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What’s It All About?
Enter The
Humour Lab “We, as a nation, really are living in a boom time for humour, it is coming at us from all angles – YouTube, Twitter, comedy clubs, Instagram, TV or just general banter. It’s just great that with the major launch of 250 brand new humorous designs - across 20 new collections - that we are able to properly reflect this changing world through our humorous card ranges,” says Rebecca Turton, UKG’s creative director for humour, with an infectious enthusiasm. PG follows the laughter and opens the door of Hanson White’s new Humour Lab to find out what is bubbling away in readiness to be officially unveiled at PG Live at the start of June.
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very industry needs strong leaders and few would deny that UKG has borne this responsibility well, catering superbly for the needs of both independents and multiples, both on the publishing front and in category management. So it’s no surprise that UKG is committed to its investment in humour and continued product development - resulting in big surprises being revealed at PG Live, proof of the teaser marketing campaign ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is going on with Hanson White?’. “We have some very strong evergreen humorous ranges under our Hanson White brand, Giggles being the
Above: Giggles has been totally revamped as part of Hanson White’s new humorous thrust, which has seen it welcome some new design treatments, colour palettes and artwork styles, such as this font approach. Right: Prepare to be surprised by Hanson White’s new Whiskey Tango Foxtrot approach to humorous cards. (Seated at the front) Rebecca Turton, UKG’s creative director of humour, with just some of the team who have been involved in the new onslaught on the humorous card front, pictured in The Humour Lab with some of the new livery. Inset: Behind the doors of Hanson’s Humour Lab in Dewsbury there has been loads of chit chat, tons of jolly japes, yelps of joy, squeals of glee and heaps of laughter over the last few months – and the team say they have been “working hard”!
most notable - 27 years old and still selling incredibly well,” points out Rebecca Turton, who through her 16 year career at UKG, on both the product and retail management side, has gained a well rounded view of what the retailer and end consumer look for in a greeting card. “Being given the freedom (and responsibility) to build on the successes of our evergreens, and investing in the development of new strains of humorous cards, to appeal to all generations and genders, has to be the best job in the world!” It has very much been a shared ‘best job’ for the last year. “For this to really work, we knew we needed to pull together the best design and writing talents that we have in-house, as well as harness extra creative energy and fresh ideas from further afield. At the same time ensuring that we are totally aligned with the consumer, either directly or through retail testing,” reveals Rebecca. “A massive humour launch is now ready to be unveiled at PG Live, but we have stacks of new ideas to be worked up and plenty more already in the humorous pipeline,” she adds. That ‘pipeline’ can be traced back to The Humour Lab, a room in UKG’s This publication was written, designed and produced by Max Publishing, publishers of Progressive Greetings. It was commissioned by UK Greetings.
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What’s It All About?
Inset: Some of the UKG ‘humorists’ showing their funny sides and squashed bits.
Dewsbury head office, which was commandeered in the name of humorous cards in the middle of last year. “We’ve created an inspiring space where we can brainstorm ideas, discuss new product concepts, review editorial directions and meet up with copywriters and comedians, all in an atmosphere that encourages the ideas Above right: The eclectic mix within the brand new Whiskey Tango Foxtrot collection. Left: Female to female humour features strongly in the new humour portfolio, including Batty Birds, which will appeal to younger women.
to flow - we’re talking about creating funny cards so it makes sense to have a room that has a bit of fun about it,” sums up Rebecca, pointing to the upcycled furniture made from painted pallets, the table football, the large random words (such as ‘MAMILS’ - Middle Aged Men In Lycra, in case this had passed you by!) pinned to the large notice boards that flanks one wall. For all the fun that has been had, the card racks and display walls are now full with actual card samples which celebrate what UKG set out to do on its self-imposed humorous card challenge.
Fringe Benefits Keen to ‘fish where the fish are’ for new humorous talent and fresh observations on modern life through comedic spectacles, UKG’s ‘Team Humour’ went on tour - to the Edinburgh Fringe festival last August. They were suitably attired for the task - each wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the message ‘UK Genius! I had an idea for a card that was funny. I sent it, they liked it and paid me some money,’ as well as having a social page through which people could get in touch and submit humorous ideas.
“We’ve got humorous card ranges that have been created specifically with different generations in mind. Plus, with our seven brand new female-to-female humorous ranges, we should be giving our retail customers lots of good reasons to smile and laugh!”
