Trends in images for brands: Gen Z yellow and authenticity

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 21 March 2019
 
Image: Jodie Griggs / Getty

 We're living in living in a world where it's raining images.

The trick is to cut through the chaos and find the one which represents, speaks for, a brand.

“Anything you do, or create, to help a Brand has to be a quality that it will to cut through that volume," says Ken Mainardis, Getty Images’ Global Head of Content.

He told AdNews, during a visit to Australia, that Getty gives its network of 240,00 photographers insight on the images they need to create.

“We have a whole team working on forecasting and monitoring the latest creative trends and visual trends," he says.

“All of that research plays into briefing photographers to be able to create imagery that cuts through the volume and the noise.”

A key trend over recent years has been toward authenticity, images that show life in the raw, the real versus the posed.

“It's been really clear in the last few years that consumers react in a very different way to imagery that they regard as an authentic rather than commercial or branded or PR," he say.

"And so you see that creative branded content has become to feel a lot more like a documentary. Editorial content begins to get used much more widely as branded content.

"Using authenticity as a trend, we were able to then design an algorithm based across our entire database to surface authentic content to customers and the brands."

Gen Z yellow is another trend, like this image: 

credit---belinda-howell-getty-images.jpg

(IMAGE: Belinda Howell / Getty Images)

At the beginning of 2018 a specific type of yellow colour became prevalent in popular culture.

"One of the earliest to the places it established itself was within Beyonce's Public public relations and public appearances and that started to infuence Getty in its choice of images," says Mainardis.

And about eight years ago the Getty insights team identfied a trend they called female rising, about the empowerment of women, the way women are represented in the media, in culture and in branded advertising.

"This was about the time where the Hunger Games movies were coming out . And if you follow your Greek archetypes, you'll know that the main character in that movie is entirely aligned with the Greek archetype of Diana the Hunter." 

 

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