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Schtock.com comes clean - It's More Interesting than We Thought

So apparently Schtock.com isn’t a genuine effort of a lowly employee, nor is it a viral campaign put out by Corbis. It’s a viral viral campaign which was launched by former-Denver-local Ben Pieratt’s new company, General Projects, to get Corbis’ attention.

From the press release we just got:

As a newly formed design shop, General Projects launched with a self-assigned first project – to get the attention of Corbis and eventually turn that into a client relationship. This was done by launching a faux-viral campaign online with the intention of getting the Corbis name in front of as many members of their target audience as possible on a limited budget.

Results:
- Mentioned on over 150 separate sites, putting the Corbis brand in front of over 200,000 viewers over the course of 4 days.
- Over 20,000 unique visitors to the site itself during just 4 days.

Do yourselves a favor and read the full release here.

Very well played, indeed. Definitely the first time we’ve seen this sort of thinking. We’re guessing it won’t be the last.

104 days ago / / Link

Comment

  1. Confusing effort, seems like a lot to go through to secure a client that may or may not be interested.

    — poop · Sep 24, 08:52 AM · #

  2. BP = DE.

    — Aaron · Sep 24, 09:22 AM · #

  3. Poop – Agreed. It’s definitely a bit weird and mildly convoluted.

    — The Denver Egotist · Sep 24, 10:00 AM · #

  4. Seems like a good way to piss the blogosphere off – trick them with a viral campaign…may get the client, but may also make the rest of the country hate you.

    — Disappointed · Sep 24, 10:53 AM · #

  5. Yeah, I got this in my inbox this morning as well and was a little disappointed. I am sure there will probably be a little backlash. I am not sure yet if I will even post a follow up about it on my blog.

    — Christopher Cox · Sep 24, 11:07 AM · #

  6. Dumb, and annoying. Shame, too, because the design work was top notch.

    — Dalton · Sep 24, 11:43 AM · #

  7. cool for what it is though.

    — Skipper · Sep 24, 12:15 PM · #

  8. What’s with the abundance of negativity on this one. People are ok with viral campaigns but only if they’re coming from Ad shops, or what?

    — The Denver Egotist · Sep 24, 12:15 PM · #

  9. I think it’s awesome as hell… Very well done and subtle. I had a feeling Ben had something to do with it.. Had his mark all over it… Good stuff for sure!

    — Lifter Baron · Sep 24, 12:21 PM · #

  10. Hey thanks for the coverage.

    I can sort of understand the negative feedback, no one likes being mislead. But I have to say that this stuff goes on all the time and everyone seems to love it, myself included. So I’m not sure what happened here that takes it out of that realm of acceptable viral trickery.

    Feedback/thoughts welcome.

    — Pieratt · Sep 24, 12:54 PM · #

  11. I don’t see what’s negative about this at all, regardless if Corbis was their client or not, their thinking and the results has to be appreciated.

    I agree Lifter, one of the images looked like Ben’s work… Now I know why.

    Kudos!

    — Brian · Sep 24, 03:25 PM · #

  12. “I am not sure yet if I will even post a follow up about it on my blog.” – Christopher Cox.

    That seems a bit egotistical. But I guess that is true, if it is not on designiskinky.com, I mean changethethought.com being praised, it is a failure.

    — The Denver EgL0tist · Sep 24, 03:50 PM · #

  13. What the hell are you saying?

    — Lifter Baron · Sep 24, 04:45 PM · #

  14. Yes, what are you saying, EgLOtist?

    — The Denver Egotist · Sep 24, 05:00 PM · #

  15. It’s brilliant! Nice to see someone creatively pushing the boundaries of how we expect things to be done.

    — Trevor Smith · Sep 24, 05:04 PM · #

  16. Just found this line of comments this morning. First, I don’t blog for Design Is Kinky anymore. Second, I just didn’t think it was that interesting that it ended up being a viral campaign for Corbis. My readers usually come looking for examples of good design and creative to inspire their own work. And occasionally a little dash of politics. I don’t claim, and never have to be an authority on anything. I am just passionate about what I do and thought it might be useful to spill that passion over into some kind of an archive or resource that other people could use. If they don’t like what I post or write, then there are a million other places for them to go. I can ‘choose’ to write whatever I want on my blog. I pay the bills for it. It’s not ‘ego’ it’s ownership. If you think something is missing out there in the blogosphere then start your own blog and write about whatever you want. No one is stopping you.

    — Christopher Cox · Oct 25, 12:57 PM · #