Are you creating a new marketing campaign for your brand? There’s never a bad time to give a brand a well-deserved refresh or keep your target market informed of new information. 

However, marketing is heavily visual, and in some cases, there is no text at all. Billboards or magazine ads let the picture speak for itself. This is a great and powerful option, but this form of communication has to be spot on! After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and we don’t want your consumers picking out the wrong ones from a poorly directed image. 

These following tips and tricks will have every shot and every product promotion demonstrated in higher quality and will help to convey a stronger message to consumers.   

Product Action Shots Work Wonders 

Show the product in action! There’s nothing better than giving a consumer a visual example on how they can use their potential new product. 

Take a phone or other technology cases for example. To showcase their true durability, take shots while they’re in us. This could range from showing the cases on the phones while on a difficult hike or in mid-drop while the action is taking place. 

This instantly reassures the consumer that this product does actually work. When a product is shot by itself or set up to sit pretty, then the consumer won’t be able to grasp the full effect of its features. The only time those photos may work are when a specific detail needs to be highlighted, which is normally found on the brand’s e-commerce website. 

Crop Instead of Zoom Out

Don’t worry too much about the product’s background. The feature and focus should be solely on the product instead of too much background. If there are too many elements in the shot, then the product could get lost and the focus could be taken away. 

Going back to the tech cases pictured in action, there should be one model demonstrating this with a closer crop on the action. If there are too many people in the shot or too much of the landscape, then the consumer won’t be able to see too much of the product.  

Rule of Thirds Are Your Holy Grail 

Take this tip and run with it in all of your photos, seriously.  Rule of thirds is best defined as a grid guideline that divides up areas of the photo. Smartphones such as the iPhone have this feature. 

When the subject of the photo is placed in a spot where the gridlines intersect, the eyes naturally focus on the subject more than if the subject was placed elsewhere. 

Looking at a photo that features a couple, if they are angled to fit in the intersection of these gridlines, then they are more noticed in the shot than if they were to be centered in the frame with no guided gridlines. 

Find Natural Frames

Any photo that has a natural frame to it instantly gives a guideline to the eye to focus on the subject. Without the frame, then the eyes are left to wander the image with no clear direction except for maybe color. 

Imagine yourself sitting on an airplane next to the window seat and you see the airplane’s wing. If you were to snap a photo of those wings, use the frame of the window to be the frame for the wings. The darker exterior of the frame will highlight the brighter interior of the outside. The blue sky may be visualized easier and the wing can be seen in the center of the picture. 

Make sure the frames are muted in color because if not, then they may become the center of attention because your eye will draw to them more naturally. 

Create Symmetry

When two halves of an image hold the same weight, it becomes more pleasing to the eye and the consumer can focus on the image easier. For an image to hold a maximum impact, there needs to be some type of guide for the eyes. The symmetry doesn’t have to be literal, so the two halves of the photos don’t have to exactly mirror each other. 

To achieve symmetry in a photo, use a tripod or level to get the photo to be measured exactly. If the photo is taken free-handed, then the picture may come across as uneven or blurry. 

For a unique twist to a food campaign, align the dishes so that they are symmetrical to each other. This will give a creative twist to the food items and may create more engagement. 

Utilize a Tripod

Too free-hand an image can be difficult, especially when there’s long exposure involved or the photo needs to be precisely measured. Tripods are a great investment, and they don’t have to be expensive either. 

Night shots are a great example for why tripods are needed. To keep the image from blurring, use a tripod to limit the shakiness of the shot. A great campaign to do this for might be camping equipment in order to show the products in action.  

Take Candids

When a campaign doesn’t look purposeful, then the engagement is actually higher than if it’s staged. With the marketing world being so heavily saturated, it’s so easy to sniff out an ad and keep scrolling. 

Candids are a form of hidden advertising. Look at Instagram for example. Many sponsored advertisements already look to be part of a consumer’s feed because the picture is taken candidly. Fashion and athletic brands have done this well because their models are in action instead of striking a perfect pose.

The food industry may also thrive off of candid photos. If there are pictures of children eating ice cream, for example, then it’s a candid shot promoting the brand of the sweet treat and the   

Experiment with Ideas

Some of the best ideas may happen by accident, so don’t stop brainstorming. If you have an idea that you want to execute, do it in a range of ways so that you have options and can better determine what might work better for the brand. Outline each new idea and branch off with other possibilities to create diverse content. Even a simple switch of models or outfits can create an entirely new vibe for the campaign. 

A lot of times brands experiment as they go through a rebranding process. 

Fashion brands execute this through the change of seasons and trend highlights. They’re able to instigate different themes and shoot pictures from different perspectives. By taking notes from the fashion industry, other brands can follow suit and get more creative with some of their campaigns. 

Humor Increases Engagement 

Humor is actually one of the major content categories that create engagement. For example, if a follower of a social media account finds a picture they find to be funny, that post is then sent to his friends and it starts to spread quickly.

However, make sure to focus this humor in a way that won’t hurt others or the image of the brand. If executed poorly, the brand may be received in a poor light that will only hurt others. Find the humor that meets the common ground. This could be as minor as a television show reference that the majority of the target market may understand.