Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, WOW Pictures is a full-service photo and video production business that partners with brands and agencies to create stunning visual content. Whether it’s a commercial shoot, a corporate video, or visual e-commerce content, the team of internationally experienced photographers, videographers, stylists, and editors work together to bring their clients' visions to life. We talked to Rick Allen, Head of Operations & Innovation, about their e-commerce content creation and how using Profoto equipment supports the team in producing upwards of 650.000 images per year.
Supporting Australia’s largest retail brands in their content creation
“Commercially successful, technically excellent, creative images, seamlessly delivered” is the guiding principle of WOW Pictures. With e-commerce as their wheelhouse, the WOW Pictures team supports major Australian retailers in producing elevated e-commerce content, visuals for social media, and exciting campaign imagery. Soon expanding to seven new e-commerce sets, WOW Pictures is spread out over three sites (commercial, lifestyle, and Melbourne’s only private garden studio) and 15 studios over more than 2750 square meters in total. The team tailors effective and creative content for large department stores like Harris Scarfe and retailers like JustJeans and Portmans or accessory brands like Specsavers, Therapy, and Novo Shoes. “Whether that’s on-body as a still or motion, flat lay, mannequin, room sets or 360-rotational and everything in between,” says Rick.
High-quality output needs high-quality gear
The creatives at WOW Pictures capture upwards of 650.000 images a year, with most of the content shot using Profoto gear. “98% of the time, we’re using Profoto,” states Rick. The studio team shoots with Profoto D2, Pro-10, and Pro-11. Video content is shot using LED lights in combination with Profoto light shaping tools. “Being still photographers first, we just think and see lighting solutions with Profoto shapers. It’s been immensely valuable to plug into the tools that have become second nature to us.” The WOW Pictures team is convinced by Profoto’s quality, reliability, and front-line support. “Besides the quality of the products themselves, when you are shooting as often and as much as we are, reliability and system support are very critical. Having access to a great dealer and support network is so necessary.”
Helping their customers grow their sales through constant innovation
Fostering efficiency and creativity is crucial for Rick and the WOW Pictures team. Therefore, the company continuously optimizes its internal processes to ensure a smooth content creation workflow and ample room for creativity. “We have developed our internal processes in a way that automates a lot of what we call ‘on-set logistics,’” explains Rick. The studio is currently powered by Monday.com and an internally built CaptureOne Enterprise integration, which allows the team to “track samples, gives photographers access to the latest style guides, and applies product information as metadata with the scan of a barcode.” Automating their studio and constantly improving their content creation workflow is also reflected in their customers’ success. “One of the brands we work for recently shared that their sales have increased 35% YoY as a result of a recent initiative we undertook to elevate their on-body apparel imagery,” shares Rick.
E-commerce content creation: craft at scale
As Head of Innovation at WOW Pictures, Rick sees e-commerce “at the nexus of efficiency and creativity.” Taking the manual processes out of photographers’ hands frees up time for creativity and craft. For Rick, e-commerce is a great way to show a brand's story and to create “craft at scale.” Looking at the future of e-commerce content creation, Rick, who has experience working with automated Profoto solutions, is curious to see what the expanding product portfolio of Profoto holds: “with the recent acquisition, Profoto’s understanding of light meets StyleShoots' understanding of efficiency.” He continues: “Profoto are the ones that are really pushing innovations in high-volume e-commerce. We are really excited to see where Profoto takes StyleShoots.”
