Focus on Kids Cards by Max Publishing: Print, Digital Media + Events (London)

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CARD WRAP S, , BAG S, CALE NDAR S & DIA RIES t 01992 702 900 e sales@danilo.com www.danilo.com d ill Independent retailers contact Is It Art on 01926 747935 25/11/2015 15:28 15:26 18/11/2015

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Exciting NEW Ranges for Digital Gaming Properties from the UK No.1 in Licensed Greetings

CARDS â&#x20AC;˘ WRAP â&#x20AC;˘ PARTY t: +44 (0)1264 388400 e: enquiries@gemma-international.co.uk w: gemma-international.co.uk Independent retailers please contact Is It Art on 01926 747935 or via sales@isitart.co.uk

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CARDS OVERVIEW

Legends Of Love

Below: Apart from dinosaurs stomping all over kids’ cards recently, mermaids are also riding a wave of popularity. This card design is from Tracey Russell.

Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids – Mythical Creatures is a current traveling exhibition organised by the American Museum of Natural History, New York exploring enchanting, sometimes terrifying, creatures of legend, fables and folklore. These mythical and fantastical characters are a source of fascination to children and have recently been inspiring an abundance of ‘magical’ children’s card designs, along with the ever-green favourites of ballerinas, diggers and cute animals. Focus On Kids’ Cards ‘sirens’ current news and happenings in the children’s card market. Gemma Is Digitally Minded “It's the evolution of licensed characters,” states Tim RuddClarke, director of Gemma (licensed greeting card, giftwrap and partyware publisher), about the increase in signing digital properties for not only cards, but many other kinds of products for kids. “Initially, licensed characters began as toys, then TV series and movies, however, because of the digital age, children and adults are spending more of their leisure time on the internet, on their tablets or smartphones, and becoming increasingly familiar with bloggers, vloggers (someone who keeps a video blog), stars of the internet and social media.” Possibly one of the oldest licensed digital properties, Mario (from Donkey Kong), was freed into the universe in 1981, and more recently World of Warriors and Minecraft have all began life digitally. Angry Birds too, and with the Angry Birds Movie coming out next year a resurgence in its popularity is expected. (Gemma has a range of Angry Birds movie specific cards that will launch just before the movie in April). “Take Tube Heroes for instance. It's a website based on YouTube personalities who talk in the main about gaming and have now been turned into digital characters of themselves. Dan TDM, Captain Sparklez and Exploding TNT, are just a few of the Tube Heroes who originated online and are now available as toys,” explains Tim. Gemma’s head of product and marketing,

Focus on Kids’ Cards is published annually by Max Publishing (publishers of Progressive Greetings). It is distributed with the December edition of Progressive Greetings. Tel: 020 7700 6740 www.progressivegreetings.co.uk Editor in chief: Jakki Brown (jw@max-publishing.co.uk) Deputy Editor: Gale Astley (galea@max-publishing.co.uk). Advertisement director: Warren Lomax (warren@max-publishing.co.uk)

Smiley Face For Gemma Gemma has launched a competition for its staff to submit greeting card design ideas using the emoji characters following a recent licensing tie-up with Global Merchandising Services as for emoji cards and wrap. Gemma’s head of product and marketing, Shelley BoydPlatt, said, “emoji is such a fun brand and I’m sure our team will come up with some very amusing captions with the winner not only get bragging rights when they win but they'll see their design idea on shelf at retail!” Launching for spring/summer 2016, Gemma are creating a co-ordinated range of emoji general birthday, ages, relations and occasions caption cards and gift packaging.

Shelley Boyd-Platt, goes on to say: “We are working on an exciting range of cards and giftwrap for Tube Heroes, something really fresh and current for today’s young gaming fans.” And with the popularity of video game ‘terraria’, as all parents with kids under 13 years-old know all about, Gemma (in conjunction with Jazwares) will be launching terraria cards, wrap and partyware next summer. Licensing is in a really interesting and exciting place at the moment, suggests Tim. And there are so many more opportunities for card retailers, such as displaying QR codes instore, which can be scanned on mobile phones leading to a website of the licensed character, and on the shop’s social media, or running across promotions and competitions that will engage with the consumer. “Now is the time, if you’re not already, to engage with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to drive your digital campaign on licensed character brands you’re stocking instore. I bet most businesses, large or small, have an in-house untapped Facebook expert, who could help drive sales of your licensed cards and gifts by engaging with the local population,” says Tim, adding, “The greetings market is somewhat static and mature, but this is one area where it can change shape and move in a different direction.”

