With just over two weeks to go UKG is pulling out the stops to support its independent retail customers with tweaked PoS and supportive marketing.
The support starts ‘home and away’ at UKG. The activity is ramping up at the Dewsbury based publisher – with free PoS for retailers, free cards for all of its staff to send as well as social media and marketing campaign.
As Ceri Stirland, director of marketing explained: “We have listened to our independent customers who wanted the flexibility of running Thinking of You Week activity outside the official dates [Sept 5-Oct 1], we have developed PoS which makes no mention of the dates.”
Meanwhile, over the other side of the world, UKG’s sister company, John Sands took to the streets of Melbourne to bang the drum for Thinking of You Week, which they brought forward to June.
John Sands instigated a card giveaway event, which saw members of the public in the Australian city write free cards to friends and loved ones (in a similar vein to the PR stunt organised by the UK GCA last September), which the Aussie publisher then posted for them. It also made a video featuring some of the card senders with recordings of who the people were sending their cards to and why they were thinking of them.
Click here to watch the video:
UKG is sharing the video with the message: ‘Need a little inspiration on who to send a card to this #ThinkingofYou week? If so, have a little watch of this video from our friends at John Sands.’
The Yorkshire publisher has been continuing its massive support of charities. Working with the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, UKG’s Special Editions division has run a design a charity Christmas card competiton.
The publisher recently invited the winner of the competition, youngster Elizabeth Lee, spent time with the creative teams and had a tour of the business, where she was able to learn how her design will be brought to life. Commenting on the tour Elizabeth said “Oh wow – it’s so exciting seeing how it all happens. Everyone’s so clever!”
The winning design will go on sale later this year at Forget Me Not house and in their retail stores, with all proceeds going to the charity.
Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice supports families confronted with the news that their child has a life-shortening condition. The charity needs to raise £4 million each year and with just 4% coming from the government, they rely on the goodwill of individuals and organisations for the remainder.
Of the initiative Katie Dilnot, Special Editions’ business development manager, comments “We have supported FMN for a number of years and wanted to explore more opportunities to help them raise funds.”
