Roundtable brainstorm shares ideas for re-engaging people with their love of greeting cards
It’s full steam ahead for #Cardmitment, Caring At Christmas, Festive Friday and Thinking Of You Week as a whole host of retailers and members of the GCA Council brainstormed ideas for this year’s events.
An animated few hours saw a free flow of ideas that build on the successes of previous years’ campaigns, suggesting improvements and putting forward some easy wins as well as blue sky thinking ideas.
The roundtable discussion took place yesterday, 30 July, following The Henries Awards 2024 live judging session with over 40 retailers from indies, small and large groups, national chains and supermarkets taking part – with each judge going away with a whole pack of info and posters to help re-engage people with their love of sending greeting cards, as well as learning about initiatives from their peers.
Having feasted their eyes voting on The Henries finalists in the morning, the afternoon drew on their grey matter, putting their retailing experience and inventive ways towards the collective good of the industry.
Introducing the afternoon session GCA ceo Amanda Fergusson said: “We’re all here to share the joy of cards and make sure that our industry thrives – and we do that by being a team together.”
Rebecca Green, co-founder of Raspberry Blossom and who heads up the GCA pr sub-committee, shared the collateral assets of the #Cardmitment campaign, Festive Friday, Caring At Christmas, plus a sneak peek of the Card Club initiative that will be aimed at galvanising younger generations as well as other groups into the joys of card sending.
The main focus of the meeting, however, was the #Cardmitment campaign, instigated last year to counter the worrying reduction in Christmas card sending resulting from the 2022 postal strikes and exacerbated by the recent significant rises in stamp prices.
Following on from last year’s successful this year’s message will include centring on the relatively low cost of a second-class stamp – 85p this year – for which you can send a festive missive anywhere in the UK and spread the seasonal joy.
With 5,000 Cardmitment toolkits already printed, thanks to Graphite Creative, they will be sent out to retailers via several publishers to be distributed with orders and Kaye Thurgood, who owns Sincerely Yours in Shenfield and Hornchurch and was one of the #Cardmitment instigators, pointed out how publishers should avoid including these invaluable pos items in deliveries that retailers may not open until the start of 2025.
“Last year publishers were including the #Cardmitment posters in their orders that were being sent out prior to Christmas,” Kaye said. “The problem is a lot of us were placing forward orders for January that we were receiving in December, therefore we weren’t necessarily opening the boxes until after the festive season was over – so these posters were still in their boxes.
“One of the key things we need to do this year is get much more traction with the campaign earlier and one of the ideas for that is to give loads of the posters and the other items to reps and agents so they can hand them to retailers and ensure they are put to good use in good time.”
With GCA council members including Ling Design’s David Byk, Hallmark’s Fiona Pitt, David Falkner from Cardology, Nick Carey from Abacus Cards, Paper Salad’s Karen Williams, Rebecca Green from Raspberry Blossom, Danilo’s Daniel Prince, Mark Williams from Brainbox Candy, and Georgina Fihosy from AfroTouch Design in attendance, this sensible suggestion has been taken on board.
Packs can be requested from Abacus Cards, Belly Button Designs, Caroline Gardner, Emotional Rescue, GBCC/Ling Design, Hallmark, Ohh Deer, Paperlink, Paper Salad, Raspberry Blossom, Ricicle Cards, Second Nature, Stormy Knight, and UK Greetings, as well as buying group Cardgains, and retailer Cardzone, plus downloaded from the GCA website – but Amanda confirmed Kaye’s suggestion will be passed on, saying: “It gives a reason for a rep or agent to visit a shop even if they don’t have an appointment.”
Heidi Early, of indie retailer and publisher Earlybird Designs in Stoke Newington and who also coordinates the Cardmitments WhatsApp group on which card retailers share thoughts and ideas, talked about the plans for Instagram challenges as well as coming up with a whole checklist for retailers.
She shared how getting behind the #Cardmitment campaign last year, she believes had a direct positive effect on her Christmas card sales, with the shop’s charity card sales up 16% year on year.
Heidi handed over to Sarah Laker, of Stationery Supplies in Marple and Wilmslow, who then shared her The Write Before Christmas initiative.
“The plan was to get a group of customers into a nice environment and write their Christmas cards in November so they were ready to send nice and early,” she explained. “My shops aren’t big enough to host so I approached a new local cafe within our town thinking we could give them some publicity as well as me.
“They willingly took it on, opening especially in the evening in mid-November, and we had coffee, mulled wine, cake, and cheese, one of my pen suppliers donated sparkly pens, another donated Washi tape and we decorated the room – the response we received from people was immense.”
Admitting that some of her die-hard customers were disappointed because they’d already written their cards by mid-November, Sarah said that this year she’s going for a date at the start of the month this year and, even though it didn’t necessarily generate huge extra sales, the sense of community and social media traction definitely made it worthwhile.
Sarah is happy to share the blueprint of the initiative, allowing others to run similar sessions under The Write Before Christmas brand. These will be shared via PG Buzz as well as on the GCA website in the coming weeks.
Jo Sorrell, owner of Cardies in Stevenage, immediately saw merit in tailoring the initiative to be run in libraries, and it was also recognised how this could also be linked to the GCA’s Caring At Christmas initiative of taking cards into local care homes to help residents who find it more difficult to get to the shops.
With the GCA’s Thinking Of You Week celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, running over 16-22 September, Amanda explained how the consumer-facing website receives a lot of traction.
And she urged everyone to make sure they publicise all events and initiatives on social media, especially Instagram and Facebook, as well as letting both the GCA and Progressive Greetings know – and not forgetting local media.
With discussions of how to get other shops involved with #Cardmitment, particularly post offices as it would boost their stamp sales, WHSmith’s Scarlett Ford mentioned that the retailer has over 200 pos in stores so would be interested in taking part.
The meeting also included discussion around Festive Friday – which falls on 29 November this year – which is closely connected to #Cardmitment as Christmas cards sent early means they’ll also spark a wave of reciprocal sending.
Not surprisingly, Royal Mail came up. With the cost of stamps being seen as an obstacle to increasing Christmas card sending David Falkner, who leads the GCA’s RM sub-committee, explained how the greetings folks’ wish of discounted stamps for Thinking Of You Week or in the run up to Christmas just isn’t on the cards, but stressed how the industry needs to build on the positives of having second class stamps at an affordable price.
As a final thought, Austin & Co’s Sean Austin, from Malvern, explained how he has run campaigns equating the cost of sending a card to the price cup of coffee many people buy daily: “A stamp is less than half a cup of coffee – and a coffee is half the price of a pack of Christmas cards. It really puts it into perspective for people who think cards are too expensive.”
*More on the meeting will be shared in subsequent PG Buzz editions, in PG’s September edition and on the GCA website.
