Should You Still Be Pitching To Brands During Covid-19?
The number one question that I’ve been asked in the last three weeks is this: “Should you still be pitching to brands as a photographer during Covid-19?” The truth is the answer isn’t straight forward, and I’m not going to pretend that I have a perfect response for you. We’re living through unprecedented times (I hate that word now but it’s the best way to describe it), and no one knows what’s going to happen. Not a single person (unless you’re a psychic). However, here’s my take on it.
Yes, I do think you should be pitching yourself to brands and magazines during the Covid-19 pandemic. Let me break down why.
Many brands and magazines are still in business. Their teams are still working away. (This article on the BOF is proof of that). In fact, many are working harder than ever right now to get through this. I’m not going to lie, there are a lot of brands struggling as well. People are not buying fashion as much as they normally do (although they are still buying so don’t think that the industry has completely shut down, it hasn’t). Revenue is down all around. But even as I type this (16th April 2020 from the UK for reference), we’re starting to see certain countries relax their restrictions. Even Italy, one of the worst hit countries is starting to slowly reopen. China, where this all began, is slowly starting to recover as well. We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Can we shoot yet? No, not unless you shoot still life and product imagery. Is that difficult for all of us? Yes, it is. I’m feeling it, too. I’m scared, too. We’re all worried. But we can’t sit at home, our cameras collecting dust, and not keep making moves forward.
So what should your pitches look like right now? How should you be reaching out?
Be Gentle
I always encourage a kind and gentle approach when reaching out to a brand/magazine for the first time (or any time to be honest). But now more than ever, the last thing you want to do is go in, all guns blazing, making huge demands or asking for a huge budget. You don’t know what kind of situation a brand might be in right now, no matter how big or small they may be. So when you write your email, keep that in the back of your mind.
Use this time to build relationships
Don’t expect to get hired right now, it’s not likely that you’ll get booked for any new jobs (although not impossible, if you’re hired on an “as soon as we can shoot” basis). I encourage you to use this time to build relationships with brands/magazines that you’d love to work with in future. Share your portfolio, tell them how much you admire their work, love their clothing, read their magazine. Whatever it is, use the time you’ve got now to build relationships that will help you as soon as this is over.
Can you help in some way?
Maybe you can! Maybe you’ve got something amazing that you could offer that would help a brand out massively. Do you house share with a model? Are you a childrens fashion photographer, who could offer to shoot the current/next season collection on your children? Do you work with pets and accessories, and could you offer to create content for a brand with your own pets? Do you shoot still life or beauty products, and could you do some images for a beauty brands’ social media? Grab a pen and paper and make a list of all your skills, and how you might be able to help a brand right now.
Don’t expect big budgets
Expanding on my points above on relationship building and supplying value, I would try to remain open minded about budgets. Brands might have had their budgets completely slashed right now (although not all of them have, I know for a fact that some brands are still paying influencers, so they do have some cash). If you want to go in with an offer for payment in exchange for your time (as you would normally) then by all means, do it. However I’d keep your mind open to using this time to build great relationships, prove yourself to be really helpful to a brand right now, and supply them with amazing content. This is the strategy that I used myself for years to build up my portfolio and relationships with brands I wanted to work with, and it paid off massively. Shooting for free right now, could lead to some really big jobs in future; just keep that in mind.
Pitch future ideas
If you’re like me, and you really can’t offer a whole lot right this second, maybe you could use this time to put together amazing proposals which you can email to brands, and ask if they’d like to work on them with you once the restrictions have been lifted. No one knows when that will be, but we know that eventually they will. When that happens, brands will NEED content, and they’ll need it fast. If I were you, I’d make sure that you’re the one a brand has lined up to be that photographer for them when the time comes.
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