Archive for April, 2009

When I just started out as a young PR officer for a mid sized environmental think tank in the 1990s, photos were a big a deal. Buying stock photos was expensive. Shooting slides or film and getting it developed was a pain, and let’s not even talk about scanning. Printing them in our newsletters and magazines was expensive. When I developed that organization’s very first website, Internet access was almost entirely dialup and pictures clogged the pipes, so to speak.

None of this is true anymore, so there is NO EXCUSE for all the text-heavy and drab print and web publications I see you producing out there (you know who you are). How did you ever get the misguided impression that Americans like to read?

Without further ado, here are three great ways to get foolproof photos for your next PowerPoint presentation or print or web publication:

Get Them Cheap from iStockphoto.

iStockphoto has a gi-normous collection of photos, graphics, animations, video, and audio clips that they sell for just a buck or five apiece. Because the photos are from professionals and serious amateurs, there are many many great shots like the one above: big, beautiful, expressive, eye-catching faces. Click the link below to explore the collection. (Note: iStockphoto is a business partner and they pay me a modest referral fee if you buy anything).

Get Them Free from Flickr

The online photo sharing site Flickr has a bazillion photos, and often the photographers who submitted them are happy to let you use them under a Creative Commons license. I use lots of Flickr photos, but you do have to spend a little time to save a little money: You have to sift through more chaff to get to the wheat, so to speak, and you have to learn the ins-and-outs of the conditions under which you can use the photos.

Visit Flickr for free photos you can use in environmental advertising, outreach, and other communications projects.

Take Them Yourself

If you’ve bought a new cell phone in the past two years, it almost surely has a camera on it. So use it! The pictures will be good enough for websites, emails, online ads, and social media profiles, although probably not good enough for the print version of your annual report. There’s no zoom on your camera phone — and that’s one more reason to get in close and fill the frame with big, beautiful, expressive, eye-catching faces.

A picture is worth a thousand words! So follow the Water Words That Work method: Assemble your photos before you start writing, and take more time and care with your photos than your writing.

The National Wildlife Federation, which relies on media coverage to raise awareness about its conservation work, is seeking an environmental communications intern to help with “all related media relations activities, including building and maintaining media lists, writing and editing press releases, advisories, etc., monitoring media placements, pitching stories and any other administrative tasks needed.”

It’s a paid internship, unlike those at many environmental groups, and in addition to $10 per hour, the group offers “core benefits.”

Apply for the environmental communication internship online.

Whoa! Couldn’t these folks have come up with a better word than “excreta” for their sign? After all, the scriptwriters for the hilarious radio spot below didn’t have any trouble coming up with all kinds alternatives…

Click this: Great Great Environmental Advertising.

Thanks A.P!

P.S. Happy Earth Day!

When it comes to Americans’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards the environment, I am amazed at how environmental surveys and polls turn up so little change from year to year, or from place to place.

I just played the Ipsos “poll predictor” game, where you try to guess how other people respond to various survey questions. As you can see, I guessed wrong (outside the margin of error) about the number of U.S. women who would report they are conscientious about separating their recyclables from their trash.

Silly me, I should have dug into my own environmental survey and poll collection before guessing — I would have refreshed my memory that in 2002, the Roper Starch company conducted an environmental survey and asked Louisiana men and women if they “frequently recycle things such as newspapers, cans, and glass.” The answer: 42% of women and 39% of men.

That’s amazing if you ask me. Despite different question wording, a gap of 7 years, different survey methods (online vs. online), and sample composition (Louisiana vs. USA), the answers are within just a few percentage points of each other.

And that’s too bad… This blog is about what it takes to make those numbers rise!

Want to play the poll predictor game? Click the banner below to join the Ipsos panel. Disclosure: They will pay me $3 if you do.