Online greeting card operator Thortful has teamed up with comedy.co.uk, the website of the fan-run British Comedy Guide (BCG) in a competition to find the best funny ideas for its greeting card portfolio.
British Comedy Guide stakes its claim as the world’s most-visited website about British comedy, serving millions of users each year with over a million pages of information and entertainment. The BCG website, owned and operated jointly by Mark Boosey and Aaron Brown, is dedicated to the promotion and celebration of British comedy and as such is deemed fertile ground for Thortful to be able to tap into the nation’s funny folk.
Thortful is offering £550 in prize money (£250 for the first prize winner and three runners-up prizes of £100 each), plus royalties on the cards produced which will be on sale on its site for a minimum of three months.
‘From slapstick humour to pun-filled one-liners we want to hear you, so get your creative hats on and see if your humour has got what it takes to become birthday card-worthy,’ is the message from Thortful.
Even those not selected as the winner or a runner-up, Thortful may still opt to make a card from the joke or pun, in which case the copywriter will receive a promo code to use on the site, and royalties on all sales.
In the open brief, entrants are asked to think up a short and entertaining fresh caption that could go on a birthday card. The only stipulation is that it should be ‘family-friendly, so nothing too dark or offensive. The entry must be your own creation and must not infringe on the rights of anyone else.’
Entry to the competition (accessed via the BCG site https://www.comedy.co.uk/pro/opportunities/thortful/), is open until the end of 13 September.
This competition is just one way Thortful is looking to maintain a fresh stream of content to its site and provide income for 2,000+ ‘creators’. While roughly 20% of the 30,000 designs come from existing card publishers, the vast majority (the remaining 80%) are freelance designers or hobbyists, many of whom were reliant on the royalties they received from Thortful during lockdown.
Sharing her thanks for the income having her designs on Thortful has brought, Sophie Munro of Pack a Punch Designs wrote: “I don’t quite have the words to explain how grateful I am for Thortful. As lockdown started my partner had just started a new job in construction and unfortunately, he was let go without any financial support. With Thortful tirelessly working on mine and other creators’ behalf, it’s meant I’ve been able to support my family financially during these difficult times. When I first started creating cards at the end of 2016, I had no idea that it would one day become my full time job, and that a company like Thortful, who not only pay us creators a fair amount but have also shown me so much unwavering support and guidance would come into my life. Sometimes I actually can’t believe I get to put the random and unsavoury things that pop in my head onto a card and call it my job. I am so grateful for everything you have done for me and my family – if I could hug every one of you right now I would (but it’s against government guidelines) Thank you!!”
Top: Thortful is now offering over 30,000 card designs from its site.
