Flashstock has been re-branded to Shutterstock Custom, which is fitting, because the new platform was designed to empower businesses to scale high-quality branded content. Using Flashstock’s propriety technology, it transforms the visual identity of a company into a creative brief for new campaigns.
Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) acquired Flashstock in July of this year for $50 million. In addition to its growing base of enterprise customers, Flashstock had an innovative technology to streamline the content creation process. It is this technology which was used to create Shutterstock Custom.
Shutterstock Custom
The benefit Shutterstock Custom provides small businesses is twofold. First, it supplies the growing visual demands of today’s digital ecosystem and its multiple marketing channels. According to the company, the tool helps businesses create a “brief” which helps represent a company’s visual identity.
The brief is used to create content, which is then used by the company and repurposed with added filters, text and logos using the Shutterstock Editor API for any size campaign. This addresses the challenges brands face when it comes to scaling.
This is how, Grant Munro, founder of Flashstock and General Manager of Shutterstock Custom, explained the problem the service is expected to solve in this release. “With 3 billion Snaps taken every day and more than 95 million photos shared on Instagram daily, scaling globally across multiple channels increasingly presents marketers with a challenge.”
Second, Shutterstock Custom benefits the small businesses and freelancers who create the content. This includes images, videos, GIFs, cinemagraphs, and 360 degree videos for traditional media as well as websites and social media outlets.
Small Business Opportunity
According to the analysis Shutterstock conducted, there is a $7 billion opportunity offering custom visual content to clients. As mentioned earlier, most of the content on Shutterstock is created by freelancers and even small businesses.
With $7 billion potentially available for creators, this is a great opportunity.
Image: Shutterstock