By: Ian Hurley
I don’t think many people would argue that we live in a visual world. The digital revolution has only helped to solidify visual images ever-present place in our daily lives. Images have in fact, I would argue, become ubiquitous. Photographs and videos are used in the communications field for any number of purposes. They can be used to draw our attention, to inform or educate, to amuse, and most importantly, get an audience to change its attitudes and behaviors.
I do come into this conversation a bit biased in that for the last seven years I have been a working professional photographer. The last four years spent producing multimedia and video projects along with still photography. While some of my clients never needed to be educated as to the strategic benefit of high quality photography and multimedia, it is important to remember that images can often have more impact than words. As students learning the practice of public communication we should be open-minded with regard to this.
When asked to think about the importance and power that visual images can have, two immediate examples came to mind.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins San Frontières (MSF) uses photography to effectively help drive their public relations and communication campaigns. MSF is an international medical humanitarian organization that works in over 70 countries around the world. Last month I volunteered with the organization as their Starved for Attention campaign exhibit traveled here to Washington. It featured compelling photographs from the photo agency VII. The images helped educate visitors about malnutrition around the world, how it affects families and children in particular and what we as the public can do to help combat severe malnutrition. The though-provoking photographs helped to personalize malnutrition and make it seem less of an abstract idea.
With the recent passing of Apple CEO Steve Jobs I went back to look at the company’s old “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” TV ad that features iconic public figures like Amelia Earhart, Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Richard Branson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Even though it was produced many years ago, the lessons we can learn are important. While the individual clips of each person aren’t groundbreaking, it’s what those images represent in the context of the commercial. Each person plays into Apple’s strategic frame that they are an innovative and provocative company. In this example the visual images and narration work incredibly together to help translate the idea of Apple as a unique company.
More and more organizations, whether non-profits like MSF or Fortune 500 companies like Nike, have see the tide shift. They are using still photography and video throughout their communication channels to help strengthen their strategic messaging. As public relations practitioners we will most likely be responsible for creating this type of content for a strategic communications campaign. We should not underestimate the impact that that still photography and videos can have.