Above right: Gemma’s staff are getting creative with emojis in an internal design competition held by the publisher. Above: Some of the Tube Heroes as action figures from Jazwares (left to right): AshleyMariee, JeromeASF, CaptainSparklez and Vikkstar. Left: World of Warriors started as a computer game, but is now on a plethora of kids’ products, including cards from Gemma.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

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NEW RELEASES

Hallmark’s Newly Spandexed Superheros

March Of The Movies Good grief! Not only has Snoopy recently pawed his mark onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he’s back with his friend Charlie Brown and the gang this December with the new The Peanuts Movie, along with a whole plethora of kids’ films out next year ready to ‘rock the cradle’ and rock some licensed children’s greeting card and gift designs too. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is out next February for the youngsters, as is Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods for older kids. March 2016 finds Kung Fu Panda 3 karate kicking its way onto the Above: Snoopy recently made his paw big screen, and one of the print on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. big blockbusters of next year, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The new look Jungle Book, launched in April, includes the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Bill Murray, while another Marvel Comics’ character goes from comic book to film with the Captain America: Civil War movie. The Angry Birds Movie and Alice Through the Looking Glass are out in May, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 in June, and July is heaving with well-known protagonists on what used to be celluloid, with the new look Ghostbusters, Ice Age 5, Star Trek Beyond, Finding Dory - the new Disney/Pixar follow up to Finding Nemo and The BFG. And that’s just in the first half of the year!

Hallmark’s new photographic Warner Brothers collection brings some superhero freshness to its licensed portfolio. Matt Goodman, Hallmark’s head of creative - Humour, Properties & Licensing, elaborates: “Warner Bros is set for an epic year in 2016 with the enormously anticipated of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice film. The company will also bring female superheroes to the fore, with Wonder Woman hitting movie theatres the following year. One thing we know Above: Developing a photographic look, among other styles, for for certain is that superheroes are hot property superhero fans, this Hallmark design everywhere, and that certainly applies to the greeting also features one of its staff’s little boys dressed as Batman. card market. The superhero characters have proven to stand the test of time, yet their styles and looks are ever-evolving, so they appeal to lots of different people of all ages. From a design point of view this allows us a diverse approach to our collection: from the iconic logos taking centre stage, to playing with stylish cartoon styles and developing our own photography-based looks. In fact, we love our superheroes so much, we even designed a card featuring one of our staff’s little boys dressed up as his favourite character - Batman!”

Howling With Laughter 'Hehehe Hyena' is card publisher and Henries awards finalist Jo Clark's very first children's book aimed at ages 3-7 years. It is beautifully illustrated throughout with four adorable animal characters: the main cheeky character 'Little Hyena', Snake, Tortoise and Elephant. The story follows Little Hyena through the grasslands of Africa, as he finds it hard to control his laughter at others misfortune, he just can't help but giggle. The book is perfect to read aloud and have the kids join in with the chuckling on almost every page. Like all good children's books there is a moral to the story. This delightful limited edition signed 36 page book (RRP £8) is available Above: From Jo Clark’s own book publishing from www.littlehyenapress.com. house her new children’s book, Little Hyena.

Danilo’s Property Ladder

Birthday Celebrations Doesn't time fly?! Focus on Kids’ Cards was pretty shocked to find out just how long some of our much-loved children’s characters have been around when taking a look at a few who have had milestone birthday this year…. and those coming up. Aardman, the animation company that is famous for Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ music video and creators of Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, is 40 next year, and its animated film A Grand Day Out was first aired on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve in 1990, 25 years ago! Then there’s Morph, Aardman’s character on the TV programme Take Hart, who will be 40 in 2017. Thunderbirds is 50 this year (it began airing in 1965), and Thomas the Tank Engine has reached the chuffingly grand old age of 70, as has the Moomins. Cute bunny Miffy has been celebrating 60 years throughout this year, but beating them all, the bear with little brain Winnie the Pooh is the grand old age of 90 in 2016. Left: Winnie the Pooh and all his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood will be 90 years old next year! Right: Lexi Francis (left) with Jess Trillaud, Lexi’s lovely neighbour and favourite person.

Trevor Jones, licensing director for Danilo, spotlights some children’s TV and film characters that are currently wowing the kids and are licensed on its new card ranges. “Paw Patrol - New for Danilo for 2015/16, we are publishing cards, wrap and bags. This Nickelodeon TV show has quickly evolved into one of the biggest preschool franchises on the planet. In relation to the cards, ages, Birthday Boy and Son captions are performing well. Minions - 2015/6 has been a Minion-mad year. In addition to the cards, wrap and bags, we are publishing the 2016 calendar, family organiser, premium A5 spiral-bound diary, mini-calendar and slim calendar. Older ranges such as Fireman Sam and My Little Pony still continue to perform well. Plus we have roll wrap for these two licenses now too.

