In between meetings ISPO 2017 this year, I snapped some shots with my iPhone of any imagery that caught my eye.
The same ‘epic’ photos feature heavily: a lone skier/ice climber putting in a couple of turns on a steep mountain face or hanging onto a precarious ledge of ice, with enough empty space for the company to put their logo/tagline. These are so common now, they seem more staged than epic.
It was nice to see that storytelling with images was a bit of a trend this year.
Disappointingly, there wasn’t really anything new in terms of creativity. A lot of the brands had the same stands and photos as they did at the Outdoor Show and even last year’s ISPO… I know a trade show probably isn’t the most important venue to be critiquing a brand’s choice of creative photography, but it does reflect how the brand are marketing their products. In turn, this shows how much budget and flexibility they are giving their creative department/agency/freelancers to produce these images for them.
