AdNews brings the stories of those working from home (WFH) in the advertising and media industry during the coronavirus crisis.
Petra O’Halloran is creative research project manager at Getty Images:
How are you dealing with the silence?
I actually get a LOT of virtual face time with my colleagues! They’re a loud, creative, entertaining and supportive bunch, constantly participating in Zoom calls that include fitness, dress ups and art competitions as well as a really rad DJ set one of our senior account execs did for us one Thursday evening (shout out to DJ Johnny!).
When I’m not doing that, I talk to my greyhound Shenzi. She doesn’t talk back - doesn’t even make a peep (it’s actually creepy how silent she is).
What’s the upside?
For me, it’s been about realising what a creative and vibrant community I am a part of, despite the situation we find ourselves in – and about how glad I am to work for an organisation that does its bit to support that community.
Our creative contributor community of photographers are going strong, safely producing content faster and better than ever, covering COVID-19 themes, general home lifestyle and beyond. As one great example, Louise Beaumont, a Getty Images and iStock contributor, is creating some truly authentic family moments while in isolation with her two gorgeous kids and partner. She recently sent me a sneak peek of their weekend family “camping trip” in their fairy-lit tropical Byron Bay backyard. The shoot was so heart-warming and inspiring that it made me want to build my own living room pillow fort for Shenzi and I to escape to during lockdown.
Meanwhile, we’ve been doing our bit by rolling out some new initiatives, like our recently released contributor guidelines, aimed at helping our community go about capturing the world creatively, authentically and safely.
We’re also continuing to show support for our creative community financially. For female and female-identifying photographers there is the Getty Images #ShowUs Grant (entries close May 10) – and our COVID grant program. So, it’s great to be working for an organisation that’s really trying to support creatives right now.
What’s also been positive is that as a company we have adapted to working from home quite well. The events and projects that I have been working on have quickly pivoted to online and I am actually really excited to explore new ways of communicating our message and supporting our creative community. The next big thing on the horizon for me is the virtual launch of Visual GPS – an insights-driven visual guide to show our customers what’s important to today’s consumers.
The downside?
More than ever, we want our contributors to be safe as well as have an opportunity to continue creating great work. The reality is that, while they are working super hard to create what they can, there are a lot of obstacles out there. Many of our contributors have also turned into full-time teachers and are juggling educating their children as well as producing content to financially support themselves.
Then there’s the limits on the kinds of content that can actually be captured by photographers right now. It’s never been more important that companies are licensing this content and supporting these artists. We have had requests for content donations to help struggling businesses but supplying imagery free of charge can also have an impact on our vulnerable contributors. So instead we have released a small library of images, wholly owned by Getty Images, and free of charge to assist struggling businesses with their COVID communications, while still encouraging those that can to license content and support our contributor community.
How are you using the commuting time saved?
The first couple weeks of WFH I was sleeping in, rolling out of bed and straight to my desk for a 9 am start, and then I realised that this wasn’t going to be a healthy and sustainable practice so I decided to start waking up at my usual time and using what would have been my commute time to practice yoga. And at night I spend a luxurious amount of time experimenting in the kitchen with whatever’s left in the fridge or taking the doggo for a jog.
On Thursday nights my football team get together on Zoom to partake in our new-found love, aerobics! (wild lycra outfits com).
I am looking forward to being back in the office because…
If I’m back in the office, that means our content contributors are also more likely to be able to safely get out into the world and get creating. The office banter is definitely missed, as is coffee club where my colleague Olivia and I source and brew new fancy beans each week.
Other than that there is one little thing I want to get back to the office for and that’s the shindig for our 25th Getty Images Anniversary. Although here’s hoping the bars are open for that!
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