Above: Paw Patrol is a group of six ‘rescue dogs’ who believe "No job is too big, no pup is too small." A card design from Danilo.

Class Act Tracy Francis of Noi Publishing, relays how her daughter Lexi Francis, age 8, and her friend Jess Trillaud, age 9, feel about their birthday cards: “Jess is shy so she just smiled when I asked her how she feels when she gets a birthday card. Lexi is not as shy and she gleefully told me, "A birthday card makes her happy because the sender is showing you they know it's your birthday." Jess warmed up a bit then and told me she likes a nice picture and "what is written to you inside is important." The girls both said they like cakes on their birthday cards. They love animals on their cards and they like them to be funny. They also both said they like ages on the cards but it's "not necessary all the time." FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

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NEW RELEASES

Adventure Playground PG ‘tags’ some freshly launched children’s card ranges recently released into the greetings playground. ● Laura Sherratt’s new range of kids’ cards is called Sunny Smiles. The collection is made up of 12 fun and colourful children's cards, featuring characters for boys and girls. The designs are all handmade and come hand-finished with googly eyes and cute buttons of various shapes. All the children's cards in the range are 15cm square and come complete with a bright coloured envelope and cello bag. As you can see Laura’s daughter Daisy loves them! ● Think Of Me is excited to be releasing 18 new designs into its hugely popular multi-award nominated Kiddiwinks children’s range. There will be new age 1 to 6 cards for boys and girls, as well as a delightful selection of general birthdays. Each card has embossed detailing and a high gloss finish. Super cute and super colourful, the Kiddiwinks range now also extends across gift bags and children’s stationery. ● Hallmark’s children’s birthday Shields range is bright and bold and features key superhero shields, Batman and Superman. The blank card collection is targeted for easy pick up sends and to appeal to a wide audience. The bold imagery will stand out on the fixture and appeal to both young and older customers. The range is code 50, £1.75. ● Animal Parade is a brand new range from Caroline Gardner. Each card features fun quirky characters inspired by the natural world and fiction, such as a friendly hammerhead shark, a swarm of creepy crawlies for the birthday boy and cute ladybirds and playful jungle animals for birthday girls! The range features ‘wobblers’ to add a fun 3D element. There are five bright cards in the range, for both boys and girls. Each card is 190mm x 160mm in size, plus each card includes a spotty grey and white envelope. 8

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

● The Art Group’s Jojo’s Jungle range is a vibrant new children’s range from artist Jojo Norris who creates these adorable little jungle friends by recycling scraps of found paper and making a bit of a mess with paint and pencils. She then incorporates unique textures into her designs. A bright holographic foil adds extra fun and sparkle to this colourful new range of eight designs. Sign of the Times is a contemporary new range also from The Art Group. This bold, edgy and urban collection, featuring striking large numbers and bright colours, is perfect for older kids. ● The Porch Fairies has introduced new Happy Birthday designs to its range. All of its enchanting cards are flittered and hand-finished with extra sparkles, are 160mm square and come with a lavender envelope and cello bag. ● Pippi & Me makes super cute cards, they appeal to the young and ‘not so young’ alike, and it has just published a small adorable range for little boys and girls birthdays (1-6 years) featuring its Henries award-winning Little Creatures. The Little Creatures children’s birthday range came about after requests for age specific children’s cards…so here they are, super cute as always! The cards are 125mm square on FSC card stock and with a recycled envelope and individually wrapped, and 5% of the profit from card sales goes to charity all year round, not just at Christmas. ● It's all about the boys and their toys down at Stripey Cats Cards’ headquarters, where recent design work has concentrated on a fresh ‘out of the box’ new range of children’s cards featuring planes, trains and automobiles, complete with SCC's trademark wibbly wobbly eyes. The range includes eight cheeky characters, including Dillan the Digger, Stevie Steam Train, Fergus Fire Engine and Trevor the Tractor. This new addition complements SCC’s Henries awardwinning wobbly-eyed animal cards.

