Story > Stunts: Building Campaigns Audiences Choose to Follow | Stories With Traction Podcast

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with Stewart Cohen, award-winning director/photographer and CEO of SC Pictures and Superstock, to unpack how brands can use video and imagery to stay on message in a chaotic, multi-channel world. From keeping large organizations aligned with the role of authenticity (and where it can backfire) to practical ways leaders can tell stories people actually want to binge, Stewart shares practical ways leaders can tell stories people actually want to binge.

In this episode, they cover:

✅ From TV spots to everywhere: how video evolved from 30-second ads to an always-on content engine across divisions

✅ Staying on brand at scale: why messages start focused, then get watered down, and how to keep guardrails in place

✅ Who owns the vision: the CMO’s real job (and why short tenures sabotage brand consistency)

✅ Authenticity that works: “strategic authenticity” vs. oversharing; telling the truth without losing professionalism

…and more.

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

 

—Stewart Cohen—-

 

Matt Zaun 

Let's have some fun. Yeah. Stewart, welcome to Stewart's Attraction Podcast.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Sorry. I had to press OK. Hey, Matt, this is Stewart. Happy to be here.

 

Matt Zaun 

Let me just do it again. I'll pass you on. All right.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Sorry. Yeah. No worries.

 

Matt Zaun 

Stewart, welcome to Stewart's Attraction Podcast.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Thanks, Matt. I really appreciate you having me and I'm happy to be here.

 

Matt Zaun 

I'm excited. Thank this conversation and for your time. You just flew in from Shanghai, right? So I appreciate you being with us for sure.

I want to start with the marketing piece. So your background, you have quite the extensive background. One of the pieces of your background is that marketing piece.

So can you give us a little bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis, some of the things that you do for your clients, just to paint the picture for us on what a normal day for you would be?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Absolutely. So I have a production company that caters to companies and ad agencies all over the country, some internationally, but predominantly in the country.

We tell stories. We help create stories for brands and execute stories for brands. And my goal is to really take a vision that somebody has for their company and really bring it to life, be it in...

 

Matt Zaun 

I don't think anyone would argue listening the importance of video. However, I don't think a lot of companies have a strategic approach to the videos they're putting into the world.

So if someone's listening where they've always thought about grabbing a hold of video, but they just, for whatever reason, they haven't looked extensively into it, what would you recommend?

 

Stewart Cohen

Where would they start? Well, I do think the landscape for videos for companies has changed in the last couple of years.

There used to be companies doing 30-second TV spots that cost a lot of money to produce as well as to air.

And then there was a huge gap, and then next thing you know, there were just like these really dry corporate videos.

And I think in the last 10, 15 years, video has become important in telling the story across all divisions of companies.

So whether it be- A multinational company doing branded TV spots or doing shorter pieces for, you know, pre-rolls for the streamers, doing company case studies, all the way down to, you know, creating videos for their live meetings and live engagements, which is something we don't normally do.

But I mean, the whole realm has expanded so much, and I think it's gotten away, it's run away from a lot of people.

It's like hard to harness all the content that these companies are creating and how do they manage it. And that, of course, has created the rise of the digital asset manager in companies basically keeping track of all these assets and figuring out how to disseminate them all.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, appreciate you mentioning that. And you mentioned, you know, the 30-second TV spots, and, you know, lot of companies were focused on that.

Now, a That has gone to social media. And I feel like it's such a crowded space. There's so many companies locked in on social media that the more videos I see, the more extreme I feel like they're getting to try to grab people's attention.

So there's the extreme piece. There's the humor piece. I've been seeing a lot of videos where C-suite executives are trying to be comedians, and I'm watching them bomb because they're trying to grab people's attention.

They're trying to pump up those views. So how do you make sure, or when you sit down with a company, what do you advise them to do to actually stick to brand?

 

Stewart Cohen 

That's a great question. And honestly, some of that is beyond where we come in. We come in when they have a specific project to do.

And where I'm really fortunate is that I've developed long-term relationships with a lot of large companies so I could help formulate the long trajectory.

