(Ce billet est disponible en anglais seulement). Just as holiday cards evolved from the traditional snow-swept scene printed on fine paper to personal photos on 4×8 photo paper, today’s modern photo-printing processes, however, can expand that definition even further. We’ve now seen photo printing and gifting sites now offering holiday greeting cards printed on metal, which is expanding the idea for what photo greeting card can be.
Make no mistake, despite the popularity of JibJab and other electronic greetings, the printed holiday card is still big business. Americans purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year, according to the Greeting Card Association (GCA). Annual retail sales of greeting cards are estimated between $7 and $8 billion. The most popular seasonal cards are Christmas cards, with some 1.6 billion units purchased (including boxed cards). This is followed by cards for Valentine’s Day (145 million units, not including classroom valentines), Mother’s Day (133 million units), Father’s Day (90 million units), Graduation (67 million units), Easter (57 million units), Halloween (21 million units), Thanksgiving (15 million units) and St. Patrick’s Day (7 million units).
The most popular Everyday card-sending occasion by far is Birthday, followed by a number of secondary occasions that include Sympathy, Thank You, Wedding, Thinking of You, Get Well, New Baby and Congratulations.
Technology-savvy buyers are also getting in on the trend; Younger card buyers and those who are more technology savvy are currently the ones most engaged in buying paper greeting cards online. Seven out of 10 card buyers surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost” essential to them, according to the GCA, adding most people now acknowledge many more birthdays than ever before because of Facebook, but they aren’t necessarily sending fewer cards as a result.
Technology has provided many news ways to communicate and to share, but that doesn’t mean they will not print. The consumer now has many more choices on what surfaces to print their precious sentiments on.
For more information about available optional card content, and instruction on how to create new and original content, visit marketing@mediaclip.ca.
