On the head

June 10, 2010 by pmelcher.

It is not just soccer frenzy that has been hitting Europe these days, it is also price slashing. In perfect timing with the Cepic Congress in Dublin, DKimages, announces a full month of £30.00 ( $43.00 or € 36.00) per image regardless of size and position.

“To celebrate the tournament in South Africa all images ordered online and used on an inside page at any size will be charged at £30.00.
This offer is open to all magazine titles, trade press, newspapers, national, regional and supplements and starts now. “.. says the press release. How the reduced pricing is related to the World Cup took me hours to figure out…And I didn’t.

Since it is not related to the number of teams/countries involved ( 32), nor is it related to the number of World Cup since it’s begging ( Less than 20) , nor does it have a link to the circumference of a soccer ball ( 27-28 inches), or the number of players on a team ( 11) , or the length of a game ( 90 minutes), it can only be one thing:

Someone at DKimage got hit really hard by a soccer ball in the face and came up with this correlation : ” I know..”, he/she said, with his index finger raised to the sky…”let’s make all our images available for a crappy cheap price . And since a soccer ball is round, like the earth, let’s make that price £30 .00!!!”.

Highbrows were raised, eyes interlocked , suspicion arose, forehead were scratched, a few throats were delicately cleared, a solitary fly buzzed around. Since the ball must of hit some high executive, no one argued.

If DKimages had lots and lots of pictures of Soccer to license, this would still somewhat make sense. But they don’t. The only thing that makes sense is that they do not want to be bothered while they watch the Cup so they priced everything low and at one price so they can set their machines to automated billing and quietly resume watching the telly. “Here you go” their press release says” take all these images, use them as you want and just pay us 3o quid . We’re busy watching the games. We will be back in July”.

Regardless, why anyone keeps on thinking that the only solution to selling more images is to slash price is still a complete mystery?  It is insulting to those who just bough the same image previously for a higher price and only confirms people’s opinion that your images are worthless . Furthermore, it also shows that you decide their value with the help of your foot.

After Photoshot, DKimages seems in a desperate position and willing to do anything to grab some attention with an ill-fated promotion . They might has well give their whole collection to a microstock company and close shop. They might actually see more sales.

Flier here :

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