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cardsharp
A Kick In The
Teeth?
Below: Some festive Moonpiggies on the TV advert. Below middle: A Warhammer photo upload card from Moonpig.
Have you seen the TV adverts for Moonpig wondered Cardsharp? They feature a lovable cuddly pig puppet called ‘Molly Moonpig’ and it really goes to town on the schmaltz factor in trying to get you to buy Christmas cards via the mobile app. But it’s harmless enough and if it encourages greeting card sending generally thought Cardsharp, then fair enough. Molly pig from Moonpig is not quite in the same class as Boris’ favourite, Peppa Pig, and Cardsharp can’t see it having a longterm impact like those irritating Meerkats puppets, but it is certainly a change in approach. Interestingly all the emphasis on Moonpig’s Christmas advert was on ordering via its mobile app which it obviously sees as the way ahead, something reinforced in the online operator’s recent half year results. However, Cardsharp’s hackles were really raised by another Moonpig advert, a radio one this time that has been aired repeatedly on commercial radios, including on the very un-cuddly Planet Rock. The radio advert implored Christmas card buyers not to waste their time trawling through card racks in ‘dusty card shops’,
but to go online and buy them from the Moonpig App. This is just what bricks and mortar retailers and their publishing and wholesaler suppliers, really needed to hear in November and December, their critical trading period reflected Cardsharp. Cardsharp has uneasy feelings about this advert. Not only is it blatant ‘knocking’ advertising, the kind of which he really can’t abide, but for the first time, Moonpig is somehow undermining its own greeting card industry; an industry which needs to thrive if Moonpig is to. We need a healthy industry where everyone is encouraged to buy and send greeting cards, through a multitude of channels. Moonpig, by airing this advert, and Cardsharp will give them the benefit of the doubt that it was probably its advertising agency who came up with such an approach, it is nailing its colours to the mast as a technology company and not a greeting card company. Left: A cute still from Moonpig’s recent advert.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Cardsharp knows a lot of retailers who were furious when they heard the advert, and quite rightly so. Many publishers were as well, although much of this outrage was privately vented, given that so many of these publishers have received sizeable royalty payments from Moonpig for the licensed use of their designs from the site. There is no denying that Moonpig has earned its place at the table. It is now effectively a retail giant (and a FTSE 250 company), pulling in more than 50 million orders in its last financial year. When Moonpig floated in February with a £1.2 billion valuation, investors were excited that it was a Covid winner, which enjoyed soaring sales in lockdown. At the end of the first day of trading, the company was valued at almost £1.5 billion and was seen as highly rated for growth. In June, the shares hit a high of 488 pence, but since then it has drifted downwards to 325 pence. This
