Existing photo and video content: 5 steps to make it better and cheaper
It all starts with a person who sorts in the company and highlights the scope of the problem.
But there are two reasons behind this motivation:
Storage in its video or photo content better and cheaper, that means =
1) Reduce costs
2) Increase efficiency (e.g. availability time)
A notion of quality can be added. But quality is always subject to interpretation, especially when talking to more artists...
At Abbe Photo, we face the same challenges (cost, time). Here is a feedback on 5 steps to make it better and cheaper with photos and videos. In order, we will see how:
1) Find the nuggets
2) Make room
3) Keep
4) Feed AI
5) Automation
What is the extent of the problem of non-storage of audiovisual content?
Starting with an inventory is essential:
How many photos, videos, documents, presentations, interviews, video training materials...?
How much photo and video content are actually reused?
The second question is probably the most interesting: how many content is produced and then used once before disappearing on a server, NAS or Cloud?
Without going too fast, there is already an interesting return on investment (ROI): is there a pareto where 20% of the content represents 80% of the use of video and image?
Where is the value in these photo and video collections? This audiovisual and artistic heritage often represents years of expertise, investment and know-how.
Take the example of Abbe Photo. We have 100,000 photos archive, but also videos and texts. The 50+ years of photos represent the demand. And among those photos from all over the world, Provence. In these photographs of Provence, themes such as women or traditions are photo archives that are interesting. So our pareto is here! We'll talk about it in the rest of the article.
Sort to sort has no interest. In the continuation of the article, we will take the example of the French Tennis Federation (FFT – Roland Garros) and the mistake that we consultants made...
So what is the condition for a successful archive project? It's creating value for customers. By client, we mean internal users to a company or external people (from the simple curious B2C drive to the big multinational B2B client).
In other words: before asking « How to store? », you have to ask « For whom and for what will we reuse these content? »
Find nuggets: How to create value from an archive?
It is first to produce content from already existing photo and video. In the case of Abbe Photo, it is on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/in/abbefrancois), Instagram (www.instagram.com/passadoc), Facebook (www.facebook.com/passadoc) or Youtube (www.youtube.com/@provenceheritage). We recycle texts, re-use photos, etc.
Reusing its archives for the event makes sense. For Abbe Photo, we have completed the Roquebrune Photo Festival 2026 (https://abbe.photo/festival-photo-roquebrune-2026-expo-3-photographers-62-ans-decart-meme-passion-pour-limage/) with 100% already existing content.
Telling new stories or creating new training materials for example makes sense!
So in the continuation of this article, we propose simple methods to stop systematically creating zero and thus reduce the budget (time, money) for communication as well as for training (these are in my opinion two main areas where audiovisual production is found in companies).
But not all uses of an archive are valid.
For example, the value is a stage rocket with low (value) up (very high value):
– Low value (at the bottom): free digital content on social networks Linkedin for pros (www.linkedin.com/in/abbefrancois), Instagram (www.instagram.com/passadoc) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/passadoc) for Provence and Youtube fans for an international French- and English-speaking audience (www.youtube.com/@provenceheritage) for example.
– Value: newsletters (e-mails remain the most profitable marketing content according to some sources that even measure ROI like this article) https://www.litmus.com/resources/email-marketing-roi)
– Value (just above): free physical content (postcards and posters, such as those made with BleuLemon described in the newsletter (https://abbe.photo/newsletter-raymond-depardon-pierre-colombert/)
– A lot of ephemeral value: events such as meetings (one evening) or photo exhibitions (a few days to several months); the place is important. For example, we are proud that the exhibition Femmes de Provence (https://abbe.photo/exposure-femmes-de-provence-d-andre-abbe/) took place just before the Robert Doisneau exhibition (https://www.ville-draguignan.fr/?p=95219). We also presented videos of interviews, film excerpts, etc. Again, our stock of content played a fundamental role.
