How to sell images and video content at and after NYFW.
1. Networking with models and especially parents for teenage models are a great space to find new clients.
2. As you get to know the industry you will have plenty of models and families that you know prior to the show who will assign you to take pictures for the backstage, and at the show and produce reels and video content and those prices and deals and distributions you can arrange prior to the shows.
3. At the shows it is important not only to produce new content but also find new contacts. I usually take pictures and interviews of people and when they ask how they can see and get a picture I give them my business card and exchange Instagram accounts. That is the proper way not to be flagged as solicitor. As long as you are asked by the other party to get your contact information it is different from you soliciting your business cards without sharing content.
4. Those new relationships can turn to photoshoots, magazine publications, and I may often in Times Square Billboard publications.
5. People at the show want to know where the content will go, what would you do with the pictures and videos. So in my case I publish at the Bric Arts Media www.bricartsmedia.org and on 700 my facebook pages with over 4 million followers, I also have 3 youtube channels with over 260k subscribers combined www.youtube.com/alexandergurman15/ and www.youtube.com/fashionandmodeling/ and www.youtube.com/alexandergurman1/ and here is my blog at www.medium.com/@alexanderegurman as well as weekly/ monthly publications on Times Square billboards and few magazines and Russian speaking world press where I have affiliations on radio, tv and online portals. In my case my fashion week total on average for the month reached over 60 million views combined. Some videos get a lot more attention than others.
6. Anything I film in relation to Black Tape Project for example gets millions of views that are somewhat forced eventually to see my other more normalized content.
7. Many people at the fashion week do not get to speak to me but they get to see my content online and wonder if I have pictures and videos of their beloved ones. So they reach out. In many cases I do film the show myself or my team, my friends film it and I have pictures for them. In case that I did not get to film the show and they need content, it’s somewhat easy for me to find familiar photographers and videographers who were present at the show and I buy content from them and have proper images and video content for those shows as well. Either way, having many friends in the media world helps to reach to operations that I did get to go to in person.
8. For example, I did not go to Runway 7 this season and did not go to HiTech Moda but I have friends who filmed those shows and I have access to that content as well. Sometimes I trade with other photographers my pictures and videos for their pictures and videos that way we both get more content. It is nice to have friends who trust you and you trust.
9. Prices and negotiations. I consider urgency, and other factors to determine price. For example, if I get money upfront and little negotiations I would charge less, if the person asks a million questions, wants to see content first, then I charge a lot more, because it takes time to locate content, reduce it to smaller size, place watermark on it. All that takes time and there are no guarantees that we get paid. That is why prices for those who pay upfront and trust me are well less and they get way more than those who try to get content free of charge and be tricky about it.
10. Sometimes models do not have the budget to buy content but can introduce me to potential clients, for me that is the same as money. Let’s say a model gives me a client who would pay me 3k for the gig, normally I would pay 1k commission on the referral like that so I offer to a model 1k cash commission or trade it for my content as an option.
11. Models who get my pictures and videos free of charge often leave me good reviews on social media and recommendations that also translates eventually to business so I look at things in a holistic way.
12. For more tips on selling techniques please email me alexanderegurman@gmail.com whattapp 1 917 825 8225 IG alexanderegurman
13. Also for the clients who want to get footage first and then pay there are a few websites that can upload content where they can view it with watermarks over it but not download and once a potential client pays then that website releases the original content to them, that is also a useful tactic sometimes.
14. I think reputation matters, personal contacts matter, where the content will be distributed like magazine publications matters and speed matters. Once a client buys a few pictures from one photographer they do not necessarily buy from all the other photographers as well.
