Turning your business model upside down

What to do if your businessmodel gets outdated

Peter van den Doel – Managing Director Spaarnestad PhotoDISH 2011

Brief history of Spaarnestad Publishers– 1906 - Publishinghouse The Spaarnestad founded– 1915 – start of the photoarchive– 1965 – merger with Geillustreerde Pers Amsterdam

new name VNU– 2001 – bought by Sanoma WSOY, Finland

1986 – Spaarnestad Photo was founded to preserve the Spaarnestad/Geïllustreerde Pers

photoarchive

• Brief history of Spaarnestad Photo– 1986: Spaarnestad Photo was founded– Acquired the photoarchive of VNU containing 2 million photos,

transparencies, film- and glasnegatives – 1986 – 2000: 2 million images were acquired.– 2001 and 2007: 8 million images were acquired.

The Spaarnestad Photo archive contains over 12 million images from over 240 collections

– 2008: The Dutch National Archives (Nationaal Archief) and Spaarnestad Photo started a cooperation

– 2010 (november): The Archive was officially handed over to the Nationaal Archief, which is now responsible for collection care, accessibility etc. The commercial exploitation remains exclusively with Spaarnestad Photo.

– 2011 (march): Spaarnestad Photo and the archive moved to the Nationaal Archief in The Hague.

• Spaarnestad Photo exclusively deals in the publicationrights of the ‘Spaarnestad Photo collection’ of the Nationaal Archief.

• The content of the archive is best described as Journalistic/Documentary photography

• Present Businessmodel:

• Digitizing the collection with all possible means!!• Selling the publication rights

– Magazines, newspapers, publishers, ad agencies pay for the right to publish a photo.

• - Price is depending on:• magazine/newspaper/brochure/book/etc.etc..

– circulation, – size – 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1/1, 2/1 page– size of the publication– cover or backcover– editorial or commercial– Etc.

• The photographer/agency/archive is pushing the photography by:– Telephone calls to regular clients– Email thematic series to regular clients– Column on the Dutch photography website PhotoQ– Column on the Spaarnestad page on Facebook– Handling of direct requests from clients

• Maintaining an (digital) archive.• Offering the photography exclusively.

• And? Does it still work?• It did for the last hundred years!!• Well, Not exactly, Not anymore.

• Although it more or less still works.• A lot of business is still depending on this modelBut:• You need to have a huge digital archive with a great variety of

content• Digital content needs to be very well captioned, keywords!• It is (probably) not future proof

– People under 35 are not willing to pay for photos– Every subject is photographed more then a thousand times

over.– No exclusivity anymore.– Enormous amount of photography is at your disposal for free or

very small amounts.– Much uses are anticipated to be on mobile devices, “almost

gone before shown”…

● about 140 billion photos on Facebook by the end of 2011● 72 billion will be uploaded in 2011● 5 billion on Flickr, 7 billion on Picasa, 8 billion on Photobucket (febr. 2011)

http://www.photoweeklyonline.com

How to deal with the new circumstances:- the classic story is: adapt!- Yeah but - How? - The market is almost changing quicker than

we can predict. - For example: The ‘like’ sign on Facebook started in the beginning of

2010. - The amount of pictures on Facebook is exploding- Pictures are offered for almost nothing- Trends do have a very short lifecycle

• Research the market– Define your desired market!– Is there interest in your product?– Can you adapt your product or presentation to

the need of the market?– Who are your clients, where are your clients?

What is/are your Unique Selling Points – USP’s?

– Are you able to market the collection?

• What about Spaarnestad Photo?– relies heavy on a traditional businessmodel– selling the publication rights to clients.– Almost exclusively on the national (=local) market. – Cooperation with Nationaal Archief

– Not reaching the general Public– Not enough exposure in social media.– Not penetrating other possible markets.

• So we have re-evaluated our position.– What is our core business– Where do we stand – What can we do– What are our specialties

• We have re-evaluated the collection.– Historical, uniqueness, internationally

interesting, Commercially Interesting!!

• New markets:– General Public– New Media– Products – images on products like mugs, T-

shirts, etc.– International market

• New markets:– The general public

• The Nationaal Archief is targeting the general public. Gahetna.nl is the website/webstore for the general public who can order documents as well as photography from the (photo-)archives of Nationaal Archief combined with the Spaarnestad Photo collection for private use.

• This however resulted in more commercial traffic on the Spaarnestad Photo website!

• New markets:– New Media….

• We are not good in working with the New Media. • Initial costs are high• Maintain visibility is time consuming

– But we have asked a group of students to develop a tool to support our New Media ventures

– Are developing a smart tool for facebook and other platforms

– Results will be measurable second quarter 2012

• New markets:– Products

• images on products like mugs, T-shirts, etc.• Designed some examples (digitally) and are

contacting possible prospects

• New markets:– International Market

• Developing an agency network• Now our collection is available through multiple

agencies/websites in Poland, Finland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland, Germany, etc.

• And still adding agencies

• Although we do have a steady but small group of clients:

– All the fore mentioned will turn our business model from sales driven to distributer

– Others are better is selling products or images then we are...

– Other more specialized organizations have far more clients

– Too much control over your product is used is often not good for business

• Sometimes we want to have too much control or a say in how the material is offered, used, etc.

• This does not motivate other partners who should market your product.

• Only a very few and VERY clear do's and don'ts can add something or value to your product

• Exclusivity is no longer required. • We have four strategic outlets in the Netherlands.

Spaarnestad Photo, Gahetna.nl, Hollandse Hoogte and ANP.

– Spaarnestad Photo is turning its business model around or upside down.

– From sales-organization to supplier with a small salesteam.

– This enables us to search the archives for the best images in thematic selections.

– Input from salespartners increase our ability in finding suitable images. More accurate!

– We can master our time more efficient!– Accept your not good in everything and focus on

your excellence!

• What is exactly the Future for archives and commercial outlet of photography?– Define your market (research)– Remain exclusive with objects that are really

unique ánd have commercial value!– Prepare for a business model that will earn

you cents in stead of euro’s.• A lot of cents sometimes is more then some

euro’s.

– Last example:• If it is a hot sunny day and people are travelling

to the beach, people want to twitter/text message their plans while on the road.

• Imagine that when they type the word ‘beach’ they get offered two/three images of beach-scenes to send with the message. Just for a couple of cents.

• One million people go to the beach: a 100.000 send messages with a photo. 200.000 cents is 2.000 euro’s!

He Guys, I am on my way to the beach!

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