LookStat – Microstock Analytics

When analyzing the data for Thanksgiving image sales, I was intrigued by how close to the holiday the sales peak was. I assumed that the early increase would be print sales and that online uses would prevail closer to the time of the holiday. My hypothesis was that if I dug into the earnings per download ($/DL) data, I would see a high value early (print) that declined as online sales grew.

This was not the case. The real peak was the weekend before Thanksgiving.

2008 Earnings per Download for Images Tagged with ‘Thanksgiving’

Earnings Per Download Peak One Week Before Thanksgiving – Not What You’d Expect

The moving average for both earnings & downloads are shown as an underlay on the chart above. As you can see, there is jump in $/DL in August, three months before Thanksgiving, which coincides with the initial volume peak. The $/DL declines a little until mid-September but then begins climbing again and peaks on November 23rd which is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

The early peak at the end of August does seem to coincide with the notion of print sales & magazines. The increasing number however suggests that there are print uses all the way up until the holiday itself. It seems unlikely that individual online buyers would buy large sizes or ELs.

Possible explanations:

• Print lead times have compressed and corporate buyers are making final decisions much closer to the release date than initially assumed

• Retail Sale Circulars & Newspaper inserts etc may play a large role and their volume runs may require ELs. This would fit the notion of the peak being the weekend before Thanksgiving when all the specials etc go out

I’d love to hear your experiences and thoughts on what might be happening. We’ll be examining data for other seasonal events to see what we can find.

One of the things that interests me around seasonal holidays is the timing of changes in sales velocity of microstock images associated with those holidays. The goal is to identify when to shoot & upload images in order to benefit the most from the seasonal spikes in interest.

The chart below shows a 7-day moving average of the royalties for images with the keyword ‘thanksgiving’ in 2008 and it also overlays the daily mean for those images on the same chart.

2008 Royalties for Images Tagged with ‘Thanksgiving’

The royalties crossed the daily average for the year on August 22, peaked on November 23rd and then dropped off from there. The total volume of royalties between August 22 & November 28 accounted for over 63% of the year’s total. You had to be in early to maximize your benefit, but it would have been worthwhile to continue submitting images throughout September & October.

It seems reasonable to see sales start to climb three months before the holiday itself, but it was interesting to see them peak so close to the actual date of Thanksgiving, which was November 27, 2008 in the USA. I’m speculating here but, the early start would seem to coincide with the print & retail calendars and the continued strength suggests more online uses as we got closer to the holiday itself.

(As an aside, it may make sense to buy props and shoot immediately after a holiday when prices are low and your outdoor shots will still look season appropriate. I’m sure some of you out there are already doing exactly this.)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this if you get a chance. What has your experience been with seasonal images?