– Paying B2C products: Roquebrune books in image (https://abbe.photo/product/book-roquebrune-en-images-la-vie-en-photos-dun-village-de-provence/) and Women of Provence (https://abbe.photo/product/book-photo-women-de-provence-andre-abbe/)
– Paid B2B products: one of the 4 numbered and signed photo prints, as selected by BleuLemon (www.bleulemon.fr)
The true value of an archive is therefore not only in the file itself. It is in the number of uses that can still be drawn from it.
In conclusion: the company can create a range of communication or training content based in part on existing content.
Many companies rely on audiovisual content, yet audiovisual is not their core business. It remains to better value years of photos of events, demonstration videos, expert interviews, webinars, trainings, presentations, customer testimonials (by far the most valuable type of content), reports.
What investment did the production of these photos and videos represent? For what KING?
A company's marketing budget accounts for 7.7% of turnover, according to a Gartner study (https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-05-12-gartner-2025-cmo-pend-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-flatlined-at-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue). So a company invests hundreds of thousands or even millions of euros a year in its marketing.
Yet much of its photo and video heritage is used only once before being forgotten! So our goal is to do better...
How much does this waste actually cost?
Before planning a new shoot or photo shoot, an inventory already makes it clear:
– Content that has never been used or only once
– Content that could be used in another context
– Content is still up to date
In 2006, we identified for a continuous news channel that 20% of the content broadcast came directly from the video archive.
What is the % content reuse in your company today? How many photos and videos sleep on your company's servers (or the Cloud)?
Companies often have a real editorial wealth... they don't know.
Make room: Why delete and sort your photo and video content is not enough?
One must keep in mind the added value for the end client (again a simple reader or internal user may be the client). This recipient of the communication wants value.
We need to produce new content for product launch
There is one variant: « We're starting this game when we get back to school. ».
Let's start by asking ourselves: what content do we already have in stock? One can lean on the archives and rework them (by hand, via an AI, both).
The first case of school is Abbe Photo. We manage one fund of more than 100,000 photos by André Abbe since the 1970s. For a long time, some images remained invisible. It was not a lack of interest (or value). But simply because they were not accessible.
We have put in place a conservation plan. Since 2014, we have digitized, documented, classified and republished them.
If your company has already digitized audio, photo or video content, the subject is the same: without metadata (what, which, when, where, etc.), it's looking for a needle in a haystack!
The results for Abbe Photo: 50-year-old photographs find today a new audience.
Preserving: Is your video or photo content really usable?
Nature hates emptiness! Many of us keep « in case ».
An anecdote: my father had kept hundreds of video rush tapes in the garage. A few years after he retired, he decided to throw a tape a day in the kitchen trash. The effort required to safeguard these content far exceeded the theoretical benefit of having access to these images, the content of which is difficult to evaluate.
After 12 years of abbe photo retreat, the biggest job is not to digitize the 100,000 photos (it's outsourced, it takes budget). Most of the effort has come to enrich these files with the basic information: where, who, when... And even why?
Thanks to this valuable information (metadata), your company can fully exploit this content (in the rocket floors).
This analogy speaks of itself: a video found without context is like a key box without a label. We know there's one that opens the right door. But what door?
Are storage or software tools critical to valuing a company's archives?
Storage and software tools are means. But the real subject is memory. The challenge is therefore to enrich these contents with the basic data to be able to find this content. Without it, it's not archiving but wastage!
In 2012, we defended a budget with the French Tennis Federation (FFT / Roland Garros) to acquire the foundations of a large computer system. The Board of Directors refused the investment. How can we defend such a computer budget today? By highlighting the proposed products, the added value for internal and external customers, ROI, etc.
Will your company still be able to open its photos in 20 years?