Where Do You Fit In? Humour is down to personal taste, but life’s experiences and expectations also come into play. So, when the UKG studio set about creating a humorous range they first needed to think of which generation it is aimed. So, who’s who and where would you fit in? ● Generation Z - aged 5-19 ● Generation Y - aged 20-36 - Early Gen Y - aged 20-26 - Late Gen Y - aged 27-36 ● Generation X - aged 37-48 ● Shadow Boomer - aged 49-55 ● Leading Edge Boomer - aged 56-69 ● Silent Generation - aged 70-87 Below: This Mini Mottos design is bound to resonate!
“We stalked stand-ups, talked to hundreds of people about what they found funny, saw some great shows, and some not so great ones, and came back exhausted, but with our heads full of ideas and some great contacts, some of which has already fed into the ranges, with lots, lots more to follow,” revealed Rebecca. Above and left: Some of ‘The UK Genius team’ up in Edinburgh when they were on a mission to absorb ideas and inspirations and make contact with performers about collaborations on card ranges.
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The Write Stuff The Language Of Laughs
“Art attracts, copy sells. In humorous cards, the copy is the king, but then I do have a somewhat biased view!” admits Mark Graham, who as UKG’s editorial manager for the last eight years has been performing linguistic gymnastics to great aplomb across a myriad of humorous card ranges.
or many employees, watching YouTube, reading Twitter, laughing at the latest unexpected memes as they crop up on the internet, flicking through Hello magazine and the tabloid newspapers during a working day would be cause for a disciplinary, but for UKG’s editorial manager Mark Graham, if he didn’t fit these in, he wouldn’t be doing his job properly. “Greeting cards are a potent medium of social communication, but to be effective they need to reflect the words and the tone of those who buy and receive them," explains Mark. “And
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Above right: The Lettering ranges are likely to appeal to the Twitterati. Below: Mark Graham is UKG’s resident wordsmith.
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this is even more important if the message is being conveyed through humour. Language is constantly evolving with the internet and social media making a massive contribution to this evolution. For humorous greeting cards to stay relevant and be
funny you need to have a grip of what the public are into.” Mark may have studied English at Oxford University, but he is adamant that there are no set qualifications or career path for becoming a greetings card humour writer. "In the humour
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The Language Of Laughs
Where Do The Words Come From? Mark is not a lone lexicon ranger who pounds the corridors of UKG’s Dewsbury offices with a Thesaurus in one hand and a dictionary in the other. “We have a wide and varied team. In addition to our in-house troupe we work with lots of freelance copywriters and humorists of all ages. There is no set criteria as to who has the gift of the gab where writing copy for humorous cards is concerned – but it is a talent that I am keen to encourage whether they are professional copywriters, retired hobbyists or youngsters who might have found us from receiving one of our You’ve Got Mail cards,” he says. “I would like more people out there to see it not only as an income stream for them, but to also build the respect for this genre of writing.” Right: Agnes definitely has her own voice and has her own way of saying things that so many people are thinking, including about beardy, manbag-carrying coffee pretentionistas! Far right: Mark Graham is always ready to absorb changes in common parlance, spoken and written, such as on this notice board that was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Below: The use of ‘little trump’ rather than ‘fart’ is the key to this design working linguistically.
team we have an ethos that good ideas can come from anywhere. This is reflected both in our diverse pool of freelance talent and the fact that the whole team in the studio contribute gag ideas to new product development". “The only thing my Oxford degree taught me that has been useful for greeting cards is that people are still laughing at some of the same things they were laughing at in Chaucer's time, six centuries ago - drinking, sex and toilet humour,” comments Mark. “I believe these will always be staples of humour cards; the challenge is to keep framing them in a way that's relevant to today's market, alongside current humour trends.” As well as ensuring that mainstream humour continues to be as fresh and popular as ever, Mark keeps an eye on the traffic on popular meme sites, while Twitter feeds give other new ideas. “Social media has definitely broadened the scope and the public’s appreciation for succinct word play – we have never lived in such a ‘pun-ny’ time, which is great news for a humour editor.”
To Be Or Not Taboo? While there are some perennially popular subject matters for humorous greeting cards, there are some areas that historically have been considered off limits - but things may change of course, they always do, and with all the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot action, orthodoxies are definitely being challenged!
The Five Ds Of Doom
‘Death’ ‘Divorce’ ‘Disability’ ‘Drink-driving’ ‘Dentures’ Below: UKG’s Hew Ma takes ‘toilet humour’ into her own hands!