But . You know, when different divisions have different needs and wants, you start to see the messaging from large companies just get totally scattered across multiple channels and mediums.

And it's really hard these days, I think, for people to stay on track saying, this is who we are, this is what we do, and this is what we stand for, and everything needs to be that.

One thing I've always noticed is when we get called in, say, for a new branding campaign for a company, everything starts really targeted and branded, and it's on point.

And then as a couple years go by, you know, and it starts to get watered down because this division wants this and this division wants that, until the messaging starts to lose, you know, they just start to lose track of the messaging.

And I feel like companies need to continually be watching that messaging and making sure it's targeted. And to your point, you know, yes, does everyone need to be on TikTok?

I guess so today. But what are you saying on TikTok? You know, are you putting forth the same message that you put forth on YouTube?

And a lot of people say, no, it could be a different message. But again, as a company's brand, does that sully the waters?

I mean, it's a, look, it's a tough space right now, I think.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, one of things that I talk about in my workshops is I really challenge leaders to not focus on the words of company core values, but focus on company core stories that exemplify the values they say they have, right?

So, for instance, if a company says they're a company of integrity, what on earth does that mean, right? So clearly there's a textbook definition of what integrity is, but what does it mean to them?

So what stories are they sharing in their staff meetings? What stories are they sharing with their prospects? What stories are they sharing with the new hires that they're onboarding?

I think that it's essential to have those stories paint the picture on what integrity is. So would you recommend, from a branding perspective, you said they tend to start out targeted and then they get watered down.

Would you recommend that companies really look to their core values to develop the kind of videos they're putting out in the world?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, I think so. Like, look, a core value is something that's evergreen. And if you could keep the messaging on those values, you're going to be successful long term.

But yet, as you know, our attention spans are so short that it just tends to get lost really quickly today and with all the different channels that we're all trying to use.

And so I do cut every company a little slack in terms of some of the things that they're creating and or posting are missing because they lose track of it.

And you're just kind of all over the place. And now the brands that we've worked with, you know, that, and I think some of it you see, say, I'll say it in pharma brands because it's highly regulated.

You know, they talk about one thing, say for a product, say for a drug, and that's all they're allowed to talk about.

So they could tell stories around its benefits, but they can't deviate at all. And I think those guardrails, like it or not, help them keep the story tight.

Whereas you see, you know, an airline who comes up with a tagline. And over time, you know, it's the tagline gets old and they have to change it.

But does that new tagline have the same core value? Like what is travel to you and what does it mean and how do you stick by it?

So, yeah, in their defense, it's a tough space out there.

 

Matt Zaun

So when mentioned guardrails, would you recommend assigning an ambassador through the duration of the project to make sure they're sticking to the message?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, I think a CMO's role is really that person. I think great CMOs are people that have vision and who don't get really stuck in the minutia of execution, but really look at the big picture and make sure that the company stays on track and continues with a vision.

And if you look at the average duration of a CMO's tenure has gotten so short, it's kind of from a business school.

I'd love to go back to business school now and sit in on a class talking about that. And it's like, why has the tenure of CMOs become so short?

Is it because that you bring in a new CMO, they change the brand or you come up with a new vision and they try to keep it on track, but a lot of times that takes two years to get into the whole ecosystem of the world.

And by that time, if you look at the average tenure of a CMO, they're already gone because they've gotten fired because they didn't bring results.

And I think that's short-term thinking. I think if a company really believes in somebody and believes in how they're going to guide the vision, like they do a CEO, they need to kind of stick with it and give it a minimum of five years.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

 

Matt Zaun 

Now, want to mention – so you mentioned a few minutes ago about attention span. So I want to dive into that a little bit because people still binge watch Netflix.

They still listen to three-hour podcasts. So how can you take – if we're going to think about shows for a moment, how can you take the idea of people wanting more and more and more but into the corporate branding space?

What are some of the things that you would do to keep people engaged? Would it be humor? Would it be more flash?

What would you recommend?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, it's funny. You know, you say that, and how do you equate the two? You know, if you think about a Netflix binge watch, or if you think about that story, you're really wanting to see what happens next.

