September 8, 2005
Update from ZAP Foto on Bid
Day Candid Sales
by Jack Counts, Jr.
As you will recall from our
last
newsletter,
ZAP Foto
shot 9,797 images during rush week and on bid day. That
is a whole lot more pictures than anyone else is taking
surrounding rush week.
Yes – they DO shoot pictures at sorority houses
during rush week.They shoot at houses throughout the week
of the various theme parties and skits. Generally, they
do not shoot the rushees at the various houses during
party days – they shoot the members. Only about
1/4th to 1/3rd of their total shots were actually taken
on bid day.
Click to enlarge. |
ZAP used our new formal digital proof sheets – the
ones people sign up on – to replace what they have
done in the past on film and with “formal”
proof sheets.
ZAP used the new
CORE
software that allows for entering the customers’
names and orders from the digital “sign up”
proof sheets.
They sold 11,430 prints from the 9,797 images they took.
So, they sold 1.17 pictures for every picture shot! In
a film world with 36 exposure film that would be like
selling 42 prints per roll.
There are several things that this tells us:
#1 - Shooting pictures DURING rush week does pay.
#2 - Only if you take a LOT of pictures – can you
sell a LOT of pictures.
#3 - Using the new “sign up “ digital proof
sheets works very, very well.
#4 - ZAP Foto made a ton of money shooting things and
marketing pictures in a little different way than
most people operate their businesses.
Congratulations to Gary, Keith, and Candice at ZAP Foto
for a great Rush Week!
Footnotes from Gary:
Naturally some University of Alabama customers ask
us why their images are not online. This is to be expected
since many of them have attended parties on other campuses
and come from high schools whose images we have had online
for years. Below is a response have begun sending
send them. These reasons obviously wouldn't work at all
campuses but it gives you an idea of how to put proof
sheets in a more positive light.
1. The UA requested we not put your images online
after the "black face" incidents at two
campuses a few years ago. They do not want the UA
greeks to have any opportunity for bad exposure.
2. More importantly the greek organization officers
do not want to take the chance of someone from the administration
seeing anything inappropriate (i.e. underage drinking,
unregistered parties, etc.) and then get the organization
on social probation for a semester without any swaps
or parties. There have also been cases of members from
one sorority turning in another sorority and getting
them on probation. (Both these have happened on
other campuses where proofs were online.)
3. With the high number of UA events we shoot for each
house thoughout the semester it is actually quicker to
scan individual proof sheets than trying to page
through them on an internet connection.
4. Many members want to see what pictures their friends
are ordering. This is easy to do on proof sheets.
(Impossible on the Internet at this point in time)
5. It is not inexpensive to transfer the images
to our site, maintain them and handle the e-commerce transaction
fees. If you will check with your friends on other
campuses you will find most of them are paying more
per print than we charge our UA customers.
Frankly most of our customers prefer the proof
sheet system since the billing typically goes through
the house sinking fund and their parents pay for them
versus having to use their own credit card or personal
checks.
Make Your Reservations
Now to Attend the CCS Grad and/or Greek Meetings in Atlanta
Download
the registration form (MS Word)
for the Atlanta meetings October 11th and 12th. We hope
to see you there!
Are You A Part of the
Fastest Growing Photo Market?
by
Brian Speers
 |
Recently, the Customer Development department at Candid Color
Systems implemented some
role
changes that, we feel, will benefit our customers as well
as the company itself. Members of this department, including
myself, have been assigned specialty photo markets that will
now utilize the majority of our time and give each team member
a focus, better defining the needs of each market with regard
to best practices, software, new products, and shooting procedures.
As part of this change, I will now focus all my attention
on the
Sports
market. Unlike some markets, sports is a year-round market
and, if you are serious about sports, that is the only way
to view it! And because it is a twelve month market you have
the opportunity to make changes each season as you evaluate
marketing, sales, and the actual photography.
For twelve months out of the year, there are competitive sports
being played somewhere on a field, on a court, in a pool,
on a diamond, and even on the ice. If you have made
a commitment to the sports market and enjoy dealing with coaches,
parents, and athletes, and see room for growth in your area,
then perhaps, working together with you and other CCS customers
we can create a blueprint for success in the fast growing
market of sports.
Let’s face it, sports is—and always will be—a
numbers game: pure and simple. Consider these numbers
provided by the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) relative
to the sports market:
• Fastest growing photo market in
2004 at 37% increase in sales
• $163 million market in 2004
• 2005 growth estimate is 10%
• 8 million packages will be
sold in 2005
• $22 average package price
• 38 million participants; and
of the 38 millions participants, nearly 40% participate in more
than one sport!
From a CCS perspective, Sports was the first department with
a completely digital production workflow. That has created
fast turnaround with, typically, 95% of sports orders shipping
within 48 hours! That’s extreme speed that you
can use as a tool to book new accounts, or re-sign accounts
for next year or the next season.
The opportunities in this market are endless and with our
new sports products, incredible turnaround, and increasing
expertise in sales and marketing of this market—all
over the country—you have the opportunity to grow your
business with proven products, procedures, and software.
If you are interested in being part of the expected growth
in sports and need some assistance in putting together a presentation,
samples, pricing, or products then
email
me or give me a call at
1-800-336-4550 ext. 251 and we can get you off the sidelines
and into the game!