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Visiting The Evergreens
Evolution And Renewal
What’s New? “If you have a winning humorous design on your hands, it is foolhardy to discard it, but you have to keep it looking fresh,” explains Phil. While the 15 artists, designers and copywriters who are involved in maintaining Giggles’ status in the industry are constantly coming up with brand new ideas for the range, they also share the challenge of updating some of the best selling designs, either by changing a word here or there or giving it a different design treatment. Below: Just some of the new Giggles designs which give a fresh treatment to perennially popular subject matters as well as bringing new references.
“It’s a constant creative process that never stops even the process itself never stands still… it’s exhausting stuff!” says Phil Renshaw, UKG’s art director of humour, explaining the cultivation of UKG’s evergreen ranges. Dipping into the big book of gardening metaphors, it’s like tending the hardy perennials while planting new seeds and nurturing fresh growth. “We think of our 'evergreen' ranges as organic and progressive, and are the results of our ongoing work in maintaining their relevance to real people living in the real world,” Phil explains. Obviously ranges have lifecycles, and while some can be incredibly flexible and move with the times, some fade and make way for new ideas waiting in line for their moment in the sun “being a seasoned gardener myself I can see a lot of parallels,” adds Phil. “We're fortunate in having a strong portfolio of these evergreens, and heritage is a great thing to have, but it's important to build on that and keep moving forward, sometimes small steps and sometimes big strides,” states Phil. “Looking out for new evergreen potential is a big part of our range development work, and growing these into strong performing ranges that consumers recognise and return to is a great creative challenge to have,” he explains, adding: “You usually have an instinct as to which will strike a chord, but it's always nice to be surprised. However, when it happens it's creatively very rewarding to be a part of an exciting and ever changing process.” The biggest ‘bloomer’ in the garden though has to be Giggles - a range with so much variety, it's just got everything for a flourishing humorous greeting card range. “It's unashamed humour - it’s brash and bold, and I like to think it's brilliantly British!” Phil says. Giggles has never been static and it has seen more face changes than Doctor Who over its two and a half decade history… yes, two and a half decades! Imagine the sheer amount of joy and laughter that has been created by that one range alone! Top: A new logo will adorn all new Giggles cards. Above right: UKG’s art director of humour Phil Renshaw - his banner says it all! Above middle: Some celebrities make an appearance in Giggles once they have shown they have moved into common parlance and have been around for long enough for lots of people to know who they are. Far left: This Traces of Nuts design is likely to resonate with a big chunk of the population! Left: This Say Cheese design covers two of the perennial subjects matters for humorous cards – ageing and drinking.
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Cartoon Time
Capturing
Below: Revered cartoonist Ian Jackson, creator of the new Plonkers range – and his four-legged friend Midge who was the inspiration for the logo! Below left: The distinctive cartoon style of Ian Jackson and his observations on life will appeal to card buyers of a certain age.
The Moment
“Punchline humour is all about timing, but a cartoon is about ‘that moment’ - it’s an immediate, accessible art form that has been around for eons, but is proving more popular than ever", says Phil Renshaw, who as art director of humour for UKG and a lifelong cartoon fan is delighted that the new humorous card line-up includes “some stunning cartoon work by some great talent.”
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hil went back to college recently not to brush up his own academic qualifications, but to inspire undergraduates to see greeting cards as a viable route for their creative outpourings, as well as to encourage them to give cartooning a go. “I recently visited my old art college - Leeds College of Art - to speak to some of the students about appreciating the value of cartooning as an art form”, explains Phil. "It's all about the immediacy and capturing a moment. The very 'first' cartoons were the sketches used by the renaissance artists to prepare their paintings. The classic 'pocket' cartoon that livens up the columns and margins of every periodical and paper is an accessible medium and one that can get under the skin of any subject." Interestingly, joining Hanson White's existing cartoon portfolio (which includes licensed treasures such as the New Yorker range as well as the sassy female to female observations from Dorrance) is Plonkers, which features the work of the well respected cartoonist Ian Jackson, who inspired Phil many moons ago when he was
still at art college to pursue a career in greeting cards. While Ian Jackson’s cartoons are more ‘traditional’ in style, new cartoon range, Don't Give up the Day Job by Kevin Hemmings is the contrary taking it's inspiration from the world of work. “Office environments provide endless scope for humorous observations, given the variety of personalities in close proximity” says Phil. “I was aware of Ian Jackson’s work for Punch and Private Eye through one of my lecturers, who was also a cartoonist and submitted designs to Rainbow Cards in the early days, when I was looking for someone able to capture a wry sideways glance at life for the generation who might be flummoxed by an ever bewildering array of technology but are cheerfully in pursuit of the things in life that really matter," recalls Phil. Below left,: The New Yorker range, which is now being printed on textured art board, continues to add a consistently strong cartoon presence to UKG’s portfolio. Below: Kevin Hemmings’ contemporary graphical style of cartooning on the Don’t Give Up The Day Job range celebrates the absurdity of office life.
