G&G Review was delighted to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Greeting Card Association (GCA) as one of the first associate members.
The meeting took place on Wednesday October 3 at Ironmongers’ Hall in London, where some 120 delegates from the wider greeting card industry were in attendance. GCA secretary Sharon Little thanked outgoing President Bill Greeno of Paperlink for his hard work and welcomed incoming President Chris Houfe of The Great British Card Company, who will guide the Association through the next two years.
Other official business of the meeting saw Caroline Gardner’s sales director Amanda Ferguson, the co-owner of Cherry Orchard Publishing, Jackie Collins, the managing director of Paper Rose and The Art Group, Jane Myers and Steve Wright, CEO of Hallmark International, join the GCA as council members. Blue Eyed Sun managing director Jeremy Corner has been appointed treasurer.
In his inaugural speech Chris said: “This is a brilliant, vibrant industry to be involved with and I’m extremely honoured to lead the Council and Association over the next two years. We need to look at every opportunity to promote our fantastic industry and remind people of the importance and emotional connection of sending and receiving a greeting card. With the addition of the Associate Members this will allow the Association to look at ways to pro-actively invest in publicity initiatives and activity”.
He went on to say that there are estimated to be 800 publishers working in the British greeting card industry, 455 of which are GCA members. ” This creativity needs to be encouraged and harnessed, and we need to find a way of promoting our industry into local schools and colleges. Innovation in card design needs to be seen as a genuine career choice for aspiring young artists
On the mechanics of card retailing Chris commented that while 1 in 6 shops sell greeting cards, “too few of these really do our industry justice. Retailers who prosper are those who recognise that sending a card is part of our culture and bring a sense of theatre to their greetings card displays to cater for consumer demand. We need to ensure that this trend is encouraged, supported and improved otherwise greetings cards will be seen to be worth £0.79 or free on-line with a gift”.
The fascinating speaker programme started out with neuroscientist and psychologist Dr Lynda Shaw, who talked about the chemistry of the human brain and why receiving cards produces a higher emotional response than emails and texts. Dr Shaw has done extensive work with the Royal Mail, whose Mother’s Day test lab demonstrated (not surprisingly!) that our mums would much rather get a card on this special day than a text, letter or Tweet.
The science behind the feelgood factor boils down to Nitric Oxide, a chemical produced by the human body when we experience feelings of pleasure. The best way to create this holy grail for the heart is by carrying out altruistic acts, meaning that the sending of cards feels just as good as the receiving. Surely a lesson for Tweet-happy teenagers everywhere! Humour cards come particularly high on the happy scale, with real belly laughter being a proven pain killer. Dr Shaw related that she has often stood in a card shop and laughed out loud, which is certainly something we can relate to at G&G Review!
Next up on the podium was the founder and chairman of Carte Blanche Greetings, Stephen Haines, who got plenty of laughs for his anecdotes. These included forging a certificate for electrical engineering that landed him a job as a TV repairman, and losing his first 40,000 envelopes during a storm that also blew out his conservatory. The former CEO of UK Greetings John Charlton got a special mention for helping him out with some new envelopes, and Stephen also credited long term colleague Carole Kavannagh and brother Paul Haines for helping him to achieve such great things with the company. A few more years and lot more stories later sees Stephen at the helm of one of the UK’s most successful greeting card publishers and owner of its most iconic brand, Me to You.
The programme was completed by the buying manager for Tesco Sophie Greenwood, who went into great detail about her career at Britain’s biggest grocer and did not shy away from controversy with a description of the retailer’s own-brand products and value offering.
The meeting was rounded off by a tour of the beautiful Ironmongers’ Hall and a lovely lunch in great company that reaffirmed why this is such a wonderful industry to work in. Everyone is now looking forward to the greeting card oscars, The Henries, which will take place on Thursday October 10 at the Lancaster London Hotel – glad rags are at the ready!