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NEW RELEASES

● The Square Card Company has launched a new range of unisex number cards called Count the Candles. These cards have gender neutral colours, a number line and candles to count for each age… adding a little bit of educational content by giving the child more to think about than just the picture! The publisher has also added 10 new cards to its Bubble range. These personalisable cards are selling like crazy, and reached the finals in the Progressive Preschool awards in the Best Preschool Published Range category. ● New publisher The Little Bells has billed its designs as ‘free range’ by its nature-loving founders, sisters Lizzie and Clare. The Little Bells’ cards are based around a series of cute animal characters, all of them portraits of the real animals that Lizzie and Clare grew up with on the family farm, which on the present range include a cow, pony, sheep, pig and chicken. The strong characters of the hand-illustrated animals shine through immediately on the charming and whimsical cute cards, which presently include boy and girl age designs. ● Twizler is launching a brand new range called KidzCorner – a range of 12 fabulous die-cut and foiled cards aimed at children up to age ten. Along with the children’s ages, the publisher is also captioning the designs with the most popular relations titles. All of its cards are made in the UK and come with a wonderful coloured envelope. These bright and colourful cards are sure to become a favourite. ● Paper Salad is currently working on a new children’s range, which is being launched in the new year called Little Nippers! The publisher is carrying on with the bright neon colours and finishing the cards with a gorgeous copper foil. They will be a bigger size than its last children’s range and there will be specially designed new quirky coordinating envelopes to go with them!

● Velvet Olive’s Lucie Loves is a range of children’s cards bursting full of colour and character. Lucie Sheridan, the screen-print artist who designed the range, has a wonderful touch with the expressions on the animal’s faces, making them so charming. VO adores the card of a tiny mouse with an ice-cream twice the little mouse’s size. Mousey looks so pleased with the icecream, you cannot help but smile too. ● UK Greetings knows what kids love bright colours, quirky creatures and fun words. It also knows that adults love great value for money, so Bright Buddies was created - UKG’s new entry price point in its juvenile offering. With 12 designs to choose from at price code 30 (RRP £1.05), the range offers variety and value. With their fantastic rack appeal, these cute critters are set to be the buddies that every child wants at their birthday. ● Cut-Out Cuties is the brand new children’s collection from Laura Darrington Design. The range of 24 designs covers general birthday and age captions and will have a fun bright colour palette and a sparkly glitter finish. RRP £1.99/trade price 83p.

● Simon Elvin has recently produced a range of juvenile age cards for boys and girls covering ages 1-6 and including relations age titles, such as ‘Daughter 3rd Birthday’ etc. The designs will be available from all leading wholesale distributors on an on-going stock control basis.

● I Drew This is delighted to be introducing more simple and super sweet children’s ages into its Henries nominated Mischief range. There are now 29 designs in this range with designs for ages 1-6 each for boys and girls. All the cards are sized 130mm x 178mm, printed on the finest uncoated board and come wrapped with a quality white laid envelope.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

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THE HENRIES’ BEST CHILDREN’S RANGE 2015

Best In Class Natural history studies, a seaside childhood, a penchant for animals in cute clothing or simply their own little monsters (children) are just a few of the inspirational rudiments for the publishers and designers of the kids’ card ranges that reached the 2015 finals in The Henries awards’ Best Children’s Range category. Of course, then there are those magical extra elements that appeal to kids when designing children’s cards too. PG learns a lesson on kids’ cards from this year’s winner and finalists.

Winner of the Best Children’s Range category 2015 Dungarees from Paper Salad Claire Williams and Karen Frost, co-directors of Paper Salad: “Dungarees is our favourite children’s range yet! We had so much fun creating a new and quirky look for these cards. They are printed with neon bright inks on special textured board and finished with either pink or blue sparkly flitter. They have super cute bespoke patterned envelopes to go with them, which adds another lovely touch to the collection. The range includes designs for ages one to five in both boy and girl and an extra eight character cards that are blank happy birthday.” Inspiration: “It just kind of happens! We wanted to create a contemporary and colourful children’s range with a clean white background, something a little different that wasn’t already on the market. We loved the neon bright colours we were already designing with, so knew they would be incorporated within this range. We looked over our last children’s collection Lally Do, and what made that a successful range, and took inspiration from that. Let’s not also forget the fact we love dressing the animals up in cute clothes… especially dungarees!” Elementary school: “The most important aspect to remember when designing children’s cards is they need to be eye-catching! Bright, colourful and full of patterns so they stand out on the shelf. We feel mainly character based cards work really well for a children’s range as it brings a young and fun element to the cards which children enjoy!” Above: A fox in cute dungarees, maybe the pioneer of Paper Salad’s award-winning Dungarees range. Left: Bunnies also get a ‘fashion makeover’ in the Dungarees range from Paper Salad.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