Drawing On Ian Jackson’s Life “As a child I drew prolifically, dad would come home with reams of unwanted paper from his office – it didn’t matter that one side was full of boring work stuff, the reverse was blank! I would hurry for my pens in ‘my drawer’ of the sideboard and I would lie on my tummy in front of the fire and telly and draw - always animals or Disney characters. Years passed and thoughts of being a vet or a zookeeper and later a paleontologist gave way to the possibility that I might actually be able to earn a living from my drawings. Sure enough, after two years studying graphic design at Leeds College of Art I was spring-boarded into the world of professional art, unexpectedly being offered a full-time job in the studio at W.N.Sharpe (Sharpe’s Classic Greeting Cards) in Bradford. It was 1982 and I was 17. The world of journalism then beckoned me and I joined the art department of the Yorkshire Post trying to sneak cartoons into otherwise dull reports on budgets or articles about fish and chip shops. It was during this period that I started to submit cartoons to Punch magazine, the urge to make people like Alan Coren, the then Editor, laugh or at least smile was a strong one - it still is. I got my first cartoon accepted at the age of 19, it was an association that was to last for ten years until Punch finally, tragically folded. Other work came my way via Punch. I cartooned for a number of publications and comics which was great fun. Animation work followed on a number of ideas for the BBC, Cosgrove Hall, King Rollo (makers of Mr Benn etc.) and various other studios. I am once again doing what comes most naturally to me - drawing and loving every moment of working for UK Greetings!“
It’s All About Mimi The namesake and creator of UKG’s Dorrance collection is Denise Dorrance, a cartoonist and illustrator who lived in New York before moving to London. Her sharply ironic cartoons and elegant illustrations have featured in The Sunday Times and Red Magazine and appear regularly in The Spectator and The Mail on Sunday's YOU Magazine. In addition to featuring in the greeting card range from UKG, Mimi, Dorrance’s main female protagonist, now stars in her own handbag-sized book of 100 cartoons, 'It's all about Mimi'. Mimi is a delightfully sharp and witty fashionista who is as self-indulgent as she is funny. Right: Dorrance’s distinctive cartoon style and gutsy take on life has proved popular on cards for UKG.
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Fairytale Disney Humour
Funnies
It was a real fairytale moment recently when The Walt Disney Company presented UKG with a Golden Mickey for Best New Licensee 2015 for its innovative approach to the Disney licence and that innovation goes up another notch with the unexpected launch of a Disney Humour range. ike most parents with little girls, Ben Whittington, creative manager for humour and Disney at UKG, has sat through countless replays of the blockbuster Frozen, is word perfect on most of the songs and can quickly be persuaded to roleplay Olaf, Anna or Elsa at cute request from his daughter Lizzie. But unlike millions of other daddies, Ben had his own sub-plot: it was part of his research to crystalise Frozen and other Disney gems into a range of humorous greeting cards (at least that is what he told his trendy mates!). Moreover Ben’s superpowers have also extended into the Marvel Comics’ (also part of Disney) catalogue of characters, including those that have appeared in the films and in the classic cartoon strips. “It was a great honour winning the Golden Mickey for Best New Licensee, especially in our first year working with Disney, and it’s an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to bring the first Disney humour line to market,” says Ben. Having been part of the humour creative team for many years, Ben was
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Above: UK Greetings’ Golden Mickey for Best New Licensee. Left: Ben Whittington embracing the wonders of Disney. Below left: Vintage Marvel Comics artwork combine with a modern day reference on this Spider-Man design in the new range. Below right: The Muppets’ characters Statler and Wardolf lend themselves perfectly to humorous greeting cards. Bottom left: With Frozen’s popularity transcending children and into adults meant it was an obvious choice to be featured in the first humorous range.