Where is the story? So branded content with a good story could be something. Maybe, you know, didn't they, like back when TV started, like companies used to sponsor shows.

And I'm sure it had the company's brand values back then, although I don't, I wasn't around. But I mean, maybe that's a way, you know, if you think about, you know, what company could be the sponsor of like a Game of Thrones, who knows?

But maybe that's not a bad thing to do as long as the core values remain. Maybe because, but then you look.

Look at some campaigns that are long-lasting. You look at the insurance one with the disaster guy. Of course, I'm spacing on his name.

But you want to see those. Come on, you're going to want to watch it because you know who they are.

You know what's coming, even though I just forgot their name. But it's great. And they stuck to the core storytelling behind it.

And at the same time, you even look at another insurance company that comes to mind, though, people who stay with their brand.

You know, you look at your, say, your Aflac's of the world or your Flow, all insurance. But we all know it because they've stuck with a concept and changed the story but kept the concept the same.

And I think that's something that I think we should all think about. Sure.

 

Matt Zaun 

No, great point. So speaking of story, I want to unpack your story a little bit. So. I want to backtrack, because I really like understanding what position people to where they are today.

So if we were to go back to Stewart as a teenager, and if I were to ask, you know, 13-year-old Stewart what he wanted to do or be, what response would I have gotten?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, it's funny. You always ask somebody about who they wanted to be at 13, and I was a disaster.

But I really didn't know, Matt. You know, I didn't know. I come from a... I just assumed I was supposed to grow up and be a lawyer or a doctor.

And I didn't know anything else. I didn't even think past, you know, my 14th birthday when I was 13 or subsequent birthdays.

And even when I went to college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I started in the pre-med path, and organic chemistry kicked me out of that.

And then I started in... I figured I could be a lawyer. On So I'd go down the liberal arts path, which allowed a lot of electives.

So I ended up taking a lot of photography because I enjoyed that, and psychology just because it seemed like, yeah, I could get through that.

And then I found out that one could make a living in the photo world at that point. I started out as a still photographer, and I kind of loved visual storytelling, and I loved looking at pictures and seeing the different cultures that were shown and the different people that were shown.

And it was storytelling, but think about old National Geographics or even fashions things. They all told stories in singular images.

So I went down that path and worked as an apprentice to a variety of photographers and really got started to see the world.

And to understand the world. I think, you know, somewhere in there, some of my psychology background might have come in because I really love people's stories.

So my thing is, I love to find out about the people we are photographing, where they come from, who they are.

And then as I started getting into film, like this is now 20 years ago, I, you know, those, my same, the D, you know, my DNA was all about storytelling.

It was all about visual, visually pleasing stories, finding the bright spot of life. Like I do like, you know, I'm not really one of those to show really, you know, doom and gloom.

It's more, it is, I've shown the happy, shiny kind of part of life, which is probably made me successful in the advertising world, because that's what we tend to see.

But I think, and it's still the story, though. I still love getting the stories, whether it's the... corporate culture story, or even the individual story that might just be an actor.

So that's kind of the trajectory, which is pretty simple, but that's how I got here. Why do you like to learn about the people that you're taking pictures of?

 

Matt Zaun 

Does it help you as far as the positioning of the picture to look for certain details, or is it just the sheer psychological element of liking to really wanting to understand the person?

 

Stewart Cohen 

I really think that's been my education, is understanding the people. I started out doing a lot of corporate work and traveling around the world for these large corporations, and you start to see people in different cultures and hear their stories, and that is an education, and I still love biographies.

And even if I'm on a set on a TV shoot, and I'm asking the talent, know, the actor, actress, you know, about themselves and their story.

So I try to take that in, and it helps. It me direct them to get the performance that I need out of them.

And plus, you just learn so much and you realize, as weird as I think I am, the world is a lot weirder.

 

Matt Zaun 

That's awesome. So speaking of the world and speaking of other cultures, is there something in particular that you learned that another country or maybe a certain section of another country views and consumes media and video different than the U.S.?

