Shutterstock gives advertisers access to celebrities and historical figures
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Creative assets service Shutterstock has announced its latest partnership with rights and clearance agency Greenlight, allowing advertisers access to stock images and video of famous individuals including Albert Einstein, Steve McQueen and Whitney Houston.
Greenlight – part of Branded Entertainment Network – clears content with rights holders for use in commercial advertising and corporate campaigns. The company represents the rights for a slew of celebrities and historical figures including Albert Einstein, Steve McQueen, Whitney Houston, Sophia Loren and Thomas Edison.
Previously, images that included such individuals would have been reserved to ‘editorial use only’. With this exclusive rights clearance agreement, Shutterstock says its customer base of ad agencies, brands and creatives will be able to license such image and video content for commercial purposes also.
The partnership secures permissions to use celebrities, sports, science and literature talents, historical icons, trademarks, copyrights, landmarks, locations and other unique intellectual property (IP).

Photo by Nara Archives/REX/Shutterstock
“We are thrilled to be working with an industry leader in this space to bring preferential rights clearance services to our customers,” says Shutterstock’s GM of editorial, Donna Granato.
“The exclusive relationships that Greenlight has with some of the most recognised and respected icons gives our customers the edge when licensing this imagery for commercial purposes.”
Having operated in the industry for more than 30 years, Greenlight says it works with advertising agencies and brands internationally to assist with the clearances of film and television properties, celebrities, icons and other talent, artwork, trademarks, music and other types of IP rights for campaigns.
“Clearing and licensing third party rights for commercial use can be a daunting task,” explains Tamra Knepfer, senior vice president of Greenlight.
“Some people may be hesitant to use the best content simply due to tight timelines and potential legal complexities.
“With this partnership, Shutterstock clients will be able to easily explore clearance and licensing options, not just across the portfolio of icons Greenlight represents, but for any third party rights.”
Earlier this month Shutterstock announced its exclusive workflow extension for Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s video post-production platform. With the partnership, Shutterstock will be the only stock footage extension to be integrated with the release of Final Cut Pro X, offering more than 250 million video, image, and music assets available for license.
“We are constantly working to bring efficiency to the creative workflow process and this extension is one way we are delivering this for video professionals, helping them craft their story and realise their vision,” says Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock.
“As a leading post-production platform and video editing application, Final Cut Pro X is the ideal app for this multi-asset extension as it delivers powerful tools and sleek interfaces to a global community of professional filmmakers and editors.”
Further Reading:
- Short form video is the new wave of storytelling »
- Fifteen years, 15 milestones: Shutterstock celebrates birthday with iconic moments poster series »
Image credit: John Rooney/AP/REX/Shutterstock