If everyone is focusing on cold emailing and LinkedIn messages to reach out to people, maybe the way to cut through is to get something physical in their hands.

Enter the Artificial Intelligence Directors Club, a parody of the Art Directors Club. I built a welcome kit of sorts and targeted five high-level creatives at some of the top agencies in Los Angeles.

Storyline

The AI Directors Club has created an AI based on each creative's career and that AI is being inducted into the inaugural class. The kit then invites the creatives to meet their AI doppelgänger (pictured in the included photo) by scanning a QR code. Once scanned, they are taken to a hidden page on my website with a personalized message, some bullet points about myself and my portfolio. An added advantage was that my site analytics could track if/when each journey was completed.

Process

Each box took about 3-4 hours to make with an additional 2 hours each assembling all the other physical and digital components. Each base box was purchased from Michael’s for $7. I created a stencil of the design on card stock and then traced it onto each box. I then wood burned and carved the design before staining and lacquering each.

Completed Boxes

I used Brothers as my base font for the insert and modified it for the first name while leaving it standard for the last. I filled them with hatching to create texture. Four of the kits were oriented vertically with one horizontal, the insert layout was adjusted accordingly. I shredded black and white card stock (4:1 ratio) to create the base the frames would rest on. I used twine to secure each box closed and then attached a hand cut tag.

Portraits

The portraits were made with Midjourney and finished in Photoshop. The frames were purchased off Amazon for $7 each.

Delivery

The boxes went out on April 11. I dressed up as a courier and drove to each agency. Apparently nobody questions you if you are holding a clipboard and a semi-official looking form.

Results

As of present 4 of the 5 recipients opened the box and scanned the QR code. That's nearly twice the standard open rate for most direct mail campaigns (42.2% according to the Print and Mail Communications Association). The open rate for e-mails is around 21.5%. I also talked to a recruiter from one of the agencies two days after I posted about the boxes.