well aware that “humour is not something that can be forced, and the process is more challenging when you have to stay true to the essence of a Disney or Marvel character.” Having been a big fan of Marvel comics since he was a boy, inherent knowledge of The Muppets, plus an admiration for the Pixar films, Ben felt it was important that the inaugural humorous range from this revered stable should reflect the rich resource. “Disney is a massive licence but to do it justice we felt it was vital to include some classic designs into our first humorous range, as well as recognising the huge popularity of Frozen,” explains Ben. On the Frozen front, Ben says while he knew that the huge awareness of the film would work in the designs’ favour, especially for the ‘Gen Y’ market, to make them work as humorous designs for adults it had to echo “the attitude of the film” as well as being funny and fitting for the sending situation. “Frozen’s success has gone way beyond the kids - its popularity with adults, as evidenced by the viral activity of sing-along videos, proves that. Having well known phrases, such as ‘Let it go’ certainly helped, but we
also needed to make sure the designs worked with the characters,” states Ben. He admits that he had a lot of fun with the two Muppets cohorts - Statler and Waldorf - who, as a couple of curmudgeonly old geezers, lend
themselves to age-related references or behaving badly. While some popular humour subject matters were off limits “alcohol references for example would not have been accepted, but we could tap into parody as well as using some of the actual dialogue from the comic art as the starting point,” says Ben. With the first tranche of designs launching next month, Ben is already well underway on follow-up collections, including a humorous adult age range and some Minnie and Mickey Mouse humorous designs. “Who would have thought that my comic reading youth would have been so useful to my career!” quips Ben.
Exceeding Expectations Jo Oldridge, product development manager, Disney: “Developing a full humour greeting card proposition within the Disney and Marvel portfolio had been on my wish list for some time, so working with the UK Greetings team provided me with the ideal opportunity in which to brief them with the challenge! Tapping into the adult market on humour with our franchises was always going to be more complicated than our standard greeting card development, as retaining our characters integrity and original storytelling attributes is key to all our product development. UK Greetings rose to the challenge and I’m extremely happy and excited with the range they have delivered, both from a creative and editorial point of view - it more than exceeded my expectations!”
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Woman To Woman
Female
Intuition
“Women have no problems talking about what annoys them important things like how taking off your high heels at the end of a big night is one of life’s big reliefs - and what they find funny. What we’ve done is listened and turned these insights into humorous greeting cards that really do connect on the female-to-female front,” explains Rebecca Turton, who together with Amanda Miles have been at the forefront of UKG’s drive into significantly bolstering its female-to-female range offer. Thanks to collaborations with celebrated comedians and leading artists, plus insight gained from consumer focus groups (being all ears as the wine flowed and the tongues wagged!), UKG’s feminine charm has never been stronger or funnier.
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KG’s objective has been to create cards that really strike a chord with the female market, bringing life experiences and daily observations into humour product development. This has become a key driver in strengthening the female-tofemale offer. A team was established and Amanda Miles (who has had many years experience developing ranges under the Camden brand) joined, to help champion the cause and spearhead the development of range ideas.
Inset: Rebecca Turton in the UKG Humour Lab. Above: The ever bold Agnes! Right: So many women would understand this design from the Science of Happiness range.
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Woman To Woman
The Tamar-ing Of The Shrews
“Being a woman does give me a bit of an advantage admittedly, but we wanted to ensure that we developed ranges that really did speak to women in different age groups. There are some overlaps of course, but while young Gen Y women would acknowledge their healthy obsession with selfies, Gen X females would probably respond to a reference about Pilates and lattes, and the Boomers would love a shared joke about forgetting PIN numbers and their slight bewilderment with technology. It really isn’t about stereotyping, it’s about relevance,” stresses Amanda. But getting the words and subject matter right has only been part of the challenge. “Women are really into style and fashion so the ranges had to not only include the relevant references and tone, but be designed in a way that met aesthetic expectations of each target group too – oh and be funny of course!” she quips.
There are seven specific brand new female-to-female ranges launching at PG Live next month (June 2-3), each with their own footprint and ‘female voice’ – and there are plenty more to come. And have the new ranges solved what started the whole process off – are there now cards to strike a cord with female consumers? “Oh yes, consumers will be spoilt for choice now!” laughs Rebecca.
Forming a major part of the research into the hearts and minds of the female species were the few days the team spent at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which were followed by workshops in the publisher’s Humour Lab with some of the comedians and musicians they had met. “One of the key objectives of our trip to the Edinburgh Festival was to find someone who totally understood the young Gen Y woman,” recalls Amanda. “To cover as much ground as possible, we would go to see different shows, each talking to anyone there who showed potential about developing humorous card ranges. On a wet afternoon at the Festival, Amanda was watching a show, but was rather distracted by the noise emanating from the room above. “I could hear the noise and laughter and remember thinking to myself ‘I wonder who is making everyone laugh up there?’” Thankfully, she had no trouble finding out as Rebecca was in that audience and had immediately spotted the potential of the performer – Tamar Broadbent, whose hour long musical comedy show, All By My Selfie, about shame, self-loathing and gin, hit the spot. "Firstly, you were hit by Tamar’s abundance of energy and then as soon as she started to sing and chat all of her subject matter totally hit the mark in terms of Gen Y; everything was very topical, very authentic and completely true to life,” said Rebecca. The enthusiasm and energy this young musical comedian showed on stage is now being channeled into greeting cards for UKG, with the final touches now being put into a range of cards for ladies that feature poems written by Tamar! Above: Tamar Broadbent, the musical comedian who is working on a range of cards now with UKG. Left: One of Tamar’s poems, which shows her connection to Gen Y.
