Every Australian knows the Archibald portrait exhibition. Usually, only celebrities and politicians are honoured to get their portraits in the Archibald. We appealed to the vanity of our target audience by displaying their portraits in this prestigious exhibition.A direct mail piece invited them to collect a portrait they didn't know existed from the Art Gallery NSW.To create the portraits, we secretly sourced photos of our targets, digitally treated them to simulate different ‘paint ‘ techniques (Van Gogh, Münch, Durer, Rembrandt, Monet, etc), printed them onto canvas, stretched over wooden frames, and then applied a gel medium (very thick clear paint) over the surface to create the texture of actual brush strokes.

The finished pieces looked so genuine, even art gallery staff thought they were real oil paintings.Upon arrival at the gallery, our targets were delighted to discover their own portrait on display, creating an instant personal connection.

The direct mail piece had a 34% response rate (nearly 7 times the average).Those who attended the event were delighted to see their personal portrait displayed in Australia’s most prestigious art gallery. This generated an acquisition rate of 14% (over 23 times the average).The Society used the ‘portrait offer’ as an ongoing hook to attract further acquisitions, resulting in the largest increase in annual sponsorship in decades.