Bright downloadable artwork features bunting and social posts thanks to Raspberry Blossom
Put up the bunting – it’s Valentine’s Day! Yes, the GCA’s new toolkit for retailers has some special additions this year in the shape of downloadable bunting, along with new Instagram artwork too.
New GCA council member Rebecca Green, creative director and co-owner of Raspberry Blossom, has created this year’s seasonal marketing toolkits which retailers can download free of charge to print out their own point-of-sale artwork, and first up is 14 February’s big celebration of love.
“I couldn’t wait to inject the Raspberry Blossom style of colour and joy into the designs,” Rebecca told PG Buzz, and she explained she wanted to create a similar look across Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Father’s Day so “it’s recognised as a GCA initiative” while still reflecting the quite different events.
Drawing all the lettering and icons specially for the project “to inject playfulness”, Rebecca’s concept was to use colour blocking with hand-drawn elements to enforce the season message.
She added: “I also created a little lock up for the GCA strapline of ’send a card deliver a smile’ – the little card in an envelope houses the message and I took the word smile and incorporated a little smile within the letters.
“With my background in marketing, in particular shopper marketing, I thought about a few additions that would be useful for retailers to use. There’s a social post to promote the coming seasonal event as I thought this would be a handy tool with so much focus on social these days. Then the second was printable bunting which people could easily print out and decorate the store or shop window – or even their offices!”
To help retailers promote these significant card-sending occasions, all four toolkits are available on the GCA website for download, including landscape and portrait PDF versions of the artwork ready to print at A3 or can be downscaled to A4, a portrait frame with blank centre for personalised messaging, email signature, bunting, and images and MP4 for Instagram posts and story. They can be printed on a home or office machine, taken to a High Street outlet, or the GCA’s printer supplier members can help.
GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson explained that the toolkits are designed to help retailers promote both the occasion and their business, “reminding customers and community about the joy of sending and receiving cards”, and the marketing resources “can be used to help build a story for your community and customers, along with adding your own cards and stories, and contacting your local newspaper, radio and TV.”
There are also blogs available to help with PR information, including the size of the market and trends for each occasion – Why Are Valentine’s Cards So Popular?, Why Do We Have Bunnies On Our Easter Cards?, The Origins Of Mother’s Day, and Celebrating The UK’s Dads – as well as tips for sharing the messages on social media with Using Social Media As A Driver For Sales.
“Thank you to Rebecca for her lovely designs,” Amanda said, “It’s the first time she’s done this – and she’s also designed the GCA Wall which will be at Spring Fair.”
The wall, which is right at the front entrance into the greeting card hall in Hall 3 at Birmingham’s NEC for Spring Fair, 5-8 February, is an expansion of the industry association’s work to showcase its members, with both sides of the display having shelving to display publishers’ cards.
Rebecca added: “It’s a great initiative! I continued the colour-blocking look and feel from the spring toolkit on to this display with information on what the GCA does for our industry, including the up-and-coming events and some great facts about the purchasing of cards.
“This is such a great way of showcasing your business and driving traffic to your stand. Any additional marketing at shows is like gold dust so this is amazing for companies particular the smaller ones who don’t have marketing budgets. I can’t wait to see the display at the show in just over a week’s time!”
Top: Artist Rebecca Green has modernised the GCA’s marketing kits
