A time consuming aspect of providing PR services to engineering, construction and technology companies, is the sourcing of high quality visuals – graphics, photographs, video and so on.
Opportunity, timing, budget, third party permission or a combination of these factors can frustrate the project in hand. After 30 years in the business, we have gained experience in finding our way around these problems.
However, in this digital age, the material we want often already exists, or did! It is just that no one now knows where the original files are stored or who has copyright to them. Sometimes there are many digital versions of files spread throughout various company computers, but they have all been re-edited, re-sized or re-sampled beyond useability.
An extreme example is being given an image that fulfils its role nicely in a small box on a web site – but it has now become the only surviving image of a product that is required for an exhibition board sized print. It just doesn’t work.
Sometimes we can salvage a file – but that also takes time and cost – and still does not produce the results that would have been as good as getting our hands on the original. Usually, the only realistic option is to commission new work – a cost in money and time that could have been avoided.
Businesses really could save budget and improve the quality of their marketing outputs by nominating someone as the company archivist. They could get the company digital resource organised, categorised and make it available to staff, PR, video, design and web companies. Computer storage has never been cheaper or more shareable than today. Acid free storage and archive boxes can be used for physical items. Keep both in a dry, room temperature, environment away from any potential hazards like water pipes.
When you do use professionals to generate photographic or video content, negotiate copyright and ensure it is documented. If any older material has copyright doubts, then go back to source, verify and get written permission to use them so you don’t get in any hot water later.
In short, a good archive improves quality control over your digital assets, speeds the creative process by making them available quickly and avoids unnecessary costs in commissioning extra work to replace lost visuals.
If you require public relations and content creation services contact us now.