And if so, what would that be?

 

Stewart Cohen 

I think everybody is, every culture these days, everyone in the world, my tense is wrong. Everyone's a media junkie.

I mean, and it all depends on what you're consuming. And it's tough. That circles back to where we started.

It's like, how do you make the message, one message to everyone? And it's impossible today because everybody's consuming it in a different way.

But I think everyone in the world is consuming a

 

Matt Zaun 

Have you seen different tendencies with the consumption? So what I'm getting at is, so in the U.S., it seems to me like you need to grab the audience's attention right out of the gate and maybe do something extreme or something to really grab and rattle people's attention.

Is it different in China? Is it different in if we were to go to India? Is video, is it bundled differently than the U.S.?

And if so, what would some of those differences be?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Or is it across the board primarily the same that we just need to grab people's attention?

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question.

 

Stewart Cohen 

And honestly, you know, having not spent enough time working in a lot of different countries, it seems like just because of the vast amount of media, you need to grab people quickly.

And now they're saying, you know, there are these six-second ads, which are, you know, the pre-rolls, that you need like the...

Logo of a company in the first two seconds. need to grab their attention and put the logo in there, which is really difficult to really start to feed any real content to them when you only have six seconds, you know?

 

Matt Zaun 

Sure. So it nearly needs to be a gag or something like that. Yeah, so let's talk about the future.

We talked a little bit about the past. Even though, you know, obviously we can't predict the future exactly the way it's going to be.

But I do have – I'm cautiously optimistic for my children, right? So in particular, I'm thinking of my oldest son.

He's 11 years old. He's already starting to think about business. He's surrounded by parents that are business-focused. So thinking about business, he's obsessed with marketing.

He watches tons of marketing videos on YouTube. He's fascinated by the psychology of pulling people in. But I am a little bit concerned on where AI is going to take us in the future.

So – If you think back to, you you mentioned still photography, and then you got into video, and then is that even going to be an option for someone like my son with the way that AI is going?

So do you foresee that, obviously video is still going to be important into the future, but how do you think what you do and what companies like you do, how do you foresee it changing due to AI technology?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, think that there are going to be changes for sure. I think I've seen in my career the explosion of the number of people servicing this industry because technology has gotten so much more accessible.

So there are a lot of people playing in the field. I think AI is going to take a big chunk out of that on the lower end of stuff, even the medium end.

And there's some messaging that AI is going to be able to handle perfectly. You know, I think that... The thing that will not change is the storytelling behind it and the creative that goes behind it.

It's really hard for me to sit here and say that if somebody has a great idea and it's a great story and there's a better way to tell it than hiring us, it's hard for me to say, well, okay.

But I think that's kind of what's going to be and I think what we're going to have to do is really evolve and morph into an asset for medium and large-sized companies to still take us on as the people that could help forge the stories forward.

We might not be recording it on video or as still photography, but we'll be helping to move the story forward.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, appreciate you mentioning that and I really appreciate you mentioning the story behind it. Recently, I interviewed a gentleman who was doing stand-up comedy and one of the things that he said was he started with AI, right?

So putting different things into AI, trying to get... A very engaging bit for his stand-up comedy. wasn't working, clearly, right?

Because in stand-up comedy, you need to understand the dynamics of the room, how to gauge the audience, how to bring about more laughter.

So it completely fell flat, and he learned, I have to just do this human to human. And then I think of a performer like Freddie Mercury, right?

And there's no way you can put into, let's say, a chat GPT, how do I be engaging with the audience?

How do I make sure that when I put the microphone up like this, that I look this way, that the crowd's going to roar over?

Like, it is, there's something to be said about that stage dynamics, about connecting with our audience. And one of the things that I see that I think is incredibly dangerous as it pertains to AI, is a leader will be utilizing AI for emails and memos, sending it out, and people think that they're actually a great communicator.

And then you meet with them in real life, and they don't have the ability to connect. And there's a phrase.

