When I started my content marketing role here at PhotoShelter for Brands (formerly Libris), my first task was to interview our clients and learn more about our audience of visual storytellers. On every call, I asked them what kind of content they wanted me to create. Without fail, everyone said the same thing: “I just want to know how everyone else is doing this.”
Our audience is made up of people with dream jobs – photographers for professional sports teams, videographers who produce moving patient success stories at top hospitals, social media managers and graphic designers for brands and nonprofits with household names.
While these jobs sound glamorous and exciting, they also come with a lot of challenges. Everyone I talked to wanted to know how they could take some of the most frustrating parts of their job off their plate.
I set to work writing case studies that outlined how innovative creative teams were overcoming roadblocks and streamlining their workflows. We took a deep dive into the inner workings of cutting-edge creative teams, including:
- How the photo team at Catholic University captured Pope Francis’ 2015 visit from a unique perspective, and preserved this historic moment for years to come
- How Visit Greenland reclaimed its image with powerful visual storytelling
- How the Colorado Rockies move photos from the field to social media in seconds with a cutting-edge real-time workflow
When my colleague Yoav Guttman joined the team, we wanted to take these stories to the next level, giving our audience a chance to ask their own questions. We launched our Libris Visual Storytelling Webinar series, and dove into the visual storytelling strategies of top creative teams, including:
Then, I got an opportunity that would change everything. Baltimore Ravens Digital Media Manager Erin Herbert invited me to go behind the scenes with her creative team as the Ravens took on the Bengals over Thanksgiving. It was the ultimate way to show our audience exactly how another team was making incredible visual content and getting it out to their audience in a flash. Our audience’s response to the video I produced with the Ravens was incredible, and we decided to shift the focus to video (you can hear all about that in this on-demand webinar).
In January 2018, we launched Behind the Scenes with the Storytellers, a video series that profiles some of the most creative, innovative visual storytellers in the business. So far, we’ve gone into the ring with Professional Bull Riders official photographer Andy Watson, celebrated graduation with University of Florida Art/Creative Director Bernard Brzezinski, watched New York Jets photographer Dan Szpakowski capture Jets legend Joe Namath meeting rookie quarterback Sam Darnold on the 50 yard line, and relived the Boston Red Sox 2018 World Series win through team photographer Billie Weiss’s stunning imagery.
With this series, we set out to create videos our audience would want to binge-watch. We want to pull back the curtain, show you how innovative creative teams get their work done, and inspire you to make game-changing improvements to your own visual storytelling workflow – and we want you to have fun along the way.
So, are you ready to binge-watch? Head over to our brand new Behind the Scenes with the Storytellers hub to check out all of these stories in one place.
Binge Watch Behind the Scenes with the Storytellers
Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of one of these stories. You have given our audience a perspective people rarely get to see.
We have some exciting stories in the pipeline, and I can’t wait to share them with you. As always, if you have a story you want to share, please shoot me a note!
