STOCKing me
by Bennett Holzworth, (7 comments)
What is it with photography and Wednesdays? A while ago I had come to the conclusion that I was on some commercial photographer email list and a large portion of those emails were sent on Wednesdays. Lately I have noticed that stock photo companies are sending out their emails on Wednesdays as well. Why?
If you were a stock photo company, and you noticed this, wouldn’t you want to send an email on any weekday other than Wednesday. I guess I can’t put too much faith in marketing departments that were all offering “Free iPods” at the same time. Everyone excluding Veer. If these “free gifts” and mail box junk marketing departments want a free lesson in marketing to designers, they should just take a look at Veer. They are doing something right. And when I say learn from Veer, I’m not saying they should imitate Veer like Jupiter. Last month I noticed that Jupiter Images’ direct mail piece had adopted Veer’s size and square format. It only fooled me for a couple seconds.
I just expect companies that market to designers to be a little smarter than Wednesday emails and imitation sales gimmicks. Maybe I shouldn’t.
Comments (7)
DC1974 said:
It’s not just Juniper that is trying to look like Veer. I got a marketing piece from Getty last night that I swore was going to be a Veer piece. It required revealing photos like a Advent calendar, so I didn’t know the “who” until I revealed the last panel. At least Veer has raised the bar. Now I just wish I didn’t get the same pieces at work and at home which invariably both go into the recycling bin.
Posted on October 6, 2006
ben swift said:
I got that Getty piece too, and I don’t usually get mail like that, especially at home. I was interested in the quality, and annoyed that the pieces ripped out pretty sloppily.
To answer the question: most people in marketing either aren’t that creative, informed, or are simply lazy. Most marketing is done by committe oversight, so the really creatvie stuff gets dumbed down. It’s hard to resist the urge to emulate something that you think is cool, too.
Posted on October 6, 2006
jwh said:
the marketing gurus say that tuesday and wednesday are the ideal days for email marketing.
Posted on October 6, 2006
Bennett said:
jwh, Thanks for the info. I figured there must be some reasoning behind it all.
Pretty soon everyone will follow the marketers advise, therefore making Wednesday not the best day anymore. Then they can do new studies and tell us all what the new Wednesday will be. I’m predicting that Thursday will be the new Wednesday.
Posted on October 6, 2006
Simanek said:
We send our emails on Wednesdays where I work. Every Tuesday night I’m working late. I should ask the Marketing Dep. what the deal is. We used to call them ‘Wacky Wednesdays’ so maybe alliteration was the original motivation :D
Veer isn’t so hot in my book. I bought one of those ‘KE><RN’ sweaters for my sister a few months back and now I have to delete their frickin’ emails every week. Yay!
Posted on October 6, 2006
Drew Davies said:
I have to agree that Veer raised the bar several notches in terms of the level of design and sophistication in the world of stock photography. (Which makes good sense, in that a large percentage of their audience is most likely creative-types.)
But, while I use Veer every time I go seaching for stock, I sure do like this Video iPod that Media Bakery sent me from my last order.
Posted on October 6, 2006
Grant Hutchinson said:
Simanek, if you’d like to have your address removed from our mailing list, let me know and I’ll take care of it for you. Anyone that registers on the Veer site (which you need to do in order to purchase anything) has the option of choosing whether or not to relieve our printed and email-based missives. Contact me at and I’ll fix you up.
Posted on October 25, 2006