Robot Salesmen case study — The Eleven Project

01 — The challenge

A crowded field, and a point of view.

Travel advice online is crowded with generic top-ten lists. The goal was a guide that sounds like a person who has actually been there: ten destinations, from Sedona and Route 66 to Montréal and Leelanau.

That meant a brand with a point of view. A name with a sense of humor, a look that feels like paper and a rubber stamp instead of a template, and content organized by destination so each guide can stand on its own.

Snapshot

Brand: Robot Salesmen Ltd.
Owner: The Eleven Project LLC
What: Independent travel guides and field notes
Destinations: Ten, from Sedona to Montréal
Our role: Name, identity, content, site and email
Live site: robotsalesmen.ltd ↗

02 — The approach

Paper, ink, and a rubber stamp.

A letter, not a listing. Each guide is written as a dispatch from the field, on a cream letterhead with a red seal and blue-pen touches. The look carries the voice.

One brand, ten places. The system stays the same from guide to guide, so readers always know where they are, while every destination keeps its own character.

Quietly monetized. The site is supported by partner links for stays, tours, car rental and books, with no display ads. Partners include Stay22, Viator, DiscoverCars and Bookshop.org.

An email list with a name. Readers who want more can join the Field Manuals mailing list, which keeps the same voice going.

Field notes from ten places.

03 — What we did

Eight of the eleven, on our own brand.

Naming →

The name and the robot-salesman character came first. Everything else follows from them.

Positioning →

A travel guide that reads like a letter from a friend who has actually been there, for people tired of generic top-ten lists.

Visual identity →

A cream letterhead, a red seal and blue-pen touches, so the look carries the voice.

Content →

Ten destination guides, each written as a dispatch from the field.

Websites →

A fast, quiet site with no ads, built so each guide stands on its own and can be found by someone searching for that place.

Email →

The Field Manuals mailing list, which continues the same letter-from-the-field voice.

Partnerships →

Partner links for stays, tours, car rental and books, set up to support the site without display ads.

Launches →

Taking the brand and all ten guides live together, so the site felt complete on day one.

04 — From the files

A few guides to start with.

Sedona Route 66 Asheville Montréal Leelanau All ten travel guides →

05 — Where it stands

Live now, open to read.

Robot Salesmen is live at robotsalesmen.ltd with all ten destination guides. It is also our proving ground: the naming, identity, content and email work we do for clients is tested here first.

Visit robotsalesmen.ltd ↗

Robot Salesmen Ltd.
Ten travel guides, written like letters.