The GCA president and director of marketing of UK Greetings, Ceri Stirland strongly urges publishers and retailers to pump up the passion for Spring Seasons: “A key concern for the industry is an increasing apathy towards seasons, especially the spring events.”
As she stressed to PG Buzz: “Seasons account for 25% of the single card market and so it’s essential that as publishers and retailers, we support the seasons and continue to invest in them by producing great products that ensures everyone delivers profitable sales.”
In support of this, the GCA has developed a whole suite of PoS for each of the Spring Seasons events, that are available to download from the association’s website. www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk.
“The initial idea to develop the PoS came about as a result of a conversation with Cardgains’ joint md Chris Dyson and the buying group’s marketing director Penny Shaw a couple of years ago,” explains GCA ceo Sharon Little. “The UK Greetings’ studio has developed completely new and fresh designs for this year that we are delighted that retailers are downloading and using.”
The artwork also incorporates the greeting card industry tagline ‘Send a card, deliver a smile’ which won a landslide victory at the polling station at PG Live last year.
For each of the Spring Seasons there are landscape and portrait format posters across A1, A3 and A4 sizes, social media banner imagery for Facebook and Twitter as well as images for company email sign offs.
The artwork has been designed to recognise the changing shape of the Spring Season events, making them more inclusive.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Sarah-Jane Porter, GCA Council member and head of licensing of Moonpig who has noticed that “seasonal sends are becoming more diverse and encompassing”. She cites “Valentine’s Day becoming more of a celebration of relationships with captions like ‘Galentine’s’ and ‘From the Pet’ as well as ‘children to parent’ sends becoming more popular, while Mother’s Day is turning into a broader celebration of women and acknowledging the maternal influences in your life.”
