Product Ad

[No786]

How would you go about getting into an ad.
I have a couple of products I have photographed that I would like to try to market. I just don't know how to go about it. Do I just send an e-mail to the company with an attachment or what?

Thanks

[PhotosGuy]

I have a couple of products I have photographed that I would like to try to market. Market what? The products or the images?

Most companies work through an Ad Agency. Unless your images are WAY better than what you've seen somewhere, chances are slim that they would buy them.

[Dchemist]

You might use the images you have in a portfolio to show others your capabilities. PG is correct that most companies use Agencies and would not be interested. You will find, I suspect smaller companies might at least take a look at your work since they would like a better quality marketing images - the challenege wil be to get them to pay much. But it could be a place to start. Good luck, dennis

[No786]

Thats what I thought, I was just curious as to how people get their photo's published.
Thanks for the info!

[sfaust]

If you think about how an ad is created, you will understand how futile trying to sell an image for an ad to a company.

There is a lot of research put into advertising. The agencies and clients work from a clear set of marketing and advertising goals, and the agency is tasked with coming up with a concept which will sell those goals to the intended audience. Those ideas get hashed out between the agency and client until a final is selected. By that point, most things are locked down pretty closely as to what the ad will look like. From that point, a photographer is selected by the agency and approved by the client. The photographer is given the assignment to shoot, and usually is based pretty closely on the concept the agency/client agreed on. Sometimes its very loose and the photographer has a lot of creativity in the concept. Other times it may be locked down tightly and the photographer is merely taking a sketch and turning it into a photograph.

In answer to your question, usually the agency hires the photographer based on their skills and style that would fit with their preconceived concept. So you want to shop your skills to the agencies. And to do so, you need a really strong portfolio if you want to mix with the players at that level.