A simple request and question

Request:
The classifieds would be a much better ad resource if more advertisers gave credit to the creators of all the products they show within their own product ads. I know this has been discussed before in other threads, but it bears mentioning again since I see very little change in habits (especially in the area of textures). Some people already do this, and it shows thoughtfulness towards the customers and courtesy towards the designers that deserve credit where credit is due. I do this kind of service for other people's products in my ads because I feel good enough about the product to put it in an advertisement for one of my skins. It takes very little effort to do this, and it goes a long way towards making the classifieds more useful and friendly for everyone.

Question:
Other than what I have attempted to do here, does anyone have a suggestion on how to motivate people (in a non threatening way) to do this?

Cheers, Nam

I've been trying to remember to credit skin and hair creators in my clothing ads since someone else suggested it a couple/few months ago. I still forget periodically, but I'll usually catch it and edit it in. One thing I would like to credit but don't are the pose creators, because I use so many it would read like movie credits.

Lately I've been gathering updated landmarks for places I buy skins, hair, jewelry, shoes, poses and anything else that appears in my snaps that I don't make myself, and will have them packaged up in a notecard for people to grab if they want.

I really like that idea. Once in a while I'll see a skin ad with really cool hair, for example, and wonder who made the hair.

I dunno if there's really any precident for it in advertising, though. Like when I see an ad for dinner rolls, it doesn't tell me where they got that nice countertop they're setting the rolls on from.

The best incentive might come from the makers of the items in question themselves. Jane Doe the hairmaker might offer a 10% refund or a coupon for one free item each time John Smith the clothesmaker uses her hair in an ad for his t-shirts and gives Jane credit at the bottom of the ad.

I think this is nice idea, but from my own point of view (as a small-to-medium SL business), it would be terribly impractical to actually implement.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely *no* idea what hair, accessories, skin etc the models are wearing in my vendor shots. I rely on my models to (nicely) accessorise whatever I put them into, without too much guidance beyond "can we have blonde hair and black heels with this?" or some similarly vague comment. I can't afford a virtual stylist (do they even exist?), so consider this ability to be part of the model's job - and a model who can do this well is worth her weight in gold...

So, if a customer asks me what skin (or whatever) is being worn in a particular vendor shot, I try to put them directly in touch with the model for an answer... models usually take this kind of interest as a huge compliment to their dress-sense, and are happy to oblige!

You're probably thinking, "so why don't you just ask a model what she's wearing during the shoot, and then add that info to the vendor"? That would be nice in theory... but frankly, product shoots are far too chaotic to do that (at least mine are, and I doubt my experiences are too far removed from other designers) - typically, I'll be trying to work through a dozen different items of clothing in the space of an hour or two... trying to pose three or four girls at once, and taking (literally!) hundreds of pictures per session, with girls switching hair, jewellry etc on the fly between shots. Out of those hundreds of pictures, I'll pick the best dozen or so pics to use for promotional purposes. Taking notes at every step of the way so that I could retrospectively figure out who was wearing what at which point... well, it would be a bit of an administrative nightmare - it'd make the shoot take 4 times as long, and maybe 1% of the visitors to my store would actually care about the additional info.

That sounds terribly negative, doesn't it?... but do you know what I think SL needs? Fashion magazines! Photo-publications, made by people who can take the time to put together meaningful, commented, mix-and-match photospreads, without all the other pressures of single-handedly running a content-creation business. As Cory says above, it's not normal for adverts to tell you who made all the incidental stuff in the picture, or tell you what you should wear it with; that's a role that's taken on more by fashion editorials in the real world. I'm sure something like that could be popular in SL too!

(and if anybody has an urge to go into the fashion magazine business... I'd certainly be interested in supplying investments, equipment or whatever to help you get started out!!... come and talk to me!)