There's of trust happening right now because they're utilizing AI too much. So back to your point about that story, yes, you could punch things into AI to give you historical stories back, to give you the structure of stories back, but AI doesn't know the personal stories that people go through on a day-to-day basis.

It doesn't understand the emotional element to it, right? And one of the things that I constantly talk about is emotion is foundation.

And for me, there's really four emotions that every single leader should be focused on. Fear, surprise, excitement. Fear, surprise, excitement.

And now I'm drawing a blank on the other one. So there's three emotions.

 

Stewart Cohen 

I'm having a Rick Perry moment right now.

 

Matt Zaun 

If you remember the Rick Perry debate. Rick now.

 

Stewart Cohen 

It's actually funny.

 

Matt Zaun 

have it right here. Excited, angry, fearful, and surprised.

 

Stewart Cohen 

There you go. There are four emotions.

 

Matt Zaun 

Excited, angry, fearful, and surprised. So the point of this is that this is the fundamental building block upon which our story stands.

So if you think about video, at least the videos that I experience primarily on a day-to-day basis, a lot of times there's an element of fear, right?

So like you had mentioned the mayhem. I believe you're referring to the mayhem, right? So there's like trees falling on cars and all these different crazy situations.

So the fear surrounding that is I need this insurance because if something crazy happens, I'm screwed financially, right? If I don't have this insurance.

Anger, right? Anger is a powerful emotion that really brings people in. repels people. Excited. Obviously, people want to achieve their goals.

They want that excitement. They want that achievement. And then surprise. Surprise can go back and forth. Surprise could be a horrified surprise or surprise could be a fascinated and intrigued surprise.

These are dynamics that, yes, AI would understand the textbook definition of what these emotions are, but doesn't know how to empathize with those emotions.

I think it's really important that leaders focus on the video dynamic of how are they bringing these emotions out to their prospects, their new team members, even their current team members.

I think it's really important. So what are your thoughts on emotion as it pertains to video?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, and I do think, I think you're spot on with some of those, but I think the thing we're missing there is authenticity.

And, you know, how do you, authenticity is an important word that is still hard to get across using AI.

And when you're telling a story, you can't, I don't think you could really the authenticity. And I think maybe, and I know a lot of people are thinking that, you know, authenticity is all about user generated content.

Because that became the buzzword, you know, when people started using their phones during COVID and stuff. But I still think there's authenticity on a larger scale.

And I think maybe we need to focus on that. And maybe you can't tell one story to the whole, to your whole client base or to the whole world.

Maybe it needs to be really cut down to different groups and speaking to different demographics with different stories and different stories that may resonate to different demographics.

And if you think of it that way, obviously, look, a boomer is going to react different than a Gen Z or a Gen, you know, or Gen X.

So maybe, and if you're a large brand, how do you tell an authentic story to each one of these groups?

And I think that might be where advertisers are missing, because it's really tough to tell one story that will resonate across everybody.

 

Matt Zaun 

So let's talk about the authenticity, though, because I feel like people talk about that all the time, but they don't truly, truly understand what that means.

So if we backtrack and we go, let's say 15, would it be 15 years ago? Well, if go back 15 years, authenticity, one was really talking about it.

you had mentioned the stuffy, corporate-y stuff earlier, and I think a lot of it was that. And then we start transitioning into the social media era.

And then with the rise of Twitter, for the first time ever, you could send messages to celebrities, right? So it kind of broke down barriers, broke down walls.

And when we talk about millennials or Gen Z or the younger generations, it seems like they were so thirsty for that authenticity piece because they've had so many messages with just being real and raw and just shooting people straight.

So there's a lot of people listening to this podcast that they want to be stoic. They want to look good.

They want to look polished, so to speak. So what words of wisdom would you give someone that has difficulty wrapping their brain around, yes, I still want to be highly professional, but I also need to be authentic as well?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, I don't think that's a big stretch because if you look at Instagram and everyone's trying to look their best and be their best, nobody's really trying to go for the authentic.

Granted, they're authentic scenes, but yet everyone's trying to, hey, how do I look here? Look at new fit. Look at me, I'm getting ready to go out Friday night.

