Hope: the key to visual storytelling that connects
We know how powerful visual storytelling is for connecting with audiences, but with trends and attitudes continuously shifting throughout the global pandemic, how do content creators make sure their images are hitting the mark? Kate Rourke, head of creative insights for Getty Images and iStock, Asia Pacific has the answer.
Combining search and sales data from millions of image searches across their sites with survey responses from more than 10,000 consumers and professionals in 13 languages across 26 countries, the latest Getty Images’ Visual VPS research has uncovered exactly what consumers want from visual storytelling.
Sharing some of the major insights from the research during Getty Images’ recent Visual Storytelling in the time of COVID-19: How to maximise your brand’s impact on consumers webinar in partnership with Mumbrella Bespoke, Rourke explains that across some of the biggest visual search topics of the year – including wellness, technology, sustainability and diversity – the recurring thread that searches returned to was a lightness that came from real, emotional connection.
Rourke describes: “The overall pattern that we saw across the different agendas, across all ages is that in every instance, consumers are drawn to personality, to emotion, realness, and human connection, and they really can spot it when it’s real, or if it’s fake.”
And, most importantly, in Australia the research reveals that a sense of hope and optimism in visuals is key.
When focusing in more closely, you can start to see subtle shifts that brands need to take notice of.
For example, Rourke says, “Traditionally brands have used yoga and exercise as global icons for health and wellbeing. But what we uncovered is in Australia, emotional and mental health is more important than physical health.”
With ‘mental health’ jumping from one of their top 20 searches in 2019 to featuring in their top 10 in 2020, it has been vital to unpack what emotional and mental health actually look like, to understand visuals that will resonate well with Australian consumers.
What Getty Images and iStock found was “a rise in searches around support and kindness, as opposed to searches around distress or depression. Which is where the need for hope and optimism shows through.”
Similarly, when we look at another one of their top searches – sustainability – you start to see the themes of “care, protection, hope and optimism”.
Historically, when the world experiences economic decline there is usually a corresponding drop in concern for sustainability. But, Rourke explains that “during COVID, the opposite happened and concerns around wanting to take action around sustainability remained very strong.”
Unique to Australia, the research also showed that visuals used around the theme of sustainability doubled in just one year. Rourke says “85% of those surveyed said that they expect companies and brands to be environmentally aware in all of their advertising and communications.”
However, with increasingly discerning audiences, brands are expected to go beyond paying lip service and show their sustainability values and credentials in authentic ways and as part of their core values.
“It’s really important to think about those little subtleties in an image, because particularly the Australian consumer who is very sustainably driven, immediately picks up if your visuals are incongruous with your stated values,” says Rourke.
Take the photo below. At first glance it doesn’t appear to be a ‘sustainability’ image, but the brands values are very subtly demonstrated through the reusable coffee cups on the table.
Rourke explains that “what we found was that consumers in ANZ responded twice as [positively] to visuals showing the action that people are taking to be more sustainable. It was very much real people taking everyday action in order to be much more sustainable that resonated the strongest.”
Unique to Australia was also the importance of seeing care, emotion and hope in sustainability-related images – the sense of hope being most significant to us, compared to the rest of the world.
Survey respondents in ANZ “said they want to be able to feel hopeful that there are really things that they and businesses can do to protect the earth. So that sense of hope is really, really key.”
This demand for authenticity also shows through in consumers’ expectations for genuine inclusivity in their visual storytelling.
“Consumers are being really clear when it comes to both diversity and inclusion, with eight in 10 saying that they’re expecting brands to be consistently committed to inclusivity and diversity,” says Rourke.
But despite recent efforts from brands to reflect more diversity in their advertising and storytelling, Rourke says “only four in 10 consumers feel represented in media and advertising.”
Why then are brands falling short of consumer expectations? Rourke explains that it’s because of an important nuance:
“79% said that they want companies to not just show people of different ethnicities, but they actually want companies and brands to capture true lifestyles and cultures.”
Once again, the results tie back to this desire from consumers for brands to go beyond the tokenistic to the authentic. “Relatability is really what’s resonating the strongest with the Australian consumer,” Rourke reminds.
The brands that can get it right will see it in their numbers, with over two-thirds saying it’s important to them that the companies they buy from celebrate diversity of all kinds.
With so many rich insights to draw on, Rourke says the answer to connecting with your audiences visually is “really understanding your consumer and what is important to them. Then reflecting those visuals in all of your branding and messaging.”
See Rourke’s full presentation for even more insights and powerful images to help you connect with your audiences.