Above left: Amanda Miles has loved the challenge of developing a whole host of female to female ranges. Below left: The home crafting trend meets humour in the Sew True range, the designs of which are created by free stitching. Right: One of the in-house designers working on the Batty Birds range.
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Speech Bubbles Consumer Focus Groups
There is nothing like covering something from all angles - and with greeting cards, the buck (or should that be the doe), stops with the consumer. PG was a fly on the wall at one of the many noisy female consumer groups UKG initiated recently to listen to bunches of women who were not backward in coming forward about what they wanted from a humorous greeting card.
“I like random stuff and I love animals in clothes.” “I'm looking for something witty and not too obvious.”
Right: Is it art, is it humour – or is it a Victorian duck?! A design from the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot range. Middle right: A friendship card from one of UKG’s lettering ranges.
Left and below: The Instagrams range features an Instagram-esque design treatment with unexpected humorous quips.
“I like original, different and a bit cheeky”
“I love funny cards, but I want them to be girly and pretty.”
Right: This design from the new Pastels range combines pretty florals with some gentle humour.
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Consumer Focus Groups
“I want funny cards for my friends who've got to that certain age in life when they can't remember what's going on half of the time, but they haven't lost their sense of humour and style.”
Above: Sharing is caring! Cheerful, chirpy and upbeat typography in the new lettering collection.
Above: As this Batty Birds design highlights, ageing is a fact of life, so we might as well as joke about it.
“I want cards that are true to life.”
Right: Agnes, the namesake of a new range who dares to say things that so many are thinking! Far right: Going out is great, but there are some good things about getting home – as this design in the new Vintage collection celebrates.
Below: If only these lessons were heeded! Two of the refreshed Giggles designs that celebrate a girls’ night out.
“I like ‘girly night out’ humour.”
“I'm looking for girly humour that shows my group of friends as we really are.”
Right: The new Science of Happiness range recognises moments that make modern life worthwhile, whether it's a hundred selfie likes, wine o'clock or seeing your ex with someone uglier than you. Right: True to life self-justification from the Rollover and Fetch range.
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Decoded
Far left: The creation of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot brand further broadens Hanson White’s appeal, taking it deeper into the more alternative humour genre. Inset: Chris Jones (left) and Chris Goodson, who have been an integral part of the product development team on the WTF range.
Millennials, whose lives are punctuated by hashtags, are up on the latest memes, have tons of cool stuff on Instagram and converse by texting in acronyms, will now be well and truly catered for by Hanson White’s humorous card portfolio. The tons of new humorous designs are aimed at anyone looking for something new and different - it’s definitely ‘bear bants’ (ie big news to chat about)! hile never taking for granted its strong position in the core humorous market, UKG has taken the decision to broaden its offer which includes delving deeper into alternative humour as well as ensuring it has even more to offer the Gen Y contingent. This broadening of its reach will not only enable its existing retail stockists to cater for the
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additional sending needs of their customers, but also engage more effectively with a younger audience and encourage them to buy and send more greeting cards. “Gen Y can be dismissive of core humour product. We have to take a new approach to product development if we want to really speak to a younger consumer”
Above: This WTF design combines the popularity of word play and ludicrous scenarios which are so popular on the internet, with the contemporary graphics adding a youth appeal. Left: The new collection includes phrases, such as ‘Bear Bants’ which will resonate with the younger generation and encourage them to buy and send more cards.
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Decoded Left: A cute quip from WTF. Below: Sentiment WTF style! Below left: A design from the new John Lemon range, which recognises the enormous impact that social media is having on all our lives.
