Healthcare marketing professional shares tips on visuals

Why creating your own images is better

As an art director, I am responsible for creative concepts and designing advertisements for hospital clients. I wholeheartedly believe that creating images for a healthcare marketing campaign is more creative and cost effective than purchasing rights-managed or royalty-free photography.

Here’s why:

Rights-managed photos and videos can cost you thousands of dollars depending on how many images you need and how many times you use them. When purchasing them,  you’re agreeing to a one-time charge for a one-time use of that photo or video clip. For example, let’s say you purchase the rights to a photo of a man playing basketball for a health and wellness campaign. Legally, you signed an agreement that says you can use that photo in your Facebook Newsfeed ad, but you’ll have to pay more if you want to use it in a transit ad, and more if you want to use it for owned media. You get the gist.

While rights-managed photos can set you back financially, royalty-free can set you back creatively and possibly cause you embarrassment. Royalty-free images and clips are usually generic; they look royalty-free and nowadays consumers can tell. Although you get the flexibility to use it multiple times in different formats for a small fee, you are limited. And, since you don’t own the rights to royalty-free images, that very image can end up in another organization’s advertisement (see above image).

In contrast, custom photography will greatly separate you from your competition because a) you get to choose the talent, the setting and the wardrobe   b) you control the cost c) it’ll come across real d) you own it so you never have to worry about it showing up in another company’s ad.