Campaign spark Kaye Thurgood gets visit and newspaper article on joy of card-sending
The snowball effect of #Cardmitment activity has been paying off with an increasing number of MPs getting behind the GCA’s campaign to boost the sending of Christmas cards – and indie retailer Kaye Thurgood hit the jackpot!
The owner of Sincerely Yours in Shenfield and Hornchurch not only had Alex Burghart, mp for Brentwood and Ongar and parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office, visit her store but he also penned an article for her local Brentwood Gazette newspaper all about it.
Kaye was the retailer whose call for action, stressing the need for the greeting card industry to pull out all the stops to re-engage the consumer with the joys and importance of sending and receiving Christmas cards, sparked the GCA’s #Cardmitment campaign, with a drop-in session at Parliament a couple of weeks ago for mps to sign their pledge to support the manifesto part of this.
Under the headline “tradition I don’t intend to give up”, and also on his own website, Alex wrote about his visit to Sincerely Yours, and said he was “amazed” that the UK greeting card industry is worth £1.5billion, “supporting publishers, designers, printers and, of course, independent and chain high street retailers”.
He revealed he sends about 500 cards himself by post each Christmas, adding: “The act of sitting down and hand writing notes to those who have been part of my life is a tradition I do not intend to give up.
“I hope you send and receive many cards this December. You will know you are not only supporting an important British industry but also, in the spirit of the season, spreading joy.”
And Kaye said: “Following the visit I’ve had lots of customers come into the store and say they’d read the article in the local paper. Customers are pleased to hear our MP is supporting small businesses in the town.”
Ben Bradshaw is the mp for Exeter and visited the Otter House site in the city where he was welcomed by md Kirsty Guy, who was very happy to meet the “card-sending advocate”.
Confirming his support to keep postage costs affordable, Ben said: “Ofcom must stick to its guns and peg stamp price increases to inflation for the next five years
“It was a pleasure to visit Otter House. In this digital age, it’s especially nice to receive a proper card and I always enjoy sending them at Christmas.”
Cardology director David Falkner was one of the GCA council members who took the #Cardmitment campaign to Parliament when he personally handed a Christmas card to his local MP Elliot Coleman, who represents Wallington and Carshalton.
Elliott is already a fan of indie retailer Calladoodles which is in Carshalton High Street near his offices, praising “the work it does to promote local artists” and has since been to visit 3D specialist Cardology at its Wallington base.
He’s also just picked the winner of his own Christmas card competition, which he’s used for his official design, signing one for prime minister Rishi Sunak, and young artist May helped Elliot switch on the festive lights in Wallington.
“It was fantastic to see how many children got involved from all across our constituency. May’s design caught my eye straight away with the beautiful colours. I also knew the Prime Minister would be a big fan of this Christmas card, and he, along with many other people, have received this card to sit on their mantelpiece this Christmas period.”
And, continuing the campaign to make people happy with a card, the Caring At Christmas initiative is ongoing with Bewilderbeest’s Iain Hamilton taking his own brand of happiness to Nowton Court Village in Bury St Edmunds this week, helping residents write to their loved ones.
“Thankfully the residents had a good sense of humour,” Iain joked,” so the Bewilderbeest cards were a hit – I think the cookies that Lucy baked and the tin of chocolates may have helped get them on side!
“I’ve just been stamping the envelopes and am now off to get the huge bundle of cards posted. A shoutout to Brian for some very entertaining stories – still causing trouble at 96!”
In Arundel, postmaster Paul Money kindly took the time to visit the town’s primary school to help the children write their cards supplied by Cherry Orchard Publishing and Tracks Publishing.
And staff from Loxleys, which prints more than 150million cards each year, visited Valley Wood care home in its home city of Sheffield to help residents write their festive messages.
“We were so pleased that the team from Loxleys called in to spend time with our residents and help them complete their Christmas card for family and friends,” said Valley Wood manager Louise Crocker. “It really did add a little extra Christmas sparkle to the day for all our residents.”
The Springs Bupa care home in Malvern, which looks after residents with dementia, is joining in the action with a call-out to its local community to spread festive cheer by sending in Christmas cards to residents which staff plan to display around the premises for everyone to enjoy.
Home manager Lesley Work said: “Sending and receiving cards is a tradition that many of our residents love, so this Christmas we wanted to make them feel extra special by showering them in cards from people from all walks of life.”
“We know that receiving a card full of festive well wishes would really mean the world to our residents. It’s a small gesture of kindness which would have such a positive impact, providing them with a great sense of warmth, support, and togetherness – the ultimate definition of festive cheer!”
Anyone who wants to send in cards can post them to The Springs Bupa Care Home, 27 Spring Lane, Malvern WR14 1AL.
At last week’s annual GCA past-presidents’ lunch, the association’s ceo Amanda Fergusson explained the ethos behind #Cardmitment, which followed the decidedly non-festive strike action by postal workers that disrupted deliveries over Christmas 2022, along with the “rumblings from Royal Mail about their plans to water down the universal service obligation” of six-days-a-week letter deliveries.
After raising funds from industry supporters to cover the campaign costs, Arena PR were recruited and, Amanda added: “We brought the industry behind us. The support and engagement from across the industry has been fantastic. We’re having so much feedback from retailers, publishers and others in the industry about how together everyone feels behind this campaign.”
She explained #Cardmitment is seeing the GCA regularly recognised in and quoted across the media, with national coverage in broadsheets, tabloids, and on BBC TV and radio, making “cards part of the narrative” and “we’ve made a detailed submission to Ofcom on behalf of the industry”, in addition to the visit to Westminster and MPs’ visits to publishers, suppliers and retailers happening across the country.
Amanda added: “This work is setting us up with contacts and a narrative, a base, that we can build in 2024 because we know Royal Mail is considering reducing their delivery to three or five days a week, and we know they want to remove the cap on the price of second-class stamps.”