Finalists (in alphabetical order) Animal Transport from The Square Card Company Kali Stileman, director of The Square Card Company: “Our animal transport range combines everyone’s favourite animal with all the modes of transport that children love. The collection is printed on lovely bumpy watercolour paper and has been digitally printed so the colours are zingy and bright. With nine retro style designs to choose from and a matching transport wrapping paper, they have been a real hit with all our shops.” Elementary school: “As an ex-primary school teacher, I like to add an educational element to the illustration and give the child more to think about within the design. This is most evident in our numbers cards, but the Animal Transport range, with its dual focus and child-friendly designs, has an element of this. The designs for this range have been really popular and have been licenced for other products, such as children’s cushions, wall stickers, postcards, calendars and family planners around the world… yahoo!” Right: The Animal Transport range is ‘taking off’ on different products too. Below: So many different vehicles to take a fun journey feature on The Square Card Company’s Animal Transport range.

Happy Jackson from Pigment Martin Powderly, creative director of Pigment: “Happy Jackson has worked extremely well for us as an easy send for design-conscious young women. A lot of these are mums, who like the knowing appeal of the captions - so a kids' range that brought that style of humour into an area dominated by mainstream juvenile characters seemed like a good idea.” Giles Andreae, co-creator of Happy Jackson: Inspiration: “The inspiration came from thinking about Left: Even at the age of three kids don't like to be talked down to - A card from Pigment’s Happy Jackson range.

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THE HENRIES’ BEST CHILDREN’S RANGE 2015

what mums who don’t want to send their friends’ kids TV or film character cards might actually want to say to a child on their birthday - and what their own kids might want to say as well. We gave the range a more child-friendly design treatment to the adult Above: Pigment’s Happy Jackson range appeals to young mums. cards, but kept the core Happy Jackson voice and aesthetic, which we feel works really well.” Elementary school: “When designing cards for children, we feel the most important thing is not to talk down to them. Kids latch on to this very quickly - and they don’t like it!”

John Bond from Ohh Deer John Bond, illustrator: Inspiration: “My Creatures series spawned out of watching my daughter (age 3 at the time) going around sticking googly eyes on anything and everything. It was the simplicity, playfulness and innocence in her actions that made me think. It's easy to over complicate things the older we get, so I wanted to experiment in drawing some characters in as few blobs/marks/lines as I could. The eyes were always going to be the element that gives a blob a life.” Elementary school: “Children will question anything. Especially if something looks 'odd' or 'funny'. I like to create work that might challenge their perception over what's familiar or 'normal'. Making a bear pink, with super long legs. Why? Because it's a bit odd, a bit funny and that's okay.” Above: A pink bear with long legs, what’s not to like on this Ohh Deer card designed by John Bond? Right: John Bond created this HipHop ‘dawg’ for youngsters. Ohh Deer publishes it on cards.

Marine World from Stripey Cats Cards Jonathan Crosby, director of Stripey Cats Cards: Inspiration: “Stripey Cats’ Marine World range was inspired by a love of the diverse ecology that exists in our oceans. I grew up in a coastal town and have always been fascinated by the sea and its creatures - it really is another world down there. I was thrilled to reach the finals of The Henries Left: A hammerhead shark is a curious looking marine animal, as seen on a Stripey Cats Cards’ design, complete with wobbly eyes.

Class Act Oliver Early age 9 and Amelia Early age 6, children of Dominic and Heidi Early, owners of card company Earlybird. How does it make you feel to receive a card?: Oliver: “I'm really happy if it's cool. Fun cards Above: Amelia and Oliver Early. are the best, ones that stand out with lots of colour or if people have stuck stuff on them!” Amelia: “If it's handmade it shows someone cares, but it has to be neat.” What card images do you like and is it important to have your age?: Oliver: “I like pictures of me! But also the things I love, like Star Wars, dinosaurs and football. I like badged cards as you can keep the badge as a memory. It's important to have your age on it when you are at primary school and big birthdays like 40 or 50, but not 22 or numbers like that!” Amelia: “I like pictures that people have drawn and really take their time over it. I also like stickers, badges and stripes on my cards.”

awards and hope my marine-themed cards have brought something of the 'Big Blue' and the animals that inhabit these watery depths into the lives of both children and adults.” Elementary school: “I feel that if a greeting card image can raise an instant smile on a child's face then it's working and doing its job. I'm happy to say the wobbly eyes I use, and the cheeky expressions of my animal and sealife characters, usually get this reaction.”

