographers from 102 countries. Customer briefs are coming in from across the globe as creatives discover there is an easier way to get the shot they need on brief, on budget and on time.
ImageBrief was recognised earlier this year by Australia's leading business magazine, BRW, as one of the ten start-ups to watch.
The exciting new company which puts image buyers and photographers together, already has 1300 registered professional photographers and users in over one hundred countries. ImageBrief photographers receive more than double the average commission rate making the business of selling photographic images more profitable per transaction.
ImageBrief, www.imagebrief.com, allows clients requiring photographic images the opportunity to directly brief this cadre of photographers for the appropriate picture as opposed to searching for it amongst the often over-exposed and bland imagery of the traditional photographic library. Meg Moss, Co-Founder of ImageBrief and responsible for Photographer Relations said, “We are creating the situation of putting suppliers and the end users together – in this case photographers and those requiring photographic images. Our sophisticated and moderated use of crowd-sourcing techniques allows creative clients the opportunity to brief photographers on their exact needs, saving them time and money.”
Photographers joining the ImageBrief marketplace receive briefs from image buyers for review and response. If they win the brief, the photographer receives 70% of the total licence fee offered by the buyer. ImageBrief thus provides professional photographers with an amazing opportunity to market their current portfolio and back catalogue whilst retaining full control over copyright.
Meg Moss continued, “Surveys show that up to 90% of a photographers’ work is not even available online. ImageBrief is a beautifully simple system. We alert our photographers to the brief by email and if they have appropriate images they submit it for consideration. Clients love the simplicity of the process and the fact that they’re briefing rather than having to search, along with the range of great photography it gives them access to. For photographers it’s a new and exciting opportunity to maximize the earning potential from otherwise dormant images.”
ImageBrief is looking to increase the number of photographer registrants in a variety of areas including fashion, lifestyle, art, sport and recreation, nature and wildlife, design, architecture and visual metaphor in order to offer an even broader spectrum of imagery to the rapidly increasing number of requests from creatives, designers, art buyers, publishers and picture editors seeking to license fresh imagery. Professional photographers can register their interest at www.imagebrief.com/photographers