Briefs

Introduction

The key to being successful in Microstock is to provide artwork that's actually needed by clients. Coming up with high quality images, illustrations and video is the core of our creative process, and it's good to get some help with finding out what the market needs.

Getty Images provides some wonderful resources in helping contributors in this process. One of these tools are Briefs, shared on a regular basis, outlining opportunities and areas that are currently in high demand.

Market-Driven Content Creation

Briefs provide valuable insights into current market demands, helping you create content that clients are actively seeking.

Types of Briefs

There are 2 types of Brief:

Creative Briefs

Each such brief describes a high-demand subject, giving directions on what exactly clients are requesting. These types of briefs can be open to Exclusive iStock and Getty Images contributors, or to non-exclusive contributors as well. This is indicated in the brief summary.

Custom Content Briefs

These are very specific briefs from one particular client, usually with a strict deadline. Such briefs are open to Exclusive iStock and Getty Images contributors only. Here's a dedicated section on the Getty Images site with all details.

Fetching briefs

Briefs are fetched from the Getty Images server as part of the Sync operation.

Enable Brief Fetching

Make sure to tick the checkbox "Fetch Briefs" so that the next Sync operation fetches the latest Briefs from the server. The first time you do this, all current briefs are fetched. Subsequent syncs will just do a quick check and update what has changed.

Automatic Cleanup

Briefs that have expired (their Deadline date has passed) are shown with the 'Closed' status and creating a related batch is prevented. At each Sync, all expired briefs are completely removed, so that your Briefs list is always fresh and current.

The Briefs section

In the left-hand menu: click 'Briefs':

This brings up the 'Briefs' list:

Sorting and Filtering

As with all lists in DeepMeta, you can use the usual sorting and filtering options. Click one of the list headers to sort by that column and/or enter a search word in the search box at the top right of the DeepMeta window to filter the list.

Search Fields

The search feature will filter by following Brief fields:

• Brief code
• Title
• Description of the brief, as shown in the right-hand preview pane

Type Filters

Use the top filter boxes to show just the desired brief type (Creative, Custom Content) and media type (Images, Video, Illustrations).

In the example below, we selected to see only Creative Video briefs:

Participating in a brief

When you find a brief that you're interested participating in, review the detailed information in the right hand panel.

External Reference

You can also click the blue button "View on ESP site" in the right-hand preview, to open your browser on the detailed Getty Images page for that brief. It contains the authoritative information for the brief.

Create Batch

To participate: click one of the 3 orange buttons, labeled "Create batch". Only the buttons for the relevant media type (Image, Video, Illustration) are enabled.

Eligibility Check

DeepMeta knows your Exclusivity status for each of the types, as well as the Brief requirements, and will make sure you can only create a batch for the brief when allowed.

Creating a batch for the brief

Creative Brief Batch

Here's what the "Create Batch" window looks like for a Creative Brief:

The Brief Code has been prefilled and locked, and a suitable Title has been chosen.

The Media type (Image, Video, Illustration) is preselected and locked. If you like, you can change the Title. Click OK to create the batch and start adding files.

Custom Content Brief Batch

Below is what the "Create Batch" window looks like for a Custom Content Brief:

Create Batch Window for Custom Content Brief

A Custom Content label reminds you this is a Custom Content Brief batch.

The Media Type, Brief Code and Title have been prefilled and locked. You cannot change the Title. Click OK to create the batch and start adding files.

Brief keywords

To help you with your submission, Getty Images makes sure to tag each brief with relevant keywords.

Automatic Keyword Import

DeepMeta automatically copies these keywords to each file you add to the batch for such a brief. All you need to do is finish disambiguation and remove the ones that don't apply to your specific file.

Keyword Refinement

Review the automatically imported keywords and refine them to match your specific content, ensuring the most accurate tagging for your submissions.

Files in the batch

To avoid confusion for the review team, files in a Batch that has a Brief Code specified cannot have a different brief code. An error is given, explaining the issue:

Automatic Brief Code Assignment

DeepMeta helps with this by automatically setting the correct Brief Code for all files added to the batch.

Consistency Enforcement

This ensures all files in a brief-related batch maintain the same brief code, preventing review confusion and potential rejection.

Brief Participation Best Practices

Study Brief Requirements

Carefully read the full brief description on the Getty Images ESP site to understand specific requirements and expectations.

Monitor Deadlines

Keep track of brief deadlines and plan your content creation accordingly. Custom Content briefs often have very tight deadlines.

Quality over Quantity

Focus on creating high-quality content that directly addresses the brief requirements rather than submitting large quantities of loosely related content.

Regular Sync

Keep your briefs list current by regularly syncing with the Getty Images server to catch new opportunities and remove expired ones.

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