The link below leads to a rather amusing take-down of the most frequently used types of stock photos in B2B collateral: the chessboard, the handshake, the businessman in the wild, they're all there (and we've all been there!)... Clichés aren't necessarily bad, but they can make you blend in rather than stand out, and the effect of seeing an over-used image tends to be to glaze over. Not an ideal situation then if you're trying to impress!
As an antidote to the usual photos, I must admit that I'm a fan of PIE Recruitment's job adverts, which are always retro and witty, see for instance:
Need some ideas to rejuvenate your image bank?
Here are three links with ideas for you:
- My colleague Freddy has collated a handy list of places where you can search for, or create, images for your posts or presentations.
- 10 alternative ideas to stock photography can be found here.
- And here's a great list of links to websites that host more interesting photos than standard
To these, I must add that I'm rather partial to the Public Domain Review which curates some bizarre and wonderful things.
Okay, a picture says a thousand words – but in some cases the opening words are: “We were feeling lazy this morning so we just went with the first stock photo in the search results” or perhaps “we really don’t have anything different to say to the last brand you heard from – which is why we’re using exactly the same stock image.” As B2B marketers, we seem drawn to the same core set of stock photos like moths to a very familiar looking flame – so I decided it was time for some B2B stock image group therapy.
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