reveals Rebecca Turton, creative director of humour. A pivotal part in all of this has been harnessing the enormous creative talent across all studios, not just humour. “We as a team have never really developed humorous ranges before. It meant that we could approach it with fresh eyes, translating modern day references and design influences into greeting card concepts that would chime with Gen Y,” explains Chris Jones, creative manager, who has been an integral part of the new product development team. With no holds barred, all the designers were invited to share their personal revelations as to what made them laugh and the source of their mirth. The internet and social media cropped up time and time again, with all manner of subject matters. While random thoughts had an airing, so too did the meme-based variations on themes such as funny pictures of cats with Post-it notes on their faces or a play on words of celebrity icons. The designers then let their creative ideas run riot. It was stressed
that their doodles, sketches, phrasing or colours palettes did not have to fit into a product pigeonhole. “The design brief was… there is no design brief,” summed up Chris. It wasn’t just the high number of product concepts that were created in the workshop, but the diversity of styles that was impressive. These initial concepts were then divided into broad categories, such as photographic, font-based, modern sketch etc, and presented to the wider team to collectively agree which from this rich crop of creative outpourings was ripe for further development. Some of these have made their way into the inaugural Whiskey Tango Foxtrot range, a distinct range in look,
The Font Of Knowledge
size (smaller format cards) and quirky pitch, while others are waiting in the wings for subsequent launches. The striking branding for the range has also lent itself to carry the marketing message announcing that the Hanson White portfolio has been completely revamped, strengthened and broadened to contain lots of surprises, of which the WTF range is one. Overlaying the consumer insights gained through UKG’s research department, as well as through its consumer focus groups, the resultant debut Whiskey Tango Foxtrot range has maintained its eclectic flavour. ‘In’ words and phrases, such as ‘numpty’, ‘awkward’, ‘bear bants’ and ‘it’s owl good’ are represented, but then so too are play on words. Stylistically it is a varied pick n mix offering, spanning from the obviously hand-drawn to quirky multi-media combos, from the bright block colouring to modern cartooning - and everything in between.
“Gen Y is a ‘hashtag generation’ obsessed with Facebook likes, Instagram postings and keen to discover and participate in the latest memes,” sums up Edd Burnet, creative manager at UKG, who has been involved in the development of ranges such as John Lemon, Agronyms and Instagrams, which are all aimed at this consumer profile. “Our research also confirmed that this generation respond well to more text-based designs, which we reflect in our lettering ranges,” adds Edd, referring to the variety of lettering collections which include several different looks and feels, from humorous twists on popular acronyms to blackboard style handwritten funnies. Top: UKG’s Edd Burnet makes a serious message about humour. Right: The power of acronyms is celebrated humorously in the Agronyms range. Below right: Typefaces and fonts are put to their paces in various permutations in the Lettering collections.
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The Retail Buyers’ Eyes
Retailer
Punchlines
Although some retailers have been given a ‘sneak peek’ of UKG’s new humorous ranges, as well as the revamps to its ‘evergreens’, it won’t be until PG Live (June 2-3) that they will be seen in all their full glory. The retailer anticipation is mounting…and their feedback is something UKG takes very seriously indeed. David Greaves, joint managing director of Cardzone:
“As retailers we are very driven by sales, so established brands always appeal to us. There’s a reason that a brand has been around for 20+ years – because it sells really well! The improvements UKG has made to the ‘bread and butter’ brands look very strong, more interesting and more contemporary, but not so radical that it might turn consumers off. It’s great to have access to new ranges - they’re like the hundreds and thousands on top of the cake, but in this case Giggles is the cake, no bones about it - it covers all the categories needed for a successful humour range. RPG is a similar story to Giggles, very successful with a proven track record. I think what UKG has tried to do with Giggles is perfect – they’ve updated it, played around with the editorial a little bit, added emphasis to the subject and improved something which was already good. Then the newer product - the ‘hundreds and thousands’, adds interest to the pitch - something a bit different that just makes business more interesting. The line is fantastic and the fact that UKG has delivered it on such a large scale is genuinely impressive - we're really impressed with what sits behind it, it’s much more research driven and we love that; it's a really good way of improving business. We feel there is a much better chance of making product stick at retail after the rigorous retail testing UKG has implemented and after the kinks are ironed out of the poor performing product. That's got to be good for any retailer.”
Top: Cardzone is looking to UKG to provide ‘the cake’ (ie everygreens like Giggles and RPG) as well as the ‘hundreds and thousands’ (ie new ranges). Above: The revamps of Giggles updates the range without losing its essence. Left: RPG is another cool range with a great success story.
