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BSR Agency: A major player in today’s media landscape

Dillion Rekveld and his former partner have witnessed the media landscape shift with the rise of the internet and social media. This change brought opportunities, which they eagerly seized, marking the start of BSR Agency. Nearly 15 years later, the photo press agency based in Deventer boasts over 4,000 freelance photographers across more than thirty countries, with nearly the entire Dutch media, including TV programmes, newspapers, and magazines, relying on its image portfolio. As the official partner of TeamNL, BSR Agency also played a key role in the recent Olympic Games in Paris. We discuss BSR Agency’s success and the importance of accessible content for all stakeholders with co-founder Dillion Rekveld.

BSR Agency Dillion Rekveld

“I worked at Centraal Beheer Achmea in the New Media department, where we handled the ‘Just call Apeldoorn’ commercials,” says Rekveld. ”That was my first encounter with topics like portrait rights. Through this work, I connected with a photo press agency that provided images and image rights for footballer Salomon Kalou, with whom we were making an advertisement about integration. I started talking with that company and was later approached to handle the sales aspect for the editorial market. I worked there for several years, mainly in the Dutch market, but you could clearly see the shift from analogue to digital photography approaching.”

”My colleague, who later became my business partner, and I wanted to embrace that shift, but there was a lot of resistance within the company. So, we decided to go ahead and do it ourselves. We started pioneering. With the move to digital, it no longer mattered where you were located or how big you were; you just had to be technically sound and obtain the right content. Before, you had to send photographers all over the world; now, you could get images from America with just a click. That opened up countless possibilities, which we capitalised on. Eventually, we grew into the company we are today, serving everyone who needs content, from the NOC to all newspapers, magazines, and television programmes.”

BSR Agency Dillion Rekveld
BSR Agency Dillion Rekveld

BSR and the world of sport

“The beauty of sport is that it spills over into many areas of society: ultimately, it’s also about fashion or societal issues, which you can beautifully capture through photography,” says Rekveld. ”Sporting moments often produce fantastic content. The challenge is to add value for the athletes, federations, and brands, but that’s a very rewarding challenge.”

”For footballers, we developed a separate app because they wanted to manage their own content. Previously, players relied on team managers or social media teams for content, which was then forwarded via Dropbox. And this brings up the issue of rights. We sell photos, but of course, there are also copyright concerns. We facilitate the right to publish. This is where things can go wrong: some people think they can just take a photo and publish it, but of course, that’s not the case.”

”Moreover, footballers often don’t have access to the content. With this app, we ensure that the content reaches the athlete, the federation, and the brands in real time. All content is instantly social media ready. Social media now plays an increasingly important role for athletes in building their brand or identity. That’s why we, in collaboration with several professional footballers, developed the app that clubs like Ajax and FC Twente are now using. This gives players real-time access to their current content, as well as content from the past and archives. This adds value to a simple image, and that’s how we differentiate ourselves.”