That’s so very true. Except that email is essentially free, so you can reach 10,000 potential customers hoping to get one sale out of it. It still costs time.
In many ways business is the same as always. Success stories often have one thing in common. Somebody invests their time and/or money into reaching a well defined client in a surprising, engaging, and memorable way. It’s extremely difficult to do that with junk mail, electronic or otherwise.
If you care about the environment and want to go green then stay off the plane. I can’t tell you how many times I have been on shoots where the agency will roll in 6 deep and the client will bring in 4 because it is 15 degrees in Minn or Boston or Ohio and 70 in LA.
Hire the local dude to shoot that portrait in studio or that product on white . Stay off the plane and I will stop sending you junk mail.
But Rob, if you guys don’t even look at the physical promos when you receive them, why would photographers think they’d have a chance in hell with a digital promo? I’ve heard sop many stories of photogs printing and sending out 30 page books and then calling up, and the creative has to look through piles to find them. Maybe I should start a firm that specializes in hand delivery, sort of like a jury summons to maximize impact.
How also do we manage in an artistic field where some of us actually began our careers with film and the end result was a printed piece? And I’ve so many times heard from art buyers and editors whose work is 80% print media that they like to see a photographer’s work printed, to actually see how a photographer will treat the final print. And I myself still like to see my work printed and hold it in my hands, regardless if it looks nice on my monitor.
I don’t have the energy to pipe up on this one. The best creatives are anxious to find innovative talent anywhere and anyhow. Amazing work is being done that is inspiring, intriguing, and challenging – but the majority of work that is being produced is just produced to fill the pages of ill-directed magazines. Editors believe readers have to be spoon-fed directives on what to consume. Contents need to be blatantly straightforward, or consumers will be lost. Items featured have to be affordable or consumers will be angry. Photography need to be simple, balanced and informational because readers will cancel subscriptions en masse if they have to look at a photograph twice – or rotate the page slightly to read a label. Forget about tension and white space in an image…dead space is worse then dead air in television to the mass publishers. The conflict between creative photographers trying to make gorgeous, lush, arresting work and art directors determined to get just the facts in a photograph is not new – advertisers choose the recipient of their advertising dollars based on demographics not aesthesis and if you believe the directive of magazine decision makers, consumers have no appreciation for photography and they are unable to discern to quality and craftsmanship that makes an images great.
When I started in the business editorial pages were the gateway to bigger and better things, today it seems no one is interested in my tear sheets. Seeing 30lbs of promotion only makes me feel better about myself. I have worked hard, met interesting challenges, saved a few editors asses, made some great images and had my name stamped on some images that I would not admit to shooting in a million years…clients come and stay, some come only one time, friendships have be made and respect earned. I feel great that I am still in business, I am proud of my portfolio – and I completely understand that I provide a service and that I am one of many that can do the job. Feeling interchangeable is a little rough on my ego, but I can take pride in making a place in this industry amongst those 30lbs of promotions.
One art director can easily generate thousands and thousands of pounds of waste per week. I wouldn’t worry about your super targeted oversized postcard.
Consistently working is about being on several AD/PE’s short list which does not come from impersonal poorly designed mass-produced postcards, it comes from face-to-face meetings, introductions from established colleagues, a hospitable reputation, solid work ethic, and attentive grooming of relationships.
If you have a strong new body of work, spend your time with a graphic designer and develop a proper campaign with a consistent branding to showcase your work. It will be appreciated by those who receive it.
I have friends that have been out of work thanks to the decline of printing. It is a nice thing to send emails, it is work and time but what is not. I am trying it and I am not sure if anyone gets the email but I feel like I am doing my best.I am a happy poor photographer so I am going to be happy trying.I find if I call and ask nicely to the one that answers the phone can do nice things to get your email seen.I will see how that works. I try to be me in my emails from the heart thank God for spell check. I was the one looking out the window at school.You can never get to where you think you should be thinking to much just one click and there is a chance some thing good might happen to get you closer to where you are going.Be happy along the way makes life a nice thing.
Ha, ‘photography’ is the new black.
Even more amusing – How many lbs of paper will “first-stop” be sending to CDs/ADs/Eds ? How effective will first-stop be in turning the tide or getting the photographers work in front of a hiring creative?
The solution?
Less supply. The market is glutted with image resources. This lowers prices/rates, and brings in the ever present concern of ROI.
30lbs /6 creatives = 5lbs of mailers each /10 work days = .5lb of mailers per day.
Let’s say a postcard weighs 7 grams. 4 postcards to the ounce.
64 postcards to the pound. Not everyone sends a single postcard. Lets create some averages. Minimum mailer size: 2 postcards. Maximum mailer equivalent to say 48 postcards. Each creative received 160 – 7 mailers every two weeks.
15 Comments
“E-promo vs. mailer” is the new “film vs. digital.” Only more annoying and with fewer ponytails.
@William Anthony, I hope you’re right, because digital eventually won. Go green!
Rob, did you change your type? APE seems a bit different, almost uber skinny. Yeah the typography is way different.
