Why are there no ‘Grip & Grin’ or ‘Most Wanted’ or ‘Rogues Gallery’ images used as the lead illustration on JOINT-FORCES website pages?
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The reason why we don’t use the following types of lead image on JOINT-FORCES to accompany media releases and news stories should be obvious to any switched-on PR executive. However most days, sadly, we are sent stories accompanied by a photo or illustration that is so boring that it is much more likely to deter than attract readers.
The whole point of issuing a news-related media release is to draw industry and/or public attention to a newsworthy product or service, not to shine a spotlight on company employees who very few viewers (other than maybe friends & family) will probably be interested in seeing. However as many PR execs, and especially some of those hired in from outside the defence industry, have little knowledge of or interest in the subject matter they often take the easy (and sometimes cheaper) way out by commissioning or taking a handshake or contract signing photo to accompany the release.
Glossary:-
- ‘Grip & Grin‘ ~ Two or more men in suits, or a thōb / kandūrah / dishdashah and suit combination, shaking hands and smiling, often with company logos prominently featured
- ‘Most Wanted‘ ~ a mugshot of the company CEO / President looking like the villain in a 1970’s Spaghetti Western poster
- ‘Rogues Gallery‘ ~ a line of sales executives (with maybe the odd politician and/or military officer thrown in) posing uncomfortably for the camera
- MoU Signing ~ senior officials seated behind a desk signing documents, often with flags in front and company logos behind
- Company Logo/s ~ the easiest of options for the PR Agency or in-house Publicity Manager
With the possible exception of a ‘celeb’ or (seldom deemed acceptable these days unless used as clickbait on a tabloid newspaper’s website) a scantily clad eye-catcher filling the frame, ‘people’ images simply don’t cut the mustard on t’internet or in defence magazines; unless, perhaps, these media are purely intended for internal consumption. A simple look at the stats on those pages we have run in the past featuring a ‘suits image’ as our lead illustration underscore that almost nobody clicks to read the possibly quite important story behind it. So why waste time and space posting these?
Of course once a dynamic photo or exciting illustration of the product has drawn readers into the page to read the contents a ‘people image’ can sometimes bring a little context to the story, so we still run these further down if there is space and time. However group shots of all company employees (except the poor switchboard operator) dragged outside into the car park in front of the office building are usually about as interesting as a blank screen. Pages led by a vanity shot of a CEO who resembles Eli Wallach on a bad day, but thinks he looks like Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford, usually attract even less attention.
In the week coinciding with Milipol and the Dubai Air Show, one company with a massive presence in the defence & security sector, and budgets to match, issued seventeen press releases accompanied by almost identical lead and secondary supporting ‘Grip & Grin’ or ‘MoU Signing’ images. Then during EDEX one of Egypt’s major industrial platforms issued a dozen or more releases over the course of four days, but as only very similar staged MoU Signing photos were included with these stories they fell by the wayside.
Sometimes I wonder if the often faceless account execs at the big PR agency contracted in, at no doubt great expense, to generate publicity are scratching their heads and puzzling why we and similar online presences haven’t been gratefully uploading three of four of their stories each day. Hopefully this post answers that question.
¤ One last little snippet of info for any PR Exec wishing to send us an interesting defence and security industry Media Release for consideration for publication. Our page template requires an uncluttered (i.e. not overlaid by text &/or logos) 3:2 ratio image in landscape format with a minimum size of 900×600 pixels.
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