Preservation of digital archives remains a central topic. UNESCO warns us: « audiovisual documents will only survive a few decades, and the lifetime of digital objects will not exceed 10 years on average. » (https://www.unesco.org/en/ifap/information-preservation)
Because just find an old engraved CD or USB flash drive « very important » to understand that time doesn't just age files... He also makes them disappear. Or the files are still there, but no one knows what it is anymore.
The stake remains: to sustain photos and videos.
Preserving therefore does not involve stacking terabytes. To preserve is to prepare future uses. In fact, beyond the two types of human use, both internal and external, algorithms (IA) use.
Feed AI: How to prepare your photos and video for AI?
Just imagine asking an AI: « Find the video where our founder explains our vision. » or « What content have we produced on this subject? »
The problem is that AI doesn't do miracles! IA is not able to interpret that file IMG 4837.jpg represents your best customer. It is not known that this video shot eight years ago contains your founder's interview.
Our 100,000 Abbe Photo archives with no date, no place or no name are like a family album whose legends would have disappeared!
In companies, it's exactly the same thing. IA does not value your content. It values the content it includes.
It goes back to the need to obtain these metadata: Where? When? Who? Why?
So before you start a big AI project, ask yourself this question: Are your content ready to answer him?
Again, the choice of an AI tool is secondary. The priority is to be able to provide a coherent dataset.
On the other hand, thinking that the AI will solve the problem of metadata enrichment is false or even dangerous!
Do the test: before you schedule a new photo shoot or a new shoot at the beginning, open a random content folder. If there is no metadata (filename and filename, IPTC tags, etc.), then there is a more profitable project than you can imagine. 😉
Then ask yourself: What is the oldest archive your company is still able to operate today?
Automation: What is the most time-consuming task for your teams?
A solution to spend less time on its audiovisual content when its real profession is not audiovisual: automation. We are deliberately talking about automation and not about the AIA because these are simple tasks: rename files, search for content, always send the same document, reclassify files, duplicate metadata.
At Abbe Photo, every minute spent searching for information is a minute that is not dedicated to telling a story about our 100,000 photos archive.
The same is true for all companies. It is therefore necessary to identify the absurd tasks that make employees grumble, which prevent them from producing more. These are generally the easiest to automate.
How can we just start automating repetitive tasks?
The logic is simple: identify an irritant that drains 80% of the time wasted for only 20% of value (pareto!). This approach allows, among other things, to justify (ROI) interest in audiovisual archives in a pragmatic way.
Automation is not intended to replace teams. It is mainly used to give them the time they lost without even realizing it. And that's an investment that pays off from day one.
Conclusion: better and cheaper video and photo keys
Making savings on audiovisual content smartly is not simply about deleting files. The main aim is to make better use of what already exists.
So in summary, we're going to ask ourselves the question: before spending time producing images or videos, what content sleeps in digital archives.
Your archives are a gold mine. But as in all mines, the key is finding gold!
Conclusion: where to start?
At an hour of corporate agility, remember one of the four precepts of the agile manifesto: Individuals and their interactions more than processes and tools. So starting to change storage or tool is often the approach taken in business. But the basic issue remains: how can we save money and better value archives? If a tool could meet these two needs, it would be great! But not the stakes remain human!
In conclusion, the Boston Consulting Group study (https://web-assets.bcg.com/a5/37/be4ddf26420e95aa7107a35aae8d/bcg-wheres-the-value-in-ai.pdf?src trk=em67b6735fb0f155.105937271451277528) explains: « When companies engage in digital or artificial intelligence transformation, they must devote 70% of their efforts and resources to human skills, 20% to technology and 10% to algorithms. »
The human has beautiful days ahead, our audiovisual archives too!
Why is Abbe Photo a powerful ally to better value its audiovisual content?
Since then, media groups have been accompanied for over 20 years. Today it is the same service that is offered to companies whose audiovisual is not the core business: reducing costs and increasing value.
The objective is simple: to help companies whose audiovisual industries are not at the core of their business to reduce the cost of their productions and increase the value of the content they already own.
