Idea Graveyard
Getty Images
Issue 4 | July 2008
Agency
Heye,121 GmbH/Tribal DDB Munich
Creative Team
Judith Baumgartner - Art Director ;Andreas Klemp, Ole Suraj - Creative Directors;Dagmar Schott - Copywriter
Production Team
Juergen Graf - Grouphead Flash
Other Credits
Michael Wolf - Managing Director;Frank Miller - Account Director;Carolin Roessel - Account Executive ;Eva Herbst - Junior Account Manager
Date
March 2007 - ongoing
Background
The aim of the campaign was to encourage creative and art directors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to access the pictures at Getty Images more often. Getty Images wanted to communicate the message that their image archive could be used to inspire new ideas rather than just to search for pictures.
Idea
Every creative and art director knows that ‘good ideas die’ every day. Now there is a proper resting place for them: the ‘idea graveyard’. In a condolence letter, Getty Images expressed their heartfelt sympathy for the recipients’ departed ideas and invited them to give their ideas proper burials in the provided cemetery. They could then place the ‘RIP’ cross on their desks as a memorial. With consoling words, the recipients were then directed to the new Getty Images online catalogue, where they could be inspired to create new ideas. For the online funeral at www.ideenfriedhof.com, the dead idea could be described with images and words and mourners could be invited by email. Good ideas go to heaven, not to hell. And there, after the burial, the mourners are welcomed with the online catalogue ‘One Life’.
Results
7,410 mailings were sent. After the first week, there had been more than 18,000 visitors to the website, and more than 2,200 e-cards had been sent. The Idea Graveyard was a hot topic for weeks in national and international weblogs as well as industry publications. Just a few days after the shipment of the offline mailpacks, the click-rate for the gettyimages.de website showed a 10% increase.
Target Audience
Creative and art directors in Germany, Switzerland and Austria
Size
7,410 packs
Our Thoughts
Every creative will be familiar with the notion of their best ideas dying – or being killed, perhaps. First you got sent a small graveyard and then invited to go online. When an idea dies, invite your mates along to the funeral. As a creative, it is important to be able to share pain because there is much of it. This is an engaging way Getty can make friends with art directors everywhere.