You know, so everyone's looking their best. So how do you wrap that around a story then? So how do you take an approach to maybe filming something in kind of a doc?

But yet you're still getting the story across and featuring the people in the best light. So I think there's a place, there's a midground.

You know, I think we went from highly polished to the other extreme, which was like user generated. And hopefully we're coming back to something in the middle that, you know, it doesn't feel as forced.

I think that's a good word. I mean, so much of what, look, we've seen, and I'd admit, you know, there's stuff we've done that, that in the end, it was forced because we were really trying to tell a story.

We weren't being the story.

 

Matt Zaun 

Is there something you said for strategic authenticity? Meaning, if you think of a leader of a company, and clearly they know their target audience, they know their prospects, they know their team, the team dynamics.

Is there, is there, written things that they're focused on to be authentic with, and then other things that they should absolutely stay away from.

Is there something to say about strategic authenticity, or would that be like an oxymoron?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Wow, that's a good point. And that's kind of on the corporate side. I don't know. think, look, any sense of authenticity needs to be strategic, in essence, without being, you know, I know it is an oxymoron, but at the same time, it's like, we believe in this because of this.

End of story. You know, you can't change your story because it's not strategic. Because that becomes not genuine. And if it's not genuine, I think, back to the younger generations, I think they could smell something that's not genuine a mile away, and they'll just scroll past it.

And that's the other thing. If somebody, if it's not resonating, boom, you're gone, you know?

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, I think, so we're talking about authenticity. I just think of the vulnerability piece, right? Being vulnerable. And it's

Amazing when someone's vulnerable, it breeds vulnerability, right? When you're vulnerable with another human being, often they disclose things to you as well.

I feel like it's potentially dangerous territory in some ways, especially as it pertains to leaders. Like, for instance, whenever I'm coaching a politician, I always advise them to stay away from humor, right?

They're not comedians. A lot of politicians get in trouble and they try to be funny and it just backfires on them.

And I think a lot of CEOs think the same way as it pertains to vulnerability, that it could backfire on them.

So what would you recommend on the vulnerability front as it pertains to video? Because I'm seeing more and more videos where it's done really well and it's really engaging.

And it's like you want to have the back of this business, right? Almost like a movement or a cause.

So even though it's still a for-profit company, but there's like a mission, there's a cause, but there's an element of vulnerability.

So how would you advise a Client on being vulnerable, but being vulnerable to the point where it doesn't backfire on you.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Yeah, that's a good point. Well, look, there are going to be haters. It doesn't matter how good you are.

There are going to be people that don't like what you stand for, don't like what you're saying, and they do have a platform today, you know, and they will put it out there.

And I think if you believe in your mission, you have to have some thick skin because, look, the people that try to please everybody all the time, it's like toast bread, you know.

But I see your point in that from a corporate stance, you you don't want to leave yourself open to criticism.

But maybe going forward in this whole next 10 years of marketing, maybe that's what you're going to have to do.

I mean, there are enough people in this country and enough people in the world that can sustain a brand that not everybody.

Maybe you only get 75% of the world liking you. Look, not everybody likes Nike shoes, you know, it's okay.

You know, I'm sure they have to think, well, that's okay. There are some people that are, you know, not at you.

So vulnerability is a tough one, you know, because I'm sure there are going to be some divisions of a company that said, ooh, you shouldn't say that because that's going to leave you open to criticism here and there.

But I don't know how you get around that wall still being authentic.

 

Matt Zaun 

What are your thoughts on companies that put out videos that they know it's going to like purposely alienate certain people but create a movement on the other side?

Is that – I mean, obviously it's dangerous territory, but we're seeing more and more marketing messages where companies take a stance.

They take a stance whether it's politically, whether it's more of like a corporate social responsibility arm, and it pisses someone off somewhere.

And they get a lot of backlash on one side, but they get a rising on the other.

 

Stewart Cohen 

So what are your thoughts as it pertains to that? But that's my point is like, not everyone's going to love everything.

