MEMORY MARKS PT 1. PHOTOGRAPHY
Close your eyes and think about a family member or a holiday you’ve had. What image comes to mind? Now think about your brand. What image comes to mind? These are your Memory Marks. The imagery that resonates with you. The first to be recalled.
This article is the first in our series on Memory Marks. Part one is how to build Memory Marks using photography.
Every day over 300 million photographs are uploaded online. It’s an incredible amount of content. Of the billions of photographs on the web, few will be seen. Even fewer will be broadly shared. Why is that? What makes them special? The answer, of course, is the aspects that make up the image. For brands to get photographic traction, content must be organically sharable and have strong recall.
The right image will tap into our primal urges. Salivating is a sensorial experience bypassing rational thought. See our work here
So, what makes a powerful photograph? Powerful photography can tap into our senses and emotions before rational thought cuts in. Just like when a piece of music plays and the hairs on the back of our neck stand. Be it a delicious food photograph that arouses our primal hunger and makes our mouth water, or an emotive photograph that makes us feel something; sympathy, anger, joy - it’s an immediate way to tell a story and starts an instant, silent, conversation. An image that taps directly into our senses and emotions first, rather than rational thought, can turn a forgettable visual encounter into a Memory Mark. Simply because it connects on a more basic human level. A brand that uses photography that connects on a sensory and emotive level will have a higher level of engagement and recall. Indeed, it’s what turns a product into a brand. A brand is a product with personality and substance.
So how do we create powerful imagery? There are three dimensions we look at when creating our photographic stories: Light, Composition, and Point of View.
Light.
Time of day can drastically alter the visual information.
Light is the most powerful tool in photography. It can completely change the feel and response any photograph will get, instantly. Just look at the difference between a photograph taken on your phone with the flash on, and with it off. Playing with these lighting parameters can transform the shot from natural to artificial. As an example, look at how the sun can change how the environment looks throughout the day. In the morning the sun sits low in the sky creating long-throw shadows, giving objects dimension, as the long shadows accentuate their volume. As the sun rises the shadows get shorter, often making the photograph look more two dimensional. There is a reason why photographers are up at the crack of dawn. It’s not some sort of collective insomnia. Early morning photographs just look sublime in a way that midday can never match. There are emotional triggers associated with these different light types that can influence how a person reacts. Then there is the colour of the light or colour temperature. This can completely change the feel of a shot. A pink sunrise will cast its colour over any scene, reflect in shiny objects and perhaps subliminally remind us of Autumn, thereby completely changing the mood of a shot. The right light will set the mood and evoke a different emotive response. The key is choosing how a brand is going to use light to depict itself.
Composition.
Composition creates a visual hierarchy.
Great photography tells a story. It can be a short story with little visual density or a rich dense composition with more detail. A great story needs to be composed in a way that can be understood. There is a hero, the dominant element and the background story, the surrounding scene to give context to the hero. Even in the simplest food photography, chances are, there will be a hero in the scene. As viewers survey the photograph, the story is revealed. Each element in the scene has a certain weight. These weights are what ultimately create balance or tension. A hero in the right position gives the viewer the sense they can reach out and grab your product, bringing them one mental step closer to making a purchase. The use of lenses also dictates how a scene will look. Use a wide-angle lens (a lens that gives a large field of view) and a lot of context can be given as we see a lot of the scene. Use a macro lens and suddenly we see the innate detail of the breading on a chicken wing. The use of composition through arrangement and lenses dictates where the viewer’s eye will be drawn.
Point of View.
Point of view is a powerful storyteller.
The angle in which a photograph is shot can completely change its feel. Shoot from down low and the subject will look mighty, large, dominant, all-powerful. Shoot from above, the dominance is completely removed. A feeling of observation is introduced or voyeurism if you like. Shoot from eye level (first person) and it may feel familiar like we are experiencing it ourselves. Shoot inside an object like a letterbox and the story changes again. There is an expectation that something is about to arrive. Each Point of View completely changes the story and using this insight accurately is key in telling its story.
Think of a perfect beach with the warm sun setting. What brand do you think of? Think of a polar bear. What brand comes to mind? Think of a crosswalk. What album do you think of? These images are seared in our brains forever as memory marks.
There are hundreds of billions of photographs on the web, and millions more added every day. The ones that get upvoted, liked, pinned, shared or forwarded are those that tap into our core senses, emotions, and tell a story. A brand that can tell its story photographically can communicate incredibly fast. If a brand can create Memory Marks, that is a brand that will be top of mind and the competition.