The impact of user generated photography on brand travel imagery

I went to the brand and video strategy day for brand owners at Google London earlier this month.

Some of it was a bit suck eggs but it was a great overview of how the video landscape is rapidly developing and how to bring a brand to life through video.

It very much confirmed that Youtube is still the place to test and learn content idea’s that could be rolled out to wider media formats if they performed. Tick, and on the case with that.

One of the more interesting presentations was from Theresa Kirkham at Getty images – ‘Which type of images appeal to a travel audience’.

She contrasted travel industry photography from ten years ago with the types of images being shot these days. It was amazing just how dated the older imagery looked.

Over processed and staged were the order of the day. Now these images in the context of the user generated imagery often seen alongside brand approved shot’s on the likes of TripAdvisor just seem ancient.

The impact of user generated content (UGC) on brand travel imagery has been far reaching. Instagram in particular has for many users opened up their minds to the fact that pictures can be manipulated within an inch of their lives and still look good.

This has led to an era of more honest photo shoots. Looser shots with models looking like they have just been posted on Instagram. Increasingly brands are using UGC sourced images in their brochures and other media.


Easyjet’s print ad’s were used as an example of informal UGCesq images, a far cry from “American looking Photoshopped unrealities”.

It’s no huge surprise that the great social media revolution that has sped up in the last ten years has led to a more candid and less formal approach to travel photography after all TripAdvisor is only a click away.

Contemporary subtlety wins once again with the new 911 GT3

The new Porsche GT3 911 (991 generation) has some wonderfuldesign twists on the iconic Porsche 911 Carrera model.

911 GT3 on Porsche's excellent Pinterest outpost

Now it in’s 50^th anniversary year, the 911 stillwith it’s engine resolutely mounted in the rear is a great manifestation of evolvinga classic design utilising the latest contemporary design trends.

Porsche owners are always looking for the finest of detailsthat set certain model variants apart. These subtleties start to become moreobvious the more you start looking at the detail.

It could be the LED lights front and rear on the 991 997which indicate it is the generation two 997 variant (997.2) or the bumper and exhaustconfiguration that only exist in the Turbo versions of the iconic car.

The new GT3 has carried forward the subtle evolution withthe integration of the day running lights into the classic rounded 911headlights. A great evolution as I’ve always felt the look of the day runninglights on the previous version (911 997.2) looked a bit ‘me too’ which Porschetend not to fall into.

Anything to do with tweaks to the 911’s headlamp look andfeel is always a sensitive issue after what aberration that was the 911 996Boxter look integrated indicator cluster solution. This gnarly looking versioncheapened the 911 marque at the time.

The design team over at Land Rover could certainly learn athing or two about the subtle use of LED and side emitting fibre optics basedon the Christmas tree look of the previous Range Rover model.

Smug viewer of the Natwest Mustang TV Ad

Perhaps it’s because I’ve gone and got the Mustang equivalent featured in this ad already before the kids arrive on the planet that this ad means something to me....

 

It’s a heart-warming showcase for the multichannel ease that a Natwest Customer can interact with it’s products and services.

Barclays have also used the Fatherhood card but Natwest have achieved the John Lewis-esq ‘ahhh’ factor. If Natwest hadn’t overcharged me as a student I’d consider switching but over charged students have long life time value memories!

The product of a thousand small gestures (and animations)

Much to the amusement of my senior colleagues I’m mildly obsessed with a quote from Michael Eisner who was Disney CEO between 1984 -2005 at the moment:

 

“A brand is a living entity, and is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”

It’s something that the recent internal conference season has had us driving into our teams via way of a brand alignment and our company vision message.

 

Where it has interested me most is the opportunity to infer these small gestures by considered digital user experience. It’s something that Apple has been doing for years via OSX and more recently iOS.

 

Gizmodos 13 design trends for 2013  sets out one trend ‘Animation as Affordance’. The concept is that small animations illustrate in an intuitive way how to complete a task by visually unfurling a user experience the user otherwise wouldn’t know about.

 

This from the Gizomdo article wonderfully summarises it:

That little camera icon bounces for a brilliant user
experience unfurling reason.
 

The best example I have found yet is the camera icon on the iOS lock screen. Many people unfamiliar with iOS would more than likely resort to just clicking on it instead of dragging it up. Instead of not doing anything when pressed, it does a little bounce up and down; revealing the camera feature underneath. This gives a visual hint to unknowing users as to how to properly use it in the future. By offering this hint, users are able to pick up on things rather quickly.

 

This device could be played out wonderfully throughout a website/mobile/tablet cross channel experience to encourage users down user paths they would not have otherwise considered. From a holiday maker perspective this could manifest on a smart phone based on the users location and time of day to suggest to a user to try Zumba for the first time for example.

 

The subtlety as with any tool that is using such contextually personally sensitive information such as time and location is what could make it work so well.

 

This being a digital channel different levels of animation of affordance could be implemented to establish the optimum number of alternate user path prompts.

 

Back to Michael Eisner’s quote, it’s these small gestures that cumulatively enthuse brand trust and in the end delight the user.