How to create a PR Mailer that Makes an Impact

At Julia Testa, we love designing unforgettable PR Mailers for businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs alike. They elevate the products they display and create lasting impressions on anyone lucky enough to receive them. And we're here to let you in on the secret - how to create a product gift box your clients, customers, editors, and influencers will love.

The Color Story:

Does your product have a signature brand color or new product color you’d like to showcase?  This is always a great place to start. We have found that amplifying the color story of the brand makes the product stand out but most importantly the colors become memorable.

Color was originally derived from flowers – paint and dyes were all made from the earths colors. What better way to make those pantone colors pop than with a color-matched floral piece.

What would you rather receive, a yellow box with a yellow hairdryer inside? Or a yellow hairdryer laying in a bed of yellow flowers to mimic the yellow box with a double satin ribbon tied around the display that matches the text on the hairdryer box?

Tell Your Story During The Unwrapping:

Don’t get me wrong, everyone gets excited when they receive a gift! However, the experience of opening the gift can sometimes be very repetitive and familiar. Wrapping paper or a gift bag are just not going to cut it if you’re trying to stand out in New York – sorry folks.

Here’s an example of experiencing a product while opening a gift:

Let’s say your product story begins with a cactus ingredient that was unearthed by archeologists in a desert. The cactus ingredient was then used by some of the top scientists in the world to manufacture the most cutting edge moisturizer. Now you have the back-story.

For the opening of your gift to editors or clients, we could take the product and bury it in an all-organic wood container and fill the container with desert sand. Planting cacti and succulents around the edging of the container, we could then add makeup brushes to the display with an archeologist themed map with calligraphy instructions. The map would beautiful instruct the recipients to use the makeup brushed to unearth/dust off the first layer of sand from the display.

VIOLA! The recipient has now participated in the experience of being an archeologist and finding the product under the sand. Not only was this a fun and interactive experience of finding the product, but it creates a really fun Instagram video moment.

Play On The Senses And Use Your Ingredients:

So far we have hit two of the five senses. We described the importance of using color, and we covered the use of touch with experience. Now it’s time to call attention to number three – sense of smell.

As florists, we are bias. We think flowers are the most important material to use and that they can be the best form of scent. However that’s not always the case. And we will talk about that in a minute. Of course, if you’re working with a beauty product, or especially a fragrance with floral notes, you’re almost required to include the ingredients into the design of your PR Mailer. The same concept applies to fashion clients with floral fabrics and floral patterns – of course, use those flowers! If the product has lavender in it, using lavender in your creative PR mailer is definitely a good idea.

For example: What’s better? Reading that the product has lavender inside of it on the packaging, or opening a gift that has a wind of lavender upon arrival that heightens your sense of smell and gives you a feeling of exploring the product ingredients for the first time. Let’s face it, most people know how lavender smells and what it looks like. But it’s our job to make them experience smelling the lavender and seeing it in a way that makes them feel like they are smelling it for the first time or in a different way.

Some products have material or ingredients that are not directly related to florals but still have a nod to mother earth. For example -- more rustic or earth elements like different kinds of wood, different types of metals or hardware, glass, or stone. It’s important to know that we work with these materials during our design process as well, and so should you.

We welcome you to approach us with PR Mailers that need our expertise in thinking outside the box – even if it’s not directly floral related with a floral print, floral ingredient, and so on.

As much as plastic is frowned upon more recently, the use of plexi, acrylic, or plastic can sometimes be impactful and luxurious if customized with adhesives and other branding elements. When using plexi or acrylic, it’s always a good idea to suggest an alternative use for the container to reuse or repurpose. Or, simply set up a recycle strategy for after the initiative is over for how the recipients can dispose of the packaging in an appropriate way.

It’s good to know that our team here at Julia Testa uses a CNC machine regularly to cut logos, custom containers, point-of-sale displays, and other custom built designs using plexi, acrylic, MDF, and wood. Most things that can be cut from plexi or acrylic can also be cut from wood. We also have many resources for welding and metal work.

Video is everything. The Future Of Instagrammable Moments:

The best Instagram moments have video now. Sorry to say, but the days of still shots are becoming less and less entertaining and more easily scrolled through. You can’t just have a photobooth with fun photos, we need interactive photobooth moments with GIF stations and props to pose with. The same logic should be applied to PR Mailers.

For PR Mailers, if you’re going to put in the thought and creativity to make your gift interactive and the opening and unveiling interesting and fun, you should hope for a video by your clients, influencers and editors! Still shots are still great to capture color and branding elements like the logo, but the real shot you want is in the laughing, fun, excitement, and capturing the enjoyment of receiving the gift.

For this reason, we predict that the future of PR mailers will also include sound, music, and taste. We are looking forward to playing around with ideas that include music boxes, custom video filters and sound bites for social, maybe even the inclusion of something similar to a singing telegram when the PR Mailers are delivered could be cool! We are currently collaborating with bakeries and caterers as well. For example, one of our upcoming mailers includes mandarin that you can pick/eat off the tree because the products main ingredient is mandarin.

We strive to embody your brand, your brands story, and your products journey and purpose. We look forward to continued success with your product launches including PR mailing initiatives, events, floral installations, and gifting programs.

Feel free to email info@juliatesta.com if you have any questions or feedback for us! You can also check out our PR Mailer Gallery , Branded Events, In-Store Events, or Experiential Projects to get inspired. We look forward to getting creative with you.