Promotional Lifestyle & Product Imagery

Bottles of supplements don’t sell on their own; it’s important to create context and story to interest customers. Imagery is often best at the initial heavy lifting because it can be catchy, relatable, and build a deep narrative quickly.  

I helped Seeking Health overcome two major hurdles that originally had them utilizing stock photography in their promotional imagery, severely dampening their effectiveness. 

The first was simple. The marketing department did not have a calendar that reached very far into the future. Sales and promotions were usually developed one at a time, often for the next holiday. Sometimes that holiday was just a few days away. Although this made it easy for the team to focus, it didn’t leave much time to plan an execute larger initiatives.  

I began by planning the first images and shoots for the fastest turnaround possible. This led to using available resources, including my own home for location, my own possessions as props, and my family members as models. I was able to go back and forth quickly with the lead designer to get a better idea of what would work well for her needs and produce images that were ready quickly. 

After those last minute shoots, I worked directly with the marketing leadership to extend the marketing calendar much further into the future. This allowed me to get involved in the earlier planning stages and have more lead time to develop the specifics of projects that would have more complexity and tailored appeal.

It was through the process of producing those initial shoots that I discovered the other hurdle we needed to cross.  Seeking Health’s products are complicated. Their intended uses weren’t well documented internally and they often ran into compliance issues.  

For the first few products, I set up meetings with the Director of Education.  He walked me through the purposes of the products and I inquired directly about our intended markets. After moving forward with a handful of clearer visual ideas I consulted with our QA and Regulatory Manager who helped me navigate the often cryptic and conflicting world of FCC-approved messaging. 

To streamline the process further, I pushed for prioritization of a company-wide, clear, and central resource for information on products. This formed alongside the reworking of the company’s product descriptions for a website relaunch and made marketing assets of multiple types faster to create and less prone to revisions or issues.