Impactful storytelling

Our images tell powerful and engaging stories about what we stand for as an employer. The following guiding principles will help you create an image library tailored to your talent needs and market. At the same time, we offer a range of motifs on various topics in the MediaPool that you are welcome to access.

Finding your images

Sourcing images can be done in one of, or a combination of, four ways:

Use one of the global images on MediaPool

What: Images sourced by the global Talent Acquisition team & internal photoshootings

How: Follow the links on the right to the Employer Branding photo collections in the Bayer MediaPool to find a wide selection of images, most of which were taken with Bayer colleagues from different markets.

Considerations: 

• This is the most honest imagery source since most of the pics come from Bayer photoshootings. 

• These images are suitable for all channels in terms of quality, but the format and the style may naturally lend itself to specific mediums.

• When selecting from this library, pay special attention to reflect your market, channel and talent segment.

• Avoid overusing these images – even if they do reflect the above, overuse will make them “invisible” and reduce the impact they have.

• These images have been sourced from stock images, which means that all relevant permissions exist, they conform with Bayer’s image guidelines and are available free of charge. 

Ask employees in your market to send their own images

What: Employee generated campaign/image bank

How: Employees are encouraged to take a photograph of themselves at work, or get someone else to photograph them at work, and send these to you.

Considerations:

• This could be the best way to gather authentic images of real people doing real things

• It’s likely that many employees work at a desk/at a computer, and we can’t see the “spirit” of their work in an everyday photograph. So you may want to challenge employees to answer a question about their work with a picture, eg. “show us the Bayer purpose in your every day?”. 

• You may consider incentivising people with a competition or a reward/fame for the best images.

• You will need them to sign an agreement that their images can be used for your purposes

• The image quality may only be suitable for online channels, and may prove too small/low quality for print/large format campaigns.

• The style of imagery may vary wildly, and it’s possible that the best images may not conform to Bayer’s style guidelines.

• This is the most inexpensive way to gather images

Commission a photographer capture images

What: Local photographers take professional photographs of Bayer employees in their work environment

How: You will need to find a reputable, trusted local photographer and brief them with the guidelines on the previous page but also the role you are looking to recruit and what therefore, the image needs to capture. The photographer will then visit the employee at their place of work, and capture authentic moments for you to use.

Considerations:

• This is another great way to capture authentic images of real people doing real things. However some people are camera shy, and these images can appear posed/rigid. The photographer plays an important part in putting the subject at ease, as does the employee, so choose both with strong people skills.

• You will need them to sign an agreement that these images can be used for your purposes

• The image quality will be suitable for all mediums if you choose this method, as long as the photographer is suitably briefed.

• You will achieve a consistent style of imagery if the same photographer is used across the board, allowing you to gather a cohesive collection of images.

• This can be the most expensive way to source images, but may prove worth it if done right. 

Purchase Stock images from high quality libraries

What: Online stock image libraries offer images that can be purchased for your use

How: You will need to log on to a reputable stock library and create an account. Bayer approved stock libraries are listed below:

Gettyimages.com Vast range of high visual and creative quality images that can be searched and filtered.

Alamy.com This site offers editorial-style images and creative images where the authenticity of images can be better, but the image quality can sometimes be lacking.

Considerations: 

• You can quickly and conveniently gather images using this method, but they will not be of Bayer people, and thus will lack the authenticity and personal storytelling we are aiming for. For this reason, this method is discouraged, as it does not fully meet the brief.

• All creative images are provided with a licence, but some editorial images cannot be used in campaigns, and some on Alamy still require disclosure agreements.

• The image quality will be suitable for all mediums if you choose this method, provided you buy the image at the highest resolution

• You can achieve consistency in your collection by carefully selecting images that reflect the style we are after.

• This is a relatively inexpensive way to source images, but they will not be as targeted and effective as you may want them to be.

Choosing your images

Here are guiding principles to help create an image library that works for your talent needs and market:

Do:

• Use people imagery as much as possible. Images of people are proven to evoke an emotional response, and forge deeper connections with the viewer. This is essential if we are to appeal to prospective candidates and makes it easier to tell a story that our audience can relate to.

• Adopt an editorial style:

  • Aim for dynamic, action-focused imagery of people doing or impacting things.

  • Each of us has a role to play in science for a better life – let’s demonstrate how this plays out in our daily lives at work, without “showing and telling”, but rather capturing a moment of a typical employee’s life at work.

• Use a range of diverse and authentic subjects. This means:

  • Use real employees – they do not need to be glamourous/”camera ready”, but rather be comfortable in their own unique skin (physical ‘flaws’ or unusual and distinctive features are welcome)

  • Ensure there is a culturally diverse range of subjects that is appropriate for your market

  • Choose images that are representative of, but not necessarily limited to, the career stage and consequent/likely age of the prospective candidate

  • Aim for images that show confidence, competence pride in a job well done.

• Stay within the Bayer brand:

  • See our image guidelines, and adhere to them wherever possible

  • Consider BAYER colour code, and how you could include similar colours in your imagery

Avoid:

• Clichés: What preconceptions do we want to avoid?:

  • Bayer is only a “big pharma” and does nothing else?

  • Bayer is traditional and only employs people who conform to a stereotype? 

  • We can help to challenge these with the kind of images we use, and the people we use in these images.

• Posed or stylised images. This means you should avoid:

  • Static images with no movement or purpose reflected

  • Images of people smiling blankly

  • Picture perfect or “stock photography-like” people that don’t represent reality

  • Cultural, gender and age demographic that do not reflect the role or the market.