And if you, as a company, if you really believe in your mission and your mission statement, and you understand that you can't have a hundred percent buy-in all the time, then I think that that's a good leader who's willing to stand by their brand and their tagline and their, you know, the company motto, who they want to be.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, that's a really good point. I want to talk about Superstock for a little bit. So I know that you are linked with Superstock, obviously do a lot of stuff with them.

Tell us a little bit about that organization, what companies listening can get out of that?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Well, basically, early in my career, I did very well in licensing existing content. And Superstock being a licensing company was...

We of in that space. I ended up taking Superstock over in 2019. We're a licensing company that licenses still photography and video and fine art and illustration.

We manage 29 million digital assets. We license it to companies large and small for whatever uses, needs they might have.

And I think the licensing world as a creator has been really good because there's a lot of content that's already out there that is available for companies to use without spending the amount of money it takes to create unique content.

So that's how I got into it way back early in the early days of Getty Images when they were developing and they were rolling up the industry.

And then the industry is somewhat splintered and fragmented, and it's still a pretty large industry. So yeah, we're in that as well.

We actually have offices in the UK and in Canada as well. And we're trying to work with, you know, advertising agencies and companies large and small to give them whatever digital assets they need.

And actually, yeah. So and there's no barrier for entry there. You know, you could be a small business, medium business, large business.

I mean, and this content is available for you to use for all your marketing, you know, all your marketing needs.

 

Matt Zaun 

So talk to me on practicality with this. So I can get a monthly subscription and then utilize the video and images on blogs, social media.

I can just take it and use it as my own.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Absolutely. And there there's a variety of different levels of service being from everything from very unique bespoke content that you pay for a one time use all the way down to a subscription, whereas, you know, as.

And I think the thing that's really important today, Matt, is that there's so many needs, like we started the conversation.

Every company has so many divisions that need content for so many different channels, and it's impossible to create it all.

So we step in there as, what else do you need? And we have researchers that help companies find exactly what they're looking for.

And the other thing we take in is if we're not finding what they're needing, we see that as a hole in the market, and we go out and try to create it for companies.

Because usually if one person needs it, somebody else is going to need something in a similar vein. Good stuff.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, I was on the site looking at different things. It's fascinating to me. highly, highly recommend people check it out for sure.

So thank you so much for your time today, Stewart. Really appreciate it. I appreciate what you share with us.

There's three things in particular I'm going to take as walkaways from this conversation. There's a lot that... I got out of it, three in particular.

The first is you mentioned about the messaging getting scattered. I think that's so important for people to recognize that when it's a larger project, that is a concern, is that messaging could be all over the place.

You had mentioned it needs to be targeted, but the problem is it gets watered down. Then you talked about those guardrails.

I like the example that you gave regarding pharmaceutical companies that, based on the regulation, they're restricted in the sense that they're forced to stick to message.

And how can other companies focus on giving the CMO that vision and then letting that individual carry that vision out?

I think that's spot on and incredible advice. Second point is you had talked about the story element of binge watching, right?

Everyone's talking about shrinking attention spans. And yes, there is something to said about that, but people still binge watch.

Why? It's because of how captivating those stories are. So important, that story work. And then the third piece, you mentioned the authenticity piece, but I really liked our conversation regarding the strategic element.

Authenticity, right? We don't want to be so vulnerable that we look weird or inferior to our prospects. We want to be focused on the authenticity that's going to relate most to them.

So I appreciate that. If people want to get more information on what you do, they want to reach out to you for your services, where's the best place they can go to get that information?

 

Stewart Cohen 

Absolutely. Well, scpictures.com is our website, or superstock.com if you have licensing needs. I'm totally available via email, and all my contact information is on the site, as well as LinkedIn.

I'm pretty active on that as well. Perfect.

 

Matt Zaun 

And then the socials, yeah.

 

Stewart Cohen 

Yeah, nice.

 

Matt Zaun 

I'll include that in the show notes. People can just click and go from there. Thank you so much for your time today.

I really appreciate it.

 

Stewart Cohen

Matt, thanks for having me. It's been fun.