Celebrity Image Business a Finalist in ExportNZ Awards

Media Release from Keedup Ltd

Celebrity Image Business Named As Finalist in ExportNZ Awards

When the cameras stop clicking on the red carpet in Hollywood, a team of New Zealanders plays a crucial role in getting those images to the world. Today the efforts of Auckland-based Keedup Ltd have been recognised by the company being named as a finalist in the services section* of the Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Awards 2016.

Founded by former New Zealand Herald journalist Kevin Townsend in 2008, Keedup boasts some of the largest names in the entertainment photo industry amongst its clients, including Associated Press, and the Bill Gates-owned Splash News. It also serves prestigious stock and reportage photo libraries such as Magnum, which was started by photography greats including Henri Cartier-Bresson.

With a 24/7 service provided by offices in Auckland and London, Keedup’s team of image editors select, retouch, caption and keyword the latest images, from celebrity hot spots such as LA, New York, London, Cannes and St Tropez.

Kevin Townsend said: “It’s a high-paced business where we have to get images to market within minutes of receiving them. Winning business is based on a reputation for integrity and reliability, with some sets of images we handle being worth tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“It’s our job to make sure not only that the images look good and people are named and described correctly, but also to remove legally questionable and/or factually-incorrect information in the images photographers submit.”

He said that whilst the work in itself was not as glamorous as it might sound, without the efforts of the Keedup team the flow of celebrity images around the world would be significantly impacted.

“I am lucky to have a fantastic team of New Zealanders – mostly communication degree graduates – working here and in London. They cope with tremendous pressure and are all experts in the who’s who of the celebrity world.”

The success of Keedup had been helped by the achievements of New Zealanders in the international entertainment industry in the past two decades, most notably the work done by Sir Peter Jackson and Weta Workshops.

“New Zealand is no longer known as just a land of sheep and cows. We are finding increasing acceptance of this country as having technology which can foot it with the rest of the world. If you couple that with our high standard of education, cultural knowledge and reputation for integrity, you’ve got a winning formula in delivering services across the globe.”

Kevin Townsend said Keedup had had to overcome two key barriers to success – the high New Zealand dollar, and the speed of the internet between this country and the rest of the world.

“Whilst there was little we could do about the exchange rate, we developed our own software, called Piksee, for transferring images across the miles. It works a bit like an electrical transformer, receiving large images on our servers in the high-speed Northern Hemisphere, then reducing those images in size before sending them on to Auckland. This effectively reduces internet traffic by 95%, and crucially improves efficiency accordingly.”

As well as celebrity images, Keedup adds keywords to stock photographs and videos, such as scenic images, used primarily in the advertising and PR industries.

“We’ve built up a solid reputation for quality of keywording which has often seen us called in to take over from companies doing a poor job, such as many of our low-priced competitors in India, or those offering crowd-sourced keywords. It goes to show there’s still a place for quality in every market.”

ENDS

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