Have
You Booked Your Hotel & Airfare to Attend the CCS
Summer Workshops Yet?
With just over 5 weeks to go to our meeting dates of July
23rd through 25th, our agenda
(right click and save) for the CCS Summer Workshops continues
to expand!
A new training session on QP2 Admin has been added to
Sunday’s optional training sessions. This makes
the 9th training session available over this 3 day period
with a total of 21 hours of training in various software
systems and photography training being offered!
We’ve also added 2 opportunities for a lab tour
of the CCS facilities, either Monday or Tuesday morning,
if you choose not to participate in the roundtable discussions.
If you are a new customer to CCS or have not seen the
lab in the last few years, you will want to make time
for a lab tour.
We’ve made it even easier for you to register. Both
seminar
registration and training sessions sign-up can now
be done online at www.candid.com!
If you choose, you can still print the forms and fax them
in. Don’t forget that the deadline for room reservations
at the Hilton
Gardens Hotel is Friday, July 7th.
In addition to the many training sessions, the CCS workshops
offer both general session presentations and market-specific
roundtables, designed to facilitate best practice discussion
among customers, as well as an opportunity for CCS staff
to share what is new and what is on the horizon in that
particular market.
Can you afford not to attend? As always, these meetings
are FREE to attend: you just need to take care of your
lodging and airfare. Mark you calendar today and make
plans to make this investment in growing your business.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact
Dana Hill at 800-336-4550 ext. 876.
Utilizing the Systems in Candid Color
Systems: Secondary School Sports Speculatively!
by Brian
Speers
With high school graduation ceremonies now in the homestretch,
and the monotonous melodious measures of
Pomp and
Circumstance still fresh in your mind, it’s
not too early to start thinking about your school sports
photography business plan for the Fall.
The sports opportunities in the Fall can be equal to—or
greater than—the Spring in most areas of the country,
but you’ve got to have a plan. In Middle
schools and High schools all over the country football,
soccer, cross-country, field hockey, volleyball, and softball
are just a few of the inter-scholastic sports taking place
from August to November. Obviously, depending on your
geographic location, there may be different fall sports
available to photograph. The most important thing is to
make sure that ALL of the athletes on EVERY team, in EVERY
sport have the chance to be photographed.
So, where to begin? The best time to talk to secondary
school coaches and administrators, and athletic directors
is when they’re not busy—which in many cases
is during the summer when classes are not in session.
Their workload is less, they have no students to occupy
their time, and the stress level is w-a-a-a-y down. Keep
in mind that in most schools the teams may be photographed
for the yearbook, but in many cases the yearbook photos
are not offered for sale. This creates what is commonly
known as a golden opportunity; an opportunity to photograph
hundreds of student-athletes, many for the first (and
maybe their only) time, on a school team.
One of the great advantages of working with Candid Color
Systems as your sports lab is that we have systems for
tackling every market and, in many cases, we have systems
that
your competitor does not. For instance, most
of your secondary school competitors will offer the same
pre-pay system that is so popular in the 4 to 12 age group
of youth sports. The downside of this marketing method
is that most coaches don’t want to be responsible
for distributing the pre-pay envelopes, or doing so in
a timely manner. Have you ever shown up for a sports shoot
and your order envelopes haven’t been passed out
yet? Not very good for sales!
The other downside of the pre-pay envelope at the middle
and high school level is that athletes at that age may
not get the envelopes in the hands of their parents. If
the parents don’t see the envelope, you have no
chance of selling prints.
When dealing with the 13 to 18 age group in sports, whether
male or female, the best way to market is through speculation.
In a nutshell, you agree to photograph all teams and team
members while marketing and sales takes place online and
through the mail.
So what
are the advantages of shooting sports speculatively?
Here are a few:
* 100% of the team gets
photographed; no exceptions.
o
In a pre-pay system only those that have prepaid are photographed.
Shooting speculatively, everyone
poses in front of the camera.
* You have the opportunity
to takes several poses of each athlete: full-length, close-ups,
props, etc.
o
It has been proven time and again that the more poses
there are, the better the sales. More choices,
more sales.
o
Makes it easier to shoot “buddy” shots and
create even more sales.
* The customer gets
to see the images BEFORE they buy (this is huge)!
o
Being able to view the pose before they buy usually raises
the sales average and insures the customer
they won’t be stuck with a photo they’re not
happy with.
* No hassling with
pre-pay envelopes.
o
No worrying about someone NOT distributing the orders
envelopes.
* You can post images
online as well as send paper proofs to the home, just
like a grad.
o
Just like a grad you have your bases covered. Customers
can order either online or by mail creating
a convenient way for all to purchase.
* Less staff is
needed to shoot to shoot teams: no posers or sales assistants.
o
Cut costs by bringing less staff!