Left: Fit to burst! A puffer fish from Stripey Cats Cards’ Marine World collection.

Zoo Buddies from Rocket68 Jill White, director of Rocket68: Inspiration: “My children’s range Zoo Buddies was designed with several elements in mind. I always wanted an animal range with high impact among the Rocket68 designs. I studied natural history illustration many years ago and have always enjoyed depicting animals in my work. With Zoo Buddies I endeavored to produce designs that were vivid, bold and attractive to a child’s eye, while still retaining a retro style in the execution of the illustration. I looked at many books from my own childhood and some of my mother’s mid-century and 1960’s books for ideas for styles. There were several attempts in getting the right finish for the characters and ensuring that they all linked together as set. I draw them first by hand from my sketches and then use Adobe software to assist me in creating the textures, backgrounds and any text.” Elementary school: “Children’s cards need to ‘pop’ out from a shelf with a strong colour palette. I have also named each character on the back of the card in a funky text, which I thought would appeal to a child when receiving the card.”

Above: Rocket68 pairs up animal pals in its Zoo Buddies range. Left: A peaceful lion and his friend on a Zoo Buddies design from Rocket68.

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RETAILER FEEDBACK

School Report From adventures on the high seas, pirouetting ballerinas or spinethrilling monsters and creepy crawlies, to talking teen lingo, tablets and games consoles, a ‘class’ of independent card retailers report what card designs excite and delight kids, tweens and teenagers. Preschoolers (Age 1-5) Elsa Rand, owner of Arts & Vintage, Highgate, London: Range Roundabout: “We sell absolutely loads of kids’ cards. Lagom’s Cozy Tomato range (ages 1-9) is going really well. They feature really cute wild animals in the shape of a number, and its Mini Cards, of animals too, retail at only £2 and are a perfect price for all of those children’s parties. All of Lagom’s children’s ranges are age appropriate for little ones and have a vintage look. The Art File has some really good children’s cards. People like to buy kids brightly coloured cards and the publisher’s Happy Folk range fits. There are also some designs in its Ink Press range that would suit children with its circus animals and balloons illustrations.” Numbers Up: “I feel that from ages one to six children like to have their new age on their birthday card, but from six onwards then the need for the age on a card really slows down as kids don't consider themselves babies anymore.” On A Theme: “Animals, fairies and dinosaurs are still the biggest themes on children’s card designs, but pirates have been waning for a while. And in the past we haven’t had too many licensed kids cards but with the new Star Wars movie coming out we may consider them.”

Schoolers (Age 5-10) Nicky Stephenson, partner of The Tutbury Present Company, Tutbury: Range Roundabout: “In the open birthdays I would say Tracks’ Googlies and Rachel Ellen Designs (in particular its Jigsaw cards) hit the spot with infants. In the age section, Talking Pictures’ handmade designs, Woodmansterne’s licensed ranges, Pigment's Happy Jackson and Noel Tatt’s Doodle Pip are strong sellers.” Numbers Up: “I would say yes, certainly from the perspective of the person who is buying the card, they believe that the number is important to the child. Kids definitely do delight in telling us how old they are: "I'm going to be FIVE!" is often heard from tiptoes over our counter!” On A Theme: “Anything bright and colourful, with a strong appealing image I find sells well for infants. Dinosaurs and pugs are favourites at the moment, along with the more traditional pirate, fairy and princess designs. Photographic animal humour cards are always popular for those customers looking for a general send. From a licensed point of view, we only have a small selection, but for us Where's Wally? and Quentin Blake designs from Woodmansterne continue to sell well.”

Above: Lagom’s Cozy Tomato range features animals in the shape of a number. Left: Bright and fun, a card from The Art File’s Happy Folk range.

Above: Tracks’ Gogglies cards are perfect for infant school kids… and older. Left: Rachel Ellen’s Jigsaw range is more than a card.

