ContentExchange is the first photo agency for Influencer-produced images

The fact that the Influencer is now a recognized work is nothing new – despite someone is still wondering what they do and why they are paid for - but today this web figure has reached an additional level of visibility and professionalism.

It was ContentExchange by Style Coalition to make this possible, a digital photo agency which will license thousands of images created by bloggers and influencers for brands who need "instagrammable" contents for their web channels.

The project has been introduced by Yuli Ziv, founder and chief executive officer of the brand who founded Style Coalition in 2008, a digital agency specializing in Influencer Marketing and Native Advertising who boasts collaborations with Chanel, Marc Jacobs and Guess, Yuli Ziv explained what are the benefits, in particular for little brands, of this platform of digital "amateur" contents:

"Smaller brands can no longer afford many of the influencers, and bigger brands just simply need more and more content for all their social channels and their web site. There is that pressure to have a lot of content", the founder said during an interview with WWD, and she added: "Premium custom content becomes expensive; it’s a lot to produce and there’s no alternative". 

At launch, the platform will have 10,000 images available from 25 influencers who have followers ranging from 200,000 to 2.4 million. The price of the service depends on several elements, for example, the scope – in the United States or global usage –, the period of use of the image – from one month to three years – and also what the brand intends to use it for. The price starts from 299 $ but is can go up to thousand dollars on the basis of the needs of the brand.  

The images are divided into two macro-categories, "lifestyle", which includes contents based on food, decor, home, travel, beauty, etc. in which the influencer doesn't appear, while in the second category, who concerns in particular fashion and beauty, the influencer is relevant. 

It's a little revolution about the role of the influencers inside the online marketing and sales strategies of the brands. Not only their contribution is officially and publicly recognized, but now the contents they created can give rise to a web of targeted images in which every brand can draw on (...)

ContentExchange can be an immediate and accessible source of successful content for all brands who can't afford production costs for ex-novo digital images or hire some influencers, but also for well-known brands who need more and more content for their web channels. Not only that, also the creators of these contents will have some benefits by gaining the 75% of any images licensed and having a new lucrative source who monetizes their self-brand. It's a little revolution about the role of the influencers inside the online marketing and sales strategies of the brands. Not only their contribution is officially and publicly recognized, but now the contents they created can give rise to a web of targeted images in which every brand can draw on, saving time and cost. The only doubt who rise is how does this new system work efficiently to conquer the followers?

The key to the success of the influencers is their ability to create a connection with their followers through their personalized and "home-like" images, element who disappears if every brand will start to use the same images – even if thousands – from a single source. We can just wait to see how ContentExchange will develop.