Installation photography a competitive advantage for Wisconsin sound contractor

by Don Kreski

A major challenge to any marketing program is the jaded nature of today’s consumers.

Bombarded as we are by hundreds of marketing messages each day, we tend not to believe anything a potential supplier may tell us. More than that, it takes a very strong message to cut through the clutter of the day’s ads.

Thus a successful campaign must show, not just tell your potential customer what it is about your company that is better than competitors.

Part of that effort has to be eyecatching visuals–even more important, those visuals must make a compelling statement about your services.

For many AV integrators and contractors, the best visual possible is a photograph of an installation. If you can show AV system buyers the quality of work you do, they will find the images relevant and convincing.

When we began planning a marketing program for Milwaukee-area contractor Lewis Sound and Video about 18 months ago, we suggested starting with customer site photography. Lewis Sound had done a very large number of impressive projects over the last 10 years, yet had photographed almost nothing. I suggested we go back and shoot their best work, and CEO Susan Lewis responded enthusiastically. We ended up photographing 34 separate sites and gathering the customers own photos for four more.

Hitting the road

To make this effort affordable, I quoted a “per day” price for photography, basically setting off on multi-day car trips across Wisconsin on several different occasions. It’s amazing what you can accomplish given enough pressure to stick to a schedule. Though the days were long and exhausting, I’m proud of the results.

One important use of the photos is in a new website we're building for the firm. It's essentially an online brochure, but a brochure far more detailed and impressive than any printed document. Right now the site is about 50% complete, and the Lewises have asked us to stop work until they can catch up with some of the projects they have in house.

Though we are doing all of the writing, photography and programming at Kreski Marketing, Susan and Henry Lewis still have to make time to be interviewed about the installations and to review finished pages. Lewis Sound has been very busy the last few months, and it’s hard to find time for marketing activities.

“There’s no doubt that having this site makes it easier to close sales,” says Susan. “Henry and I can now show customers our very best work, and new people are starting to come to us based on finding the website.” Though we have not yet begun a proactive search engine campaign, Google and Yahoo have found the new site and are listing it for more and more keywords. Since both base their algorithms mainly on content, it helps to have 50-some pages online. (It helps, too, that we have carefully optimized each page to maximize search engine placements.)

We expect to spend much of the winter putting additional pages online, and of course Susan and Henry keep thinking of new sites to photograph. Yet to shoot are two new corporate facilities, a new high-tech courtroom, and phase two of the Overture Center in Madison, a large new performing arts center. One of the pleasures of my job is just the chance to see and hear some truly great sound and video installations. Lewis Sound has given me plenty of opportunities for that.

Visit the Lewis Sound website.
View samples of photos we shot for Lewis Sound.