Enabling Elevated Content at Scale

What does product photography mean to ASICS?

Peter: Victor and I have been working on a project to define “what good looks like,” which is elevating product photography. One of our category marketing leads for sports style actually said that the imagery for e-commerce is just as important as any campaign imagery. I'm sure Victor could take it from there, because he's done quite a bit to elevate as well.

Victor: I think Peter took the words out of my mouth. We're trying to elevate our product photography because a lot of our business is driven through e-comm, especially in ASICS America, where e-comm is the majority of our sales. Product photography is very important—it needs to be consistent, needs to be good, needs to be always on point—so for our team especially, product photography is a top priority.

Have you figured out what good looks like?

Victor: We think so! It was a phrase coined by one of our regions that has some very creative feedback for us. It was literally the title of their deck: “What Good Looks Like.” We've taken it as our moniker to lead the charge on this new elevated content we're trying to do.

Are you able to break it down to something that's measurable?

Victor: Sales. But since we're just starting this new project and implementing these new guidelines, we haven't been able to measure it just yet.

Peter: We ran a very small test for nose-to-toes shots, for instance, and what we’ve seen reported is as high as a 12 percent lift in add-to-cart.

Peter: We’re looking at adding other types of content into the mix, like adding more movement into the e-comm shots, and we're going to measure that. We basically got consensus from a few stakeholders and then we're jumping into shooting autumn/winter '19. It's kind of a test live approach.

Where does Pixelz fit into this project?

Victor: Pixelz is a very integral part of this project. If Pixelz isn't executing our retouching needs, then the whole project falls apart. With Pixelz we're implementing the drop shadows, we're having the product clipped out, the basic retouching and removal of seam lines and glues and stuff like that, and if that part isn't up to par, then the whole thing just doesn't work. So, Pixelz is a very important part of this post-production process.

Peter: I would add to that, as we take on more product shooting in-house with our studio, it's a piece of production that we wouldn't bring in-house… but it allows us to have the capacity to shoot all the footwear, for instance, in our studio. It definitely takes the pressure off production for us, so we can focus more on “what good looks like.” The creative side of product shooting. It's definitely allowed us to increase what we can do in the studio, which is really important.

Why did you choose Pixelz?

Victor: To be quite honest, we were kind of grandfathered in to using Pixelz. The previous studio was already using them. But when I did my research and poked around and looked around the industry, I kept coming back to Pixelz because Pixelz does a good job, and provides everything that we needed—efficiently and at a good price.

What retouching is Pixelz doing for you?

Victor: Currently, basic clean-up like seam lines, cutting out the background, adding natural drop shadows. Also 3D mannequin stuff, invisible mannequin, which is a new part of our workflow. Apparel, footwear, and accessories. Lay down flats, color changing... I think that covers it.

Any examples of Pixelz being flexible with workflows?

Victor: At one point, we were trying to speed up our post-production process and we wanted to remove a step where we were processing our RAWs into PSDs, and Pixelz was able to accommodate that. We sent Pixelz an XMP, it was added to our workflow, and then Pixelz was able to apply that XMP file to our RAWs and remove the step from our post-production process.

Have you found Pixelz to be easy to work with?

Victor: Yes. Our Customer Success rep has been nothing but wonderful. Very easy to talk to, calls and checks up on us all the time. Very easy.

Is that human element important to you?

Victor: Yes, absolutely. A hundred percent. It's great to have a representative from the company that I can talk to at any time and email, and have a quick response time, and meet in person. Peter and I met with the team down in San Diego and they’re very good on bridging that gap between automated and human.

What would you say Pixelz' biggest value has been for you?

Victor: The biggest value is taking that post-production step off of my plate and allowing me to concentrate on other things. Being reliable and knowing that I'll get my images within 24 hours, and it'll be good work. I think it's a great time saver and takes a load off my workflow.

Has anything surprised you about Pixelz?

Victor: I don't know about Peter, but for me definitely just how proactive Pixelz has been on solving problems. There have been times where I've got an email from our rep saying that something wasn't up to his standards and he rejected it on our behalf, and made sure when it came back again it was up to his standards. And then telling us ... “Hey, just to let you know, I rejected this and now it looks good and tell me what you think.” That kind of level of proactiveness has been really good for our workflow.

Peter: I would add to that, just the speed at which we're getting the work. We’re a small team and we have a lot of volume, so trusting the stuff we get back is going to be the same quality all the time has been really helpful. A good example, right now we're working on go-to-market toolkits and we're able to use the same processes for editorial as well. Pixelz has made it really easy for us to be productive.

Would you recommend Pixelz?

Victor: A hundred percent. Actually, I already have, to be honest. I have a friend who's starting up his own e-commerce website, and I recommended Pixelz to him. He signed up and absolutely loved it.