Preschoolers (Age 1-5) Jane Apps, owner of The Little Party Co, Lewes: Range Roundabout: “Rachel Ellen’s Wibbly Wobbly Lane, Big Bumps, Fidget, Jelly Moulds and Tiddlywinks ranges are favourites - a particularly strong publisher in this area, with lots to choose from with varied styles and price points. Other publishers' card ranges for children that are popular are Laura Darrington Designs’ Let’s Go and Peeka-Boo collections, which are well-priced, quality cards; Liz and Pip’s Bubblegum range; Woodmansterne’s The Gruffalo designs; Think of Me Designs’ Kiddiwinks range; and Pigment’s Fabrics range is at a brilliant price point of £1.59 RRP.” Numbers Up: “The age number on the card is definitely important among our customers - we sell very few ‘open’ children’s ranges for this reason. We would love to see the smaller publishers producing more cards with badges. We sell separate badges as ‘add ons’, but a lot of customers are ideally looking for a card/badge combination.” On A Theme: “I think the theme and image are both important, however, what the customers actually buys can often to be quite different to what the child would choose themselves. We are known for ‘cute’ children’s cards – such as those featuring princesses, pirates, boats, diggers, dinosaurs, owls, robots etc - but we also do well with licensed cards that perhaps have originated from a book, ie The Gruffalo [Woodmansterne], or have a ‘cult’ following such as Miffy [Hype], as opposed to short-lived fads.” Above: Liz and Pip’s Bubblegum range illustrates cute creatures. Left: Miffy is over 60 years old! But she looks as young as ever on cards from Hype.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

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RETAILER FEEDBACK

Tweens (Age 11-14) Rachael Barnes, partner of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts, Knaresborough:

Class Act

Range Roundabout: “For us, Jonny Javelin's Twingles range is definitely our strongest seller for the tween market. They're at a great price point and nice quality cards and the illustrations of kids on them are actually age appropriate (which unfortunately isn't always the case with some suppliers). Noel Tatt's All The Rage range is also strong in this market - bold numbers with images of pizza, bowling, cinema etc.” Numbers Up: “Having the age on the card is more important for age 10 as it’s the first time in double figures, and for 13 as its the first time they become a teenager. Ages 11, 12 and 14 seems less important, unless grandparents are buying that is!” On A Theme: “Technology plays quite a part in the images on cards for the tween market - mobile phones, tablets, games consoles etc, as does music. Sport it seems less so, maybe because of the wide variety of sports played by tweens presuming all boys like football doesn't cut it these days. Licensed cards rarely work for us in this category as there are few cool enough, or if they are the family members buying the cards they don't approve! Star Wars [Hallmark] is perhaps the one exception to this lately, although it still sells much better for the younger ages (6-8 year-olds). If buying a card without an age on, then images of animals in daft outfits/situations seem to be the most popular - especially when the tweens are choosing for friends, such as on cards by Tracks or Nigel Quiney's What a Picture range.”

How does it make you feel to receive a card?: "It’s a lot better than a simple text or Facebook message. The fact that physically posting cards is becoming rarer has only meant that their meaning is becoming more valuable - knowing someone has gone to the effort of writing and posting you something says so much more than internet based communication, which often bears very little sentiment as a medium.” What card images do you like and is it important to have your age?: “For my age (18) I wouldn't necessarily count myself as typical, but anything funny, witty or poignant on a card is always best.”

Above: ‘On track’ with the kids, a design from Jonny Javelin’s Twingles range. Left: Nigel Quiney’s What a Picture range features animals dressed up in funny outfits.

Teenagers (Age 14-18) Chris Beards, owner of Mantons Cards, Isle of Man: Range Roundabout: “We stock a good range of cards for teenagers and our most popular publishers for that age group are Noel Tatt, IC&G and Jonny Javelin, all of which are exclusive to us on the Isle of Man and they are all publishers we deal with at PG Live.” Numbers Up: “Having the age on the card is more important for older family members, while younger people buying a card for their teenage friends usually go for an open birthday card. No one type of image is a stand out, but at Mantons we generally avoid the licensed designs in favour of quality designs.” On A Theme: “We are always looking at new ranges and we would especially like to see more quality designs for 16th and 17th birthdays." Right: A gorgeous card for a young woman from IC&G.

Class Act Ellis Grayson, age 5, son of Kathryn and Mark Grayson. How does it make you feel to receive a card?: "I like getting birthday cards as they make me feel happy! I like looking at the pictures.” What card images do you like and is it important to have your age?: “My favourite pictures are Minions and Star Wars, and Leonardo from the Turtles. I like my card to have a badge with my age on so I can wear it on my birthday. I also like making my own cards and sending them to my Mummy, Daddy, Nanny and Granddads."

Sam Cunningham, age 18, son of Bev Cunningham of Abacus.

