Custom Influencer Boxes
A PR box is opened once, on camera, by someone who is not going to re-record it because your lid was stiff. Everything in this build is aimed at making that single take work, and almost nothing in it is about protection.
- Builds
- Rigid magnetic lid, lid and base, drawer boxes
- Board
- 1.5–2 mm grayboard, wrapped
- Inserts
- Layered card platforms, die-cut trays, molded pulp — printed, not bare
Get a price for Influencer Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Design the first four seconds
The usable footage starts when the lid moves and ends when the contents are visible. If that takes ten seconds of tearing, digging and unwrapping, most of it is cut — and what survives is the product, not your brand.
A magnetic lid opening one-handed to reveal everything at once is the shape that works. It costs more than any other closure and it is the one line of the budget that is genuinely doing the campaign's job.
Record yourself opening a sample on a phone, one-handed, before committing. Problems are obvious immediately and invisible on a drawing.
Raise the hero item
Laid flat, six items look like six items. Raised on a platform with the rest arranged around it, one of them is clearly the point and the others are context. That is a layout decision and it costs almost nothing.
Stacked card sheets under the hero do it with no tooling at all — the full set of insert options is in our insert material notes.
What films badly
- Loose void fill, which reads as landfill and has to be dug through on camera.
- Individually wrapped items, which turn one reveal into six small ones.
- Bare gray pulp or brown card against a printed exterior.
- A tamper seal torn across the lid, which makes the box unreusable and looks cheap.
- Anything needing scissors, which stops the recording entirely.
Print the inside, because that is what is on screen
The spend is inverted from retail packaging: the exterior barely appears, and the interior is the set. Most PR boxes get this exactly the wrong way round.
| Lid interior | In shot for the whole video once the box is open |
|---|---|
| Insert surface | The background to every product shot |
| Box walls | Visible from above, which is how it is filmed |
| Exterior | On screen for about a second |
Runs are small, so tooling is the cost
A campaign is fifty to five hundred boxes, not five thousand, and there will be another campaign next season. That makes a shared dieline across campaigns the single biggest saving available — one box tool, a new print file and a new insert each time.
Digital print makes the short run viable, and the insert is where each campaign gets its own character without paying for new box tooling.
Make it worth keeping
A rigid box with a working closure ends up on a shelf, in shot, behind the same person for months. A box that is obviously disposable is in a bin the same day and the campaign ends with the video.
That afterlife costs nothing extra to design for: build it rigid, leave the closure intact, and do not print a date on it.
Influencer Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Builds
- Rigid magnetic lid, lid and base, drawer boxes
- Board
- 1.5–2 mm grayboard, wrapped
- Inserts
- Layered card platforms, die-cut trays, molded pulp — printed, not bare
- Interior-first: lid, walls and insert; exterior is on screen for a second
- Runs
- Campaign quantities; shared dieline across seasons
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. One side or both, with spot colors where a match has to hold.
- Color
- CMYK as standard. Uncoated and kraft stocks print lighter and warmer; a spot color is the only exact match.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, creasing plus or minus 0.5 mm, confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, made once and kept. Foil and emboss dies per artwork, also kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade board and inks where the carton touches food, with the interior left plain.
- Sustainability
- Mono-material board wherever the product allows; recycled-content and FSC stocks; no claim printed the pack does not earn.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build influencer boxes on
A folding carton is one sheet of board, so the board is the product. These are the stocks we run for cartons, what each is good at, and where it lets you down.
Natural kraft
Unbleached folding board. Warm, hides marks, costs least. Mutes color — one or two flat colors print well, photographs do not.
250–350gsm sleeves; 14–24pt cartonsWhite SBS
Solid bleached sulfate: bright, coated, the retail carton standard. Takes accurate color and every finish. Shows scuffs sooner than kraft.
14–24ptWhite lined chipboard
A recycled gray core under a white printing face. Cheaper than SBS and slightly duller; the back of the sheet stays gray.
16–24ptKraft-look coated
A kraft face over a coated inner. The natural look with a barrier behind it — the answer where oil, grease or moisture would mark plain kraft.
14–20ptRecycled-content board
Post-consumer fiber with a gray-brown cast. Right for outers and inner components; poor for bright whites and photography.
16–22ptMicro-flute E and F
A fine corrugated layer where a carton needs structure it cannot get from board — a large panel, a heavy product, a box that ships alone.
E 1.5 mm; F 0.8 mmUncoated and textured
No clay coat, or a linen or laid grain. Print reads softer and warmer; a deboss goes deeper. Photographs do not sit well on it.
280–350gsmMetallised and pearlescent
A metallic or pearl face for a shelf that needs to catch light. Costly, and it fights a photograph — a mark or a pattern suits it better.
16–20ptNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Every finish here is a decision about light on a shelf, not about luxury.
Matte lamination
Reads considered, hides marks, takes a ballpoint.
Gloss lamination
Lifts color; glares under shop lighting.
Soft-touch
Velvet in the hand; shows fingerprints in a bag.
Hot foil
Real metal leaf — the most reliable premium signal.
Emboss / deboss
Shape with no ink; works in the dark.
Spot UV
Gloss shapes on a matte field.
Uncoated kraft
Warm, natural, mutes color.
Textured stock
Texture in the paper; cannot scuff off.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing a folding carton so the die comes out right: influencer boxes
Measure the product, not the box it is in now. A carton is built around what has to fit inside it, assembled — cap on, lid fitted, folded if it folds — at its widest point in each direction. Send those three numbers and say which is which.
- Length x width x height
- Internal, always. External dimensions include the board and are what the carrier measures, not what the product needs.
- Clearance
- 2–3 mm a side for a snug fit; more where an insert or void fill goes in. A carton cut exactly to the product is slow to pack and transmits every knock.
- Board thickness
- Heavier board takes internal space from the product. It matters most on small boxes, where four walls of 24pt is a real share of the cavity.
- Varies between batches?
- Glass, textiles, molded parts and cured soap all do. Measure several and build to the largest.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm on folding board. Confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Units
- Metric or imperial, as long as you say which. Mixing them in one spec is where mistakes happen.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Influencer Boxes in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about influencer boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What should I spend the budget on?
The lid and the interior. The exterior is on screen for about a second; the inside is the set for the whole video.
Should items be individually wrapped?
No. Every wrapper turns one reveal into another small one, and most of it gets cut.
Can I afford this at 200 boxes?
Yes, with digital print and a dieline shared across campaigns. Tooling, not unit price, is the cost that matters here.
How do I get the box kept?
Rigid build, closure that still works after opening, no tamper seal across the lid, and no date printed on it.
What is the minimum order?
100 boxes — campaign runs are the normal shape of an order here.
Should the box be scented or have sound?
No gimmicks. A magnetic lid closing with a click is the only sound worth designing for.
What should I spend the budget on?
The lid and the interior. The exterior is on screen for about a second; the inside is the set for the whole video.
Should items be individually wrapped?
No. Every wrapper turns one reveal into another small one, and most of it gets cut.
Can I afford this at 200 boxes?
Yes, with digital print and a dieline shared across campaigns. Tooling, not unit price, is the cost that matters here.
How do I get the box kept?
Rigid build, closure that still works after opening, no tamper seal across the lid, and no date printed on it.
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