The Power of Imagery
People remember 10 percent of what they hear, 20 percent of what they read and 80 percent of what they see. With a large percentage of our brain dedicated to visual processing, images have power to attract, explain, inspire and teach. We can understand what an image means in 13 milliseconds.
You have 13 milliseconds to create interest.
One of the challenges with major international stories, such as the impact of Global Warming on coral reefs, is communicating them in a way that is relevant to the public, to make people care about something that appears to be happening far away from them.
Our client, XL Catlin, has been on something of a mission to highlight the accelerating threats from ocean change. The impact of their great photography shows the tragically beautiful death-throes of coral. The Times described it as ‘The Most Beautiful Death’, which indeed is what makes the photographs so much more powerful in communicating the peril facing almost all coral species throughout the world.
In such a media saturated environment in which we are bombarded with endless data it is hard to catch attention. Picking the right image is essential. It needs to tell a story. It needs to be compelling. And it needs to create imapact.