|
what is a photo agency?
A photo agency is a structure that gathers, edits, catalogues and licenses
images. Photographers are given the opportunity to give broad distribution
to their images with no concern for the business side of things. Clients
enjoy this service: agencies select photographers, their personnel is
aware of the problems and procedures of magazines and ad agencies simplifying
the steps needed to license a picture. If your business is of another
nature, don't worry. All businesses at some time or other need pictures
to illustrate their product, to make a panel for some trade fair or simply
to illustrate a concept regarding their business. Every day, large and
small agencies call Milestone Media to support their products.
why an agency and not a photographer?
Many wonder why one should call an agency rather than contact a photographer,
leaving out the middle man. The answer lies in timing and costs: an agency
offers the client the image he needs within 24 hours, he can have it in
digital format, thus saving on prepress costs and most of all at a much
lower cost.
why does it cost less?
Let's suppose you need the picture of a beautiful girl (or boy) on a tropical
beach to illustrate the promotional holiday that the sales people of your
company will win when reaching the annual sales objective. You should
then contact a photographer, a model agency, a make-up artist, send them
all to the Mauritius Islands which, no matter how unique and exclusive
to you it might be, it will still cost you a fortune. That same image
can be licensed from us at approximately € 150,00: good saving, right? Photo agencies can reduce costs because one
picture can be licensed various times, in various parts of the world:
it can be used to illustrate a promotional holiday, meanwhile a tour operator
can use it in Japan for a travel catalogue and a producer of cosmetics
in France can use it to publicize a tanning lotion.
|
|
Photographers earn more too, because they
manage to get from multiple licensing more than what they would dare ask
any individual client.
licenses and prices
how can I determine athe price of a picture?
The cost of licensing a rights-managed image is determined by the combination
of various factors. The main ones are: kind of usage, trade, exclusivity
of the image, geographical distribution, period of licensing, print run,
subject of the image.
KIND OF USAGE. The kind of usage generally indicates the type of advertising
in which the image is being used. Usage examples are press campaign, poster,
flier, packaging, window poster, catalogue; in addition to this, there
are commercial uses such as calendars, postcards, posters. In other words,
a clear idea of the uses of an image enables our commercial staff to quote
a price precisely.
TERRITORY. The territory refers to the area in which the advertisement
appears. This factor strongly influences the price: usage within a specific
province costs much less than a national one, a continental one or a world
one.
PERIOD OF LICENSING. The period of licensing indicates the time during
which the image is used. Please note that the period of licensing refers
exclusively to the type of usage indicated in the contract. For example
if you license an image for a six months period, this doesn't mean that
during that time the image can be used for purposes other than the ones
that have been agreed upon.
|