Makes it hard to know what to do. Nobody opens emails and print promos just get trashed.
@Josh
That’s so very true. Except that email is essentially free, so you can reach 10,000 potential customers hoping to get one sale out of it. It still costs time.
In many ways business is the same as always. Success stories often have one thing in common. Somebody invests their time and/or money into reaching a well defined client in a surprising, engaging, and memorable way. It’s extremely difficult to do that with junk mail, electronic or otherwise.
If you care about the environment and want to go green then stay off the plane. I can’t tell you how many times I have been on shoots where the agency will roll in 6 deep and the client will bring in 4 because it is 15 degrees in Minn or Boston or Ohio and 70 in LA.
Hire the local dude to shoot that portrait in studio or that product on white . Stay off the plane and I will stop sending you junk mail.
@Photographer,
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Yes, hire local! Good local talent actually does exist, really, it’s not an urban legend.
But Rob, if you guys don’t even look at the physical promos when you receive them, why would photographers think they’d have a chance in hell with a digital promo? I’ve heard sop many stories of photogs printing and sending out 30 page books and then calling up, and the creative has to look through piles to find them. Maybe I should start a firm that specializes in hand delivery, sort of like a jury summons to maximize impact.
@J. Wesley Brown,
strip-o-gram /prom-o-gram!!
How also do we manage in an artistic field where some of us actually began our careers with film and the end result was a printed piece? And I’ve so many times heard from art buyers and editors whose work is 80% print media that they like to see a photographer’s work printed, to actually see how a photographer will treat the final print. And I myself still like to see my work printed and hold it in my hands, regardless if it looks nice on my monitor.
I don’t have the energy to pipe up on this one. The best creatives are anxious to find innovative talent anywhere and anyhow. Amazing work is being done that is inspiring, intriguing, and challenging – but the majority of work that is being produced is just produced to fill the pages of ill-directed magazines. Editors believe readers have to be spoon-fed directives on what to consume. Contents need to be blatantly straightforward, or consumers will be lost. Items featured have to be affordable or consumers will be angry. Photography need to be simple, balanced and informational because readers will cancel subscriptions en masse if they have to look at a photograph twice – or rotate the page slightly to read a label. Forget about tension and white space in an image…dead space is worse then dead air in television to the mass publishers. The conflict between creative photographers trying to make gorgeous, lush, arresting work and art directors determined to get just the facts in a photograph is not new – advertisers choose the recipient of their advertising dollars based on demographics not aesthesis and if you believe the directive of magazine decision makers, consumers have no appreciation for photography and they are unable to discern to quality and craftsmanship that makes an images great.
When I started in the business editorial pages were the gateway to bigger and better things, today it seems no one is interested in my tear sheets. Seeing 30lbs of promotion only makes me feel better about myself. I have worked hard, met interesting challenges, saved a few editors asses, made some great images and had my name stamped on some images that I would not admit to shooting in a million years…clients come and stay, some come only one time, friendships have be made and respect earned. I feel great that I am still in business, I am proud of my portfolio – and I completely understand that I provide a service and that I am one of many that can do the job. Feeling interchangeable is a little rough on my ego, but I can take pride in making a place in this industry amongst those 30lbs of promotions.
One art director can easily generate thousands and thousands of pounds of waste per week. I wouldn’t worry about your super targeted oversized postcard.
Consistently working is about being on several AD/PE’s short list which does not come from impersonal poorly designed mass-produced postcards, it comes from face-to-face meetings, introductions from established colleagues, a hospitable reputation, solid work ethic, and attentive grooming of relationships.
If you have a strong new body of work, spend your time with a graphic designer and develop a proper campaign with a consistent branding to showcase your work. It will be appreciated by those who receive it.
Most future clients will hunt out the great work.
I have friends that have been out of work thanks to the decline of printing. It is a nice thing to send emails, it is work and time but what is not. I am trying it and I am not sure if anyone gets the email but I feel like I am doing my best.I am a happy poor photographer so I am going to be happy trying.I find if I call and ask nicely to the one that answers the phone can do nice things to get your email seen.I will see how that works. I try to be me in my emails from the heart thank God for spell check. I was the one looking out the window at school.You can never get to where you think you should be thinking to much just one click and there is a chance some thing good might happen to get you closer to where you are going.Be happy along the way makes life a nice thing.
Ha, ‘photography’ is the new black.
Even more amusing – How many lbs of paper will “first-stop” be sending to CDs/ADs/Eds ? How effective will first-stop be in turning the tide or getting the photographers work in front of a hiring creative?
The solution?
Less supply. The market is glutted with image resources. This lowers prices/rates, and brings in the ever present concern of ROI.
30lbs /6 creatives = 5lbs of mailers each /10 work days = .5lb of mailers per day.
Let’s say a postcard weighs 7 grams. 4 postcards to the ounce.
64 postcards to the pound. Not everyone sends a single postcard. Lets create some averages. Minimum mailer size: 2 postcards. Maximum mailer equivalent to say 48 postcards. Each creative received 160 – 7 mailers every two weeks.
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