Image libraries are used by a very specific market. Namely, advertising creatives, art directors, art buyers and editors. They are inundated with regular emails from various image libraries, all with a similar offering. We differentiated GreatStock from competitors and drove potential users to their website to create awareness of their extensive image range in a memorable way. We utilised an insight that only this niche market would resonate with and identified key creatives who would appreciate the piece and get the word out. The book was delivered to the desks of creatives who regularly use stock libraries.

GreatStock is an established South African stock image library. They boast an extensive range of creative and editorial images and videos to rival popular global competitors. They also offer a range of uniquely African images, highly sought after in the local market. However, because most users are unaware of how GreatStock’s offering differs, they are often overlooked in favour of the well-known international stock image libraries with a bigger spend. We had to remind potential users of GreatStock’s offering and change their perception in a way that stood out from the regular image-heavy cluttered emails received from competitors. Our objective was to get attention in a fresh way, create curiosity and drive current and potential users to GreatStock’s newly designed website. We had to remain top-of-mind and leave a lasting reminder with the people who mattered to consider GreatStock.

When searching for the perfect image on a stock library website, people use a descriptive string of keywords to help them find it. GreatStock knows that to find the right image, you need the right words. So they’ve made sure that each of their images is painstakingly tagged with hundreds of keywords, making finding relevant images easier and more efficient. With this insight, we stood out from the visual clutter by sending a surprising direct mailer from an image library: a book of words. Introducing, The Anthology of Great (stock) Poetry, poems written entirely from image descriptions. We designed and bound our Anthology to resemble a classic poetry book. The attention to detail and authenticity of the execution amplified its tongue-in-cheek content. The books were wrapped in brown paper, complete with string, wax seal and handwritten tags. The personally-addressed packages were hand-delivered to creatives at prominent media and creative agencies.

Working closely with the client, we generated an exclusive list of 100 recipients. This was determined with various objectives in mind. Firstly, retaining loyal clients and thanking them with a copy of our book. Secondly and importantly, we needed to get The Anthology of Great (stock) Poetry into the hands of potential new users who had perhaps not engaged with GreatStock before as well as prominent players in the industry who would share and create the reach we needed with such a limited number of recipients. We broke through the visual clutter of our competitors with a unique hand-delivered item that invited recipients to engage with our brand and intrigued them to visit our website and experience the images for themselves. The call-to-action at the end of the book further confirmed this by saying: “Because we are great with visuals, we’ve made sure we’re great with words.”

Our poetry book had to be authentic and believable for the idea to come through. This included carefully chosen details such as a fabric cover, embossed logo and gold foiling. Each poem was laid out and crafted according to the subject matter, as either traditional poetry verses or an avant-garde poetry piece would be. Staying true to the concept, the writing style was approached differently. The subject was chosen, followed by the relevant image searches and an intentional selection of various available descriptions. These were printed on aged paper, hand bound, packaged in brown paper complete with string, wax seals and handwritten tags. The exclusive books were delivered to the desks of 100 prominent and relevant creatives globally in May 2018.

The book created much talkability within the recipient agencies, and the client personally received immediate responses. It became a permanent reminder and talking point in the offices of the audience who mattered most. Our engaging poetry book quickly became collectable and was so popular that we were soon asked for a reprint as others wanted a copy of their own. Shortly after delivery, website traffic increased and in the few months following distribution, user sign-ups increased and image downloads were boosted by almost 22%.