Technology has ushered in huge changes in how we live and while many business leaders see change as a threat, others see opportunity. 

Thomas Rebaud, CEO at Meero, has steered his business into arguably one of the biggest digital transformations of our time. Rebaud says: 

“With the rise of digital photography, the need for professional photography kept on decreasing. But for businesses, professional photography is crucial: if you have a bad image, basically people don't buy.”

Meero fills this gap by contracting the right photographers to perform the job they need at any time of the day for the right price.

The model is attracting photographers who gain access to a stream of repeat business and gives clients, such as global leaders of the travel and food delivery industries, an opportunity to level-up their content. Global names require a big solution. Rebaud says: 

“Meero shoots and delivers millions of images across the globe every month. To do that, you need AI to find and match the right photographer with the right clients, to help them prepare for the shoot, recover the live pictures and put them into servers to edit the pictures. We need AI everywhere. If we didn't have any tech on that, we could not do it.”

Editing raw footage is the next crucial step in the client’s journey; Gaetan Rougevin Baville, COO at Meero explains: 

“In the process of producing images for online businesses, editing is probably the most cumbersome task for photographers. For the brands, standardizing the look and feel on your website is one of the most important things. This is why Meero created an algorithm to standardize photography editing, removing any subjectivity or timing delays.”

How do photographers find the process? Adam Isfendiyar, Photographer at Meero says that Meero has been “an ideal partner” because they overcome some of the challenges of being a professional photographer: 

“Meero supports photographers as artists, not just as workers for the company. One of the biggest challenges in the field of photography today is oversaturation. There are lots of photographers and if you don't have contacts with companies, it can be quite hard to get work.”

Clients, such as Giampiero Marino, CEO at Treatwell, also see the value of the Meero approach: 

“Treatwell operates in 13 countries so we needed a partner that can be present not only in the main cities, but in several dozens of cities in each country.”

Meero, says Marino, is able to give brand consistency across each new territory as they embark on an ambitious scaling program. 

The approach is a win-win for photographers and clients, says Laetitia Payan, VP E-Commerce at Meero, citing the use of digital technology as a way of giving greater control at greater convenience: 

“One client, a department store, shoots in some of the luxury grand showrooms to have the products very early on their website. Before working with Meero, a coordinator would have to travel around the world to different showrooms, coordinating a team of freelancers that she barely knew. Now that coordinator is able to follow every shoot remotely.”

Payan says that the use of digital and remote working gives greater flexibility over the end result and makes the journey of each shoot faster and easier:

“A successful company/client interaction starts with delivering on time and according to expected quality. Our clients really appreciate our reactivity, we're always there to correct potential mistakes. Second, the creative support that we bring helps them define the best e-commerce picture for their customers.”

As the nature of capturing and displaying images has changed radically, Thomas Rebaud says that the Meero model paints the future for the whole sector:

“The photographing industry has been maybe one of the most evolving ones over the past 20 years. We are all amateurs in photography and the future of photography will be split between professional photographers that focus on super high level content and billions of amateurs. We intend on helping them both.”