User-generated content? Remember your quitclaims

Last week I had a nice conversation with a client, about the increasing popularity of user-generated content, and especially in photography. A mood shot by a good photographer is wonderful, but a photo taken by a happy user of your product or service is invaluable. But in doing so, consider portrait rights.

From consumer content to commercial content

Companies follow their target audience, looking for content they can reuse. But using a photo taken by a consumer for commercial purposes, of course, is not always allowed. Suppose someone is standing in a bar with a bottle of Grolsch in their hand. That person takes a picture of his toasting group of friends, posts it on Instagram with #Grolsch in the caption. Great content for the beer manufacturer, but unfortunately: the creator of the photo cannot determine for the entire group whether that photo may be used for commercial purposes.

In practice: IKEA

IKEA, using Olapic's content engine, has created a strong community on social media, IKEA at mine. IKEA invites consumers to share images of IKEA products at home with the tags @ikeauk and #ikeaatmine on Instagram or Twitter. Each month, IKEA makes a selection of images to share on their UK Instagram account. In doing so, they get around the above problem by choosing only photos in which no people can be seen.

In Practice: National Geographic

National Geographic uses its annual photo contest to get user-generated content. Photographers - amateurs and professionals - eagerly compete for the prestigious title of "Winner National Geographic Photo Contest," and National Geographic gets great user-generated images this way. In the rules of the game, National Geographic has clearly stated that the responsibility for obtaining permission to publish lies with the entrant.

Keep the overview

Obtaining permission to use the images, the so-called quitclaim, is thus very important if you want to deploy user-generated content. By using your DAM system as a central source for your images - including user-generated content - you can easily manage all information about usage rights and quitclaims. In this way, you keep all your content and media in order and, as a brand, you can focus entirely on building a relationship with the customer.

Curious?

Want to talk further about what a Digital Asset Management system can do for your organization and how to make its use a success? Feel free to contact us for a free on-site demo. We are happy to think along with you.