Teenagers (Age 14-18) Amanda and Will Oscroft, owners of Love It!, Bury St Edmunds and Stamford: Range Roundabout: “Love It! stocks a great range of cards from Brainbox Candy featuring words and phrases aimed at the teenage market – using colloquial language and a text speak typeface, as well as slightly rude language (‘crap’, ‘bollocks’ etc). These sell well to the 15+ year-olds market. The Happy Jackson range by Pigment is a brilliant seller as the cards are bright, glittery and say cool stuff like ‘Yay!’” Numbers Up: “We stock age cards for children from age 1 to 18. We find the ages 1 to 5 are best sellers, but people often lose track of how old the recipient will be and just opt for general card images. We find Alex Clark Art’s cards are good sellers for children up to age 10. But 18th birthdays are by far the most popular occasion as it is still seen as a big event. Customers insist the card states the age 18 on it, and are prepared to pay more. Popular are the £4.99 18th birthday Pop-Ups cards by Second Nature.” On A Theme: “Sports themes are very popular. We especially sell lots of horse riding and sailing cards, particularly by Alex Clark, as we are surrounded by lakes and fields in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.” Above: Using teenage lingo, a card from Brainbox Candy. Right: Alex Clark Art has a lovely selection of cute horse illustrations to suit teenage riders.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

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PUBLISHER SPOTLIGHT

Talking Shop It is the biggest girls’ collectable in the market at the moment and it could be worth in excess of $100m at UK retail through 2016. So how can greeting card retailers make the most of the Shopkins’ phenomenon? As Danilo rolls out its Shopkins greeting card, wrap and calendar collection, PG goes ‘shopping’ with its licensing director Trevor Jones to find out more.

Top right: Over 100 million Shopkins characters have been sold globally. Above: Danilo is expecting the 2016 Shopkins Calendar to be a strong seller. Right: Danilo has over 15 card designs, including ages five to nine and female captions.

FOCUS ON KIDS CARDS

Every so often a toy comes along that sparks imaginations, quickly spreads throughout the playground and that retailers struggle to keep in stock. Shopkins is one of these rare beasts. Created by Australian company Moose Toys, and with a UK licensing programme that is handled by Bulldog (taking it onto other products, such as cards with Danilo), the brand spans hundreds of collectable characters, which can all be found in shopping bags or baskets. To set the scene a little on its success, over 100 million Shopkins characters have been sold globally and there are more than 80 countries around the world selling Shopkins in 2015. Online, there have been over 420 million Shopkins’ views on fan videos/webisodes featuring the characters and more than 25 million views on the Shopkins YouTube channel. A staggering five million+ Shopkins collectables are currently made every week, with two seasons launched per year to keep product fresh and collectability strong. To underline its popularity further, within the toy space, Shopkins has picked up a number of awards, including Collectable Toy of the Year at the Toy Industry Awards, Best New Product to Market 2014 from Tesco and Best Licensed Toys or Games Range at The Licensing Awards 2015. In addition, the Shopkins Food Fair: Scoops Ice Cream Truck from GP Flair was also named in this year’s Dream Toys Top 12. The secret to the success of any collectable property, of course, is somewhat elusive. Vicky Hill, Shopkins’ brand manager at Bulldog Licensing, believes it’s simply a great brand, perfectly targeted at the core demographic of five to nine year-old girls.

“It is bright and fun with a sense of humour, has cute characters that are appealing and, of course, is all about shopping!” Vicky explains. “It also offers something very different to the range of brands out there for girls at the moment. It is already the hottest girls’ brand in the UK market, and by the end of 2015 we will have a strong range of licensed products in the market.” The brand’s strong performance in other categories – particularly in toy - bodes well for the greeting card sector, as it is clear that Shopkins is up to harness its potential. Danilo recently launched its greeting card and wrap range, plus a 2016 calendar into retail. This collection spans over 15 card designs (for ages five to nine and female captions), plus small and medium gift bags, roll wrap and twosheet/two-tag packs. The publisher is already working with retailers, including Tesco, Asda, Claire’s Accessories, Toys R Us and The Entertainer, with Danilo’s licensing director Trevor Jones confirming that retailer reactions have been very positive. “Shopkins success is already up there,” Trevor tells Progressive Greetings. “It’s clear that the brand’s popularity is heading in a very similar direction to the amazing popularity that Minions has enjoyed. Other merchandise from Shopkins’ has done exceptionally well for retailers, proving just how popular a brand this is, especially for girls 5-9 years.” He cites the fun collectable element of Shopkins as being key, especially as there are a number of rare characters available. Plus, the popular YouTube videos have contributed to the high engagement with this brand. Trevor already has one eye on next year and expanding Danilo’s collection even further, in particular to include a new Christmas 2016 range. Seems like it could be time for more card retailers to ‘go shopping’!

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