Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
From left, brothers Ronald, Craig and Colin Young, principals behind Aros Entertainment Limited who were recently honoured by the Jamaica Employers' Federation with one of its three 'Young Entrepreneurs' awards. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
FOUR YOUNG professionals have decided to revolutionise the local advertising and publishing industry with a new business venture that will produce images of Caribbean people and culture.
Brothers Ronald, Craig and Colin Young and their cousin, Winston Young, are the principals behind Aros Entertainment Limited. According to the young entrepreneurs, the company, through its website, ethnicfaces.com, "will offer for sale photographic images and catalogues of multiracial or 'ethnic' places and persons of mainly Jamaican and Caribbean background for use by advertising agencies [and] companies, media advertisements, magazines, multimedia presentations and other visual projects."
Hence, the concept behind Ethnicfaces is to sell images that "capture the distinctive flavour of the people, places and lifestyle of Jamaica and the Caribbean."
As they explained, it is the practice of advertising agencies in Jamaica and the Caribbean to use, in their ads, images downloaded from North American websites. These images are not always appropriate for the Jamaican or Caribbean market -- sometimes painfully obvious.
"The idea came out of the fact that we work in advertising and we buy stock images as do many advertising agencies. There are a lot of Caucasian faces in temperate settings. There are very few ethnic faces - there are very few Caribbean people in tropical settings. There is a large gap so that is where we feel we can fill the gap," said Colin Young, as the young entrepreneurs sat down with the Financial Gleaner in a recent interview.
So far, the business has managed to attract the attention of corporate Jamaica: the Jamaica Employers' Federation recently honoured them with one of its three "Young Entrepreneurs" awards.
"It was based on the fact that we are young entrepreneurs [with] a new and exciting concept. We were nominated by HEART. They felt that it was something that was unique and had the potential to be successful going forward," explained Ronald Young.
Interestingly, all three come from varied but similar backgrounds. For example, Ronald is a practising attorney-at-law, specialising in intellectual property, entertainment law and telecommunications law. He describes himself as the company's "in-house attorney. I deal with all the paperwork ad well as marketing." But, as he pointed out, "I had a background in marketing before law because I was an entertainment promoter and artiste manager."
CREATIVE ASPECTS
Craig, a senior copywriter at a large advertising agency explains that he "basically works on the creative aspects, determining what shots we use. I plan the shots." He has worked extensively in every area of the media, including a stint at Radio Mona as the morning-show host.
Although he read management studies and computer science at the UWI, Colin is a well-known graphic artist. In fact, he teaches courses in multimedia and design at the UWI. He says that "after Craig and Winston do their job my job is to process the results of the photographs," putting together the concepts.
The the fourth member of the team, Winston Young, is responsible for taking the pictures.
In terms of pricing, they believe Ethnicfaces will provide a competitive package. "Generally, it's between US$100 to US$150 per picture. In terms of resolution of pictures, quality, models we use, what we have - our rates - are very competitive. If you get a catalogue (say 20 pictures) the price will be cheaper," said Ronald.
And, to guard against duplication of pictures used by different companies, there will be "exclusive" pictures. These will cost more.
There are plans to expand into the wider Caribbean and North America, the United Kingdom and Africa. Explaining the expansion strategy, Ronald said, "We have a colleague whose business is to market web sites to the North American market. That company has as an e-mail base and they have the demographics as to the target market. So we have a network of colleagues where we market directly to the Diaspora."
While they have not experienced any obstacles so far in starting the business, Ronald explained that, "I think the hard part - what will be difficult for us is gaining the credibility. I think we have credibility in our own spheres of employment. The main thing that we can do is by providing quality service with integrity."
