Owners take their e-readers to bed, but keep their iPads in the living room, according to a Nielsen study of 12,000 smart device users.
- 70% of tablet owners, and 68% if smartphone owners use their devices while watching TV.
- 61% of e-reader owners use their devices in bed.
This makes sense: It’s easier to multi-task while surfing the web than it is while reading in bed.
Impact on Microstock
If you search iStock for lifestyle and technology, you’ll mostly see images of attractive people looking at laptops. I think there’s an opportunity to update the technology in these images. iPhones, iPads, and e-Readers are selling at a tremendous rate, but haven’t yet appeared in many microstock images.
Keep actual usage in mind when planning your shoots — imagery will follow consumers as they move beyond laptops.
I wanted to see which summer activities were downloaded the most on iStock. To do this, I searched for them on iStock using the keywords: “summer <activity>” and recorded the total number of results, and information on the top 100 images when ranked by downloads.
Total Result Counts
- The charts above show: the number of images returned when you search for “summer + keyword”, and the percentage of overall results when you search for “summer”, by itself.
- There are 680,019 images returned when you search for ‘summer’ by itself.
- The set above accounts for 330,660 images or 49% of the total summer images.
Average Downloads Per Image for the Top 100 Search Results
- The chart above shows the average number of downloads per image for the Top 100 images returned when sorting by downloads.
Items of Note:
- I was surprised to see each of the activities accounting for less than 3% of the total summer images in each case.
- Running stands out in the average DLs chart — I would have expected it’s DLs per image to be about half of what they actually were.
“It is true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” – Napoleon Hill
Although Napoleon Hill wasn’t talking about microstock, his advice remains relevant. If you focus on helping image buyers succeed, you’ll make more money in microstock.
One way you can do this is by studying how images are used in ads. A recently launched site, Moat.com, let’s you do just that. (Moat also intends to provide engagement analytics, but you’ll have to wait, and pay for that service.)
I searched for some major advertisers on Moat and found a range of ads that are worth examining.
From right to left, we have Netflix, Pfizer, Aetna, and Lifelock. Netflix is demonstrating their service, while the others are selling peace of mind.
Some Observations:
- Images are horizontal, and subjects are off-center in 3 out of 4 ads to leave room for copy.
- Models are looking directly at the camera in 2 out of 3 of the ‘peace of mind’ ads. Eye contact does suggest trust, so this makes sense.
- Netflix’s models are pointing at the ad, and the ad is directly above the ‘Click Here’ button. (This makes sense since we read from left to right in English.)
- Models in portrait style shots are looking at the camera, but their shoulders are at an angle. (I don’t know if this is significant, but I think it’s interesting.)
This isn’t a statistical analysis, but I think studying how buyers pair images with concepts will tune you in to their needs. In turn, this will help you plan your shoots and produce more salable images.
Other Examples:
To save you time, here are links to some of the brands I searched for:
NB: Product retailers use their own products, but I think it’s still instructive. Service providers seem to use more stock imagery.
The Hispanic and Asian population in the USA grew over 43% from 2000-2010. You can use LookStat collections to explore the impact of this growth on your microstock sales. For example, if you wanted to analyze Hispanic vs. Asian models in business and lifestyle shoots, you would proceed as follows:
1. Create a collection
2. Search for the following terms & add all results.
- HAVING KEYWORDS: business%, hispanic%
- NOT HAVING KEYWORDS: african%, caucasian, asian%, indian%, divers%, mixed%
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for Asian models by using the following terms:
- HAVING KEYWORDS: business%, asian%
- NOT HAVING KEYWORDS: african%, caucasian, hispanic%, indian%, divers%, mixed%
4. Analyze the Results:
- LookStat updates collection stats hourly. After that, you can compare the performance of each set of models.
- Pay attention to RPI and Price per download numbers since the collections will likely be of different sizes.
5. Notes:
- The ‘%’ sign symbol is a wild-card character that adds all variations & endings
- Because we’re trying to isolate each group, I’ve added exclusion keywords so each set only contains the relevant models.
Sign up for free today and start using LookStat to make casting decisions that make you more money.
The chart below shows the Top 10 Leisure Activities in the USA based on number of female participants in 2009.
The chart below shows the Top 10 Leisure Activities in the USA based on the % of participants that are women. This data will help you ensure your shoots are realistic.
The actual number of participants for the above activities are shown below to help you prioritize your efforts. For example, gymnastics and roller-blading appeal to a much smaller segment of the population than walking, working out the gym, or yoga.
Source: National Sporting Goods Association
Points to Note:
- Yoga is close to 80% female, growing, and ranked #11 in terms of total participants. When casting yoga shoots, you should keep this mix in mind.
- I was surprised that walking is 60% female in terms of participation. I normally think of this as a couples concept but the data would suggest women walking together would be a worthwhile concept.
Last year, I posted about the Top 10 Leisure Activities to help with lifestyle shoot planning for the summer. To help with this year’s shoots, I charted updated data from 2001-2009 for the top activities based on 2009 participation numbers.
Source: National Sporting Goods Association – 10 Year Participation Report
Points to Note:
- The Top 5 fastest growing over this period were: Workout at Club, Weight Lifting, Running/Jogging, Exercising w/ Equipment, and Hiking.
- Although Yoga didn’t make the cut (15.7 million participants), it was one of the fastest growing in the last year. Also, 79.4% of yoga participants were female.
