Creative Photographer Promo Mailer that Begs to Be Kept

Photographer Clint Davis was previously the Art Director at a national magazine, so he has first hand experience on the type of photographer promo that grabs the attention of clients. Recently he himself needed to do some self-promotion, so he decided to get creative and create promo mailers filled with awesomeness. He writes,

Most of the promo pieces [Davis used to receive] were 4×6″ postcards with a picture on one side, and printed addresses on the other side. Stale, non-personalized, and probably frayed at the edges, the postcards rarely made it from the mail room to my desk. But a box?!? A freakin’ box??? NOW you have my attention. Maybe it’s just me, but when I get a box in the mail with a hand-written address, a slow fuzzy feeling comes over me and my eyes open 43% more than usual. YOU good box are coming back to my desk for a thorough dissection.

Above all I wanted to make a self-promotion mailer that wouldn’t get tossed in the trash right away. Considering the caliber of ad agencies, magazine photography editors, athletic teams, and select others that will receive this mailer, that is a tall order to accomplish.

Here are all the components that went into creating an individual mailer:

The mailers were designed around the theme “Give Me a Shot”, and included a disposable camera with a sticker displaying that slogan. Each box was also stamped with Davis’ logo and had the words “Emergency Photo Kit”.

Finally, the centerpiece of each box was a set of Moo cards showing Davis’ work, neatly stored in plastic cases.

In total, Davis spent $800 and three months on this mailer project and ended up with 40 awesome mailers. To see more of how Davis went about creating these mailers, check out this Flickr set or this blog post.

Next time you need to do some self-promotion, think big and figure out how to stand out from the crowd!


Image credits: Photographs by Clint Davis and used with permission

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