n-able Case Study: PR Photography for a client that keeps people independent

PR Photography is incredibly important for any business, and especially one that delivers essentials services and equipment to the community and beyond!

n-able are part of Norse Group and work across the UK from regional bases in East Anglia, Derbyshire and South Wales, with the head office on Burton Road in Norwich.

They cover stairlifts, hoists, care equipment and assistive technology for private customers, care homes, schools and specialist healthcare settings.

Blanc Creative were given a PR Photography brief to capture a full image library covering every part of that operation. An assignment that would provide n-able with a dedicated stock library that included business portraits, press photography, event photography and workplace photography.

We spent time on the road, across multiple counties with the teams, rather than staging set pieces in unnatural surroundings.

So what you see is the job as it actually runs across three separate assignments

PR Photography in care homes and specialist settings

A lot of the specialist work happens in care and healthcare settings, where the equipment is fixed and the compliance side matters.

I photographed engineers working on ceiling track hoists and mobile lifting hoists, electric profiling beds, standing aids and bath hoists. Hoists need LOLER inspection every six months, so the certification paperwork is part of the job and part of the story.

Working closely on hands, fixings and inspection detail alongside the wider room views, moving quietly around residents and staff so nothing was disrupted.

Servicing and maintenance

The PR Photography elements easily morph into other areas, which is why shooting commercial photography using a professional photographer, works. We can jump from portrait photography, to servicing equipment, a vital part of the process that customers see most often, and n-able use their own engineers rather than subcontractors, so the same faces come back year after year.

Inspections are pre-planned and most repairs are finished on site at the first visit.

We covered stairlift services end to end, from the van pulling up to the job being signed off, including rail checks, battery and safety tests and the small adjustments that keep a lift running quietly.

The branded fleet and engineers wearing clean, well maintained uniforms is just an extension of the way that n-able positions itself in the market and this element is an absolute priority. First impressions count and this imagery does a lot of work visually, so there are clean image frames from every location.

Surveys, sales and advice at home

The sales side is really an advice service and agin, this is whereto PR Photography evolves into caring work, with genuine residents who rely so much on n-able in the residential homes when wishing to retain independence.All you often you see stock images of actors and models against unrealistic homes and with expressions that unrealistic, stock images.

Yes, there’s a market for this, but not for a business such as n-able. They portray real people in real home environments. You won’t find their PR Photography on ten different websites.

 n-able Surveys are free and there is no obligation, and equipment can be bought new, bought refurbished or rented, so the conversation is about what actually suits the house and the person.

photographed home visits with advisers sitting down with customers and going through the catalogue rather than selling at them.

These frames needed the most care. People were letting us into their homes, so I kept the kit light, stayed out of the way and shot around the conversation instead of directing it.

PR Photography. A new dawn in a new county

Derbyshire is not an outpost for n-able, it is a working base. I covered the opening in High Peak, where the n-able range sits alongside Alliance Norse, the joint venture between Norse Group, High Peak Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

Openings tend to come down to a handshake and a ribbon, which is fine for one frame and useless for the next fifty, so I worked the room instead: equipment being tried out, the conversations either side of the formal moment, and the faces of people who had built the thing. It gives the campaign a proper second location.

Supporting Nourishing Norfolk with effective PR Photography

n-able also support Norfolk Community Foundation’s Nourishing Norfolk network, putting Norse logistics behind the weekly deliveries that keep food hubs across the county stocked.

We covered a distribution morning, from crates being packed and loaded through to the group shot with the Foundation team outside the warehouse. It is a different register to the engineering work and it gives the brand something warmer to sit alongside the technical services, without dressing it up as anything other than a delivery run done properly.

Images: crates and van loading, portrait with crate, team group shot

Why our PR Photography was shot this way. The huge return on investment

One consistent style across every strand means the library holds together wherever it lands: website, product catalogue, tender documents, recruitment and social.