Google EMEA Communications

Google’s EMEA communications teams invited Sane Seven to answer a question most comms teams face but rarely hear answered from the other side: what makes a picture editor say yes.

Sane Seven delivered The Art of Irresistible Press Photography, a session drawn from commissions for The Sunday Times, TIME and Harper’s Bazaar, and from photographing prime ministers, generals and chief executives.

The talk worked from cases, not theory. Harper’s Bazaar held its decision on a feature about women leaders in advertising until it had seen the pictures. TIME asked the studio for an archive portrait of Universal’s Donna Langley for its TIME100. A portrait of Paralympian Stef Reid, made with no story attached, was picked up by The Telegraph and Olympics.com.

Three ideas ran through it. Magazines are brands, and picture editors choose images that make their own judgement look good. Leaders become publishable when a portrait shows who they are beyond the desk. And the strongest results come when comms and photographer build shared understanding, including honest conversations about usage rights and budget.

The session turned into an open debate with the teams on how visual storytelling shapes which stories get placed, and how their own leaders are seen.

“The Google EMEA Comms teams found the talk inspiring and highly original – it opened up the floor to debate, as well as giving us insights into the power of visual storytelling”