Greatstock changes the face of stock imagery with new website

A key feature of the new site is the ability to search by local material only, filtering out all images that were not created in Africa or that do not feature an African model.

"This feature addresses the growing demand for quality local imagery," explains Margi Sheard, MD of Greatstock. "A severe lack of diversity of content plagues many stock imagery sites. It's a problem that has also largely contributed to the misperception of stock imagery as a whole. Greatstock's wealth of beautiful African and South African imagery and content is one of our core strengths and is a true differentiator for us in this space."

Greatstock is internationally renowned for its exclusive aFRIKA Collection, which offers a full spectrum of exquisite authentic African photography and footage, rights managed and royalty free, captured across all parts of the continent.

A fresh look

According to Sheard, while Greatstock has made many updates to its search engine behind the scenes in the past, it was time to give the front-end a fresh new look and feel while simultaneously introducing exciting new features.

"Given the nature of our business, we are always looking for new ways to improve the customers' search experience," says Sheard. "Our clients need to be able to quickly and easily search for local material. Revamping the website was a way in which we could better enable them to do this."

The new website update now also allows both editorial and commercial clients to be served on a single platform. "Whether you are an agency creative looking for your campaign's next hero image, a magazine editor looking for great celebrity coverage, or a reporter looking for breaking news, Greatstock has what you're looking for," says Sheard.

Easy discovery

Content categories can now be easily selected and deselected, eliminating the need to wade through irrelevant content. Sheard adds, "We have introduced functionality to allow you to make these selections directly from the search bar, which should save valuable time."

Greatstock has been providing imagery, motion and a wide range of content sources and management services for 30 years in South Africa and represents many of the world's leading image collections including Corbis.

"Thousands of new images are added to our site every day - ranging from breaking news to fantastic creative imagery - our offering is continuously growing," concludes Sheard.

For more information, or to begin searching Greatstock' superb range of editorial, creative and feature images and motion imagery, visit www.greatstock.co.za.