In the picture

Providing a good photo service for journalists is a competitive advantage when vying for public attention. A good website is an invaluable USP.

Good photos of trade fair events are an invaluable aspect of PR both for organisers and exhibitors. Disseminating them in the general and trade press heightens public awareness of the trade fair as a medium. Grüne Woche in Berlin, IAA in Frankfurt, CPD, Düsseldorf - these are big events that generate photos galore for the German press. But it's not just the crowd-pulling events that benefit from a good photo service. Nearly all fair organisers are aware of this so it's no surprise that even the smaller locations offer an efficient service for journalists, many of them for several years now. "We have always offered an up-to-date photo service, and I've been here for 14 years, says Wolfgang Köhle, for example, head of PR at Messe Friedrichshafen. His colleague Andreas Weber at Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund can confirm this: "As far as I can tell, we've always provided this service. And our archive goes back 30 years. The service is probably even older than that."So what prompts trade fair organisers to release pictures? "We release press images for all our own events", says Weber. "We consider this to be an indispensable part of PR." When it comes to choice of subjects, Dortmund is not choosy. "Pretty much any event is photogenic if the photographer is good, with the possible exception of the small technical trade fairs dominated by system stands and stands with exhibitors presentations on PC screens. But even there, photos are intrinsic to professional PR." Down on Lake Constance a service is provided for all the organiser's own events.And it's clear who the photos are for. "The service is primarily for journalists", says Köhle. In Dortmund exhibitors are served if they request it. They can book an in-house photographer for a fee. That gives them the right to choose their own subjects, otherwise," Weber continues, "photos are chosen according to the attraction of the stand architecture and market standing of the exhibitor. It's the photographer's job to choose a perspective that brings out the aesthetics of the stand structure. In that respect these photos have something in common with architectural photography." Köhle agrees: "First and foremost, stands and products are photographed according to journalistic aspects. It's got to be a good image that the newspapers are likely to print. Freelance photographers or freelancers under contract are precisely the people who will put the stand in its best light for the various exhibition organisers.Photo libraries for downloading are now a permanent feature of exhibition organiser websites. One thing is clear to Weber: "PR today can't do without it". We no longer distribute photo CDs at fairs but hand journalists in the press room an info sheet with the Internet address where they can download pictures. We've seen the number of downloads increase significantly over the last five years."There is a strong demand for photos that give an overall impression of the trade fair, that is, overview shots, wide shots, exteriors. In Friedrichshafen, copying images to CD which are then handed out to journalists during the fair has proven most successful. The photos are also published on the Internet where download activity has intensified significantly in recent years.User friendliness and well-designed download facilities are crucial. The longer it takes an editor to search for and download images, the more likely they are to give up - and that's bad news for the exhibition.

m+a report Nr.4 / 2006 vom 15.06.2006
m+a report vom 15. Juni 2006