After the success of the first ever Just a Card Week, founder of the Just a Card campaign and card publisher Sarah Hamilton was invited to talk on Robert Elms’ popular BBC Radio London last week (17 July) about the campaign which supports shopping in independents, along with gallery owner, Snowden Flood.
Sarah told Robert all about the background of the campaign and how the awareness is growing not only among retailers, but also the public. “The window stickers and enamel badges have been great at promoting the campaign to the public, with lots of people coming into the shop, or spotting the badge and asking all about the campaign,” Sarah told Robert.
Sarah and Snowden also talked about a tweet from Imagined Things Bookshop in Harrogate that went viral earlier this month after the owner Georgia Duffy tweeted that “We only took £12.34 today…if anyone was thinking about buying a book now would be a great time! Things have been tough recently – today the worst day ever. A card, a book, anything makes a huge difference to a small business like ours. We’d be very grateful for your support.”
Within the day the tweet had received 157,000 impressions on Twitter with many people getting in touch and ordering books from the shop. Sarah shared the post on the Just a Card social media platforms which further extended the reach of the post. She told Robert how Georgia’s post has actually united independents across the UK: “the tweet made it OK for indie shopkeepers to admit that being in business is actually really hard work and it’s really difficult doing business as an independent in the retail landscape today.”
The first ever Just a Card Week in June, organised by Sarah Hamilton and the Just a Card team, with the aim of spreading the campaign’s message to a wider audience, was a huge success. The week included an amazing giveaway with prizes from The Design Trust, Makelight, Jehane Boden-Spiers and Sarah Hamilton herself, together with a daily Instagram hashtag challenge and social media tutorial films for small businesses, produced by Makelight’s Emily Quinton – which are available on the Just a Card website.
“During Just a Card week the campaign increased its reach on Instagram by thousands,” says Kate Marsden, owner of design business Made By Mrs M and volunteer for the Just a Card campaign. This, combined with the newly launched Just a Card shop window stickers – which now appear in over 2,000 shops around the UK (helped by Cardgains’ support of the campaign) – and enamel pins, is helping significantly to bring the aims of the campaign to the attention of the general public. “The team are determined this will ultimately alter people’s shopping habits and perceptions of independent shops and small businesses,” adds Kate.
Following on from the attention the campaign attracted during Just a Card week and the radio appearance, the team has big plans for extending the reach of Just a Card in the coming months. The campaign will once again be selling Christmas cards in conjunction with the charity Anno’s Africa and they’re planning to end the year with a bang as they organise an even bigger and better version of Indie Friday – the independents answer to the Black Friday madness in November.
- If you would like a Just a Card window sticker to display in your shop, send an A4 SAE with a large letter stamp to: The Leaping Hare Gallery and Framers, 23 Chapel Street, Easingwold, North Yorkshire, YO61 3AE.
Top: Sarah Hamilton, Robert Elms and Snowden Flood at BBC Radio London’s studios last week.
