The global market for stock images and stock videos is estimated to hit $4 billion in revenue by the year 2023.
Stock images and video content are being used by a vast majority of industry enclaves for marketing and visual content, whether it’s for commercials, websites, social media outlets, and other visual mediums where slick imagery and content are now a necessity. The necessity of continuing to produce visual content during the COVID-19 pandemic ensures that stock image and video usage will continue to accelerate.
Stock Images and Video for Architecture
Readers have likely heard that expression “A picture is worth a thousand words,” by now and the phrase might be shopworn nowadays, but that doesn’t make the sentiment any less true.
Utilizing an image instead of copy might provide a shortcut for the viewer to raise a specter of an idea or a concept in a viewer’s imagination. Many businesses are very careful to produce branded images and video content that conveys a deliberate message to consumers. Many businesses and organizations produce their own images and video that help demonstrate some sort of skill, service, or even a product, however, small and large companies and organizations alike often utilize stock imagery and video in order to save money.
As far as architects (developers, designers, interior/exterior architects, even suppliers) go, utilizing photography is essential to marketing efforts. Even before COVID-19 rattled the world, companies have eschewed the time and resources that entail producing their own photo shoots. Hence, high quality stock photography has increasingly become more and more in demand in the architectural world, whether these resources are used to provide proof of concept, or to show what could be possible once services are secured.
Stock Photography and Videos in the COVID-19 Landscape
Right now there are over 350 million stock images available on the internet for usage. High quality stock images and video require a single purchase or a subscription fee for users to integrate stock imagery into their own content and platforms.
During our current times of global pandemic and worldwide lockdowns, experts estimate that the stock image and video market will only get hotter when it comes to demand, especially since photo shoots and production projects have come to a grinding halt in observance of strict Coronavirus restrictions.
The more reputable the source, the more important it is to utilize high resolution, high quality images and video, especially in the world of architecture.
Additional Industries Using Stock Footage and Imagery
Film projects are utilizing stock images and have been before COVID-19, and the automotive industry has turned to car stock photo services for years in order to provide high quality visual content without having to foot the bill for photo and video shoots. Web design companies also use stock video and photos to provide high quality content for their clients at a fraction of the cost that big agencies charge for extensive photo shoots and productions that require a significant amount of personnel and resources.
Regardless of which stock photo/video resource consumers choose to use, it’s important to ensure that content used achieves a certain quality — the content chosen will always be reflective of the business in question, which is especially true for architects and architecture firms.