Anthony and Jane Bates, co owners of Best Wishes, Ashbourne: “Our current humour selection sells really well, but our customers are always looking for new designs. We have 14’ of the shop dedicated to humour and it’s constantly evolving, so we are always searching out fresh ranges. Giggles is our main humour range as it covers quite a few bases to appeal to different customers’ tastes, especially as it’s not too risqué. It’s good to see the range is having a revamp - it will really freshen up our displays. We also stock many other UKG humour ranges as they are great sellers too. Above: Best Wishes dedicates Out of the new Hanson White collections we are looking forward to seeing more of is Critters, the 14’ to humour cards. animal-based designs of which are similar to Hanson White’s popular You’ve Got Mail range. We are located Left: One of the designs from the new Critters range. in a rural region so there are lots of animal lovers in the area who will like this range. We like the look of the Science of Happiness… range as it covers contemporary topical humour, such as internet shopping in bed. The ‘It’s Little Wonder’ range looks good too and is a range of animal models which prove popular. We also like the gold and black ‘Agronyms’ range - I can see this tickling the funny bone with our consumers.”
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The Retail Buyers’ Eyes Roger Eames and Laura Didehvar, coowners of Celebrations of Stourbridge:
Sarah and Paul Henderson, co-owners of Three Wishes in Lymington, Ringwood, Verwood and West Moors: “Humour is an area of our greeting card offering that we like to refresh throughout the year, but with our core ranges remaining the same. We stock lots of great selling ranges from UK Greetings and tend to select from the publisher first before seeking out complementary designs from other card suppliers. From Hanson White, we currently stock Giggles, Traces of Nuts, RPG, New Yorker, You've got Mail, Out of the Ark, Querky Keys, Chicca, Vicky Values and Say Cheese, all of which perform really well. However, Hanson White’s Pickle and Patch is by far our bestselling humour range as generally we find cartoon humour performs the best in our stores. Our first impressions of the new humour collection from Hanson White is that it offers such wide variety there really is something for everyone! The bolder fonts on some of the Lettering ranges might be a bit too contemporary for our customer base, but the ‘Gin ‘n’ Tonic’ range is the type of humour that would sell really well in our stores. Science of Happiness…, It's Little Wonder and the colourful statement designs look like great ranges, and I would surmise have brilliant rack appeal. And the Don't Give Up The Day Job range offers something different to our current humour lines as the jokes are about the work place.” Top: Sarah and Paul Henderson at last year’s Henries judging. Above: The humour in the ‘Gin ‘n Tonic’ range is likely to fit well with 3 Wishes’ customers. Left: The ‘Don’t Give Up The Day Job’ range offers something a bit different as all the jokes are work-related.
“Giggles always sells well for us. It covers a broad spectrum of designs to suit many types of customers and so is a favourite buy - the new style Giggles Hanson White is launching looks good and will be great for our customers. The new Science of Happiness… range also jumps out at us. It’s fun and cheerful, featuring an innocent little character, and has good general humour. Bright and with striking colours, Gin ‘n’ Tonic really did make us laugh and is the range we find the most appealing of the new Hanson White collections we have seen. Featuring female favourites such as chocolate, cake and shopping, the female to female designs are sure to be popular. We have a sixth form college across the road so we see a lot of younger ladies come in the store, but also we have our older female customers, and of course local mums, so we have the full spectrum of ladies come in to the shop. Using nostalgic looking Instagram style photography and inspirational captions, the Instagram range is a good option for something a bit different. While the model animal based ‘It’s Little Wonder’ uses good word play. We also like some of the lettering collections as mixed font designs are still a strong area for cards and a key trend at the moment.” Above: Laura Didehvar and Roger Eames taking a breather at PG Live. Above left: The styling and humour of the Science of Happiness… designs are likely to strike a chord with Celebrations’ female customers. Left: Good word play on the It’s Little Wonder range.
Jane Chandler, director of the M&P Cards group of stores: “It is fantastic that UKG is investing so much in what is such an important sector of the card trade. As a publisher, they really know what they are doing. With a base of strong ‘classics’, such as Giggles and Traces Of Nuts, they cover a wide customer base for us, but as retailers and as a product sector we also need to cater for niche needs - and by all accounts, the new product development sounds like it will do this. It is also great that as a publisher they offer such a variety of design styles - from the distinctive looks for ranges such as the ‘model’ approach for Out of the Ark to top cartooning, such as the New Yorker and, from what I hear, there are lots of new permutations coming through. If the new female to female everyday ranges in its relations and occasions offering is anything to go by, its female to female collections on the humorous side will be great too. Developing new ranges and looks is always risky, but it can bring big rewards for us retailers and for that we are very thankful and glad to be part of the trialling process, in order that the consumer remains engaged with greeting cards. I can’t wait to see all the new UKG ranges in their full glory at PG Live!” Top right: M&P Cards’ impressive Occasions Cards & Gifts store in Fareham. Right: The witty cartoon humour from a New Yorker design. Left: M&P Cards’ Jane Chandler (right) with the company’s operations director Rebecca Smith in its Fareham store.
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