By Sarah Mountford

Photo shoots are more usually associated with bottomless budgets, demanding creative teams and a smattering of haute couture than with the marketing strategy of your average regional shopping centre, but there is no reason why this should necessarily be so.
With stock photography costs rising and there being an increasing number of ways with which to communicate with customers, a library of relevant, up-to-date and bespoke photos is fast becoming an essential weapon in the shopping centre’s marketing arsenal. And there is no need to sacrifice vast chunks of budget for this most valuable of resources. Photo shoots are an option available to all, if the centre manager has a mind for it and the marketing team a suitably creative bent.
Currently overseeing shoots for two clients, our creative director at Toolbox Marketing, Michelle Daniels, is vociferous on the value of having a library of made-to-measure images that can be used for hoardings, advertisements, TV ads, posters, mailers, websites, e-flyers and store directories.
"So long as you are selling an experience, as opposed to a specific product, and are prepared to plan ahead, it is possible to cover up to a year’s photography requirements in one shoot," she maintains.
"Customers can relate to and identify with the images taken because they were staged with their demographic, locality and type very much in mind. One of our current shoots is for a shopping centre in an area of Stockholm that has its own distinct identity and atmosphere. We have matched our models, make-up and styling to exactly complement this region’s existing style. We just wouldn’t be able to achieve the same connection with stock photography."
Achieving this connection with the customer, both existing and potential, is obviously the Holy Grail for the marketing team. And once the attention has been secured, the dialogue can then begin.
Katja Bolander, marketing manager of Shoppingstaden Skärholmen, agrees.
"We need to have bespoke pictures that exactly match the emotions and feelings of the campaign and that customers can relate to. Only pictures personal to the centre can evoke the right emotions. Our photo shoot pictures add immeasurable value to the brand and are, for us, an invaluable investment."
Kate Greenaway, again from Toolbox Marketing, is used to sourcing images and, despite enthusiasm for newish kid-on-the-block Istockphoto.com, has scant regard for the inflated prices and lack of creativity of much general stock photography.
"You have to pay up to £400 (€525) for some images and even then they are never exactly what we need for our centre campaigns. By running photo shoots, we can dictate exactly what look and style we want, and can recreate the exact image that we have in our minds. Customers can relate and aspire to the images and appreciate the connection that they feel, so the brand is further entrenched in the mind of the consumer. There is also the added benefit that we have complete ownership of the images taken. There are no limitations as to what we can do with them, no time limits, how often we can use them, and so on. All in all, photo shoots make perfect sense for us and our clients!"
Depending on the budget, the costs of custom photography can vary from as little as £4,000 (€5,250) up to £18,000 (approx. €23,500) per shoot. A cover shot is difficult to price up because the whole point is that we get all the images needed in one shoot. However, to give a rough idea of pricing might be that for Haymarket Shopping Centre (Haymarket) in Leicester, UK, we will get approximately 50 usable images for £4,000.
Haymarket, a city centre retail mall built in the 1970’s, has run photo shoots for the last three years. The highlights of Haymarket’s annual marketing effort are three fashion shows and a pair of in-house Look for Less fashion experts. But centre manager, Phil Toyne needs no persuading that having a library of Haymarket photos is a resource well worth funding.
Each shoot takes up just three percent of the centre’s budget and the pictures are used in all the marketing materials—from e-flyer to store directory, and from Valentine’s Day to Halloween.
"Our four models are now instantly recognisable to our customers" Toyne says. "They even model for our fashion shows as well, so they have become almost part of our branding."
Shoot costs are kept low by combining campaigns and also by sharing expenses with other centres whose photo shoots can be arranged at the same time. These savings range from using the same photographer for a multitude of different shoots and therefore benefitting from a favourable rate, up to sharing whole shoots. If one agency is looking after several centres all appealing to a similar demographic group, why not set up one photo shoot, share models and divide up the costs of the photographer, stylist, location and other elements? That way, each centre gets to benefit from a level of professionalism far exceeding what their individual budgets can sustain.
Toolbox has found this approach works especially well in Sweden, where it handled a creative project for five centres: Shoppingstaden Skärholmen, Fältöversten, Commerce, Center Syd and Vastermalmas.
The tactic works so long as you are able to organise yourself sufficiently and then stick to your plan, as Daniels explains.
"This game really isn’t for the kind of marketing managers who like to fly by the seat of their pants! For the Swedish shoot, each of the five centres provided me with their own outfits and accessories, and I had a detailed schedule of each of their creative requirements for that season. My action plan for that day stretched to five sides of A4, but we got it all done and the results were fabulous!"
The trick, as with so much in life, is to keep things as simple as is possible. Four models, one generic location, a clear idea of the brand message, a few basic props, a photographer, a creative director and a shot of confidence is generally all that is required. Large creative teams consisting of stylists, make-up artists, set directors and creative directors, an army of models and shiny new props are nice to have if the budget allows, but they are by no means essential.
In fact the smaller the team involved, the more flexible and reactive it can be. Snow forecast for an outside shoot in Stockholm? Move the shoot to London.
"It was an exciting few days but it came off well in the end," Daniels admits.
"We shot just off Oxford Street, using Swedish models and styling, and successfully got our generic photos for use all year round. At that particular shoot, we bagged all twelve images for our in-house magazine at half the market rate. In fact, the work was completed for the same price the centre had paid for just four images for an earlier issue. The centre managers were delighted, the creative team was delighted and the marketing manager was in heaven."
How often an image bank is updated absolutely depends on the use of the photos (e.g. cover of centre magazine or seasonal catalogue vs. cover of store directory or Website homepage image) and the centre involved. For instance, the Swedish centres will have three or four shoots each year but the savings are made by combining their shoots with other centres. UK centres generally shoot for generic winter and summer images, and these can be used indefinitely.
And, as far as location goes, it’s better to shoot in a studio or outside venue. That way it’s easier to control the environment and maintain quality. Besides, the images need to be inspirational and aspirational, so it is best not to base them too much on mundane reality.
For each centre, Toolbox keeps more or less the same team from one shoot to the next. It is cheaper and more effective. An in-house creative director is involved on all photo shoots which is cost effective for clients, but the rest of the creative team for each campaign is selected based on the centre’s needs.
So, photo shoots, once the preserve of high fashion and even higher budgets, are now not only available to all but are fast becoming essential for all marketers.
We spend so much time courting customers with clever campaigns and even cleverer marketing gizmos, why settle for standardised, characterless and often irrelevant images, when they can be wooed with bespoke? Happy customers are worth it and if those customers can be ‘bought’ at a bargain price, so much the better!

UK-based Sarah Mountford is a former journalist who wrote primarily for The Telegraph and the Norfolk and Suffolk county magazines. Now aged 38, and with three children to keep her otherwise engaged, she has moved from journalism to PR and works part-time for Toolbox Marketing (www.ToolboxMarketing.co.uk) near her home in Suffolk.