"Supersize"
your Party Pic Sales by Displaying Images on a Giant
Screen
by
Darwin
Drake
Last week I was asked to photograph the OU Kappa Kappa
Gamma “Big Sis Little Sis” pajama party using
a projector to show my images as I shot Party Pics.
As I was getting ready to leave for the party, I got a call
that let me know the event would be held outside. As I left,
I grabbed two backdrop stands and a white satin backdrop.
Click to enlarge. |
At the event on the front porch of the KKG house, I constructed
a screen eleven feet tall, nine foot wide. I set a tripod
up in the front yard, twenty-five feet from the screen
and mounted a Toshiba TDP-T90
projector. I used a highly technical means of mounting the
projector to the tripod with duct tape. By taping around
the tilt handles of the tripod I was able horizontally and
vertically level my picture on my Jumbo Tron screen. I called
the first girls out the door to help me with a sample.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Once the girls found out what I was doing, they all wanted
to be on the big screen. The guys living in the fraternity
house across the street came out to watch the show. Even
the cars driving by had to stop to take a gander.
Click to enlarge. |
The thirty foot video extension from camera to projector
did not seem to be much of a problem once the girls realized
I was connected, they built pyramids and other formations
in my range. The girls kept thinking of creative poses
and asking for just one more shot. This kept me shooting
an additional 30 minutes after the party had ended. I was
the last to leave the front yard.
Even though I was connected to my projector, I
was still able to produce 3 images per minute.
The excitement seems to come from the facial expressions, which were
shown giant size. This would cause them to laugh out loud
at each other’s expression.
There were three photographers shooting this event. The two other photographers
were able to shoot more images by shooting in
the house prior to coming outside and not
pausing to show each image.
Photographer #1 sold 43.9% of their
images.
Photographer #2 sold 37.2% of their
images.
Photographer #3 sold 63.5% of their
images.
I was Photographer #3 and we still have five more days
left for them to order. The point of this message
is to promote what you are doing, whether with a projector
or with posters; he who sells with flair and style will
be the leaders in the field. Continue looking for new marketing
concepts and the best ways to encourage your customers to
see your work.
Internet
Explorer best for QP2 & CORE Use
by Steve
Foisy
Internet
Explorer is the preferred browser to use when setting
up or editing online events in QP2 & CORE.
You can VIEW event setups in Netscape
or Mozilla’s Firefox,
but you can encounter problems when editing/saving QP2
& CORE events in these browsers.
To avoid incomplete or empty fields in packages, titles,
captions, etc., even after properly saving your changes,
always use Internet Explorer.
Example
of message received when packages were imported into a
QP2 event using Firefox:
Using
the "Batch Transmit" Feature in CORE
Select “Batch Transmit” when transmitting
group pictures in CORE if you want them returned to you
as a batch. This menu item can be found in the Event/Transmit
Order section of CORE, see screenshot below.
Click to enlarge.
Reminder
About FunPaks Product in School Market
As presented during the school presentation at the recent
OKC Summer Workshops,
the school market FunPak product, which is shown on the
new school envelope, is only available with the use of
the Timestone software.
Click to enlarge. |
For more information on Timestone, contact the Support
Department.
Candid Color Systems
has an Opening in its Sales department!
by Robert
Miller - CCS Human Resources Director
As you may know, Stacy Ingram has chosen to leave
CCP
shortly. We can be thankful to Stacy for playing the
key role in improving CCP’s financial picture a great
deal while under her watch over the past year. We
certainly wish Stacy well in her new endeavors.
At this time, I am pleased to announce that Cami Sheaffer
will take over the CCP reins.
We have a good history with Cami. She worked at CCS as our
receptionist (an excellent one) and then left us to pursue
a degree at OU. Cami worked in the Norman Party Pics office
for over a year, and then took over as the manager there
for the 2003-2004 school year. She did a great job and it
had higher sales and the best profits we have ever had there
with her as the manager. As you all know, she has worked
in the CCS marketing department since that time and has
done a very good job.
She is well qualified and prepared to manage CCP and I am
sure she will do a fine job. She is excited about the opportunity.
So, we are looking for the right person to fill Cami’s
sales role. Here’s how you can help. If
you have made contact with someone you feel would meet our
qualifications or you know someone who may know someone,
then forward the information to me. Being in the photography
business allows you to come in contact with many people
from many industries and backgrounds and allows you to be
a conduit for our recruiting efforts.
Feel free to call or
email me
with any questions, 800-336-4550 x153.
JOB TITLE: Sales/Marketing Specialist
DEPARTMENT/TEAM COORDINATOR: Sales / Dan Hays
GRADE/SALARY: Commensurate with experience
HOURS: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm. Travel
as needed
LOCATION: Candid Color Systems
JOB DESCRIPTION:
• Find new photographers and assist current customers
in these types of events
Increase # of online special events
Increase online events sales
Increase
# of images taken at online special events
Motivate
them with promotional incentives
• Find and Create profitable online special events
Contact
Venues
Study
current customer’s events and sales
Study
competitor’s events
• Create Marketing Materials and Products
Presentation to encourage customers to tailgate
Video to present to school to become official
• Webex sessions
Presentations to encourage customers to photograph other
online events
Create and market new products for online special events
Market successful existing products
• Write weekly articles pertaining to Online Special
Events
JOB REQUIREMENTS: College degree in Marketing, Advertising
or Business or 2 years of sales experience for every year
of college education. Must have excellent, demonstrated
written and verbal skills. Must be outgoing, engaging,
determined and persuasive.
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