I was thinking the same thing while reading this thread. That's a more appropriate avenue for consumers to get ideas on what's out there, what's hot, what's new. I don't know if there ever can be enough incentive to get people to credit everything, and as stated, not always possible.

90% of the time if you see me in one of our ads, then everthing I'm wearing was done by either Ferran or myself. Lately I've been running around in Lash's hair, and when I've gotten IMs, I send them her way.

I'm with the previous poster on the models though. New product shoots are insane. It takes Ferran and I typically about 8-10 hours of solid work to shoot our average new product release. Which is one of the reasons we only do one every 2 months or so.

We typically ask models to only wear clothing or accessories that we provide, however, we don't make any strictures on skin, hair, or tats. I honestly can't imagine trying to keep track of that info though for an ad picture I use once in the forums... there is no way that info would fit on the box. If someone asks me about a model's hair or skin, I give them the person's name.

Something to consider. Making clothing, setting perms, boxing, shooting box covers, advertising, working with models, distributing... this is a lot of time-consuming work, often carried out by one person (2 in our case). Every additional step has to prove it's value in a time vs. return.

I wrote a thread on this awhile back and still agree. It would be so nice to see this information. Just yesterday I saw an ad where I loved the skin the designer was wearing and I went ahead and IM'd her to ask where she got it. She IM'd me back later very nicely and let me know where I could find it.

I have asked questions before to see where people have gotten one thing or another and a lot of times I don't get a response or I get an "I dunno" I find it very hard to believe that most people, let alone a designer, would have no clue where they got something. Plus you can always check the properties for the creator.

Common sense may dictate. The BASF approach might be a good benchmark ("We don't make the products you buy. We make the products you buy better". If the product you're selling looks better with someone else's great hair, skin, clothing, weapon, vehicle, etc., then those products deserve mention. Granted, there are varying degrees of showcasing. A tattoo artist that applies thier tattoo over another designers skin (or vice versa) is obviously benefiting from the look of the skin (or tattoo). On the other hand, a clothing designer that poses their avatar in front of another designers texture may also benefit from the combined look, though this example may not be as obvious. I think both instances deserve mention, especially if the ad artist consciously designed the ad in such a way.John is already getting a big boost in business from using Janes hair in his clothing ad. Jane may be getting the same benefits from John's free advertising (provided customers are in the know). I say let's complete the circle, mention the proper parties names, and make it a win win situation for everyone. Customers can help out a lot here, and ask advertizers where they get the products they show in thier ads.This is also my approach. I use all my own poses, take all my own pictures against a green screen, use all my own clothing (recently), and give credit to Torrid Midnight for her hair. Personally, I can't imagine using models that I have to rely on. It's much simpler to do it all myself.

My models are much better at "being girls" than I am.

Frankly, I look pretty bad in women's lingerie...

In that department I guess I'm pretty ambidextrous since gender changes (ahem, in SL only ) are about as easy as putting on a pair of shoes for me. That kind of quick gender change is probably another 40 years away for RL (when and if Foglets ever get invented).

Quite a few years ago there a TV spot for a Lexus that credited the music playing as Clannad with some small text in the lower corner of the screen. It was the only time before or since I've seen it done, but I still remember that commercial for that very reason.

This is a really good idea. It could be sold in 'newspaper machine' type vendors, which could be placed in the shops or malls that sell the products featured. I'd love to see something like that-- each 'issue' could feature upcoming new releases of skins, clothes, etc. Landmarks could even be included with the comments. Maybe there could be 'theme' issues-- sportswear, evening wear, clubwear, etc.

I'm one of those people who always takes note of what skins, etc. appear in ads, so I know I'd buy an SL fashion magazine. I don't necessarily have the experience to be able to put one together, but I'd be interested in working on one if someone started it.

When I'm back at home for breaks (as a college student, I'm in upstate New York but go home to west Texas for breaks), I often see Chevy and Ford ads that credit the music. They're all targeted towards west Texas markets, though, where that kind of thing goes over well.