You Know, Yeah?

Mat Arney Content Marketing, Photography and Writing Portfolio 2014 from Mat Arney on Vimeo.

You know that I do this whole photography, writing and content marketing thing for a living, right?  

Last week I caught up with my Dad, and he made a very valid point that I hope this blog post will address:  I don't market my work well enough.  I was having a bit of a work-whinge (no doubt revolving around the fact that I work a lot but that it never feels like it's quite enough) and unloading all of the regular freelancer's anxieties in his ear, when he highlighted the fact that most readers of this blog, or visitors to my website, probably wouldn't know that this is my job.  I market my clients very well, through ongoing content marketing campaigns and bespoke photography and copywriting commissions, but I don't actually market these services to other potential clients.  So here goes:

My name is Mat and I am a storyteller.

I develop and distribute high quality media content - mostly in the form of images and words - that builds lasting relationships between a brand and its customers.

This might be bespoke photography or copywriting for a website or a print marketing campaign.  It is more valuable to a brand, however, in the form of regular, creative and dynamic content that potential and existing customers engage with through various marketing channels.  Custom digital content such as blogs, e-newsletters, photo essays and short videos increase website performance (particularly for search engines) and social media engagement, helping your brand to reach more potential customers and consistently converts views to sales.

Every business needs to share its message.  Being able to communicate what you do and why, in order to engage customers, is the key to a successful marketing strategy in the digital age.

You have a story, let me help you tell it.

So there you have it:  I'm an award-winning, published, photographer and writer with an international client list including Cloudy Bay Wines, Nokia UK, Otter Surfboards, Hog Island Oyster Co and the London Surf Film Festival, and I'd like to work with you.

Let's talk:

All of my contact details are in the last frame of the short video clip above, or you can use mat(at)matarney dot com, send me a message on facebook, instagram or twitter or leave a comment here and I'll get back to you.  Thanks.  

Cloudy Bay: The Best Brief Ever?

 Summer's on it's way...

 Shooting for Cloudy Bay wines, so Dave gets a shot of a cloud in a glass of wine.  I hope that they appreciated this shot as much as I did!

"I'll send through a brief, but basically we need you to shoot Cornwall looking beautiful, a fishing trip, foraging in the hedgerows, and the hotel and it's Michelin starred chef.  I hope that's alright?"

Er, yeah, no problem!  Cloudy Bay Wines run popular foraging weekends from their vineyards in the Marlborough region of New Zealand's South Island and were setting up a series of similar weekends here in the UK based in Cornwall for Summer 2012.  The idea was for guests to spend the morning out on a local fishing boat, casting lines and pulling up lobster pots, before heading off with the Wild Food School just up the road to learn about all of the edible loveliness that grows in our fields, hedgerows and woodlands.  They then took all of their ingredients back to their hotel, the  lovely  boutique Driftwood Hotel on the beautiful Roseland Peninsula on the south coast, where Michelin starred chef Chris Eden and his team would prepare it into an incredible meal and the sommelier would match their meal to the Cloudy Bay range of wines.

 Aboard the Madeline Rose, coming back intoSt Mawes harbour.

 Tight lines...

 A successful haul of lovely looking lobster!

It was pretty much an ideal brief from a commercial client, shooting subject areas that I know and enjoy in my own back yard.  I roped in a friend, photographer David Williams, to help me out and last June we spent a really fun day from dawn through to dusk on the Roseland Peninsula, charging around with a car full of camera cases and lights and taking it in turns both behind and in front of the camera.

 Hedgerow bounty!  

 Me picking elderflowers for Dave's camera.

The images were used for various press UK releases and to illustrate articles in several magazines and online over the summer and autumn which meant that I've had to sit on them for a while.  But it's starting to hint at Spring around these parts and I'm getting excited for some outdoors sunshine time doing a lot of the things that are in these photos.  Namely, enjoying Cornwall.

 The Driftwood dovecot, and the choices of the compass.

 Sous Chef and saffron

 Head Chef, the Michelin starred Chris Eden who paused for approximately 30 seconds for me to shoot his portrait.

The countryside of Cornwall's Roseland Peninsula.