Do you want to change how women are portrayed in advertising? Gallo Images and the Loeries believe it is time to #GetReal through real stories from real women. Share a pic of yourself, or of a woman in advertising that you admire, along with a 250 word explanatory story to join this movement.
During the Loeries Creative Week broadcast, this November, the women featured in the three most inspiring, powerful and authentic stories will be invited to chat with Dr. Rebecca Swift, Global Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images and an authority on the evolution of visual trends in advertising.
Her research has focused on commercial creativity and her work has received more than 30 international awards including a Glass Lion. Besides serving as a visual brand consultant to global corporations and lecturing at universities, she has served on judging panels for photography, design and advertising at a number of prestigious European awards.
Particularly passionate about evolving visual representation, Swift drives change in visual language depicting women and girls. As such she has rewritten the Getty Images visual standards for commercial imagery submitted by contributing photographers.
Listed among the “20 Women to Watch” in 2020 by AdAge, she is also Campaign magazine’s Female Frontier award honouree. Not least, she is Global Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images and leads its diversity and inclusion initiatives (D&I).
Robyn Terbrugge, Gallo Images General Manager Sales and Marketing, says it is hoped the Creative Week session will inspire brands and agencies to access content from gettyimages.com that authentically reflects woman’s lives and experiences.
“Our customers increasingly want more authentic content. Imagery that everyone can easily relate to because audiences respond best to visuals that resonate. Notably, the image search term ‘real people’ has increased +192% over the past year; ‘diverse women’ by +168%; and ‘strong women’ by +187%. Clear evidence of a demand for a more realistic portrayal of women.”
Gallo Images has long hosted all the Loeries social content on its website where it is freely available.
Robyn adds, “As we gear for the COVID induced new normal, we are introducing the #getreal session as added value. We want to create awareness, share creative insights and identify regional nuances. Besides steering our photographers to produce relevant content we want to empower African and Middle Eastern creatives to respond to the global demand for brands that commit to change.”
She also acknowledges the importance of taking client budgets into account while providing content that resonates with today’s brand audience. “This is why we are dedicated to producing content that marketers can use to address the cultural and socio-demographic differences that abound on our great continent and in the Middle East. “
Loeries CEO Preetesh Sewraj, an innovation analyst, views the Gallo creative focus on women achievers as an innovative initiative with strong potential for societal change. He says “Images are not only a powerful tool in capturing the human experience but can also serves to challenge stereotypes. The #GetReal campaign will allow us to work with Gallo Images to unlock inspirational stories from women across Africa and the Middle East. Through this, we will ensure that creatives, and broader society, will be exposed to real stories and real images from real women – this should serve as an important step in promoting representation in a world that needs it now more than ever.