Wouldn’t it be great if Christmas card sending this year was back on the up? With at least 100,000 people employed in the industry, if everyone did their bit and sent their personal Christmas cards early, it would be off to a good start.
Now in its 6th year, Festive Friday, (which this year falls on 30 November), is the special day for everyone in the card industry (and all card senders) to start to send their personal Christmas cards. Instigated by the GCA, the idea is to create a great first wave of wonderful cards arriving in early December to get the nation in the Christmas card-sending mood. And the GCA is aiming for it to be even bigger and better than before.
The new look Festive Friday Toolkit is now live on the GCA website (www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk), giving everyone in the industry (and beyond) the free mixings to promote the event. The toolkit contains a very festive banner, a flyer, an event poster and social media imagery and email sign offs, all designed by Jack Carter, courtesy of The Art File.
Sharon Little, GCA ceo said, “One of the most popular ways for publishers to support this event has been to provide the Christmas cards for their staff to send to friends and family, either at cost or for free and let them do the job. We all have this fantastic resource – let’s use it to promote our companies and the industry as a whole.”
She added, “Many members have encouraged their team to dress up for Festive Friday card writing events and have subsidised their Christmas card post. The more cards that are sent and arrive early, the more likelihood of further waves of cards being sent in response in the lead up to Christmas. Of course, if the Friday isn’t a good day then it can always be brought forward to another day that week.”
Other ideas that have worked well in previous years is for companies and retailers to donate some (old or new) Christmas cards to a good cause. “Why not contact your local school, play centre, an elderly people’s home, charity, hospital ward for elderly people or children, community centre or church group. Give them a lovely box of free Christmas cards, details of Festive Friday and a poster to help them to organise a Christmas card sending event on the day,” suggests Sharon.
The GCA is keen to receive images of Festive Friday events, and will share any social media activity, using the tags #FestiveFriday and #Sendacarddeliverasmile
- At this year’s GCA AGM and Conference on Wednesday 17 October 2018 at Knebworth House members will be electing four new Council members. Nominations are now open for the positions, which need to be seconded by another GCA member. All GCA members should have been emailed a nomination form which must be returned to the GCA office by Friday 28 September 2018.
