Author Topic: A nice adventure… (Read 3646 times)

Beppe Grillo · « **on:** December 24, 2013, 04:06 »

A friend told me a true story happened to one of his friend.

Here is what he told me:

A good friend of mine, that could rank among the amateurs expert, receives a phone call from an advertising agency in Paris :
" Hello, we have seen on your site a beautiful image that could very well stick to a visual for a project about the promotion of Xxxxx (Billboard - Posters - Display on autobuses - Bilboards in the subway - Mailing - Food catalogues for Auchan / Carrefour / Leclerc - Internet , etc. ), and we need a quote for it as fast as possible.”

My friend called me to ask me for advice and I wrote him a quote for 9,800 euros.
The next day the quote is accepted without discussion (I should have asked for 12,000 euros…) but the agency says it is competing for this project with other agencies.

15 days later : Champagne! The agency : "Our project was selected , your photo was unanimous, congratulations, the customer is enthusiastic! "

Three days later : The agency AD called furious:
"The customer have seen that your photo was on sale for $ 1 on Fotolia, it has already been sold 12 times, what is this all about? "

I let you imagine the rest, a great bunch of creative people who went for funny, of course the project failed and my friend (who had never dared to tell me that he tinkered with microstocks) is in a catastrophic state.

The lesson helped him to understand that any pictures delivered to a microstock site and has already sold one time is permanently lost, the author loses control.

Cost of the lesson: 9,797 euros (9,800 € -3€ of sales on Fotolia) !
_____
–––––
Is it sad or just funny?… I cannot decide.

kalevitamm · « **Reply #1 on:** December 24, 2013, 07:30 »

Ouch!

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #2 on:** December 24, 2013, 09:39 »

So... what?
The only lesson here is the question of honesty.

ruxpriencdiam · « **Reply #3 on:** December 24, 2013, 11:59 »

Simple dont submit to FT.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #4 on:** December 24, 2013, 13:46 »

Quote from: Oligo on December 24, 2013, 09:39

So... what?
The only lesson here is the question of honesty.

Lesson learned, make sure you have all the information before advising a friend on how to price an image.

bunhill · « **Reply #5 on:** December 24, 2013, 14:41 »

The big prize snatched away at the last minute is a typical meme - if only I had done this etc.

With that in mind - a number of aspects here do not quite ring right IMO and make me wonder whether this story is friend-of-a-friend or apocryphal - perhaps originating with someone who instinctively does not like RF:

Firstly - that the ad agency would not have immediately checked the image for previous usages*. Agencies here in France, the same as everywhere else, know all about RF and are not stupid. And I cannot see that it would have made a substantial difference if the image had been costing them $1 or $x00 - vs the nearly $10k which this story is supposed to be all about.

Secondly - the idea that Auchan / Carrefour / Leclerc would be using the same generic food images to advertise a supplier's product. If it was a specific product then the producer would be supplying their own pictures. If it were a generic food item (lets say apples, or tomatoes) then it does not seem likely that 3 rival supermarkets would be using a single agency to supply the content.

Thirdly - if it were a generic item (perhaps for use as a design element within some composition) then there is no possibility that the agency would pay so much.

* unless the photographer was asked and did not give the full information

gostwyck · « **Reply #6 on:** December 24, 2013, 15:33 »

No lesson to be learned here at all. I've made hundreds of thousands of $'s from microstock RF which I wouldn't have done if I'd been waiting patiently for the very occasional big RM sale to arrive.

It's my view that a given portfolio will make more money overall on microstock than any other platform. A stock image is a depreciating asset (due to the ever-increasing over-supply) and a good one is more likely to survive longer with high sort-order position (and thus actually be seen by buyers) if it has regular sales.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #7 on:** December 25, 2013, 23:05 »

Friend of a friend (FOAF) is a phrase used to refer to someone that one does not know well, literally, a friend of a friend.

In some social sciences, the phrase is used as a half-joking shorthand for the fact that much of the information on which people act comes from distant sources (as in "It happened to a friend of a friend of mine") and cannot be confirmed. Wikipedia

Usually associated with rumors, tall tales and urban myths.

heywoody · « **Reply #8 on:** December 26, 2013, 08:39 »

Quote from: gostwyck on December 24, 2013, 15:33

No lesson to be learned here at all. I've made hundreds of thousands of $'s from microstock RF which I wouldn't have done if I'd been waiting patiently for the very occasional big RM sale to arrive.

It's my view that a given portfolio will make more money overall on microstock than any other platform. A stock image is a depreciating asset (due to the ever-increasing over-supply) and a good one is more likely to survive longer with high sort-order position (and thus actually be seen by buyers) if it has regular sales.

Yeah, actually €9797 - total MS earnings + only for MS, the image may not even have existed

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Author Topic: A nice adventure… (Read 3646 times)

Beppe Grillo

kalevitamm

DiscreetDuck

ruxpriencdiam

Sean Locke Photography

bunhill

gostwyck

Uncle Pete

heywoody

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