* Direct delivery
to end customer.
o
Less hassle for coaches and/or school.
The sheer numbers of student-athletes at the Middle school
and High school levels, though less than youth sports,
are staggering. To get started, take the time and list
the number of schools within a 30 to 50 mile radius of
your office. Then, create a list based upon enrollment
of each school, the number of fall teams that each school
has, and any other factors that will help you prioritize
a shopping list of what schools you are want to go after.
Then get your samples in hand and drive—yes, drive—to
each school and start making your contacts.
And keep in mind that what you are doing is not just for
the fall sports. Do a good job, keep the administrators
happy and you can parlay your fall marketing program into
winter sports, and then into spring sports creating an
annuity for yourself and your company for years to come.
For details on how to effectively create a speculative
sports program please call me at 800-336-4550 ext. 251.
Grad Images - FTP or CD?
by Steve
Foisy
Should you FTP your grad images or send them to CCS on
a CD?
FTP upload speeds will typically be 1-2 MB’s per
minute. This speed will vary depending on your service
provider. It may be faster to overnight your images to
CCS on a CD and have us upload them directly to our servers
than it would to FTP them. There is a $3.09 charge per
CD uploaded by CCS.
All Images should be rotated to a heads up position to
expedite the uploading of your CD’s as well as printing.
CD’s with requests for heads up rotation will take
longer since they cannot be directly uploaded to our servers
from the CD itself. CCS will charge $0.10 per megabyte
for all images in an order number if heads up rotation
is requested. ($5.00 minimum per CD)
Use the CCS FTP software to properly organize your images
in order number and roll number folders and renumber the
images prior to burning the CD. There is a $16.00 per
hour charge with a $4.00 minimum per CD to reformat your
CD’s to the proper folder format.
Required file/folder format for CD’s
Order Number Folder
Roll Number Folder
Frame
Numbers
Roll Number Folder
Frame
Numbers
Roll Number Folder
Frame
Numbers
12345678
00001
0001.JPG
0002.JPG
0003.JPG
00002
0001.JPG
0002.JPG
0003.JPG
00003
0001.JPG
0002.JPG
0003.JPG
Only use numbers in the order number and roll number files.
Roll numbers must be 5 numbers long.
Frames can be up to 8 letters or numbers and cannot include
special characters, spaces, hyphens, etc. Underscores
are acceptable.
Another option is to use a combination of FTP and CD shipping
methods. In this scenario you could FTP your most important
grads to achieve fast posting and send the remainder via
CD.
Pack your CD’s well and backup the images onto a
computer. If the CD is your only copy of images and it
is improperly burned or damaged during shipping, these
images will be lost.
Shipping CD’s & Film
Submit your CD’s and film to CCS with our newest
CD/Film envelope. If you have older style envelopes, you
can print this
PDF
file on letter or legal size paper and attach it to
your current envelopes. If you have already filled out
your envelopes, then just cut off the portion of the new
envelope related to the services you are requesting (most
likely uploading and scanning) and attach it towards the
bottom of your envelope. Labels can be applied to your
envelopes if they properly communicate the services requested.
Use of the new film envelope will ensure that images are
scanned and uploaded correctly. Contact your Customer
Support Rep for questions and tips on how to fill out
your film envelopes.
If you are shipping any film overnight, be very careful
which services you utilize. Airborne, Fed Ex and UPS are
safe shippers, but shipping with an airline will put your
film at risk. Most of the major airports use the CTX high
intensity scanners to scan all checked bags. Boxes shipped
with many airlines may also be scanned. ANY film scanned
by a high intensity baggage scanner will be ruined! We
recommend that you with the three couriers mention previously.
If you are flying with grad film, always carry it with
you on the plane and never put it in your checked bags.
The carryon bag X-Ray machines are safe up to 5 passes
with 400 speed film. Play it safe though and ask for a
hand inspection. You can speed this process up by having
your film in trays or opened envelopes. Be prepared though
to have each roll individually dusted for explosives.
Some airports are more thorough than others, and this
process can take an additional 30-60 minutes at the security
check point.
Deadline for CORE QP2 Grad & Race Event Setup
& Activation is June 30.
June 30, 2006 will be the last day to activate new events
using the older CORE QP2 Grad & Race online retail
system.
http://www.gradphotonetwork.com/
&
http://www.partypics.com/raceorders/
All events after June 30 should be setup using the newer
CORE QPPlus Grad & Race online retail system.
http://orders.gradphotonetwork.com/QPPlus/
&
http://orders.racephotonetwork.com/QPPlus/
Please contact Customer Support for training with the
QPPlus system or if you see features/products that were
available in the older system, but not in the new system.
